Visonic Powermax Alarms

Forum rules

Questions about hardware that can be controlled by Indigo (but not through the interfaces and plugins listed). If Indigo doesn't support some bit of hardware you're interested in, and you don't find a 3rd Party Plugin for it, add it to this forum. Be sure to include links to as much information as you can find about it.

Note: adding it here does not mean we're going to add it - in fact it's possible one of our 3rd party developers may decide to write a plugin for it. We add hardware/features based on a lot of different factors beyond just having a request for it.

Posted on
Sat Mar 31, 2018 1:33 pm
badgerarc offline
Posts: 5
Joined: Mar 29, 2018

Visonic Powermax Alarms

Hi, wondering if anyone has any inclination to add Powermax alarms into the supported equipment list? Lot of great info on the protocol here https://www.domoticaforum.eu/viewtopic.php?f=68&t=6581 and there are several competing systems with plugins for it (HomeSeer, Vera etc). It’s the missing link that’s currently stopping me from purchasing Indigo..

Thanks,

Badger

Posted on
Sat Mar 31, 2018 1:35 pm
FlyingDiver offline
User avatar
Posts: 7189
Joined: Jun 07, 2014
Location: Southwest Florida, USA

Re: Visonic Powermax Alarms

If you're just looking for support for Visonic sensors, the RFPlayer plugin does that. You do need a ZiBlue RFPlayer RF dongle for that.

A plugin to integrate the full alarm system is a non-trivial amount of work. Unless there's a plugin developer that has one of those systems, I don't think it's likely it'll get done.

joe (aka FlyingDiver)
my plugins: http://forums.indigodomo.com/viewforum.php?f=177

Posted on
Sat Mar 31, 2018 2:55 pm
jay (support) offline
Site Admin
User avatar
Posts: 18199
Joined: Mar 19, 2008
Location: Austin, Texas

Re: Visonic Powermax Alarms

I'm going with @FlyingDiver on this one: the API is a (horrible) binary API (like Z-Wave and Insteon) which is significantly more difficult to develop for than the newer modern APIs. So unless there is a developer out there that actually owns this security system and wants to build a plugin it doesn't seem likely that it'll get done. If someone has managed to write a Python wrapper around that binary API to make it more easily consumed (and has it open sourced on GitHub or similar) then you might find someone willing to tackle it.

Jay (Indigo Support)
Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

Posted on
Sat Mar 31, 2018 3:10 pm
badgerarc offline
Posts: 5
Joined: Mar 29, 2018

Re: Visonic Powermax Alarms

Thanks for your responses guys. It does look like there has been some work done with Python around this system (is that hat HomeSeer plugs ins use?) but I must admit to not having much of a clue myself where to even start.

I might look into the RFPLayer route however. Thanks for the heads up.

Posted on
Sat Mar 31, 2018 3:26 pm
jay (support) offline
Site Admin
User avatar
Posts: 18199
Joined: Mar 19, 2008
Location: Austin, Texas

Re: Visonic Powermax Alarms

badgerarc wrote:
is that hat HomeSeer plugs ins use?


Unfortunately, no, they use a Windows-specific development technologies (I believe - at least they used to).

Jay (Indigo Support)
Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

Posted on
Sat Mar 31, 2018 3:45 pm
FlyingDiver offline
User avatar
Posts: 7189
Joined: Jun 07, 2014
Location: Southwest Florida, USA

Re: Visonic Powermax Alarms

badgerarc wrote:
Thanks for your responses guys. It does look like there has been some work done with Python around this system (is that hat HomeSeer plugs ins use?) but I must admit to not having much of a clue myself where to even start.

I might look into the RFPLayer route however. Thanks for the heads up.


Homeseer plugins are .NET binaries. Not Python. I found one Python module on GitHub, but it was in early development. Sorry.

joe (aka FlyingDiver)
my plugins: http://forums.indigodomo.com/viewforum.php?f=177

Posted on
Sat Mar 31, 2018 4:15 pm
badgerarc offline
Posts: 5
Joined: Mar 29, 2018

Re: Visonic Powermax Alarms


Posted on
Sat Mar 31, 2018 4:16 pm
FlyingDiver offline
User avatar
Posts: 7189
Joined: Jun 07, 2014
Location: Southwest Florida, USA

Re: Visonic Powermax Alarms


joe (aka FlyingDiver)
my plugins: http://forums.indigodomo.com/viewforum.php?f=177

Posted on
Sat Mar 31, 2018 4:18 pm
badgerarc offline
Posts: 5
Joined: Mar 29, 2018

Re: Visonic Powermax Alarms

FlyingDiver wrote:

Sorry posted the wrong link. I'll be keeping an eye on this one I think. I currently have HomeAssistant running on my Mac but I think I would prefer something a bit more robust.

Thanks again.

Posted on
Thu Mar 21, 2019 5:35 am
designpeg offline
Posts: 2
Joined: Oct 15, 2018

Re: Visonic Powermax Alarms

Has anyone made any progress with this? I've got a powermax alarm connected with a rs232 to serial adaptor to my mac. I can see some communicationgoing on and have managed to get the connection to stay open, but reverse engineering the protocol is beyond me. I used to have it running on a Vera - but I never want to touch the Vera again after discovering Indigo!!

Page 1 of 1

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests