I’m in the UK. I notice that the log timestamps are an hour earlier than the actual time. Is this a daylight saving problem? Would it cause a ‘cannot get serial number’ error? I have a new installation with Texecom firmware 5.06.00.
I’m in the UK and have no problem. Timestamps are not generated by the alarm I believe, there are just in UTC/GMT rather than BST. I think ‘cannot get serial number’ is an invalid login, but it’s been a while so so I’m not sure.
EDIT: Nope invalid login gives:
2022-06-10 08:46:30 - INFO: Starting texecom2mqtt v1.2.3 (Node v16.13.0)...
2022-06-10 08:46:30 - INFO: Connected to alarm, sleeping for 2 seconds...
2022-06-10 08:46:32 - INFO: Connection ready
2022-06-10 08:46:32 - INFO: Logging in to panel
2022-06-10 08:46:33 - ERROR: Could not log in to panel
EDIT2: Try stopping the container for a few seconds, then starting it again
Hi all
Is there a way that you can tell which user armed / disarmed the texecom .
I want to create automations based on certain people disarming the alarm
Cheers
Nath
That’s a good question, and one I’ve asked myself before. You asking it now made me have a quick look to see if it could be done.
I found that if I set the log level to ‘debug’ and restarted the add-on, the MQTT topic at texecom2mqtt/log shows the user id and name if the panel is used to set/unset the alarm:-
I had to look in the history for that topic to see the detail, because it gets overwritten by newer entries.
If the app is used, the log just shows ‘RemoteCommand’ with no user info, so that may not be very helpful.
I haven’t tried to use that info yet, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to pull that through to HA. HTH.
It turned out to be not too difficult. I use Node Red for my automations, so I came up with a quick flow to take the MQTT input from texecom2mqtt/log, parse it through a JSON node, then strip out the user name with a function node. This is passed to an MQTT out node to create a LastUser entry, which can then be consumed by HA as a sensor. (this is as much for me as it is for you, because I won’t remember when I come back to it. :p)
Node Red flow for info:
[{"id":"565b69366ea94b11","type":"mqtt in","z":"bd22f374.3f39c","name":"","topic":"texecom2mqtt/log","qos":"0","datatype":"auto","broker":"ba3fb858.9c4678","nl":false,"rap":true,"rh":0,"inputs":0,"x":450,"y":1500,"wires":[["47eb0aacf54427b9"]]},{"id":"47eb0aacf54427b9","type":"json","z":"bd22f374.3f39c","name":"","property":"payload","action":"","pretty":false,"x":670,"y":1500,"wires":[["b0f45d389d238f5d"]]},{"id":"b0f45d389d238f5d","type":"function","z":"bd22f374.3f39c","name":"Get UserName","func":"var msg1 = {payload:\n msg.payload.entity.user_name\n}\nreturn msg1;","outputs":1,"noerr":0,"initialize":"","finalize":"","libs":[],"x":860,"y":1500,"wires":[["5e7dbbe6d493db42"]]},{"id":"5e7dbbe6d493db42","type":"mqtt out","z":"bd22f374.3f39c","name":"","topic":"texecom2mqtt/LastUser","qos":"","retain":"true","respTopic":"","contentType":"","userProps":"","correl":"","expiry":"","broker":"ba3fb858.9c4678","x":1110,"y":1500,"wires":[]},{"id":"ba3fb858.9c4678","type":"mqtt-broker","name":"","broker":"xxx.xxx.x.x","port":"1883","clientid":"","usetls":false,"compatmode":true,"keepalive":"60","cleansession":true,"birthTopic":"armtronix_mqtt","birthQos":"0","birthPayload":"","closeTopic":"","closePayload":"","willTopic":"","willQos":"0","willPayload":""}]
That’s excellent , thanks for having a look , haven’t used node red but have been meaning to have a look at it , this will give me the nudge I need
Cheers
Nath
I too also appreciate this idea. Many thanks for sharing.
Hi all,
Is there any way (official or bodged!) to remotely activate the panel intruder alarm using this add-on? e.g. in a panic situation, or where there are intruders spotted remotely, but they have not yet triggered the alarm.
Thanks,
I have desperately been trying to get this integration working and I suspect it’s not compatible with my panel. Tried via comip official module and usb to com cable connected to linux sharing port over network.
Could anyone perhaps confirm if in the first place my panel is or isn’t compatible?
It would be much appreciated, and if you really up for an extended reply knowing what other integration or method would HIGHLY be appreciated!
Should probably also include this
2022-07-21 19:13:49 - INFO: Starting texecom2mqtt v1.2.3 (Node v16.13.0)…
2022-07-21 19:13:49 - INFO: Connected to alarm, sleeping for 2 seconds…
2022-07-21 19:13:51 - DEBUG: Executing serial number command
2022-07-21 19:13:51 - INFO: Connection ready
2022-07-21 19:13:51 - INFO: Logging in to panel
2022-07-21 19:13:54 - DEBUG: Command 1 timed out (attempt 1, id: 0).
2022-07-21 19:13:55 - ERROR: Corrupt response from panel: Unexpected start, expected ‘t’, got 0x3
2022-07-21 19:13:55 - DEBUG: Closing connection to panel
2022-07-21 19:13:55 - DEBUG: Closed connection to panel
2022-07-21 19:13:55 - DEBUG: Panel socket closed
2022-07-21 19:13:55 - INFO: Panel disconnected, exiting now
Pretty sure that you hit the answer yourself:
I suspect it’s not compatible with my panel
Pretty sure that’s an older Premier Panel and not a Premier Elite. The installation instructions specifically preclude that from working:
It requires a Premier Elite panel (not Premier) with v4+ firmware and either a ComIP or SmartCom.
Time to upgrade your alarm
I have no knowledge or experience with this, but there’s a lot of love around for https://konnected.io/ as a reliable method of integrating wired alarms to HA.
An alternative might be to just replace with a newer Texecom panel? Premier Elite 24 is only £60 (for 8 zones). I might be wrong, but I think some of the Premier keypads might be compatible with the Premier Elite panel - if so, it would be a cheap and relatively simple process to swap his existing wiring over to a new panel without disturbing any of the keypads, bells or zone sensors. Sounds like he’s already got the ComIP module, so should be good to go.
Speaking personally, I’d much prefer to have an integrated “proper” alarm than something like konnected.io that is reliant on other systems for operation.
I agree with @daern that getting a new Texecom panel is probably the best solution. However as an alternative, before I found this integration I had wired in a Shelly Uni device which allowed me to arm/disarm the alarm, and have sensors for the arm status and whether it had been triggered. Of course this requires configuring some inputs and outputs in your Texecom panel but I don’t know if yours supports it.
I think this is on the long-term wish list. It’s all in the hands of @dchesterton as the bulk of the integration is closed source (due to Texecom NDAs)
I would also hazard a guess that it’s not in Texecom’s best interest to expose such a trigger, as this would mean we can use 3rd party sensors rather than their own.
Spot on, simply wanted a confirmation of my findings. Yes the unit is NOT the *Elite
Thank you kindly!
Dunno, there’s absolutely no need to use Texecom sensors anyway - none of mine are - so I don’t think this type of user restriction would really be the reason here. Maybe it’s just a restriction of the alarm?
One other option would be to use the Texecom zone inputs to drive a panic button zone. On reflection, this would be trivially easy to do with ESPhome and I’ll do it as soon as I get chance!
For me, I don’t just want to arm/disable and view alarms setoff along with the zone that triggered it,
I also want to reuse every PIR that is already in place to create other automatons.
So in short i really want full integration as the better option.
Sure, and you can do exactly this with this integration.
E.g. I have HA automations that disable my house heating if the outside doors are left open for more than 10 minutes (to avoid wasting energy!) and the door sensors that I use are directly connected to my Texecom alarm and exposed to HA through this integration. Best of both worlds, if you ask me - a standalone, commercial-grade alarm, with really impressive integration with HA!
As it happens, all of my door sensors and most of the PIRs actually predate my Texecom system and are from a previous Honeywell install
This integration allows exactly that! It was the reason I got into Home Assistant after moving house to an existing texecom installation (which I upgraded with COMIP) - preciously I had a 1st gen SmartThings hub
Now my PIRs have a second use as motion sensors to switch on hue lights, and my front door contact sensor triggers the welcome home routine.
In addition I use RFID stickers in strategic places around the harm to allow me to arm/disarm using my phone.
Some great possibilities with this add-on. Triggering would be the cherry on top of a near perfect implementation!