Help with configuring Vera like an alarm system

Community Playground Scenes & Automations
#1

I recently am trying to make my Vera act more like an alarm system. Yes, I have read the “vera is a poor excuse for an alarm.” I get that it will not be perfect, and I shouldn’t rely on it, but would still like to know if the following is possible:

I have house modes with Home, Away, and Night configured. I have a front door contact sensor. I have a Centralite keypad. As of right now this all works great in that the keypad will change the mode from and to home, away, or night which then determines if the contact sensor is armed or disarmed. I am trying to add a dome alarm to the mix. What I would like to have happen is the following: House mode in “Away” or “Night” (door sensor is armed), if armed sensor trips, the “dome chime” beeps every 3-5 seconds for 30 seconds. If within that 30 seconds mode is not changed from “Away” or “Night” to home (aka sensor is disarmed), then the “dome alarm” is activated and continues to go off until mode is changed to “Home”. I can handle most scenes, but have a feeling this would require some LUUP code that is beyond me. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

#2

I tried that with the internal siren in the secure, had it kind of working but in the end there were to many virtual switches and if’s.
My problem was, sometimes the scene missed the housemode change and the siren stayed on, another issue was when a second sensor was tripped after 30 seconds the sequence restarted and the siren went back to short beeps.
I gave up and ended up with some red lights in the hallway to indicate if the house is armed when entering, this is also a good visible way to confirm the housemode change when arming/disarming.