DSC Alarm System Guidance Needed

Posted on
Wed Oct 19, 2022 12:16 pm
Japple55 offline
Posts: 224
Joined: Sep 26, 2015
Location: NE Tennessee

DSC Alarm System Guidance Needed

Need some help from you alarm experts, please.

In another house many years ago, I fired ADT and configured a Vista panel (wired sensors) with keypad along with Envisalink3 and ADT2USB plugin that worked great for self-monitoring. But, all this wireless stuff is new to me. And I've just fired up the MacMini with Indigo after a 3 year hiatus (renting) so there's that, too.

I recently retired, relocated to TN and purchased a new (to us) home with an existing ADT-branded IMPASSA Self-Contained 2-Way Wireless Security System (SCW9057-433) installed. Every opening in the house has a wireless sensor and I would like to take advantage of all that in-place hardware and integrate it into Indigo, but I'm just not clear on what hardware I need to do that. An example of one sensor in the system is EV-DW4927 window/shock sensor if that's relevant.

Am I correct in assuming I'll need another enclosure & panel (1832 or 1864), a compatible wireless receiver, and compatible keypad for programming? Any guidance and/or specific hardware recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

TIA,
Jim

Posted on
Fri Oct 21, 2022 1:40 pm
durosity offline
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Location: Newcastle Upon Tyne, Ye Ol' England.

Re: DSC Alarm System Guidance Needed

Hi Jim,

So I’m not super familiar with the DSC wireless products, but a wee lookie around says that the DW4927 is compatible with the wireless receivers for 1832/1864 panels! So assuming the rest of the stuff is compatible then yeah you’d need:

1616/1832/1864 controller (don’t get the Neo series as you can’t connect to them AFAIK)
Panel and power supply
Keypad (eg the RFK5500 or RFK5564 which has a wireless receiver built in)
Envisalink or IT-100 serial module
Wire to connect it all

Programming of these systems is a bit tricky but not horrible. There’s a lot of guides on YouTube for it.

One thing to note though, if you have wireless motion sensors they go to sleep after X amount of time of motion (to conserve batteries), so don’t rely upon them for things like triggers, particularly in areas with lots of movement where that can happen. Personally I have every single thing I can wired in. It took a lot of effort to run all the wires, but it means never having to change batteries or deal with wireless connection problems.


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Posted on
Fri Oct 21, 2022 7:53 pm
Japple55 offline
Posts: 224
Joined: Sep 26, 2015
Location: NE Tennessee

Re: DSC Alarm System Guidance Needed

Thanks much, Durosity. Pretty much what I thought too, but your confirmation is most helpful. And good advice on the motion sensors. I’ve done the programming before so not bothered by that, but since posting, I’ve been considering the cost of all the components vs. just buying the additional zwave sensors I need that would work directly with Indigo. And life would be SO much simpler if I could just figure out a hack to make my Blink cameras alert Indigo of motion detection. IFTTT is slow/unreliable, and I’m not aware of any iOS app that would allow me to trigger (email to Indigo, etc) on receipt of a push message from Blink. :(

If nothing else, a home automation hobby challenges the old gray matter!

Posted on
Mon Oct 24, 2022 8:00 am
durosity offline
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Location: Newcastle Upon Tyne, Ye Ol' England.

Re: DSC Alarm System Guidance Needed

Personally I prefer my security system being tied to Indigo because then I will know if something goes wrong with it. But it really depends on your needs as to if that’s the best option for you.

As for the camera I’d say the best bet would be swap out the blink cameras for something not tied to a cloud service and could be used with some software like security spy!


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Posted on
Mon Oct 24, 2022 2:21 pm
lazlohollyfeld offline
Posts: 52
Joined: Jan 09, 2012

Re: DSC Alarm System Guidance Needed

I'm one of them that has a DSC - NEO 2032 :(

100% agree on hard-wire whatever you can! Speaking of which - I've added dedicated hard-wired motion sensors feeding into a ezio8sa for room light triggers.. I know I won't be able to integrate into the panel for obvious reasons - but what about sharing the existing hard-wired sensors (glass break, motion, door/window reed switches)?

I was going to just start poking around with my multimeter to see if I can just use the same sensors for both the DSC panel AND the EZIO8 but thought i'd ask here first :)

thanks!

Posted on
Tue Oct 25, 2022 12:19 pm
Japple55 offline
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Joined: Sep 26, 2015
Location: NE Tennessee

Re: DSC Alarm System Guidance Needed

Thanks Durosity. I agree with having security within Indigo, and that would be my preference. If I add the DSC panel items we discussed below, I can do that. I thought a temporary solution would be to somehow get a motion notification from a Blink camera (cloud server) into Indigo to be able to trigger light actions. I would prefer IP cams (I have a Security Spy license and one amcrest cam) but I don’t have access to run ethernet to desired cam locations for POE/IP cams, and I already had the Blinks so trying to go the simplest route first.

After more experimentation with IFTTT, I can get notifications from Blink via iMsg almost as fast as from Blink itself. And I thought the iMsg plug-in could trigger an Indigo action upon receipt of a text, but now I’m not so sure. Still trying to figure out that plug-in.

Of course there are lots of potential points of failure for anything short of a dedicated and monitored alarm system with cellular backup but I’m not sure my risk profile warrants all that.

[UPDATE] The iMessage plug-in DOES allow for triggers based on text read from the iMessage. :D So now when motion is detected, Blink updates IFTTT which generates the text message and the iMessage plug-in detects the camera’s name and triggers the action. Works great.

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