In an effort to have a more complete answer to my question last week, I would like to know more about Vera’s GC-100 Luup plug-in as it partains to security systems.
Since I have very little coding experience, I am trying to piece together as much of a “plug-and-play” solution as possible…
In poking around on the web, I have determined that I will need to purchase a RS-232 interface board for my previously installed NX-8 (GESecurity/Caddx) security system. Luckily, such a device exists, its the Caddx NX-584. And this board just so happens to to be compatible with the GC-100 out of the box, as well as LinuxMCE. (Which I believe Vera is based on…although, since moving to the new Luup architecture, I’m not sure if LinuxMCE support matters anymore!!!) See LinuxMCE wiki for more info: Caddx NX-8E - LinuxMCE
The big question is if Vera’s GC-100 Luup Plug-in supports the “Alarm panel interface,” specifically “GE Interlogix”?!?! ??? (Seeing as there is little GC-100 Luup plug-in documentation, other than indicating support for IR control, I am hesitant to move forward with buying the necessary hardware.)
Any insight on this setup would be very helpful! Thanks in advance!
Any chance of moving Vera close enough to the alarm panel that the two could be connected using an RS232-to-USB adapter/cable/dongle? I believe that is what Forum user ‘guessed’ has done.
No, Vera is set up in my AV Rack, far away from the alarm panel. Besides, guessed has done a ton of custom programming, which I am not able to do, to get his security system integrated with Vera.
As, mentioned in the original post… I am needing as much of a plug and play experience as possible…I bet MCV is the only one that answer my question completely…
The GC-100 approach should work fine. The issue is getting the Luup plugin written for the Caddx. Right now there’s a plugin for the Paradox, and we’re doing one for Honeywell. But the GE/CADDX is very popular, so we’d like to support it too. If you get the hardware setup in your home and don’t mind opening the back door so we can remotely write the Luup plugin using your hardware, we can do it. It wouldn’t effect your use of the alarm system. You could keep using it as always while we worked on the plugin.
That sounds great MCV! I’m really looking forward to this! ;D
I have sent you a “contact tech support” message on the MCV website requesting some assistance. It would be great if I could be put in contact with someone to begin this process.
I realize this is CEDIA week which is not a problem since I have to get the hardware together on my end.
Thanks again, and I look forward to working together on this little project! Hopefully we will be add this to the Supported Hardware wiki soon…
There needs to be a wiki page for security systems and their associated plugins that Vera works with, for people like me who are looking to buy a system and want to find one that will work with it.
and folks are being encouraged to add their projects to the list to flesh it out more. This has a variety of categories, so people can fill in the bits they need.
btw, the Alarm interface Luup code isn’t that complex, it’s more about understanding how the Alarm panel itself “communicates”, what the Semantic meaning is for it’s various codes (if publicly documented), and then the testing effort… like being willing to set off your Alarm system multiple times in a day etc, since some of the API docs are even vague.
There are some changes that need to be made to mine to make it easier to use in Scenes (for the Alarm Armed, Stay Armed, and Breach events) and to support future scene expansion (User xxx Armed, User yyy Badged in etc). MCV has a few Luup extensions to expose so I can do that, so it’s being held from being released at the moment until we can sort that out.
PS: I’ve looked for the GE Documentation, and haven’t been able to find their API/Reference manual online. There’s tons of stuff about how to install/config the Panel itself (and the $35 RS-232 interface board, which is nice) but nothing about the actual command structure… pity, I was going to see how hard it would be to transcribe my code to it.
Good news guessed, I think I have found what you are looking for:
I’m hoping that this is NX-584’s protocol. (Caddx and GE are synonymous) If not, let me know and I will do my best to hunt down what you are looking for…
To your points guessed:
I understand that there will need to be custom Lua code written for this plugin. That is why I was SO excited to here that MCV was willing to undertake this part of the project. I do consider myself fairly knowledgeable when it come to electronics, but when it comes to software coding, I am a complete noob! (I’m a Healthcare Systems Analyst, but I have nothing to do with the actual software dev, just dba “building” as they like to call it in the biz)
As far as a willingness to actively participate in the testing process, I’m totally willing to hold up my side of the bargain! (Although my neighbors may not be very happy with me for a few months! ;D )
My initial experience with Home Automation ( or “HA” ) Installers was extremely undesirable! Especially the way I was treated by a Control4 dealer in my area. So anything I can do (mostly) myself kinda makes me happy I didn’t mess with their “Professional services”! (Other than cable management…or the lack there of…I have no regrets!) I mean no offense to those that are good, honest, and reasonable CEPros. But, I really think technology is getting to a point were technically inclined individuals, with a time and energy to burn, can now be successful with these types of projects; and with high degree of good design and integration might I add!
PS: This HA thing may just be my new favorite hobby! Thanks for the great community that is this forum!
PSS: Should this discussion continue on the Luup and Development Category of the forum?
NOTE: I’d recommend moving this thread under the Luup Development category, which is something one of our Moderators (e.g. ‘wseverino’) can do for you … just ask.
Yeap, that’s the doco they’ll need. It’ll be interesting to see Lua doing the bit-processing operations required, but I’m sure it can handle it just fine.
I bought a Vista ICM earlier this year but never got around to installing it. Aaron if you need someone to test I am willing to open the back door for you.
Oh geeeze… I just saw the Vista-ICM costs as much as Vera :o
I did a search here for Vista, Ademco, Honeywell, 20p, and 21ip but didn’t find much. So, I’m going to ask a Vista/Vera question on this thread…
Is the Vista-ICM required for a Vera & any Vista Security system to talk? Or does a system like the Vista 21ip already have the needed Vera bridge built in?
Chris,
From what I’ve seen, the only example/sample documentation and Running code (LinuxMCE-based), is for the VistaICM interface to the Honeywell’s.
From my reading so far, the VistaICM works by pretending to be a Keypad on the bus, so it sees all the status messages (etc) that the Honeywell would produce, and can also simulate them as if a user has typed into a real Keypad.
As far as I can tell, again with little [public] documentation from Honeywell, that’s not what they’re doing in the later “internet connected” models.
There are some threads over in LinuxMCE that talk about having to use the VistaICM in these models as well, since no other form of [coded] integration yet exists.
You may want to see if there are forums for HoneyWell, or potentially ask the VistaICM folks, to see what their thoughts are on the matter.
BTW: I avoided the Ethernet-Connected interface to the Paradox since it was a “closed” option, one permitting only a Web-Based interface, and not HA-Control. I’d be interested to see if the HoneyWell crew expect for their Ethernet-driven boxes.
I just heard back from my Honeywell supplier. He said the Vista 21ip has the Vista-ICM integrated. If true, this is good. However, I too am see conflicting documentation.
BTW: I avoided the Ethernet-Connected interface to the Paradox since it was a "closed" option, one permitting only a Web-Based interface, and not HA-Control.
Guessed, I'm unclear as to what cabling/bridge to verify will work with this Vista21ip. Any ideas? I guess I still need the GC-100?
MCV, who exactly is doing this Vista plugin… so I know who to pose my questions? Since I haven’t heard back from MCV regarding me writing a plugin, I’m just about to abandone the Honeywell Ademco Vista idea and go with Guessed’s Paradox system. If MCV is actually interested, please PM me afap.
athough technically, they could build that part of the config into their Plugin to make it “all in one” since the VistaICM always has an Ethernet Port… just a few more steps to add to the code (likely hijacked from the GC100 driver)
The biggest challenge though… someone needs to write the Vista-specific Plugin for Vera
As an interesting aside something very interesting just showed up in the the Luup Plugin Catalog (the one built into Vera):
[i][b]DSC Alarm Panel[/b][/i]
At this point it only has Arm and Disarm Actions which appear tied to a new [tt]S_AlarmPanel.xml[/tt] so it’s rough (no support for Arming by Partition in larger panels)
On a different note, there’s a Plugin-specific “.json” file which is interesting. It appears to contain UI descriptor information that would be needed by the Flash UI.
If the [MCV Team] owner would like to stand up, let’s have a chat to ensure that things are aligned in the Alarm Panel space.
We’ve already started the development of the Honeywell alarm panel plugin , as soon as we’re finishing the next release we’ll start working on supporting more Alarm panels, until then if any user is interested in benefiting of our [url=http://wiki.micasaverde.com/index.php/DeveloperSpecial]http://wiki.micasaverde.com/index.php/DeveloperSpecial[/url] offer will be glad to help him as much as we can.
