I have a bunch of YoLink sensors and a YoLink hub (which requires cloud based - internet access), but want to move away from them to sensors that do not require the internet.
However, YoLink offers a third party monitoring service (VirtuAlarm - it’s great and only $9/Mo) which will call me and then call the police if I do not respond. I use this service for l leak sensors but was also going to start using it for an alarm service as well, once I had gotten all the related sensors in place and set up.
So my issue, to be able to get away from needing a cloud-based hub - is to be able to find a monitoring service that interfaces with Home Assistant.
@EdwardTFN hopefully there would be an integration from a monitoring service which does not have full access to HA, but just be sent alerts to act upon.
@nickrout so which one can I use that can call the cops - without having to have a yolink-like (cloud based) hub attached - if I do not respond to an alarm (I’ve been looking, I am ~50% confident there must be one with that capability, but cannnot find it yet)?
I’d be surprised. Most commercial monitoring services only support professionally installed systems. DIY systems are all too likely to generate false alarms, or not alarm when they should.
@Tinkerer that is why I am sticking with YoLink until I find something that does have the service. It is very clever, you log into the VirtuAlarm web site, then in there log into the YoLink account so VirtuAlarm can see your YoLink devices, and then you tag each device with whether it should be an alarm on all the time like a leak sensor for example, or only armed sometimes, or not at all included. There is also a test mode. It’s a very clever approach - and the phone call I get says which sensor and what the alert is so it is very clear (“water leak under upstairs bathroom sink” for example) but could be done without the YoLink hub - each device would have to be reachable by the alarm company either directly or through a carefully controlled and limited HA integration access (which would be ideal). Or - the devices or the related HA integration could reach out directly to the alarm company by an API call with a secure connection with certificates or the like.
Also in the U.S., most cities prohibit robocalls from an alarm system which is why services like YoLink exist. In my city unless it’s a person calling, the robocall is ignored.