I'm looking for a (relatively simple/inexpensive) alarm which can be connected to a computer, to create a home automation system.
What I would like to find is a relatively simple alarm, which can be connected to a computer, so that the computer can then do all the complicated home automation stuff. In this way, I hope to be able to do the home automation control on a computer which is much more flexible/easy to program/easy to interface, as opposed to getting a more expensive/complicated complete home automation/alarm system which will have a proprietary programming system.
The computer would need to be able to get the status of the alarm system, including individual alarm sensors (or maybe just the zones) so that it can do things like turn lights on-off/email status messages. Ideally the computer would be able to query all the events in the alarm system not just the alarm status (e.g. system has been set/unset by user X).
So, can anyone recommend a suitable alarm? I'd prefer a wired or hybrid system than a wireless-only one.
I've done a lot of googling, but not really found anything perfect yet. The latest one I found was a Texecom Premier panel with a ComIP ethernet adaptor, but I've not found any documentation on the communications protocol yet.
What I would like to find is a relatively simple alarm, which can be connected to a computer, so that the computer can then do all the complicated home automation stuff. In this way, I hope to be able to do the home automation control on a computer which is much more flexible/easy to program/easy to interface, as opposed to getting a more expensive/complicated complete home automation/alarm system which will have a proprietary programming system.
The computer would need to be able to get the status of the alarm system, including individual alarm sensors (or maybe just the zones) so that it can do things like turn lights on-off/email status messages. Ideally the computer would be able to query all the events in the alarm system not just the alarm status (e.g. system has been set/unset by user X).
So, can anyone recommend a suitable alarm? I'd prefer a wired or hybrid system than a wireless-only one.
I've done a lot of googling, but not really found anything perfect yet. The latest one I found was a Texecom Premier panel with a ComIP ethernet adaptor, but I've not found any documentation on the communications protocol yet.