They have a mobile app that uses their IP module for internet connectivity. I’m especially interested in getting access to all of the alarm motion sensors around the house, so I can set up rules for lighting and other automations. Would also like to set up some extra security and trigger the alarm through some additional wireless door sensors.
I couldn’t find anything on Google so I was just wondering if anyone in these forums has done this before?
You could ask the manufacturer or your installer. However the last kiwi iot manufacturer I dealt with was hopeless, didn’t know why I would want to know about their api.
Hi Nick! Yes will talk to the installer first, and then hopefully I can get some info about their API, or reverse engineer the requests from their web/mobile app.
You can be hit and miss with smaller companies. I had a good experience recently with another NZ company. I installed an E-LOK smart lock on my door and got in contact with the developer, and they were really helpful and gave me API documentation and info about their web app. On the other hand, I had a pretty bad experience with Smanos a while ago, and I wouldn’t recommend any of their products. (You can find their DIY alarm stuff at PB Tech, etc.)
But I’m actually a bit impressed at how many tech products are being made in New Zealand. I didn’t expect that my alarm and door lock would be made by local companies.
Hey guys I’m technical sales for Arrowhead Alarms.
Ive Intergrated my panel into Home Assistant using the input and outputs on the Shelly 1 relays, this at the current time is the only way to integrate an Elite, ESL or ESL-2 control panel.
We are currently working on a new app that comes out 4th of April and the RnD team are working on releasing the API. This won’t be out straight away but I will keep you in the loop.
The team know that customer are looking for these intergrations and features so are working hard to get them out.
If anyone’s intrested on how to setup the smart relays let me know I’ll write up a cheat sheet
Hi Mario, thanks for your reply! And welcome to the home assistant forums! I’d be very interested to hear more about your setup with Shelly relays. Are you able to monitor the motion sensors as well as control the alarm system?
Hi Nathan, unfortunately with the way I have it setup I am only able to arm/disarm and receive and alert when the alarm has been triggered.
The Shelly 1 relay has both and output which is used to arm and disarm the alarm via the keyswitch input on the panel and I’m using the armed zone to inputs function and wiring an output from the panel to the input of the Shelly.
It’s a bit of a basic setup but that’s the only way it will work at the current time.
Nice, well I’m interested to see how you’ve set it up! I talked to my alarm company and they’ve given me a quote for the IP module, so I might see if I can reverse engineer the API (or find some docs). Maybe run the mobile app through a proxy and inspect some of the network requests to see if I can build a home assistant plugin.
I used to have a DIY Smanos system, and I miss having the automatic arming when we leave the house, and the scheduled “home mode” at night / disarming in the morning. The other thing is that it would be really nice to get the wired motion sensors hooked up to home assistant so I can use them to automate my lights. I might be able to use the inputs on a Shelly relay (or similar / DIY ESP32) and hook them up to the relay pins on the motion sensors. But it would be great if I can just get the status over the IP module.
Hi @stewartmyles, I haven’t actually got the WiFi module installed yet and have been tempted to build my own using an ESP32 board for a direct integration into Home Assistant via ESPHome. But I haven’t gotten around to that yet, and not sure if I’ll be able to figure it out. Have you got the WiFi module installed and the mobile app? I’d be interested to learn more about that. Is there a web interface where you can control the alarm and view the status of motion sensors?
I never understand statements like this. If the app has been released it must already be using the API, so it must be releasable. APIs are the very soul of computing, so if the devs are struggling to get the API “released” then I struggle to see why.
Most apps are free, so there is no power in keeping the API quiet, the only reason would be to sell more apps.
Thanks @stewartmyles, that’s very helpful! I was thinking that I might be able to save some time if I just buy the AAP IP / WiFi module. But it’s $480 + GST, so I wanted to make sure it can do everything I need (arm / disarm, plus read the status of all the sensors.)
In that case, I’m going to take the alarm apart and have a look for a UART interface or see if I can communicate with it over TTL serial. Otherwise I could monitor the motion sensors directly with an ESP32 microcontroller, and forward the signals to the alarm using relays.
Quick update - I’ve still been thinking about this project and I decided to post on Reddit today. I saw this comment, and I think I agree that the easiest way forward is to just build my own alarm system in Home Assistant using Alarmo, using the wired motion sensors and siren/strobe.
These Konnected boards look cool, but I think I’ll just build my own with an ESP8266. The motion sensors are super easy to integrate using input pins, and I’ll use a relay to trigger the siren/strobe. I’ll probably also replace my alarm control panel in the garage with a Zigbee keypad, or maybe an Android tablet.
We also have some remotes on our keyrings to arm/disarm the alarm and open the garage door. I can probably use the same ESP8266 to run the remote receiver module in ESPHome and listen for those RF signals. Then we can keep using the remotes as well.
Now I’m playing around with Alarmo and it seems very straightforward. Should be really easy to control a relay with the ESP8266, and then I can configure Alarmo to trigger the siren and strobe if the alarm goes off.
NodeRed, with a heap of custom flows that send / receive data to the alarm using RS232 commands, and forward them to MQTT broker for use in HA
I’m thinking of updating the NodeRed flows to directly interface with HA instead of MQTT although its working fine ATM and have for several years now
I have seen some other links where people re-flash the IP Module with custom firmware and use a custom component that talks Telnet to the IP Module… but note you loose the ability to use the standard AAP mobile app with this option
I’m gonna post in that thread and see if we can get the custom component to support the serial interface as it looks like all the commands etc are the same
I also have an Elite-S AAP Alarm, and bought a konnected interface panel to integrate it… haven’t had much success and lack of guides online is definitely frustrating! I do wonder if others have done it before in NZ…
You can try this post, it already has a custom component for Home Assistant to work with the IP Module. You need to install a custom firmware the nice AAP guys developed for this. You can use almost every feature of the alarm in HA.
