I installed the EVL-3 with my ADT Safewatch 3000EN aka Vista 20p alarm system and I installed the plugin. The alarm system is now visible in Vera.
A) no sensors where auto-populated so I had to manually add them. This is just an inconvenience.
B) the sensors are now showing up and they immediately get triggered when I e.g. open the door. What is strange is that those sensors don’t go back to not-triggered state when I e.g. close the door while the Ademco Partition status changes from “not ready” to “ready”. So the alarm system can be armed but the sensor still shows open door.
The way I added those sensors is by defining the zone number and chose the partition. I did not add or enter anything into the address/serial# field for each sensor.
I also have a strange error message on the Eyez-on portal saying “Error *29 Programming on panel not completed properly”. I don’t know why this message is there but the alarm system works properly.
Any help would be appreciated on any subject above.
Looks like I just missed you posting this while I posted in another thread.
I also got the Error *29 so went ahead and entered *29 followed by 1 on my panel (and did not enable shadowing). Things seem to be working correctly (sensors are updating open and close). https://www.eyez-on.com/EZMAIN/evl3honeywell.php:
2 - IP/GSM/LRR Setup
If you DO NOT already have a special communications module installed, you must enable support for this in section 29. If you do have a module installed, then skip this step but make sure you have enabled "shadowing" in the previous section.
Go to section 29 by entering *29, and hit 1 to enable LRR support.
Note: On newer panels you may have to use the following sequence: 1*0** rather than just 1 in section *29.
I’ve never messed with my alarm panel until just now. So I don’t understand all the terminology, etc yet. As far as I can tell, I do not have a “special communications module” installed. I just have the built-in phone dialer (and now this Envisalink). I guess the instructions could be a little more clear in stating that the newly installed Envisalink is an LRR. So you must enable support for it. ???
I had to manually enter in the zones (and also left serial/address fields blank). But that doesn’t mean it was correct
I also left the Outputs tab blank since I don’t know what it is used for yet.
I’m away from home right now so I can’t play around. But Vera UI5 is now telling me there’s a Fire in one of my zones. That zone’s smoke detector battery is dead (and has been dead for a year). But it’s strange that Vera didn’t report anything since I linked it up 12 hours ago (or perhaps I missed it). And Eyezon panel says everything is fine with that zone.
And now I’ve really botched things up by changing the default EVL3 password (UI5 reporting WRONG PASSWORD and that it can’t log into EVL3). I don’t see where to enter in the password anywhere in UI5 (maybe I need to reinstall?). Oh well - I’ll spend time researching this over the weekend.
[quote=“fcol, post:4, topic:182615”]I had to manually enter in the zones (and also left serial/address fields blank). But that doesn’t mean it was correct
I also left the Outputs tab blank since I don’t know what it is used for yet.
I’m away from home right now so I can’t play around. But Vera UI5 is now telling me there’s a Fire in one of my zones. That zone’s smoke detector battery is dead (and has been dead for a year). But it’s strange that Vera didn’t report anything since I linked it up 12 hours ago (or perhaps I missed it). And Eyezon panel says everything is fine with that zone.
And now I’ve really botched things up by changing the default EVL3 password (UI5 reporting WRONG PASSWORD and that it can’t log into EVL3). I don’t see where to enter in the password anywhere in UI5 (maybe I need to reinstall?). Oh well - I’ll spend time researching this over the weekend.[/quote]
I did the same. I logged into EVL-3 via IP address and user/user and I changed the password. It worked until I closed my browser window. Loading UI5 again in a new window came up with wrong password and there is no option to enter the password in the alarm device or the partition. I am sure that you could create a variable in one of the two but we need advise from the plugin creator for this.
I logged into the EVL-3 and changed the password back to user/user and now my Vera works again.
I also just realized that the bypass sensor function doesn’t work either. I cannot arm the alarm system by saying bypass one of the sensors. I will also have fun over the weekend here
EDIT (Sep 7, 2014): The following paragraph is incorrect - see post below by cybrmage.
For the Ademco sensors, the devices created by the plugin use the “same” Arm/Bypass functionality as other Vera devices. For example, you can change the type of notifications you receive based on whether the device is “Armed” or “Bypassed.” It will not “Bypass” a zone on your alarm panel. I imagine you could create a scene that sends the Bypass command. But after a quick glance, it doesn’t look available from the UI. This thread should have the answer (I still haven’t found time to read through it myself :P): http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,7266.0.html
This is a limitation of the EVL3 Honeywell firmware… There is no way to reliably obtain zone definitions from the panel, so they must be defined manually.
This is a limitation of the EVL-3 firmware and/or the Honeywell panel. The panel reports zone faults but does not report zone restorals. The EVL3 firmware tries to “simulate” restorals by using timers for each zone, but doesn’t always manage to get it right.
You should not that the plugin also tries to account for this by using a Time-To-Live on any faulted wired zones… it defaults to 1200 seconds(1200 seconds - oops… holdover from the DSC plugin, which this one was originally based on)… If you trip a zone, the zone will remain tripped for at least the TTL time … Also note, if you have wireless sensors - they will only report a fault/tamper once every 3 minutes (this is a "feature"of the sensors - to save battery power), and a faulted wireless motion sensor will remain tripped in the vera dashboard for 183 seconds, as the plugin uses a separate (hardcoded) TTL for wireless motion sensors (this is so that the sensor can not be restored when the sensor cant report further faults). You can change the default time for wired sensors in the panel device in the advanced tab with the TTL variable.
If you program a wireless sensor as a wired sensor (see answer below) and set the TTL to less than 180 seconds, the sensor will trip then restore and will not trip again until the 180 timeout on the sensor expires… your sensor and the plugin are not malfunctioning.
You would only put values into the address/serial and channel/loop fields if the sensor is a wireless sensor. If you enter these parameters, the plugin will use the a 180 second TTL for these sensors. Leaving these fields empty will have no other adverse effects.
The output tab allows you do define any relay outputs you may have installed in your panel (Honeywell 4204 Intelligent Relay module or 4219 wired expansion and relay module). If you define the outputs (numbering is 1 through 16 and depends on how the module is configured in your panel), the plugin will create a device on vera for each relay. These additional devices will control the state of the output as if the output… there are two modes - normal and momentary. The default parameter sets the normal state of the relay - either on or off.
The output device acts as a switch. This allows you to control the output from the local UI, Remote UI, a scene, a mobile UI, a scene or a uPnP command.
In normal mode the switch is manually toggled, in momentary mode, the switch will change state, wait 2 second, then return to its original state.
The wireless sensors report low battery as a trouble and not as a fault. Trouble reports are not always sent by the sensor in real time. Tamper signals are sent immediately, other troubles are sent with the device supervision signals (every 9 to 24 hours, depending on device model). So if you have a working sensor and the battery becomes low, the panel will receive a trouble report when the device sends it’s supervision reports. However, if you remove the cover from a wireless device, it will send the trouble report immediately. In the case of a wireless device(s) that is(are) not functional, the panel will report a trouble for any device that does not send a supervision signal once every supervision cycle.
The Eyezon portal will only send trouble notifications if you select to have trouble report notifications sent to you, and only when it receives the notification from the panel.
The password can be changed under advanced, but due to a bug in vera device creation that I was not aware of when I coded the plugin (The variables for the device are not shown in the interface unless the plugin explicitly set a value for them), the variable that stores the password is not displayed.
from the advanced tab, you can add the variable by filling the following fields:
new service: urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:EVL3VistaAlarmPanel1
New variable: InterfacePassword
New value:
then click on “Add”
The EVL3 firmware does not support changing the username for the TPI interface, so there is no option in the plugin to change the username.
The bypass (arm/bypass) function does try to send a bypass to the panel, so it will bypass zones on the panel… there are a few caveats to the operation.
the panel must be disarmed in order to bypass a zone.
once a zone is bypassed, it can not be armed without disarming the panel.
when the panel is disarmed, all bypassed zones are rearmed.
A zone programmed as a “Fire” zone (usually includes smoke detectors, heat detectors and CO detectors) can NOT be bypassed.
a user code (labelled “PIN Code” in UI) with sufficient permissions is required to bypass a zone. A “guest” pincode can not bypass a zone. The user code should by for the “system master”, a “partition master”, or a user with “user” permissions. A user with “Arm Only”, “Guest” or “Duress” permissions can not bypass zones.
To set the user code for use with the zone bypass function you must set enter the user code you wish to use into “Pin code” field of the “control” tab of the partition device, and you must click on the “Store” button to store the code.
I have kept the controls and settings for the plugin as close to the interface for the AD2USB plugin as possible, to try to maintain a common user interface for the Vista based panels.
cybrmage - Thanks for providing this nice, detailed response (and for correcting the things I got wrong)! I’ve been happy with the plugin overall and its availability inspired me to buy an EVL3 and invest more into my alarm system (such as adding additional smoke/fire detectors and other sensors) – now I feel my home and family are even safer. I was hesitating before since I only wanted to buy “connected” devices and wanted to see how things shook out with devices like Nest Protect or other Zwave devices. Thanks again!
My appologies for not documenting the plugin… It was written because my boss upgraded his alarm panel to a Vista 21iP with tuxedo panels (with z-wave) and didn’t like how limited the tuxedo panels are… the alarm panel distributor carries vera devices so he purchased a vera… then he wanted wanted the panel to be integrated… so I made it happen 8-} and figured that I would make it public rather than keep it private…
I also managed to become addicted to the vera while doing the programming… and spent a small fortune to get a vera, z-wave switches and dimmers, z-wave door locks, android tablets as control points, wemo switches and TCPlighting units, Xantech XLIP units (OEM Kira devices)…
Then the boss decided that we need to upgrade the alarm and CCTV systems at our properties… so I’ve been rather busy lately…
Thanks for the update. Reading the text I tried to update but there is no button to upgrade and the “autoupgrade” checkbox cannot be checked. Any advice on how to upgrade instead of a new install?
