Newbie here setting up a security integration in my home. I’ve been doing some research though the forums on alarm panel integration, but I’m still not sure if I’ve found what I am looking for.
What I have is:
An existing ADT alarm system which I’ve traced to being the Vista 20p. This includes an alarm panel.
I have ordered the Envisalink 3 and Veralite which should be here any day.
What I am trying to accomplish is to be able to view the status of my home through an app, and be able to control the alarm system and tie it together with other zwave devices. IE When coming home create a scene to disarm the alarm and turn on lights, unlock doors, etc.
Can this be accomplished with the components I have or do I have to either:
A. Swap out the panel and board for a DSC system?
B. Not use the envisalink but get the AD2USB instead?
Just trying to make sure I have all the right items before moving forward.
If your Vista 20P is working, and you are happy with the performance of it, keep it. It is a workhorse.
The issue is the envisalink… I don’t believe that there is a plugin available for your Vista 20P. There may be some folks who can chime in on this if I am incorrect.
I have the Vista 20P and use the AD2USB device and it does everything you want to do including:
setting up triggers for scenes (or PLEG) with existing sensors on your alarm system (e.g. sending alerts if “Front Door Opened” or “Motion in Living Room”)
Remote arm/disarm with Vera and many iPhone and android apps
The caveat is that the AD2USB installs as easily at the Envisalink, but you will need to have your Vera relatively close to your Alarm Panel as it is a USB connection to Vera versus the Envisalink which you would need to run Cat6 to your router or a nearby ethernet switch.
If your Vera located close to your alarm panel (I believe within about 5meters) you can add to the USB cable. There are a lot of Techies on this forum that can probably help you with this if you need to convert the USB to Ethernet and back…
and yes you have your options correct either A or B
You can have your AD2USB away from your panel is yo just run 4 conductor (Keypad) wire from your Panel to your Vera / AD2USB. The AD2USB does not have to be close to the Panel as much as it has to close to the vera & USB
Thank you for your input. I can have my Vera close to the AD2USB so I can go that route. I think ordering the AD2USB is a better route than getting the panel and board of a DSC system. Well, easier
Thanks! I look forward to using this board a lot more in the future for my projects. Now if only we could get a good electrical baseboard heating solution
Another question. Can I have it so that zwave devices can work in tandem with the A2USB? For example, if I have say a motion sensor hooked up can I create a trigger so that if it detects motion it can turn on a zwave light?
You can create triggers from your door opening or a motion detector. Each zone creates a device in Vera.
The only thing to remember is that each zone in your alarm system will be a new sensor. In my house, the installers put nearly all of the windows on one zone, so I cannot have individual triggers for different windows. Also, two different doors are on the same zone. So I had to augment the system with a couple of door sensors.
Can you control the siren that is connect to Vista 20P through Vera . I my case i have several z-wave sensors and Vera 3 connect to vista 20p through Ad2USB. I am trying to set the siren when one of the z-wave sensor trips. Is it possible?
that is a great question, but I cannot answer it. It never dawned on me to try to do that. Because it is integrated into my fire alarms, my alarm bell is so damn obnoxious. Plus, I still have monitoring so I wouldn’t want to put the panel into alarm status.
What I did do (recently) was to have PLEG toggle the CHIME function when I have motion on either of two motions sensors and the alarm is in Armed Stay mode. (at one time I had my doorbell triggered to do this, but that got damned confusing and my wife demanded I put a stop to that)
you know, thee are a bunch of us Vista 20P users out there, so let’s see what comes back there.
I don’t have the programing manual in front of me right now but I think you could program one of the function buttons on the key pad to activate the siren or panic mode then in your vera you can activate that function key button in the advanced tab of the scene with the armed z wave sensor being tripped. Might want to use caution doing this if you have a monitored system.
So, there is a spare keypad type connector on the board that supports power to up to 2 auxiliary devices.
You could wire the bell in parallel with that auxiliary connection. You can then (as SteveZ recommends) assign that to say your “D” key on the keypad. This way you can trigger the bell with Vera and not interrupt the bell in its current use.
You can do this for the cost of the connector, some bell wire and a few minutes of programming. By the way, I wouldn’t solder direct onto that connector because of the risk of melting something or dripping solder where I would not want it.
Yes you could use one of the onboard triggers, 17 or 18 I think to do it as well. If you do it that way I would have the trigger activate a 12 volt relay then have the siren wired across the N.O. contacts because the siren might pull more current then the on board trigger can handle. But there might also be a way to have the function button directly control the siren, ill have to look at the programing manual when I get home.
Yeah. I cannot access my panel, I’m away for a while. I would think that the bell is a powered connection with 4 wires, two to the transformer and two to the bell switch. However, I am frequently wrong and you can soon tell us…
Well I went through the programming manual but didn’t see any way to directly control the siren with the function button that I can see. I think the easiest way would be if you have a free zone that you could wire the output of one of the on board triggers into. configure the zone as a perimeter. then configure one of the function keys to activate the trigger for 2 seconds. this will cause an alarm but will return to normal fast enough that when you enter in your code the fault will be cleared. In vera using the advanced tab you can have the function key pressed when one of your armed sensors trips. I have not tested but it should work.
