Alarm System Integration

[triangledave]

Hello all, I’m back after a few years’s hiatus. Years ago I had a Vera 3 connected to a Vista 20p via AD2USB. It worked very well 95% of the time. When I sold my house, I left that system with it. I purchased a Vera Plus and am finally getting to getting things set up again. Part of my quest is to have alarm integration again. Sadly, it seems like not much has changed in the years since my original set up. Based on initial obsessive searching, it appears that there is still a decent integration with DSC power series panels. Does anyone know if the vista AD2USB plug in still work? I really like the Honeywell Lyric alarm system. I’ve read that the Lyric may be able to be used as a secondary controller. However, I cannot find any details on that possibility. Does anyone know if the Lyric passes on alarm status to the Vera?

Lastly, I am willing to update to an EZLO controller if they do better with alarm panel integration. Do the newer EZLO versions have better integration?

Please tell me that things have evolved with alarm integration since I left off 4 years ago.

Sorry about the long multi-question post.

[ibrewster]

@triangledave

Lastly, I am willing to update to an EZLO controller if they do better with alarm panel integration. Do the newer EZLO versions have better integration?

Worse, actually. My DSC power system works nicely with my Vera Plus, but is not compatible at all with my EZLO Plus. Presumably this will change once you can get plugins for the EZLO devices, but for now there is no way I am aware of to integrate any security system with an EZLO device. I would love to be corrected on this point though!

[triangledave]

Thank you ibrewster. It really seems like there is not much interest on Ezlo/Vera’s end with alarm panel integration. I don’t know if it is more the alarm companies not wanting anyone in (considering they are adding zwave themselves) or if it is just not a focus or priority of Vera.

I heard back from tech support and they confirmed that the old plug ins are what is available. Years ago it was a fair amount of work and expense to link my vista with Vera. I had hoped that things would have advanced since then.

My current lean is to get a Honeywell Lyric alarm system and set it up as a secondary/slave controller. Not as nice as full integration, but it seems like I should be able to accomplish most of what I am hoping for at about 1/2 the cost of a new Vista 20p system that may or may not integrate. I am partial to Honeywell because they also have voice announcement capabilities that the DSC power series does not appear to. To me, I want to know what zone was triggered if an alarm is waking me up. Interesting that this feature can be a challenge to find.

Basic Goals-
*Alarm trigger initiates scene that turns on or flashes lights. It appears that this can be done with the Lyric and its zwave capabilities.
*Receive text message if alarm is triggered. This can also be taken care of with Lyric panel for a $15/mo fee.
With this set up, vera will also have access to the lights so that I can do most of my automation and scene development via Vera.

-Unknown (but unlikely) that Lyric will feed alarm and sensor info back to Vera. That will be the missing piece, but not a deal breaker.

With my previous Vista 20p system, I had access to all the sensors on Vera and could arm and disarm as well as triggering text alert if alarm was triggered. I never really dove into using the sensors for any scenes or automation, but it was a nice option.

If anyone has experience with using a Lyric panel as a secondary controller, I would greatly appreciate any details that can be provided.

Thank you,

David

[therealdb]

A route could be to use home assistant and bridge your Vera/ezlo this way, if you really want to stay on these platforms. Lots of people are doing this, via MSR, node red or other integrations.

[BenjaminB]

Hello, @triangledave we already ordered the Honeywell Lyric alarm system and it may take some time to investigate and integrate it into ezlo. We will follow up on this forum treat and update you in the near future.