SearchCz wrote:I fear this conversation is above my pay grade, but I'll take the chance at jumping in with a question or two...
I'm currently considering upgrading my wired standalone home alarm system to something I can integrate with my other Indigo automations. My provider (ADT) is pushing the QOLSYS IQ2+ panel / system.
First let me say that I really like the QOLSYS panel/system. It does a great job as a security system and with Z-Wave management. I just wish it and Indigo integrated better.
With that said, it's been over 2 years since I attempted the integration of the QOLSYS panel with Indigo so please take my response with a grain of salt - I may have forgotten a thing or two. In general, the 2 systems might be able to share Z-Wave devices and functionality (see below). They cannot share other devices such as wired motion detectors or wired open/close sensors.I seem to remember another post in these forums on possible ways to work around this limitation.
SearchCz wrote:If I go with this panel, what's my path to gaining visibility inIndigo to the events and status of that system and/or its components? I have the very modest goals of:
1) wanting to take advantage of any open/close and motion sensors added with the QOLSYS system ... rather than having to throw two motion sensors in a room.
Unless something has changed over the past 2 years, events that are based on wired devices, or even non-Z-Wave wireless devises, cannot be sent to Indigo. However, one workaround that was suggested was to create a virtual Z-Wave device (or maybe use a physical Z-Wave device) in Indigo that the QOLSYS panel could set to a specific state when a wired sensor was triggered. So for example, if a door was opened, the virtual device would be set to a specific state. Then in Indigo, you could trigger on that state and do something. This all sounded really complicated so I never really checked into it more.
Something more recent that I've just started playing with is to actually watch for wireless signals send from a sensor to the QOLSYS panel. Let me provide some background.
Almost all of the devices that were part of the previous security system when we bought this house were wired. To get them working with the QOLSYS panel, I purchased a QOLSYS IQ Hardware 16 (I think that was the model). All of the wires from the sensors are wired into this device and it relays signals wirelessly to the QOLSYS panel (on or near the 433 MHz band). I also have a couple of sensors that are wireless so they signal the QOLSYS panel directly. Note that this wireless is not Z-Wave.
I recently purchased a
software-defined turner so I could receive 433 MHz wireless signals. To my surprise, it wasn't all that difficult to see the wireless signals and I'm pretty sure I got far enough to decode them enough to know if a door was opened or that there was motion detected. This would require a plugin which I started, however, I got sidetracked when I realized the same SDR could see the wireless thermometers I had placed around the house. That's what I use the SDR for now. Anyway...
SearchCz wrote:2) wanting to trigger Indigo actions on QOLSYS events, like arming, disarming, triggering.
Any advice before I buy into this new ecosystem greatly appreciated. Also open to other suggestions about home security systems that might integrate more easily, if such a thing exists?
The panel handles "scenes" pretty well, although not as thorough as Indigo. So for example, a trigger such as arming can cause Z-Wave devices to do specified things (light on, unlock door, etc.). If the QOLSYS panel was setup as a secondary controller to Indigo, you could create scenes on either (or both) controller. This is what I was attempting 2 years ago and never really got it working.
So I guess in summary, unless something has changed in the last two years, the two systems really can't be integrated with each other. On the other hand, if something has changed and the QOLSYS panel can be included as a secondary controller, there would be quite a bit of functionality from a Z-Wave perspective. However, there probably wouldn't be much functionality with security (wired or wireless) triggers.
Hope this helps.