New HomeSeer CADDX Plug-in

[wegienka]

I am developing a new plug-in for HomeSeer to interface with the CADDX alarm panel. I do know that one has been developed already, but I was not happy with its capabilities and decided to write my own.

I am a couple of weeks away from posting a beta version and enough of the plug-in capabilities are working that I would like to get some feedback from the many CADDX users here. I have prepared some information in the attached PDF file that describes the capabilities of the plug-in and shows the UI that has been defined so far. Please provide me with any and all feedback, positive or negative.

This plug-in will be free to any non-Pro user of HomeSeer. I am still undecided about how to treat the HomeSeer Pro user.

Notes: My CADDX is slated for a new house that is currently being built. Right now it is sitting on my desk with a couple of sensors hooked up for development purposes. I was able to wire the entire house, so I have no wireless gear. If there are things specific to wireless sensors, I would like to know about it. My installation will have two 148e keypads, so I don't have any knowledge of the other keypads that can be used with the system.

I look forward to any and all feedback,
Alan
Plugin Information

 

[capecodder]

Alan,

That looks Great!! Now I'm motivated to connect my panel to HS. thanks for the inspiration. Looking forward to the release.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

I would like to give it a run also!

 

[WayneW]

Alan,

It looks great! Thats for all your hard work and the free plug-ins, including the HAI thermostat one.

This might make me change my mind about what panel to buy, I was leaning towards getting an Elk M1Gold when I move. Not to sound ungrateful, but might this plug-in be easily cloned and modified to work with the Elk panel? I probably sound provide a panel for you to bench test with.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

A couple of questions about this plugin.

Can you give custom names for your zone devices. For instance I might want my glass break sensors to read Normal/Alarm, or motion sensors to read occupied/no motion, etc... ?

Also, if I want to use the DL-900 software can I still use it? In other words your program would not "force" a download of any settings that happen to mimick the DL900.

Its just that I got used to their goofy nomenclature and might want to learn another program since I really don't mess with it that often.

Can we decide on the X-10 house and unit codes for the zones as well?

I like the fact that you could trigger on Arm Away and Arm Stay. Can we do that "when its triggered" and "if it is triggered" (in other words on the change from Disarmed to Arm Away or Arm Stay VS if already armed in Away or Stay)?

Can I disable the "disarm" function if I want (can only disarm via the keypad)?

Thanks,

BSR

 

[wegienka]

BSR,

Custom names - The plug-in does not directly support this capability but I have another plug-in on the HomeSeer board called Device Manager that lets you assign these device state names based on the device type. If you look at page 5 of the PDF (Devices Page) you see that you can define the HomeSeer device type for any zone, like Window. You can then use the Device Manager to define On/Off labels like Open and Closed for Device Type Window.

DL-900 S/W - You can still use the DL900 just as you do today.

X10 Codes - The plug-in gets it own house code from HomeSeer and defines unit codes automatically. When I implement the converter from hsCADDX, it will use the same device codes hsCADDX is using. Is there some reason you want to be able to specify these?

Arm Stay/Arm Away - You can do that both when it happens (a trigger) and if it is in that mode (a condition) which I think is what you are asking.

Disable disarm - I had not planned on doing this, but I am not yet sure how to handle the whole arm/disarm by computer issue. I will try to include the ability to let you specify the actions HomeSeer can take.

Thanks for the feedback, this is exactly what I am looking for.

Alan

 

[wegienka]

WayneW,
I'm not sure how portable the code would be to an Elk panel. This plug-in started as a plug-in I wrote for my Destiny 6100 panel, but it has been substantially modified. Let's defer this discussion until I get this one released!

Alan

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

Alan:

Thanks for the reply:

Custom names - The plug-in does not directly support this capability but I have another plug-in on the HomeSeer board called Device Manager that lets you assign these device state names based on the device type. If you look at page 5 of the PDF (Devices Page) you see that you can define the HomeSeer device type for any zone, like Window. You can then use the Device Manager to define On/Off labels like Open and Closed for Device Type Window.

I'm sure the Device Manager is a great plugin, but I really limit what I put on my Homeseer Machine (which is solid as a rock) and will not be willing to install this plugin just for this capability. This is a BIG factor for me as now I have to manually edit a ini file for Main Lobby to display these names, plus it would be nice for Homeseer's webserver to display the custom "on" and "off" names as well.


X10 Codes - The plug-in gets it own house code from HomeSeer and defines unit codes automatically. When I implement the converter from hsCADDX, it will use the same device codes hsCADDX is using. Is there some reason you want to be able to specify these?

I use Main Lobby which gets confused with some of the characters mandated by some of the plugins such as [ ] ^ etc... Plus I have existing code and events which already use (in my case z 1 thru 23) specific X-10 codes.

Arm Stay/Arm Away - You can do that both when it happens (a trigger) and if it is in that mode (a condition) which I think is what you are asking.

Yes, this is exactly what I was asking.

Disable disarm - I had not planned on doing this, but I am not yet sure how to handle the whole arm/disarm by computer issue

I have some Main Lobby scenes (shown HERE) that looks at the my Caddx zones status and gives me an "OK To Arm" tag as well. Then I can arm the system from this scene. I only want the capability to disarm from the keypad so the user has to enter the proper code.

I also do a lot of things like when the system is armed in stay mode and a device is tripped I immediately announce (say for the Den Door) "Den Door security fault" and turn on the Den Lights. This is announced during the "entry delay" time of the Caddx System so the Caddx system will then go into alarm right after this announcement. This gives someone in the house an idea of what was the cause for the alarm.

Thanks for all your responses,

BSR

 

[huggy59]

BSR, you can write a script that will modify the device states internally for specific device types within Homeseer. It's not as easy to do as regular scripting because of the class, collection, and object references, but the info is there if you want to do it programmatically through a script yourself. Check in the HS help file on Scripting, under DeviceValuesAdd. (I'm using the GUI help file on v1.7.7) The example code is, in fact, for an alarm system. For the entire Device Class info, see GetDevice. I believe you'd only have to set this one time after the device type is created.

 

[ashane00]

This is great news ! I've been using HS since '99 and the current plugin certainly made things easier. Many thanks to Nitrox!

I use scripting to arm & disarm the panel and manage device text and log actions in HS log. Current plugin has a bug where say 1 out of 15 times panel won't disarm. Not good for WAF.

I have 15 zones, all wired including one smoke detector. Currently plugin is used to:

1. Set leaving home, arriving home, bedtime & wake modes.

2. Away timeout auto arms system if no motion, doors closed during set time of day.

3. Auto close garage door feature & entry doors left open reminders.

4. Smoke alarm triiggers HVAC shutdown to RCS thermostats.

5. Using Leopard touchsreen and Mainlobby as 2nd & 3rd alarm keypad/display.

6. Alarm conditon triggers HSPhone to call my cell.

Wish list:

Add more motion sensors as occupacy detectors without affected ability to arm panel (use a partition as occupancy only?).

Bypass zones via plugin.

Support w/ HS 2.0

The rest of what you are proposing sounds great. Please sign me up as an eager beta tester!

Many thanks,

 

[DaveB]

Weqienka;

Please see my repost below of the top features needed in the current product that most of us are using. I assisted Dave in the original development, and have had some version of the plugin running for a year with no issues.

___________________ Repost from HS board ________________

I would like to see the following;

1. Ability to arm and disarm with user codes as programed into the panel
2. Ability to see, set and disarm all partitions
3. Ability to see the text from the panel in HS, not just the Armed/ Disarmed status. (ie: Ready, Low Battery, not ready)
4. Bypass functions for zones from within HS.

I connect to the panel via HomeSeer, but control and monitor the panel from Main Lobby. I have a touchpad at each enterance running Main Lobby, and would like to use this as my monitor and entry for alarm functions. If I could get the above features, I would relocate my Key Pad to an adjacent closet.
Items 1,3 and 4 above are the most important to me.

_________________________

Thanks. Please let me know if I can be of any assistance.

 

[wegienka]

DaveB and AShane,
Thanks for the feedback. This is what I have been looking for.

Ashane - I think the new plug-in will do everything you are currently doing. I am planning to support the hsCADDX API calls in addition to a fairly extensive API the new plug-in will support. The goal is that the only change you will need to make to your scripts is to change the name of the plug-in in the hs.plugins call. The new plug-in will also support alarm actions via direct HS actions. As far as your wish list, you will have the ability to bypass and unbypass zones via scripts and HS actions and the plug-in will support multiple partitions.

DaveB - Your 1, 2, and 4 will all be covered. For #3 you say "See the text from the panel". Do you mean that literally or do you mean you want to be able to detect the conditions like low battery, AC fail, etc that may cause the panel to display text? If it is the latter, then I think we are covered. If it is the former, I am unsure. Are you using 148 keypads?

Thanks again for your input,
Alan

 

[DaveB]

Hi, and thanks for the reply.

Yes, I am using 148 Keypads, but as you stated, all I need is to see the panel conditions as a variable. I can add the correct text in my scripts. As an example, with the current plgn-in, you do not know when the panel is ready to arm, or if a battery in a wireless sensor is low. Sounds like you are going down a good path from what I see above. Let me know when its ready for testing.

One question; Are you planning for serial connection only, or are you also adding a TCP/IP method?? I can connect my pannel to my computer either way.

Thanks!!

 

[wegienka]

I only have a serial interface so that it what I am supporting, at least initially. If you can point me towards any doc on the TCP/IP interface I would like to see what it takes to support it.

Alan

 

[huggy59]

The TCP/IP connectivity uses the same protocol as the serial port, it's just encapsulated in IP. I don't know whether there is connectivity authentication and/or encryption, however. I would assume you'd have to use the Caddx user # and access code to access the Caddx buss messages via IP, but I haven't messed with it. I do have the NX-590 board here in my system, tho, if you'd like me to do any testing.

Nitrox (Dave) was working on this, but since I left GE and the original engineer I was working with has been promoted, I have not been able to get any more info or help make progress on this front. Even my beta testing of the GE code has stopped, so I don't know where we are now.