Triggers-Locks- Security System

I have a Vera interfaced with the plugin with Indigo software.. I want to be able to Lock the front Door via certain pin codes and then automatically arm the DSC alarm system. I have the Vera plugin installed and the DSC plugin installed.

All the plugins work fine, but when I setup a trigger that senses when the door lock changes state to on and I add conditions that it uses a vera scene for a certain pin code it doesn't work quite right. It Starts to arm the alarm just by me locking the deadbolt (changing state to on).

Is there anyway to do this?

[jay (support)]

By the time the lock state in Indigo gets updated to ON it's already too late to do anything else, right (the lock is already locked)? Maybe I'm not quite following what you're trying to do. Can you give us a step-by-step description of what you want to happen?

What I want to happen is The door is locked via a pin code and then the door lock is turned to locked and shows locked(on) then I want the DSC alarm to be armed.

I want two conditions (pin code and show locked) to be met before it arms alarm.

[jay (support)]

So, where does the user enter the PIN code? How is it stored? That's what I mean by explaining the process. We don't have enough information about who's doing what, when, so we can't really get the order of operations.

It's a zwave lock. The pin is entered on the lock itself. It's stored in the micasa vera system as well. I have a scene setup in the vera that will send notification if that pin is entered.

[jay (support)]

Ok. So, here's the process you're trying automate:

1. User enters code on Door Lock and the lock locks
2. For that specific pin, a specific Vera scene is activated?
3. When that scene activates, you want the DSC to arm

Is that right?

I don't know how the Vera plugin handles Vera Scenes. If they are just ON/OFF devices then you should be able to trigger off of the scene device state change. But I don't have any idea how they work so unfortunately I can't help more than that. Perhaps someone else who's using the plugin and more familiar with it can help?

Yes thats it.. I had a Trigger setup earlier but it didn't work on both conditions.. It would arm the alarm just from the Lock changing states.


I'll play with it some more later and see if I can make both conditions happen..

Thanks for your time..

[jay (support)]

OK - so I took a quick look at the vera plugin. It looks like scene devices are custom devices with an active state. Assuming those work correctly then you should be able to watch for a "Scene State Changed to Active" for the specific scene that's activated by the lock PIN code. You'd then arm the alarm, no conditions needed.

However, I'm not sure how quickly that state is going to get updated (not knowing how they work on the vera or the plugin side) so it might be that there would be some delay between the actual locking via the PIN, the time the scene gets activated in the Vera, and the scene state from the plugin gets updated in Indigo.

Thanks for Looking into it .. I have the vera pin code scene working, and the arm the alarm working in the Indigo software but it doesn't seem to see the trigger from the Vera. Maybe the vera scene showing active with pin code is to fast.. Not sure.. Going to keep playing with it..

Since this original post, you guys have written the new bridge plug-in.

I have a similar scenario as the original post. If someone enters their unique PIN code on the door lock, I would like appropriate actions to occur in the house. The unlocking of the door isn't one of those things, since that's handled by the physical lock itself, obviously. But the lights, etc. could be adjusted, as well as some announcements, etc.

So, if a PIN code is entered on the door lock itself, that can trigger a Trigger within Vera, and that trigger could make an http call to Indigo, I suppose, to cause an Indigo trigger to fire. But other than writing Luup code to fire the Indigo trigger, was there a more elegant solution that you were thinking about when you wrote the Bridge?

I'd look myself, but you've given us an .so for the Bridge

[jay (support)]

We don't support this functionality so you'll need to do something else on the Vera side. FYI, it would be quite insecure if your lock codes were available over an unauthenticated and unencrypted network connection so I'm pretty sure they aren't available in the HTTP API.

Since this original post, you guys have written the new bridge plug-in.

I have a similar scenario as the original post. If someone enters their unique PIN code on the door lock, I would like appropriate actions to occur in the house. The unlocking of the door isn't one of those things, since that's handled by the physical lock itself, obviously. But the lights, etc. could be adjusted, as well as some announcements, etc.

So, if a PIN code is entered on the door lock itself, that can trigger a Trigger within Vera, and that trigger could make an http call to Indigo, I suppose, to cause an Indigo trigger to fire. But other than writing Luup code to fire the Indigo trigger, was there a more elegant solution that you were thinking about when you wrote the Bridge?

I'd look myself, but you've given us an .so for the Bridge

Recently sought some help on a similar project, here.

Jay's response was similar in that thread, but there is a workaround that allowed me to integrate more detailed Z-Wave lock events than just the lock state into Indigo as triggers -- to achieve the functionality described in the linked thread, above. Essentially, the goal was to have Indigo be aware of when the Z-Wave was locked from the outside, as opposed to when it is locked from the inside of the house. This approach might work for you. As a side note, the approach might not be sufficiently secure. I don't know. Also, you mention elegance. This is not elegant.

The workaround was to use the Vera notification features to send an email to an email account I set up specifically to receive Vera notifications. That email's server, then scans the Vera notification message's content. When it sees that the Kitchen deadbolt was locked from the outside, it adds specific language to the subject line then forwards the message to the separate email account that Indigo checks. Indigo has an email trigger based upon the subject line and the sender of the email.

Here's a more detailed description of what I did to have Indigo execute actions when our kitchen dooZ-Wave deadbolt is locked by pressing the lock button on the outside of the door:
[list=bullet]
-In the Vera interface, select the Z-Wave lock you want to monitor for a specific action and click on the settings (wrench icon), then select "Notifications,"
-Add a new Notification, selecting the "Lock Button is Pressed" event from the drop down list (There are several options here, including "A PIN Code is Entered" that will monitor for a specific PIN code's entry on that lock),
-Setup Vera to send the Notifications to an email account that can scan the text of the body, then modify and forward. (Indigo can only look at sender and subject. Vera notifications come from various senders and always say something generic like "Notification" in the subject line),
-In my case, the email server scans for "Code: DL_LOCK_BUTTON Value:1" in the body of the Vera notification along with the ID of the lock, then adds a unique subject line to the email, like "Indigo #$!Z-Wave_Kitchen.Door_OutsideLockKitch1Pressed@22," and sends it to the email account that Indigo monitors every minute.
-Indigo scans for an email from that sender with that subject line, then turns off lights, Sonos, adjusts HVAC, and controls several variables including a DSC Alarm plugin related variable that sends me a text message if any doors are opened while I'm gone.
[/list]

This works fine for my goal, which is related to leaving the house. Vera seems to send the notification right away and Indigo has a maximum 1 minute delay, so there might be up to two minutes delay between when I press the Z-Wave Lock's lock button and when the house changes modes. That probably wouldn't be useful for entry, but there are so many other Indigo sensors for quickly noticing and triggering from entry.

Since Vera can send text message notifications, that might be an alternative, possibly using the Google Voice plugin. Also, the Vera notifications include the name of the notification in the body of the email, so that might be an alternative method for scanning content.

Hope this helps you,
mjc