SimpliSafe with HA

Hardware
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I’m new to HA; prior to beginning this journey, I was a user of the ADT Pulse “Smart Home” system combined with my home security system, which was a rather “dumb home” in terms of its capabilities, especially compared to HA. After implementing HA I was attempting to keep the ADT Pulse system as an alarm only and by integrating it via a Home Bridge integration into HA. This worked fine for a few weeks and then ADT had some web issues and it stopped working.

I was looking for reviews on SimpliSafe and its integration with HA, but could not find much other than people trying to work out their problems with the integration. Most of those posts were a few years old so I decided to give it a try. Now that I’ve been running it for about a month, here are my experiences for those who may be considering SimpliSafe…

First, I know for many folks a good smart home system IS their self-monitored security system. This is not an option for me as I am very often off-grid and unreachable. Professional monitoring is a must with my extended absences from home and periods of unavailability.

As for my experiences with SimpliSafe and HA, I am really pleased. The most important functionality to me was the ability to Arm/Disarm SimpliSafe through automation from HA which works great and with no noticeable delays. If I attempt to Arm/Disarm from HA, it works instantly and the SimpliSafe control panel is responding without delay. Likewise, if I Arm/Disarm from SimpliSafe either through their app, the control panel, or the key fob, HA reflects the change in the alarm system’s status instantly.

As for the other sensors, there is a noticeable delay. I have found a post where the developer of the of the SimpliSafe integration (@bachya) has stated HA polls SimpliSafe every 20 seconds. So attempting to use any of the SimpliSafe sensors (door/window or motion) for home automation will most likely result in frustration. I noticed there will be days where I’ve come and gone all day but the logs in HA don’t show the doors having ever opened. That’s obviously because I can open, walk through, and close a door in less than 20 seconds.

What I don’t know is how HA updates that Arming/Disarming/Armed/Disarmed status so quickly as that is instant. And to be honest, I don’t really care. It works great for me and thanks to @bachya for his work on this integration.

The only automation I am considering using the SimpliSafe sensors is something where the delay is negligible or I’d like a longer delay. For example, if a door or window is open longer than 1 minute, turn off the HVAC.

Hope this helps anyone considering SimpliSafe.

2

Thanks for the kind words!

In addition to a polling API, SimpliSafe has a websocket that pushes some real-time events (like arming/disarming); we use that whenever possible and fall back to polling when we have no other option. I continue to hope that SS will one day add sensor updates to this websocket…

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That would be really cool. In the meantime, I’ll have some doors/windows double-sensored for a more immediate response as well as extra motion detectors. But even with the WebSocket pushes, I imagine that may have the potential to be frustrating.

What about cameras? I should have also mentioned I also tried the SimpliSafe V3 integration for Home Bridge and it was able to pull camera feeds into Home Bridge and then HA. I have a local NVR system for outdoor cameras but I bought a few of SS’s indoor cameras for their verified intrusion for faster police response. Ultimately, your integration that is ‘native’ to HA worked far better and more reliably, so I aborted the Home Bridge integration, but the inclusion of the cameras was a nice touch.

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I don’t own the cameras, myself, so I’m awaiting someone to step forward and submit a PR. :sunglasses: SimpliSafe Camera Integration · Issue #85 · bachya/simplisafe-python · GitHub

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Sorry to hijack this, but it’s sort of related. I couldn’t find the answer poking around the API documentation or the states in developer tools…

For automating, I need to know the STATES that the alarm panel could be in? Like “arming”, “disarmed”, or whatever they are? I think one is “pending”…

I ask because I would like to automate when the system is in a specific state. For example, it’s dark when I walk in and the alarm panel starts beeping to demand the code. I’d like the room light to come on so I can see the keypad (v3 doesn’t light the numbers, because that would make sense), but what is the state when it’s waiting input? That sort of thing…

To the OP, I’d say to be cautious with relying to heavily on SimpliSafe. After several years with them, I’ve begun shying away from adding new sensors and devices because they SEEM (could be wrong) to not be interested in supporting 3rd party stuff. I’m suspicious that one day the API will go the way of the dinosaur. Some things which turn me off.

  1. They spoke about integrating with HomeKit, and after years worth of telling us it was “in development”, they finally admitted they changed their minds and have no plans to support HomeKit, ever. AFTER users purchased their new v3, of course.

  2. They refuse to support landscape mode for their app, which makes using a wall-mounted tablet instead of buying their keypad an exercise in stiff necks…

  3. They seem reluctant to bother with the API, which makes me think the “unofficial” status is going to bite anyone who wants to integrate with something like Home Assistant and endangered species…

They seem to be leaning towards embracing that corporate mindset of vendor lock. And if they ever go belly-up… Well, we could find ourselves removing a lot of sticky tape. I use what I have because my homeowners requires a “professionally monitored” system, but I’ve been building anything new with HA as my monitoring solution.

If I’m not home and my window opens, I can call the police myself and automatically text a neighbor. It’s free, and never becomes obsolete. Zigbee is your friend, and an alarm system can be easily created without relying on a vendor.

I initially switched to SimpliSafe because the local cable company decided they didn’t want to support what their users purchased anymore way back too. It’s a constant cycle with corporate BS.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Spectrum/comments/e983ez/spectrum_discontinuing_intelligent_home/

Any help on those STATES would be appreciated…

Thanks!

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Here are all the states supported by the alarm_control_panel domain: Alarm Control Panel Entity | Home Assistant Developer Docs

SimpliSafe supports all of these except:

  • armed_custom_bypass
  • armed_night
  • armed_vacation
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That’s what I was searching for, thank you for all your work. :+1: :+1:

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I agree that SimpliSafe harnesses its own technology to sell its hardware. My understanding is the margins in monitoring are thin. So far, the integration has been solid for me. I need professional monitoring because if I’m out of town, I am often totally off-grid and cannot monitor myself. There are not many options to integrate professional monitoring with HA. I had ADT Pulse before, and it was a dumb smart home system. Their new system is better, but I wanted locally hosted with alarm integration.

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I’d not hold my breath in anticipation. These submissions can take forever and still not happen.

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You were able to get SimpliSafe cameras to work in HA with the integration? This and the door ball are the 2 things that are driving me nuts in trying to get. After getting the integration to work, the cameras and door bell were 2 devices never brought into HA. I would love help in getting this accomplished. Thank you.

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The SimpliSafe cameras do not work with this integration. The author of the integration does not have any of the cameras of his own in his SimpliSafe system, so he does not have the ability to develop it.

The only cameras I have of SimpliSafe’s are 3 indoor cameras for SimpliSafe monitoring to be able to verify the intrusion. The rest of the cameras around my property record locally on my NAS and are fully integratable within HA. For a doorbell camera, I strongly recommend the Reolink Video Doorbell. It is the most useful doorbell camera within HA and is not cloud-dependent.

If you already have the SimpliSafe cameras the only other option is to use the SimpliSafe integration within HomeBridge and connect HomeBridge to HA. I tried that integration and it does include the cameras, but you must install HomeBridge as well.

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I should have also included that I settled on this integration over the HomeBridge option because the HomeBridge option quit working. I went back to reconfigure it and couldn’t figure out what was causing it to not work. So in the end, I went with this integration as so far it has been 100% reliable.

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I would love to install the Reolink doorbell camera but for me the operating temperature only goes down to 14 degrees F, and here in the metro Detroit area we can get down to -30 wind chill and -20 actual

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Hey Aaron,

I have everything setup correctly, as far as I know, but I’m not getting updates from motion sensors. I have a new Gen 3 system with contact sensors, motions sensors, glass break sensors, sirens and of course keypads… But the only thing that seems to update is the contact sensors and the virtual “alarm panel” that HA adds…

I’ve tried deleting and re-adding a few times, but it doesn’t seem to change anything. Any ideas? I’m guessing the keypads and sirens are kinda useless in HA, but I was hoping for motion activation to trigger some other things.

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Because of a limitation in the SimpliSafe API, we can only query for sensor values every 60 seconds—so, if you were to, say, keep a contact sensor open for 60 seconds, you’d see it in HA.

I would love to do something better, but SimpliSafe has not shown interest in working together on this.

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Thanks for the reply sir. So if the motion is not actually detecting motion when the app polls, it will miss it? I thought it would still record activity, but just after the fact, when it polls. But if I understand this correctly, glass breaking and motion sensors are basically useless in this integration. Even contact sensors rely on the burglar leaving the door or window open for at least 60 seconds? I know there are issues with the API and I really do appreciate your work, just thinking this might not really be worth it. The alarm on its own does what I want it to do.

How do you use it?

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I generally use it for arming/disarming the system via automation—I don’t really use any of the sensors except for low battery ones.

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It won’t “miss it,” it’s just not instant; however, it is instant within the SimpliSafe system for security purposes.

I was also trying to use the door sensors for instant automation, but due to the limitations, I had to install secondary door sensors for those. But the SimpliSafe sensors are not entirely worthless for automation; I have a set of sensors on certain windows and doors that, if any of them remain open for greater than 3 minutes, my HVAC will turn off. When they are all reported as closed, the system is reactivated. In this case, the instant notification is not necessary.

Being that SimpliSafe is a basic security system with no SmartHome functionality whatsoever, I would think they would be more open to integration. This would give them competitive marketability against systems such as Amazon Ring or Google with their integrations with ADT or other security systems, especially given that both SimpliSafe and HA are “do it yourself” systems. That said, I did get a survey from SimpliSafe recently asking about SmarHome interest. Maybe they’re exploring the possibilities of integrations or their own system, in which case, I hope they don’t pull a “Chamberlain/LiftMaster/MyQ” stunt and block integrations such as these.

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I’ve given up on them entirely. I had full monitoring with Simplisafe, 5 outdoor and 2 doorbells, 25ish sensors. After a policy disagreement on monitoring calls, mine versus theirs, I dropped to self with cameras for videos so the system wouldn’t be almost entirely useless. 3 year warranty runs out end of 2025.

I’ve since started a redundant system adding Aqara Zigbee entry and motion sensors etc. with the Alarmo integration in HA. Practically a Simplisafe without restrictions.

Using a Ring V2 (zwave keypad) as a wall controller for arming etc. If I wanted monitoring, and I don’t, it’s my understanding Alarmo integrates with Noonlight monitoring. Unconfirmed.

Slowly testing and adding sensors as a full Simplisafe replacement or redundant system while the SS hardware last. No looking back. Probably will go with the Reolink WiFi doorbells when the time comes.

I have the Simplisafe integration installed but with polling time other than non urgent use, the sensors are about useless for integrations. And at the speed they move even an internal API will take forever and users will have to troubleshoot it for them to make it work properly.

They’re sweating right now and running not a very fair side by side comparison against ADT’s new DIY Nest system. They compare theirs to ADT’s Pro system instead. Competition may make them move toward some kind of integration.

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Interesting. I got a survey from SS re: SmartHome but I quit taking it because it was taking too much of my time. I hope they don’t shut down their API that HA uses.

Please report back on the Alarmo integration with Noonlight. I’ve never heard of Noonlight but will look into them. I went with SS because I need monitoring. I am off grid too much to self monitor.

I have the Reolink wired doorbell and am very pleased with it. I also have another Reolink camera in my system and the integrations between Reolink and HA are awesome.

Do you mind telling what your disagreements between you and SS were?