Help configuring Envisalink?

[mrdrennan]

Hello all,

I am very new to HA; I am considering migrating from Indigo, but first things first I need to make sure that my security system is up and running. I have a DSC alarm panel configured through the Envisalink service. It works fine through my Indigo plugin. I copied and pasted the YAML example configuration code straight from the Wiki, and changed only the host number, the username and password, the code, and the partition name (I have only one partition). I saved the configuration, restarted the server, and immediately tried to add an alarm panel card to a layout. Neither the “Arm Home” or “Arm Away” buttons seem to have any effect. How do I know if the Envisalink is properly connected, and what would be my next step after inserting the code into the config.yaml file?

Thanks so much for any and all help.

[bastero (Juan Carlos)]

Take a look at your sensor.home_alarm_keypad entity, if you have configured correctly you should see the state indicated as ‘Ready’

• The configuration you are using above appears to be the ‘example’ from the integration, make sure you configure your zones correctly for the zones that you have connected to your DSC.

• Ensure that the Envisalink version in the config ‘evl_version’ matches your h/w. (latest ones are version 4)

[richieframe (Richie)]

Beyond fixing this issue, I STRONGLY suggest setting a static IP for your envisalink when you get the chance

[mrdrennan]

Hi Juan, thanks for the reply. Where are you looking there? Under Configuration > Entities, I see the following:

[mrdrennan]

Hi Richie, thanks for the input. My router has reserved that LAN address for the Envisalink. Is that what you mean?

[mrdrennan]

Ok clearly not set up correctly…

[bastero (Juan Carlos)]

@mrdrennan
Go to Configuration -> Logs to see if you have any errors related to Envisalink. Also, your envisalink: portion in config.yaml minus your credentials should look something like this.

envisalink:
  host: 192.168.1.227
  panel_type: DSC
  user_name: !secret envisa_username
  password: !secret envisa_password
  code: !secret envisa_code
  port: 4025
  evl_version: 4
  keepalive_interval: 60
  zonedump_interval: 30
  #timeout: 10
  panic_type: Police
  zones:
    1:
      name: "Front & Garage Doors"
      type: "opening"
    2:
      name: "Study Windows"
      type: "opening"
    3:
      name: "Master Bedroom Windows"
      type: "opening"
    4:
      name: "Family Room Windows"
      type: "opening"
    5:
      name: "Patio Door & Nook Windows "
      type: "opening"
    6:
      name: "Front Bedrooms"
      type: "opening"
  partitions:
    1:
      name: "Home Alarm"

[mrdrennan]

Yeah, these are my errors:

2021-03-18 17:13:32 ERROR (MainThread) [pyenvisalink.envisalink_base_client] Unable to connect to envisalink. Reconnecting…

2021-03-18 17:13:32 ERROR (MainThread) [homeassistant.components.envisalink] Could not establish a connection with the Envisalink- retrying…

2021-03-18 17:14:02 ERROR (MainThread) [pyenvisalink.envisalink_base_client] The server closed the connection. Reconnecting…

2021-03-18 17:14:32 ERROR (MainThread) [pyenvisalink.envisalink_base_client] The server closed the connection. Reconnecting…

Regarding the user_name and password:

Should these be inside of quotations? Also, I’m assuming it’s the username and password that allows you to access the local webserver from inside of your network? In your case, http://192.168.1.227.

[bastero (Juan Carlos)]

In my setup the username & password are stored in secrets.yaml file. These are processed from within the config.yaml file using:

• username: !secret envisa_username
• password: !secret envisa_password

where in (secrets.yaml)

• envisa_username: your username (no quotations)
• envisa_password: your password (no quotations)

The host is the IP of the Envisalink not your HA server. You can find the associated IP allocated to the Envisalink using an app called ‘Fing’ on your phone to scan your network for Wifi devices that have been assigned IP addresses.

[mrdrennan]

Juan,

You got me going. I copied your code exactly and added my credentials. It seems, for some reason, that adding my exact zone numbers was the key. I’m curious about your secrets.yaml file. Is this good practice for all password related items in HA? Are the passwords more exposed in the configuration.yaml file than the secrets.yaml?

[bastero (Juan Carlos)]

@mrdrennan

Glad it worked out for you.
Regarding the secrets.yaml, the answer is yes, it’s more secure to set it up that way especially if you share your config.yaml

[richieframe (Richie)]

No, I mean an ip address outside the configured DHCP range, and manually programmed. Any important network service device should have a static ip address, so if the router needs to be replaced, no router configuration is required to get those devices talking to eachother on the network, beyond the normal ip range configuration.

For example, if the DHCP range is 192.168.x.100 to 192.168.x.200, your static ip addresses would be 192.168.x.2 to 192.168.x.99 and 192.168.x.201 to 192.168.x.254.

I recommend using the lowest addresses for network services and the high addresses for intermittent devices that need fast reconnection like a battery operated Shelly or a smart bulb on a switch

[Kosmocrator]

In case anyone is still having this issue, the userID/password it is looking for is not your EyezOn account info. It wants the local credential on the Envizalink4 which default to user/user

[spotlite]

Hi there! I have a very similar setup and have recently seen a problem I was hoping to get some help with.

I have a DSC alarm panel with Envisalink “evl_version: 4”.

Everything seems to be working fine, with the exception of triggering the alarm (panic) from within HA. Whenever I call “alarm_control_panel.alarm_trigger”, I do not hear the siren. It appears as if the panic only lasts a very brief amount of time and it is automatically restored. I get two email notifications back to back from EyezOn (Envisalink) that show this behavior: “Keypad [P]anic Alarm” and “Keypad [P]anic Alarm Restoral”. Anybody have any hints to the reason behind this panic/restoral behavior? Thanks!

Ultimately, I’m trying to use other non-DSC sensors to successfully trigger a panic alarm. Thanks again!

[richieframe (Richie)]

The panic alarm trigger in HA replicates the “Police” button on a keypad by default, the panel still has to be programmed to deal with that correctly, and the alarm monitoring service has to support it as well

[Hamish1066]

Thank you for this! I restarted HA maybe like 8 times trying different passwords and using quotations and not until I read your comment! They should make this more clear in the Integration page.

[dmcentire (Dennis McEntire)]

Hi, on a similar note here does anyone know the various states that the home keypad can return? Rather than go through them manually by arming/disarming/tripping the alarm I’d rather have a list so I can prepare automations.

So far I have “Ready” with a capital R for when the partition 1 is closed and ready for arming.

I’m talking about the sensor states here.

Thanks!