If you provide more detail and ask for help you will most likely resolve your problems without having a small job. I use DSC interfaced through an IT-100 and then interfaced to HA. The serial port is made to look like an envisalink. The integration is available on-line.
I wouldn’t feel right about charging money as too many people have helped me free of charge. I understand if you have security concerns and would like to keep it private.
What is your idea? And what is failing? What are you using as basics of the DIY Alarm? Alarmo by any chance? Or have you got a proprietary alarm installed and interfaced with HA, like the Satel Integra?
Thank you very much for the advice. I posted for help earlier in the week, got some views, but no one responded.
I should have been a bit more clear about the alarm setup. I am planning to do this via the digital alarm home panel add on (entity: alarm_control_panel.alarm).
The alarm will be all smart devices, not tied to an existing or legacy hardwired unit. It is really just automation and script logic to trigger existing smart devices (lights, door sensor, camera, and motion sensor).
Hello,
I am not using an existing or legacy alarm panel or system.
I am looking to use the digital alarm home panel add on (entity: alarm_control_panel.alarm) and then create automations for my existing smart devices (lights, door sensor, camera, siren, and motion sensor). Like I said, it is probably something basic that is wrong, I have been looking/troubleshooting and just cant seem to figure it out.
Here is the gist:
I am looking to alarm ONE door (the rest of my doors and windows have bars on them – I live in Las Vegas so that is common). The one door is my back French doors. I have a smart door sensor that works with HA, and an indoor Ring camera that has a motion sensor and siren built in, all compatible with HA. I also have two smart light switches that I want to flash when the alarm goes off.
So, without the alarm control panel code in my config file, I can get the ring siren to trigger if it detects motion (I have tested this by walking in/by the door). But, if I add the alarm coding back and add it to the automation, I will get an app notification (which I set up as part of the automation) but the Ring siren will not go off. So, it kinda works and kinda doesn’t.
Do you have any automations that you have tried? If yes would you please post the formatted YAML code.
Do you know how to group entities like lights, door sensors,camera. This will reduce the number of automations you need.
Here is an example of how I set up my groups:
In configuration.yaml I added the following line of code to include a file called groups.yaml
group: !include groups.yaml
My groups.yaml looks like this (I chose 3 entities but you can have as many as you need:
#My Security Groups
alarm_doors:
name: Doors that are monitored
entities:
- binary_sensor.comm_closet_door_sensor_door_window
- binary_sensor.garage_entry_door
- sensor.mechanical_room_door_sensor_access_control_door_state_3
alarm_windows:
name: Windows that are monitored
entities:
- binary_sensor.mil_suite_window
- binary_sensor.owner_sitting_area_window
- binary_sensor.owner_sleeping_area_window
Do you know how to use helpers? This can help you accomplish automations easier
As an example lets pick an automation and write out what we want the automation to do. This is just text so we have the triggers, conditions and actions clearly defined.
Trigger: A monitored door is opened
Condition: Alarm is not disarmed
Action: Activate alarm, send message
The following is the automation I wrote for the above:
- id: '1625859056723'
alias: 00 - Trigger Alarm
description: Trigger Alarm when door or window is opened
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id: group.alarm_doors
from: Closed
to: Open
- platform: state
entity_id: group.alarm_windows
from: Closed
to: Open
condition:
- condition: not
conditions:
- condition: state
entity_id: alarm_control_panel.home_alarm
state: disarmed
action:
- type: turn_on
device_id: 13c1dce685aec1038f55154b4afd06ee
entity_id: switch.smart_chime_alarm_current_value
domain: switch
mode: single
So the trigger is OR. if windows or doors go from closed to open
Conditions are AND. Alarm is not disarmed
Action is: Turn on the siren
If you have the hardware installed please share your trials at group and automations. Feedback can then be given to help you get things working. Remember YAML is turing complete so it is a programming language wrapping the configuration.
An entity’s state value is what is displayed in Developer Tools > States and not what is shown in the Lovelace UI which may be different due to the entity’s device_class
For example, I have a group of doors (binary_sensors whose device_class is door) and the group’s state value is onor off (as seen in Developer Tools > States). It’s displayed as Open and Closed in the UI but that’s not what should be used in a State Trigger.
When you look at group.alarm_doors in Developer Tools > States, what does it show as its state value?
- id: '1625507632146'
alias: 'Alarm: Siren activated when armed and motion detected'
description: Alarm sounds when motion is detected and alarm is armed
trigger:
- type: motion
platform: device
device_id: b454ccc10b861b1cf6decf95e68666c6
entity_id: binary_sensor.living_room_motion
domain: binary_sensor
condition:
- condition: state
entity_id: alarm_control_panel.home_alarm
state: arm_away
action:
- type: turn_on
device_id: b454ccc10b861b1cf6decf95e68666c6
entity_id: switch.living_room_siren
domain: switch
- service: notify.mobile_app_jesse_s_phone
data:
message: ALARM! INTRUDE ALERT! Motion detected!
- service: script.alarm_flashing_lights
mode: single
- id: '1625511420567'
alias: 'Alarm: Disarm'
description: ''
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id: alarm_control_panel.home_alarm
from: arm_away
to: disarm
condition: []
action:
- type: turn_off
device_id: b454ccc10b861b1cf6decf95e68666c6
entity_id: switch.living_room_siren
domain: switch
mode: single
Now, if I remove the alarm panel from the config file and remove the alarm panel state from the automations file as a condition, and then i walk in front of the camera, the siren will sound and ill get my notification via the app. But, if i add the alarm back into the config and add it as a condition and then arm the alarm, the siren wont sound but i’ll still get the notification via the app. Its like it skips the siren part.
I also cant get the light loop script to work, but that is another issue.
Thank you for any help you can provide, and if you cant, no worries.
hanks for the suggestion, maybe i’ll give this a try tonight. I only worry that it is in beta and it says ‘may cause headaches and bugging’ lol. but, it looks pretty promising.
And of course just an update from version x to y can cause headaches. Just look at the latest release’s topic…
It is a nicely wrapped solution, with most of the options what you need. If something is missing, then you can build the Automations as well. It just adds a good starting point for your alarm idea. And reading the comments you can get more ideas what you might want to implement as well.
EDIT: You’re not actually changing the state of your alarm panel with that automation. You’re doing actions based on the state and a trigger, but not actually triggering the alarm.
I use the built-in alarm control panel in HA daily. My automations/scripts are built around the alarm states. One thing I did is decoupled the actions and stuff I want to happen from the actual alarm states and trigger. Here’s some of the automations I use. You’ll see a couple just set the state of the alarm, and a few others simply run a script of actions based on the state of the alarm. I use scripts instead of just automation actions because I wanted to be able to stop the actions quickly and easily/efficiently. turning off a script is easier in my mind than trying to stop an automation and abort any actions. I think I got this layout of automations from either the HA cookbook of automations, or the Alarm Control Panel docs page.
Please note that the starting post dates back from October '20 I never updated it since.
In the meantime my project has grown quite a bit and by now 100+ users depend on it for securing their home (including myself).
The fundamental part (arming/disarming and watching your sensors) should work stable for everyone.
There are some ‘whistles&bells’ in Alarmo, such as build-in support for sending notifications, basic automations (instead of doing so through HA automations) and MQTT support, most room for improvement are here.
I invite you to give it a try
It should take only ~1 hour to get familiar with the configuration and set up the basics.
My goal for this project was to help people who don’t want to tinker with yaml, so you seem to be the perfect candidate.
If you have a problem or miss some functionality, just let me know.