How to send text messages?

[David D]

I want my Elk M1 to send me and my wife a text message if it goes into alarm. Ideally, it would also show the zone that's in alarm. Is there a "how to" somewhere on how to accomplish this? I have the M1XEP.

David

 

[wuench]

You can either send an email to the email address for her cell phone, by using one of your slots in the M1XEP. You'll have to check with your carrier to find out what that address format is, it is typically [email protected]. But you can't insert dynamic information like a zone into an email with the Elk directly.

The second alternative is look into if your monitoring company can send you an SMS or email to the phone's SMS email address for events and what they can send.

Lastly you can use some sort of home automation software that works with the Elk to send the email, then you can format it to be just about anything you want, (CQC, Elve, Homeseer, Premise, etc).

 

[David D]

Thanks for the reply. We're on Verizon, and as far as I know, it's [email protected].

How can you insert zone/event info into an email? I'm also using an ISY with the Elk module if that's any help.

Also, in setting up the email server, I read somewhere that the Elk cannot send email to email service providers that require SSL encryption on the body of the email message. I use gmail and Verizon.net for my email, and they both use SSL. Any work-arounds? A known email provider that works?

Thanks again for the reply!

David

 

[video321]

How can you insert zone/event info into an email? I'm also using an ISY with the Elk module if that's any help.

Don't know what the capabilities of the ISY are, but I setup my M1 to use static email messages for my most important information, such as the front door being violated during alarm. Other zones, such as glass break detectors, I simply grouped into another static message. Not exactly dynamic but I get the info I need the most.

As for SSL email, you're best to do some searching for that.

 

[wuench]

SSL email, use stunnel on one of your machines or router if it supports is (like DDWRT). Elk can't insert dynamic (i.e. zone info into an email), itself. The ISY with the Elk module looks like it can do it, but I am not sure of the details.

 

[123]

FWIW, here's how to do it in Premise. The principle will be similar for other Home Automation software, only the amount of script code will vary.

You need two drivers:

1. ELK M1
2. SSMTP (Secure SMTP)

Your Premise Home would contain one SecuritySystem object and multiple SecurityZone objects (i.e. door sensors, window sensors, etc). The following script would be activated whenever the SecuritySystem's SecurityState property changes. The script in a nutshell:

• If the SecuritySystem is in alarm then get a list of all triggered zones.
• Loop through this list and get the names of the triggered zones.
• Send an HTML formatted email, via Secure SMTP (i.e. GMail compatible), with an attention-grabbing subject line and the time, date, and list of triggered zones.

if this.SecurityState = 3 then ' Alarm
sTriggeredZones = "<b>Triggered Zones</b><br>" ' Heading for the email message
 
' Get all triggered zones
for each oZone in this.GetObjectsByTypeAndPropertyValue(Device.Security.SecurityZone.Path, "Triggered", true)
  ' Concatenate names of all triggered zones
  sTriggeredZones = sTriggeredZones & oZone.DisplayName & "<br>"
next
 
' Send email
with Devices.CustomDevices.SSMTP
  .MailSubject =  "ATTENTION. Security System is in Alarm. " & now
  .MailHTMLBody = "<h1>Security System is in Alarm.</h1>" & _
	  "<b>Activated: </b>" & now & "<br>" & sTriggeredZones
  .MailSend = true
end with
 
end if

The resulting email message would look like this:

Subject: ATTENTION. Security System is in Alarm. 05/21/2012 08:45 PM

Security System is in Alarm.
Activated: 05/21/2012 08:45 PM
Triggered Zones
Rear Door
Kitchen Motion Detector


PS
In case you're wondering why the script does not indicate a "From" and "To" for sending the email message, it's because the SSMTP driver can be set with default values.

 

[znelbok]

What about adding a GSm modem to the panel (via serial port) and sending the correct AT commeands to it to send the SMS.

I have this setup on my CQC server but there is no reason why it would not work on the M1.

Some of the wavecom units are cheap on ebay now and they should work just fine.

Mick

 

[David D]

Thanks for the replies. I'm looking into the ISY capabilities to see if it can do what I want.

 

[apostolakisl]

Thanks for the replies. I'm looking into the ISY capabilities to see if it can do what I want.

You can do it with ISY and it's elk module. You can not do it with elk alone. Use ISY to send the email, not the Elk. You can insert zone status into ISY messages, though I am not sure you can have it pick the zone that triggered the alarm. You would have it send you the status of all the zones I suppose. However, if someone tripped the alarm by opening a door wth a delay, then closed the door before the delay was finished, it would say everything was secure.

In ISY go to
Configuration:Emails/notifications:Customization:Customized Content. Then use the drop down menus to insert whatever info you want.
Then, write a program that tells it to send that email message whenver an alarm occurs.