Finally got around to integrating my DSC 1832 w/Envisalink & Bosch outdoor PIR to Home Assistant

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This past week has been a rush of learning. I had all the components but not the knowledge or time until this weekend.
For the last 3 days, I had to find a way to be notified if someone was approaching my house at specific times. Only tools at my disposal were Blue Iris, Home Assistant with some Z-wave devices, TCL Roku smart TV and Dahua cameras. The best rush combo I could come up with was horrible, but did work :)
First, had to learn in Blue Iris schedules & profiles in 2 hours and then configure Blue Iris. Next, upon motion of 6 specific cameras (all pointing towards the front of the house), to send a smartphone MMS text messages with pictures. Needless to say, lots of false triggers (cars in the distance, neighbors here and there, cats running about) from 9pm-6am but I REALLY did want to make sure I knew if someone came close to my house. I knew I would sleep through some of the smartphone notification sounds, so added a fool proof method of notification. As with all 6 cameras sending MMS messages, all 6 also sent MQTT to Home Assistant. I had to quickly figure out how to make my first true automation. When HA recieved a MQTT topic "motion" from any of those 6 cameras, it would turn on my smart tv and swap to Blue Iris source (which I ran a HDMI cable from my Blue Iris server to TV). Had to figure out really fast how to show only the outside group cameras and maximize the display for those cameras to see whenever an triggered alert happened. Also, to top if off.... a 2nd automation turned on a JASCO Z-wave portable wall switch which...of all things, I had my hair clipper connected to while laying on my wooden nightstand. Needless to say, when any alert happened, I woke up.
This weekend, I worked on my DSC alarm panel with the Envisalink module. Slapped a Bosch Tri-Tech OB850 outdoor PIR on my lamp post, pointing it at my driveway and front door. Only sits 6' above ground but will have to do for temp purposes. I have 2 more outdoor PIR's to put wherever I want for future. But needed to learn rather quickly how to do the HA/DSC/Blue Iris/Roku TV/Camera integration on a single weekend :) I managed to get the PIR on HA to be integrated, did some walk around tests for the PIR sensitivity & HA workings, and now I can probably sleep a tad more. Turned off 4 of the 6 camera MMS alerts as gotta test the whole thing out for a couple days, so that's less noise clutter at 3am. I have no audible wake me up emergency alarm jsut yet, so the PIR tells HA about motion, HA turns on my hair clipper which has a aweful rumbling on wood sound that will wake anyone. So far, only 1 PIR alert in the last 6 hours due to neighbor walking by. Still have the Roku TV turn on in case of any camera alerts. I am hopefuly to have 0 or 1 alert through the morning hours instead of 5-6 I had relying on camera motion alerts. Next up to learn... Deepstack AI and object identification which will alleviate even more false camera alerts.
Home Assistant PIR automation.jpg
 

opus too

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How did you interface the pirs to HA. I'm running HA on a pi and had trouble with the gpio reliably reading the inputs. Now have a wemos d1 for gpio to the pi. Works well but seems wrong to have to do it that way.
Thanks
John
 
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The PIR is attached to a zone in a DSC 1834 alarm panel. The alarm panel has a Envisalink IP network interface card which connects to my network. Home Assistant does have a integration for the Envisalink card: Envisalink
When I started down this journey, I had to decide to get a full blown true home alarm system or something via HA or software based. I went with the DSC alarm system because of the high reviews for the DIY folks who love it. And decided best to have something tried, true, and 100% reliable.
 
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opus too

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Good idea! Have a Honeywell Vista with Envisalink. Have thought about the integration of HA with Envisalink but never pursued it yet.
Thanks!
John
 
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really does open a new world for alarm purposes. Could have your indoor Z-wave/Wifi lights rapidly blink upon a trigger on a PIR or door contact. Or can turn on a kitchen blender on a Z-wave/Wifi outlet :)
 

opus too

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Just when I thought I had HA pretty much configured. It never ends! :)
 

mycatjest

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must get an IP card installed for my texecom alarm system, - but only when i have sorted out running blacksheer/ frigate for person detection off my hikvison NVR & cameras - there's add-in now for that as well, uses a google coral TPU..seems highly rated...
 
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I installed an Alarm Decoder interface to my Honeywell alarm system, simply to tie it into Home Assistant, and do remote arm/disarm from the HA App on my phone. Never considered some of the things Holbs is doing. Congratulations, sir! You are truly dedicated to getting it customized precisely as you desire. :)
 
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I installed an Alarm Decoder interface to my Honeywell alarm system, simply to tie it into Home Assistant, and do remote arm/disarm from the HA App on my phone. Never considered some of the things Holbs is doing. Congratulations, sir! You are truly dedicated to getting it customized precisely as you desire. :)
desparate times require desparate measures!
my Zooz S2 MultiSiren Z-wave unit came in this week. so that's even more DSC & Blue Iris trigger alert notifications I can have. The hair trimmer vibrating on bed side-table was getting old :)
Will dabble with that shortly. Working on getting this Dahua Sunrise/Sunset utility program going first.
 
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I don't know too much about that Z-wave multi-siren, but could offer a quite different method. (Only because I use it ;)) Rhasspy on an RPi3 or RPi4 can be used as an enunciator/text-to-speech output unit for Home Assistant. You define an HA Automation as 'rhasspy_speak' and pass it text to be spoken.
Code:
configuration.yaml

#
# RESTful commands for
# Rhasspy
#
rest_command:
  rhasspy_speak:
    url: 'http://{{ target }}:12101/api/text-to-speech'
    method: 'POST'
    payload: '{{ payload }}'
    content_type: 'text/plain'
Code:
automations.yaml

#
# Clothes washer has stopped
#
- id: '1597066102936'
  alias: Laundry - Washer is Done
  description: Laundry notifications
  trigger:
  - entity_id: sensor.washer
    from: Washing
    platform: state
    to: Idle
  action:
  - data:
      payload: Attention please. The clothes washer has finished!
      target: 192.168.1.32
    service: rest_command.rhasspy_speak
 
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good to know for future applications. Such as "Garage door open" voice alert.
I've got an "OpenGarage" unit sitting on the table next to me. Too hot this past summer to go install it in the garage. Too many other projects in the fall weekends in addition to lawn maintenance. Now it's too danged wet/cold outside to do anything with it. Garage door integration is next on my "I want this" list.
 
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was looking at that MyQ garage door opener thing. Doesn't look like something I want since seems 100% cloud dependent
 
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HA is sure a fun hobby although the depth of the rabbit hole can be, well, deep.

Here are a couple of examples how we have integrated Blue Iris with HomeSeer, the program we use.

When motion is detected by Blue Iris, the trigger is sent to HS3 which then, if at night, raises all outside lights to 100% and also turns on our under eave RGB LED strips to White.

2BC43017-31F3-4392-B62F-FA0FF43748D3.jpeg

If our alarm is tripped the sirens go off and the LEDs start the panic mode profile.

View attachment IMG_0939.MOV
 
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