Configuration.yaml sections

Configuration
1

Hello. First time installer and working on my configuration.yaml file. I’m trying to integrate Alarm.com and Arlo and they both have alarm_control_panel: in their configurations which causes duplicate mapping error in the configuration.yaml file. How can i get around this? My goal is to have Alarm.com trigger the Arlo cameras to arm and disarm.

3

Welcome @JohnB,

following the docs for Arlo, Arlo Alarm and Alarm.com I’d start with these lines in configuration.yaml.
I do not use these so I can’t test it myself.

arlo:
  username: YOUR_USERNAME
  password: YOUR_PASSWORD

alarm_control_panel:
  - platform: alarmdotcom
    username: YOUR_USERNAME
    password: YOUR_PASSWORD
  - platform: arlo

Use dashes for each platform that provides an alarm_control_panel.

4

Thanks. That worked. My Dashboard now shows 2 panels that look the same. I’m trying to figure out how to distinguish between the two. Is there a way to label them?

image

5

Glad to see it’s working so far.

Since you just started I suppose you are using the latest version of Home Assistant.
Now that you configured the components you can tweak your UI. Depending on your Lovelace UI yaml mode you have different ways to do that.
The old style is yaml formatted text file based.
The new style is UI based.

I assume you are using the new style so you should be able to configure it via the UIs triple-dot menu: image then selecting image
This enables the UI editing mode and you should be able to image each alarm panel

This is the Lovelace UI Alarm Panel documentation.
According to that you can set a name for each alarm panel.

name
  (string)(Optional)Overwrites Friendly Name
  Default value: Current State of Alarm Entity
6

Thanks for getting me going here. I’ll read the Lovelace docs to see if it’s better to use the UI editor or stay old style. Any downside of using the UI to make edits?

7

I only experienced that you lose the possibility of having having comments in the yaml code, but to me this is not a factor.

I really like editing the UI via UI. I migrated shortly after the option was available and never looked back.
You can still edit the UI in text file style when you hit the triple-dot again while in edit mode and select the Raw config editor.
This is also handy if you want/need to replace entities for the complete UI.

8

Great info. Thanks for your help and explaining the pros and cons of using bth setup triggers for arming and disarming Arlo cameras based the status of Alarm.com. Example: If Alarm.com is Armed ‘Stay’ or ‘Away” send a trigger to change Arlo base station to ‘Armed’. I also need the same thing for ‘Disarm’. Where should I look to enable this?

9

I have no experience with alarm panel based automations but the automation docs and their examples for triggers and actions are a good starting point.

The Manual Alarm Control Panel component contains a bunch of automation examples, maybe it helps you to figure it out.

When it comes to automations, I did never use the UI to make them, I always use the yaml based way.

This is what I would start with based on your explanation, for sure you have to lookup the correct entity names and states:

automation:
  - alias: 'Arm Arlo cams'
    trigger:
      - platform: state
        entity_id: alarm_control_panel.alarmdotcom
        to: 'Stay'
      - platform: state
        entity_id: alarm_control_panel.alarmdotcom
        to: 'Away'
    action:
      - service: alarm_control_panel.alarm_arm
        entity_id: alarm_control_panel.arlo

  - alias: 'Disarm Arlo cams'
    trigger:
      - platform: state
        entity_id: alarm_control_panel.alarmdotcom
        to: '???'
    action:
      - service: alarm_control_panel.alarm_disarm
        entity_id: alarm_control_panel.arlo
10

Thanks sharing. I’ll work on this later today.

11

Hello,
Running into problems getting the Alarm.com integration to work with my Arlo Camera Base Station. I’m not interested in arming/disarming Alarm.com from HA (at the moment) – I’d like to use the Alarm.com panel or app for that. For now, I’m just focusing on the arming the panel to trigger the arlo base station to arm. From there I’ll figure out how to disarm.

Below is what I have in the automatons.yaml file:

  • alias: ‘Arm Arlo cams’
    trigger:
    platform: state
    entity_id: alarm_control_panel.alarmdotcom
    to: ‘armed stay’
    action:
    service: alarm_control_panel.alarm_arm
    entity_id: alarm_control_panel.arlo

Here’s what I added my configuration.yaml

Addins

arlo:
username:*****
password: *****

alarm_control_panel:

  • platform: alarmdotcom
    username: *****
    password: *****
  • platform: arlo

When I arm the panel noting happens on the base station.

  1. Am i missing some parameters?
  2. Is there a way to trace what’s going on?
12

You could have a look into the states view: image to see what happens to the entity alarm_control_panel.alarmdotcom when you arm it via app.
You can also see there if and when your automation was triggered.

I always add initial_state: 'on' to my automations to ensure it is enabled.
You can also see in the states view if an automation is enabled.

13

Thanks. I think i got it working but there’s a 10 second delay between triggers (arm/disarm). Here’s what i have so far:

Automatons.yaml:

  • id: ‘1556711110564’
    alias: ADC to Arlo Arm
    trigger:

    • entity_id: alarm_control_panel.alarm_com
      platform: state
      to: armed_home
      condition: []
      action:
    • data:
      entity_id: alarm_control_panel.arlocam
      service: alarm_control_panel.alarm_arm_away

  • id: ‘1556711110565’
    alias: ADC to Arlo Disarm
    trigger:

    • entity_id: alarm_control_panel.alarm_com
      platform: state
      to: disarmed
      condition: []
      action:
    • data:
      entity_id: alarm_control_panel.arlocam
      service: alarm_control_panel.alarm_disarm

Where would I put the initial_state: 'on' statement?

Thx.

14

I put it right after the alias:

  - alias: 'Update Available Notifications'
    initial_state: 'on'
    trigger:
      platform: state
15

Perfect. Thanks Again!