MQTT Alarm Control Panel for Raspberry Pi and Android

We do have this ability because this is how notifications work already. We subscribe to the notification topic and use TTS to say the message or popup a dialog. I was thinking of using this feature to integrate other components into the application, like controlling the lights for example. Your request is very specific though and I am not sure its a feature everyone would use but I will consider the use case for this. Why not create a new issue in Github and label it as a “feature” layout what you would like. https://github.com/thanksmister/androidthings-mqtt-alarm-panel/issues

I’ve created an issue for this on github, you can label it as a feature and see if this matches with the roadmap for your alarm panel. Thanks for your consideration!

A quick question: Is it possible to turn off the click sound?

I am testing it out on a Sony Z1, and everything works fine - but there is a quite annoying lag in the click sound. Probably since the phone is a bit slow.

The OS touch sound is fast enough, so it would be great to be able to turn the app’s click sound off.

Yeah, I will look into adding this feature when I have some time. Thanks for the feedback. In the meantime, can you turn down your volume or perhaps not use the click sound for the device?

It is only a “problem” on my slower device, so I just put it in silent mode.
The visual response and the OS clicks are ok even on the slow device, it’s just the app’s sound that lags a bit.
On my Nexus 6p I don’t notice it at all since it’s so much faster so the sound is in sync with the key press.

I gave my layout thoughts a try the other day, but after I changed the XMLs, I couldn’t install the APK so I assume you need to re-pack it or sign the file or something like that after you edit the contents?
Otherwise it crossed my mind just to remove the mp3s/wav’s from the APK on the slow device.

You would have to rebuild the APK file and deploy it to your device. Removing the sound file would probably break the application or cause other errors. You need Android Studio IDE and you can deploy the application onto an emulator for testing.

First off, thanks a ton for this @thanksmister, it works great!

I’m not sure if you are open to suggestions or taking requests, if so, I think it would be awesome to include an info overlay on the imgur screensaver.

Thanks again and great job!

Thanks for the suggestion. I do get many suggestions, just wish I had time to add everything.

Thanks a lot for adding the “system sounds toggle”. Made my old Z1 great again :slight_smile:

I just noticed that my log was getting big. Like 240 MB big in a few days.

I only have one MQTT-client connected , my Z1 with Alarm Control Panel. The log spamming seems to have started the same time as I updated to the new version, but since my HA is a work in progress, it might be a coincidence.

2018-02-19 12:30:28 WARNING (MainThread) [hbmqtt.broker] Client [..] is reconnecting too quickly, make it wait
2018-02-19 12:30:29 WARNING (MainThread) [hbmqtt.broker] Client [..] is reconnecting too quickly, make it wait
2018-02-19 12:30:30 WARNING (MainThread) [hbmqtt.broker] Client [..] is reconnecting too quickly, make it wait
2018-02-19 12:30:31 WARNING (MainThread) [hbmqtt.broker] Client [..] is reconnecting too quickly, make it wait
2018-02-19 12:30:32 WARNING (MainThread) [hbmqtt.broker] Client [..] is reconnecting too quickly, make it wait

Anyone experience the same?

That’s something new. I will have to see if I can duplicate this on my setup. The client does reconnect when connection is lost. I’m wondering who is dropping the connection the client or the broker. You are running a local MQTT broker?

I use the built-in broker.

I tried a few restarts, and after the first - the spamming continued, after one or two more HA restarts it disappeared.
So I can’t see the “red line” yet, but for the moment it’s gone and the log is clean.

You are using an older device, could the WiFi be disconnecting and reconnecting? Have you checked the device settings for sleep, WiFi, network, etc to see if something is disconnecting? I am running v0.7.3 on an Android device and not seeing any strange logs for my HA install. I haven’t updated to the latest HA at this time, but maybe also a restart of the MQTT broker?

@boneheadfraggle I updated to HA 0.63.3 and running the alarm panel against the HA MQTT Broker. I don’t see any log errors about the client when using the alarm panel from either an Android device or a RPi3. Maybe its your device somehow, sleep mode or something. It may also be that the application gets into a bad state at some point after running for a while. Maybe when putting it into the background and then bringing it to the forefront causes multiple MQTT client connections. Let’s see if we can find a way to reproduce the issue.

Yep, it is a bit old, but has been really stable. I have a constant ping sensor just to see if it awake and it has never been offline. All kinds of power savings, smart battery handling apps and such are turned off. Even automatic updates are turned off to avoid unexpected behavior.

It’s running IP Camera and Alarm Panel and seems to be working really good. Since the log spamming stopped after a few HA restarts, I don’t think it’s a Alarm Panel-error.

But the quest for answers continues :slight_smile:

This is awesome! Without reading the entire thread, I’m wondering if it’s been suggested that you add some different color options for the app? Night mode, etc.

I have no idea how difficult this would be to implement, but it would be great to have the ability for the panel to match our ha setups.

I’ve managed to get this all set up, but I’m confused as to how I integrate this with my abode security system.

Abode is connected to ha, I’ve set up mosquitto, the android app is talking to the broker. How do I connect this to my abode alarm? Help the newbie! Thanks.

@thanksmister you have done a great job with this app.

Can I suggest the option to select which of the ARM_HOME, ARM_AWAY and ARM_NIGHT you wish to use in the setup and then have only the relevant options visible?

My problem is I have the ARM_AWAY and ARM_NIGHT implemented in HA but with your app I need to treat these as ARM_AWAY and ARM_HOME.

@thanksmister, I’m having a small issue with the app. I’m able to arm the alarm away or home with the app and it updates ha, however, I can’t disarm my alarm using the app. I type in the pin code but nothing happen and HA’s alarm does not disarm. Is this a problem with my device or with the MQTT broker? It was working fine last week and I didn’t change anything which caused this to happen (except from a power cut which rebooted HA).

New layout?
On one of my devices the frame is dark grey. Is that a new version or an option that I can’t remember I have checked?
Nice look anyway!

That made me thinking about my suggestion earlier to hide the buttons.
Would it be easy to make the frame and text color selectable?

In that case, if I set them both to same color as the frame, the buttons, and the clock would “disappear”, even though they would still be clickable. I suppose that would only involve a global variable rather than all the separate layout definitions.

Just a thought: It would be nice to be able to config the layout (color of frame/text/main background) and it would be a primitive option to “hide” the buttons at the same time.

And another question or suggestion: Would it be possible to have “countdown beeps” from within the app?
I’d like the Alarm Panel device (cell/tablet) to beep, while alarm pending and during trigger countdown.

Today I use a Chromecast for countdown beep, but it feels a little overcomplicated to involve a Chromecast, a receiver with pre-defined turn on - sound level and a powerswitch to turn on the receiver, just to achieve a few beeps :slight_smile: