I need to determine all the states reported by alarm.com to use as triggers. I suppose I can put my system into test mode and go through setting it off multiple times but it would be nice if I could just get them ;-). Wouldn’t think they were individual to the system but don’t have enough experience to know.
if not, what do I have to do to put my alarm system in test mode particularly panic mode? Really don’t want the police showing up thinking I have a silent alarm.
What is the ultimate goal in this case? Are you trying to determine how many different notifications Alarm.com would be able to send? Are you referring to email notifications? Push notifications? Overall the types of notifications sent for any account would largely be controlled by the user under the notifications page in Alarm.com.
Are you referring instead to your local panel status? The alarm types it could generate would be determined by your personal equipment list and programming. Alarm.com would only be reflecting what is going on at your local panel. In addition to alarms, you would have statuses like low battery, power loss, radio rf jam, although even some of these are dependent on the panel and panel settings.
I am just not certain I understand what you mean by state.
if not, what do I have to do to put my alarm system in test mode particularly panic mode? Really don’t want the police showing up thinking I have a silent alarm.
If you have 24/7 central station monitoring you can call 855-348-0367 at any time and request that your account be placed on test mode for a chosen time period. All points test mode with the central station means that no alarm signals of any kind during test mode would be acted upon or result in dispatch.
I use Home Assistant in my home automation setup. It reacts to “states”. I am not sure if the gc3 reports a state to alarm.com which home assistant can see or if alarm.com is generating the states. As an example, the state for arm away is arm_away. The arming states are easy to get by arming the system and checking the states in Home Assistant. I was hoping to not have to actually activate certain alarms (fire, burglary, panic, others unknown), to actually determine the states. I also understand this may be Home Assistant specific.
Ha, I am still not 100% sure there is a way to integrate with adc. Home Assistant is Linux based and runs on just about anything but has a very steep learning curve if you don’t know Linux. Prepare for a very deep rabbit hole if you take the plunge. I won’t take my alarm system off of adc or stop monitoring with Suretydiy just for safety sake. Just would like to supplement the automation side if possible.
I wish we could provide more information, but unfortunately as this is not a supported integration there would be no documentation from Alarm.com of any kind. We would of course be interested in hearing what you are able to come up with/discover.
With a GC3, keep in mind there are two configurable open collector terminals, so if you have something compatible with Home Assistant which can monitor those two terminals you could use them as a wired relay to alert when alarms occur, or any other option in open collector programming (see the attached image from manual)
Ok, so I can select one code for each open collector? I am guessing it works just like a relay and home assistant would see it like a switch (I know you guys aren’t familiar with HA) depending upon the device used. The device would have to be Zwave and get power from the gc3 or battery powered I guess. Power from the gc3 would be preferable. Am I on the right track? What device would you guys recommend as compatible with the gc3?
The open collector would simply function as a contact closure circuit where the open collector terminals, based on programming, would connect to ground when activated.
What device would you guys recommend as compatible with the gc3?
The devices do not need to be compatible with the GC3, the device would need to be compatible with HA, correct? We could recommend, if you can use a z-wave device and you have a z-wave controller compatible with HA, a mimolite as it has wired inputs to monitor a relay.
power from the gc3 would be preferable.
You should not power devices off the GC3 (the only device we could recommend would be a wired siren so long as it meets specs in the manual) the GC3 is not intended to provide aux power for other devices. We recommend utilizing a separate power supply.
So, this looks like a great solution. Looks like the mimolite can use the open collector to trigger zwave events and zwave events can trigger the open collector. Is the GC3 able to take input from the mimolite to trigger events or is it only one way?
Unfortunately, I can’t use this as I do not have a power source near my gc3. I tried in the very beginning to pull wires for a wired bell and it failed miserably.
A battery operated mimolite would be just the solution.
Is the GC3 able to take input from the mimolite to trigger events or is it only one way?
No. The GC3 cannot make use of the Mimolite sensor function. Your other controller would use the Mimolite sensor circuit (wired to the GC3 open collector) to know when the GC3, for example, goes into an Alarm, etc.
A battery operated mimolite would be just the solution.
Hrm, since you would not be learning the Z-wave device into the GC3 (just the alternate controller) you could use something like the ZW097. Z-wave sensor with input terminals. Battery operated.
I have been looking for the zw097-a for months. If they are available, their price is extremely high. Any other ideas for a zwave battery operated device to connect to the open collector of the gc3 to monitor alarm and fire events?
Ok, I got two DWZWAVE2.5-ECO today. I want to use them to report fire alarms and burglar alarms through the two open collector contacts of the GC3. I am assuming my zwave hub will see them as switches. Anyway, the input terminals are not marked on the DWZWAVE2.5-ECO. On the gc3, I use Open collector 1 and PWR - correct? And open collector 2 and PWR - ? Then, I am guessing since there is no power, it doesn’t matter which blocks each wire goes into on the DWZWAVE2.5-ECO, correct?
Also, is there any special programming I need to do on the gc3 for the wired zones. I saw something that made reference to loop 1 and loop 2? The DWZWAVE2.5-ECO has zero instructions related to the input terminal.
You would be using the open collector terminals OC1 and OC2 along with GND. There would be no polarity with no power, correct.
Also, is there any special programming I need to do on the gc3 for the wired zones. I saw something that made reference to loop 1 and loop 2? The DWZWAVE2.5-ECO has zero instructions related to the input terminal.
The open collector terminals are not zones. You would just use the Open Collector output programming questions to determine when either of the OC terminals activate. These are Qs 44 and 45 in panel programming. Loops do not factor in.
The panel itself would be, in effect, a NO sensor. You may need to account for that in your other Z-wave controller logic for that sensor.
Ok, got everything hooked up. Thanks. Just to make sure, when you say GND, you mean terminal 8 or 3 and one wire from each sensor can go to the same terminal (8 or 3). Thanks.
One of the sensors is reporting off while the other is reporting on. I haven’t activated any alarms yet. I am guessing the the open collectors will only report in a normally closed state and the sensors are currently in the state they came out of the box?
