House alarm which can be integrated?

[Malc]

Hi,

Any suggestions for a wired alarm panel that could be connected to a home network? Something with a LAN port that has a published (or hacked) interface. Or something with a remote keypad with a published or hacked interface. I've currently got a Honeywell Accenta alarm which has a 1 wire remote keypad but I can't find any info on the interface. This is for a new house so would be easier to go for a different alarm panel rather than reverse engineer the Accenta.

Thanks

 

[sparkymarka]

Probably .... Texecom premier with a com IP can be controlled via app .... Other panels have this function

 

[Malc]

Thanks for the suggestion. I had a look at the info on the Texecom premier and I could only find wintel, windows only. The coms seem to be encrypted so no change of rolling your own. Or have I got that wrong?

What I has in mind was a standard panel setup with panel and remote keypads, then adding in a link to a raspberry pi which would look/function like a keypad so I could remotely check the alarm status, disarm, rearm, disable zones, etc.. Then I could hang some cameras off the raspberry PI too that could be viewed remotely.

 

[sparkymarka]

Why when you can do the same with the supplied app ?

 

[Malc]

What? Do you mean why don't I want to use a windows program? That's because I won't have a windows PC running. If I want remote access then I will have a panel in the house, hard wired to raspberry pi, which will be accessible over the net on https. I wouldn't want to have a windows PC running 24/7 because of the power it would use. Or is there some other program I have missed?

I've though of different approach. I could break into the 8 inputs and allow the pi to monitor those and break the line. That might be a simpler solution to achieve what I want. I could detect a trigger and then if I reckon it is ok I could disable that trigger from repeatedly causing alarms. BTW the situation I'm thinking over is alarm goes off when I'm out. Neighbour calls and says it's a false alarm, house is secure. I remote access and disable the sensor giving a false trip.

 

[alan333]

I have a Galaxy G2 alarm and an ethernet module and can control my alarm from phone app or internet, for a quid per month. Google selfmon for more info.

 

[sparkymarka]

You fit a IP com via your router or com wifi , then get the free APP from Texecom on iPhone or android to control your alarm which also gives you push notifications ....

 

[Malc]

OK, that's useful to know. I've looked up the app on google store and it says the app can be used with premier 48-168, premier elite 12-640 or Premier international 412-832. What's more the store showed my other apps so quite a few alarm systems to check out.

It would be useful to know if any alarm panels come with a digital link installed. It seems like most are a very expensive addon, and the systems that will take them have the price hiked to start with.

 

[alan333]

The ethernet module for mine was £50

 

[GalaxyGuy]

Thanks for the suggestion. I had a look at the info on the Texecom premier and I could only find wintel, windows only. The coms seem to be encrypted so no change of rolling your own. Or have I got that wrong?

Texecom comm's are not encrypted. All plain text.

You can in theory just scrape bus traffic and decode what is going on with your Pi, but if you want to start emulating a keypad device, then you need to adhere to strict timing within the protocol. If not, you will cause a tamper for the device you are emulating. This means that writing a keypad emulator in Linux could be problematic if the kernel decides that some other process has higher priority than your program.

I did write a Java based virtualkeypad HTTP server for the Galaxy panels and this can be run on the Pi to provide a web based keypad. It was a little slow back when I ran it on the older single core Pi, but it's probably much better on the more recent Pi with a better/more recent JVM running. This still needs the Ethernet module to run with the G2 panel. It will work with the on-board serial port on the Dimension or the Ethernet module on that panel too.

 

[Malc]

I've looked a bit more at Texecom. The wifi module is ~£40 which is a bit more reasonable than the ~£100 for the hard wired lan card.

 

[GalaxyGuy]

Lan card = quite a bit more reliable though

 

[Malc]

Worst case is I sit a wired wifi router next to control panel - still cheaper than the wired card, especially as I have old wifi routers going spare.

I'm not sure I understand how it all works though. I get that I setup IP address etc. so panel is on my local network. App is given my local IP and I can use the app inside the house (and just outside). But first, having setup IP address I need to have wintel on a PC and use that to change master password and maybe create another user with more restricted access. I've got all that.

If I want to have remote access then best solution is to set up a vpn, and vpn android into my home network, at which point the app works as it does when at home. Or I can open a port on my router to give direct access to the control panel (eek!). What I don't understand though is how the app tracks my home IP if that changes. I thought that you could only find out IP from the house so you need an external dns service which you have to keep updated (something often built into routers). The app implies it will track the IP as it changes. How does it do that?

 

[GalaxyGuy]

It doesn't matter how close your router is to the WiFi module, it still isn't as reliable as a hard wired connection. Anyway, you can find all that out for yourself if you go the WiFi route.

The panel contacts Texecom's service sending plain text packets of information with your account number. Texecom look at the account number and store the incoming IP and tell the phone (via unique code registered against the account) about the panels IP address via push. To control via the app you will need to either open a port (Insecure as the Lantronix adapter may be used to gain access to your internal network), or open a VPN tunnel (secure). Many people blindly open ports and only time will tell if that was a good idea or not.

 

[bernardgreen]

And when there is a power cut. WiFi reapserry pi and most other things will be dead.