HAI and Home Assistant

[skerchner]

Hi,
I have a Omni LT panel and want to upgrade it to a network board so I can connect it to Home Assistant. I'm hoping that you might share some of your experience linking HA to a HAI panel. First, how has it gone for you? Lessons learned? What HAI panel are you using and how have you connected it? How has OmniLink Bridge worked? I just got a Home Assistant Yellow and want to build out a HA system with my HAI panel. Any information you can provide would be helpful.
Thanks, Steve

 

[pete_c]

Hi,
I have a Omni LT panel and want to upgrade it to a network board so I can connect it to Home Assistant. I'm hoping that you might share some of your experience linking HA to a HAI panel. First, how has it gone for you? Lessons learned? What HAI panel are you using and how have you connected it? How has OmniLink Bridge worked? I just got a Home Assistant Yellow and want to build out a HA system with my HAI panel. Any information you can provide would be helpful.
Thanks, Steve

Connecting the Omni LT to a serial to Ethernet board will only provide a serial Ethernet connection and not connect to Home Assistant. An Omni LTe panel would work.

 

[skerchner]

Connecting the Omni LT to a serial to Ethernet board will only provide a serial Ethernet connection and not connect to Home Assistant. An Omni LTe panel would work.

Thanks Pete! We are trying to decide which HAI panel to upgrade to. My friend is out of town, so I'm just trying to get my ducks lined up to help him.

 

[pete_c]

Look on Ebay for an OmniLTe...

I still connect to my OmniPro 2 (for testing) serially with Homeseer 2 and it has worked now for almost 20 years. Homeseer 2 is running in a VM.

Here is an Omni IIe on Ebay for $249 or best offer...good price if it works. You will more than likely have to update the firmware on it...looks like you can do this with the installer software via the Ethernet port..

*** ITEM HAS BEEN RESET - INSTALLER CODE IS DEFAULT (1111)***

Test it to make sure the installer code works on a workbench or send it back if it doesn't work.

HAI Omni lle Automation 20A00-50 Panel With Enclosure.

Here is the manual for the Omni IIe

Omni IIe manual

This board will work with Home Assistant / OmniLinkBridge or Homeseer Omni Plugin.

 

[JonW]

I recently switched from OpenHAB to HomeAssistant. Setup was pretty easy. You do need to also setup OmniLinkBridge as the broker for the MQTT messages between the OmniPro/Omni IIe and HomeAssistant.

 

[beller]

I probably shouldn't open this can of worms but what's the advantage of using Home Assistant? I keep seeing it throughout these forums. I poked around its website but not clear on what it is/does vs what I can already do in PC Access in regard to automations, etc. Thanks!

 

[pete_c]

Home Assistant (free) will let you manage and control and automate the Omni panel.



Homeseer / Omni Plugin (not free) will also let you manage, control and automate the Omni Panel.

Here one screen of the Homeseer Touch interface running on a tabletop tablet.



The same touch tabletop tables run custom OmniPro Touch screens...



Here utilize Microsoft SAPI TTS and Alexa TTS to tell me that the garage door is open or what vehicle is in the garage or driveway type stuff.

Personally prefer to use Microsoft SAPI TTS (locally) than Alexa TTS (cloud).

 

[bluelake321]

Home Assistant (free) will let you manage and control and automate the Omni panel.

View attachment 11133

How were you able to get the Alarm Panel to show the number pad and code section for the OmniPro?

 

[pete_c]

How were you able to get the Alarm Panel to show the number pad and code section for the OmniPro?

Home assistant will create a keypad automagically when it sees an alarm attached (alarm devices). Same with the Ring add on.


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[bluelake321]

How were you able to get the Alarm Panel to show the number pad and code section for the OmniPro?

Home assistant will create a keypad automagically when it sees an alarm attached (alarm devices). Same with the Ring add on.


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Interesting. I do not get the keypad or code section, just the various ARM buttons. This is true when hosting OmniLink Bridge via Windows or cohosted on my RPI.

 

[pete_c]

You will see a keypad when running OmniLinkBridge add on in Home Assistant.

Alarm Panel Card

I also see a keypad for Ring Alarm in house #2 using the Home Assistant Ring add on.

 

[jlipsit]

Interesting. I do not get the keypad or code section, just the various ARM buttons. This is true when hosting OmniLink Bridge via Windows or cohosted on my RPI.

View attachment 11355

In the OmniLinkBridge.ini file you need to set this setting to the correct area number (likely 1) in order to display the number keypad in Home Assistant:

---
# Require Home Assistant to prompt for user code when arming/disarming area
# Specify a range of numbers 1,2,3,5-10
mqtt_discovery_area_code_required = 1
---

 

[bluelake321]

In the OmniLinkBridge.ini file you need to set this setting to the correct area number (likely 1) in order to display the number keypad in Home Assistant:

---
# Require Home Assistant to prompt for user code when arming/disarming area
# Specify a range of numbers 1,2,3,5-10
mqtt_discovery_area_code_required = 1
---

Thank you! That did it.