Home Assistant - Paradox Alarm

IOT (The internet of things)
21

Hi Nelius,
thanks for the warm welcome. Great feedback on the Olarm system. For extra R300 Paradox will open the IP150+ serial port and Olarm can be integrated.

I’d like to understand the way Olarm works a bit better: I assume Olarm comes with its own app fed by the 2 sim cards. What do you mean when saying “…it even works in LS”? My current paradox sysem is linked to my alarm company, so that’s a must.

Using my paradox motion sensors is exactely what i am after,too. Next to have another system (HA) I can control the alarm panel with in a more handy/reliable way than Insight Gold. By using PAI I understood that the IP150+ module won’t let me run both opions (HA & Insight Gold) . That’s why I am looking into other options like Olarm. Do you know what’s Olarm’s monthly rates for there service?

Thanks
Ben

22

Hey George,
thanks for your comment. The current IP150+ module doesn’t provide any web interface - which is a bummer. In that way I can’t even set-up in HA properly. Let me have a look on the PAI page. Jevgeni seems to know what he is talking about - more than all the paradox reps all together:)
Don’t get me wrong but I rather don’t prefer downgrading again due to security reasons. But I agree HA is updating so often that I believe it can brake everything in a sec.
Best
Ben

23

Jip, been there, done that, a few times. HA has been deleted, NodeRED 100% more stabler.

24

Hi Ben,

The setup cost me , if im not wrong, R650 per year. It includes 2 simcards, each to its own network. Included in the price. (Im with Gordonsbay Security)

Working with Loadshedding - if you dont have a ups/solarsetup, you have no wireless/internet. So that will render your alarm connected to HA useless from outside our house.
Not to sure about my following point, but for HA to be connected outside your house, you will either need to pay a monthly fee, or have a VPN setup.

With a vpn setup, you will either need a dedicated ip,(paid service) or use a service like no-ip to give you a “dedicated IP”.

All of those services will cost you monies or you have to re affirm your hostname monthly. So should you forget to do the latter, your VPN will be invalid.
Ontop of this, your HA might decide to upgrade, and break things.

So with all the above, i would much rather pay extra and have something simple that works from the start. I really like to mess around with HA and iot, but somethings in life is not worth it. Security is one of them. Paying R650 per year is nothing compare to your insured value of your house.

Another nice feature of olarm is that when you press the panic button on the app, it activate a silent alarm to your Alarm company. Very usefull to get someone caught red handed.

I might be wrong about HA monthly services.

25

Hey Nelius,
great thanks for your input. Think I will switch over to Olarm. R650 pa is okish. Think I paid the same amount for the rubbish Insight Gold app for my 2.5 years subscription. The last 2.5 years were a nightmare when it comes to temporary beeing banned from their cloud service, unscheduled down times and super unstable performance of the app itself (iOS).

When it come to remotly managing HA I am very happy with the Nabu Casa cloud service. Highly recommandable.

Love Olarm’s ‘sighlent alarm’ function. How is ther app running? How is the UX (user experience)?

Thanks
Ben

26

Yes can confirm! - however I’d rather have to update HA more often instead of having security lacks;)

27

I kept the alarm system in exactly the condition, pristine, as the day it was installed, far far away from wifi and potential hacks, and HA not doing its thing properly every time. :slight_smile:

Did consider it for a brief moment, till I concluded it would be a challenge to explain to an insurance assessor why the house was robbed, the linked alarm with armed response was off, not connecting or whatever, due to an i.e. IT-related issue of my doing.

Or the alarm switched off when my cell comes within Wifi range … and the phone was stolen moments before.

Clever stuff I tell ya, but too many additional variables to contend with, for me.

28

I left my alarm notifications going out via the security company radio… and left in place the arm/disarm via the original remotes.

I’ve just added the ability to arm/disarm (and bypass zones) via PIA.

G

29

Hey guys, finally got my Olarm installed and it works like a charm! Super happy and amazed how quickly Olarm’s app connects to my system (<3 sec vs +10 sec with Insight Gold!!)
Now my only challenge is to get my 2 PGMs (pedestrian gate and garage door) programmed and integrated in my Olarm App. They are sitting in the Paradox board and accordning to my IT guys this is what Olarm can’t map on its app. But it clearly showed in the setup menue that you CAN add PGMs.
Any ideas?

30

Ok was able to figure it out myself: The PGMs were actual ‘Utility Keys’. Swaped the 2 PGMs with the 2 Untility Keys and voilà they are showing up in my app now …and most importantly they are working:)

31

Bumping an old thread here. But any changes in the alarm front, and if you have to do it again, what would be done differently?
I have a friend whos looking to install a new alarm, and integrate into HA in the future. But what’s most important is that the alarms sensors (motion/door) also report to HA so they cant work double duty for turning on lights etc.

1 Like
32

I would also like to know. I have an old “dumb” DSC 1864 alarm system. Programming it is a chore and its functionality is limited.

I would love to upgrade to something more modern and powerful, but I’m not sure what to go for. I have IP cameras that currently operate as a completely separate system, and I would like to integrate that with the alarm system as part of the upgrade. Monitoring over the Internet is a must.

Annoyingly, it seems every alarm equipment manufacturer uses different EOL resistor values. In DSC’s case it is 5.6K. It’s going to be a mission to replace all those resistors (I have 24 zones), but I’ll do it if I have to.

33

Some systems can handle different termination resistors. The Risco LightSYS alarm that I use for instance can be set up to use different values, or auto detect them.

The big problem I find is that if you are a DIYer then the installer manual for alarm systems are not easily available if you are not a registered installed. So check if you can find that before you buy a new alarm system. Most have extra modules you can buy to add interfaces to what you want if it is not build in, but it is much easier to buy those up front with the new system than trying to add them years later.

34

I remember that 20 years ago, I simply registered as a Paradox installer, and downloaded the manual :slight_smile:

35

I also wondered, having briefly thought similar for our system, if you add these new integrations, how would it end up when there is a claim, the alarm system was compromised because of the features added for convenience?

Convenience inevitably opens up blatant holes in security comes to mind.

Titbit:
Someone once laughed at my “clever” camera mountings. He asked, who installed this? I did. O. He tried to hide the smile, being a professional. So I asked, why? Come on, “hit me”? You were not thinking like a thief he said. Look here, let me show you … I was floored. Rooky mistake does not even begin to explain my innocent “clever” mountings.

Needed 2 more areas to be split off the main system. The new alarm system can do that. The caveat, the keypads are like R2k each. I need 4. No, the installer said, you do it via your cell now, look here, all these cool features. You just need internet access to control the alarm. So I asked, has the system ever been compromised, say like Transunion … deadly silence. Yes, was off for a few days but they fixed it. O. I said. So what happens if no internet access, a flat phone? Aha, he said, then you use the keypads. I see, so we are back to keypads. :slight_smile:

It always sticks in my craw, you need to prove forceful and/or violent entry, hence keypads are inside the home, strategically placed. I don’t want to move that forceful and/or violent entry to my person, having the phone/remote in my or the wife’s, kids, person.

Just my 2 cents on this interesting subject of convenience versus security.

36

8 posts were split to a new topic: GenX, touch screens, and other preferences

37

Perhaps a bit late but have a look at:

This uses a TTY connection to alarm panel to publish and accept messages via MQTT using Homie standard. In OpenHAB the standard is automatically supported so it would import the devices discovered on MQTT. You can however use it for your purpose by just reading the MQTT structure and setting values in HA.

I developed the above for myself.

To connect the alarm to a PC you need this. You need a USB cable from the panel to the PC which would limit the use cases unless you have a Pi or something.