I am looking for some advice on how to do my home alarm, and my thinking is just to buy a bundle alarm with a hub, and RF PIR’s, window/door sensors etc that will work directly with HA, so i can then run automatons for lights etc. I already have a Sonoff RF bridge but haven’t used it yet, just waiting for a PIR that actually works (I have one that stated Sonoff in the ebay description but doesn’t work).
I do want battery feedback, and something cheap and relatively easy. There are some nice looking units on Amazon/Ebay , that all look the same just about .
Personally I use a combination of xiaomi for /window sensors coveted to a xiaomi hub, pir sensors wired to a raspberry pi, a fire hd 7 tablet for inputting to code, and a couple of kerui alarm bells in Yale dummy box. Works well. Let me know if you want me to share more info
I was hoping, or my simple mind was, a plug and play alarm, that HA will auto discover, even via mqtt and I can use it for automating everything else, or at least be able to pick the sensors up on an RF bridge.
it really all depends on your budget and how involved you want to be in its making.
If you’d rather have a setup with minimum involvement there’s always Konnected, though that relies on a (professional) install with a standard alarm branded kit.
I preferred going the way I did as I did not want to pay any subscription and wanted to be fully in control of it.
I think I will research some of these alarm systems and see what they are like, I have too many idea’s with HA to get through so no time for all of it to be built from scratch, and i want an alarm I can trust. I think I will try 1 window sensor from one of these alarms with the Sonoff RF bridge to see if it works and go from there. I’m only 3 weeks in and progress is satisfying but slow, I want sensors for both an alarm and automation so I will share how it goes.
Can I ask why you went for these, what are the advantages? I have gone off the stand alone alarm idea, confidence is growing, and I like the look of the Xiaomi kit. The sonoff stuff is a bit clunky. Do you get battery level feedback from the sensors? I don’t think I will even go for an alarm bell, I think I will strobe lights instead and make a racket with Chromecasts etc.
Because they were cheap, good reviews, and have both open and closed signals sent (some sensors only send the open signal) and the batteries are supposed to last a long time.
They do provide battery level info which helps.
Don’t forget you’ll need a Xiaom Aqara hub for these.
I have yet to fit the sirens on the outer walls (waiting for sunny days to go up the ladder/roof) but for now as a proof of concept it works.
I’m also working on blasting all my chromecasts with some alarm sound. If you have some to share I’d Welcome them
All a winner to me, they are nice looking too, and Xiaomi have been doing this for a while, and I love my Yeelights. I will have to get on bangood.
As for alarm sounds, I was going to have some fun and look for movie sound bites and stuff. It’s a little bit into the future though, I have literally been set up for 3 weeks so still getting to grips with it all and wanting to do the basics, and play with some kit, just waiting for my sonoff pow to monitor my fish tank pump, and going to set up a self watering garden with a sonoff 4 ch switch and cheap valves from Amazon.
Nice. Depending on how not stand alone alarm you want to be, I’m using an Fire HD 7 with Fully Kiosk displaying HA as a keypad. This allows me to display a notification when a window is left open to stop the alarm from being armed.
The Fire 7 is a bit sluggish with Kiosk, but it does otherwise work really well… Still need to run the cable inside the wall as you can see, but hopefully it gives you some inspiration
Very nice, I have loads of old android devices, some pretty premium sony’s to play with. I am going to use them as displays and remotes, and as security camera’s. I have been using them as camera/media cast devices for a while anyway so now it’s incorporating HA as well.
