Best Practice idea Vista20p Alarm integration

[cwitter]

I have a Vista20p Alarm and want to integrate it with my ISY994. I have one I/O linc and have configured one of the triggers to either go open or closed depending on the state of the Alarm. I also have a motion detector in my garage that I can use to show leaving. My thoughts on the program is as follows:

 

Create a Variable and set it's value to 0

Program

21 = Arming–Away - (alarm Closes contact with I/O Linc)

IF motion sensor = on

and IO Linc = closed

and Variable = 0 (should be zero at this point as it was originally set to 0)

then turn off all lights in the house

SET variable = 1

 

Program

31 = End of Exit Time - (alarm open's the contact used with I/O linc)

IF motion sensor = on (it shuts off after 10 minutes, so it should be on as the exit delay for the alarm is only 45seconds)

and IO Linc is open

and variable = 1

SET variable = 2

 

 

32 = Start of Entry Time - (alarm closes the contact used with the I/O linc)

If motion sensor = on (it would be as you can't help to trip it when you enter the garage)

and Alarm = Start of entry (closed contact)

and variable = 2

Turn on Entry Light

 

 

22 = Disarming - (alarm opens contact used with I/O linc)

if entry light is on (it would be as the previous program just turned it on)

and IO LINC = open

set variable = 0

 

 

Any thoughts?

 

My biggest issue is that I only have 1 IO/Linc and the Alarm can make things either off or on. My goal would be to be able to turn off the lights when the alarm is in Away Mode and turn the lights on in the entry way when the door is open and the entry delay is tripped.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Craig

[gatchel]

Do you have the X-10 option on your 20P?

 

I may be wrong here but I believe the ISY can receive X-10 commands and do things with them.

 

Your 20P probably has the capability to have 16 "Outputs" with a special wall transformer added to it. You could program your arm and disarm and other alarm events to trigger these"outputs" which would send X-10 codes. You could use the ISY to receive these commands and run programs. The only thing is that X-10 is well....X-10. It works very well from some, not for others...

 

This would give you 16 possible links from the alarm panel to the ISY.

[cwitter]

I do have the option from what I've read in the manual. I'm trying to avoid it though. I was hoping to have everything be purely Insteon.

[RichTJ99]

I have a Vista 128 so I am interested in what you end up doing. It might be nice to use too. Let me know!

[paulw]

The least expensive way will be to do it with x10 commands, but you will need the 4300 power supply. The only other way is with vista relay modules, a Smartenit EZIO8SA will handle 7 inputs.

 

If you keep the 4300 and isy on the same 120 leg you should have reliable communication.

 

I have had good success with vista panels using either method.

[cwitter]

Ok, so I had some free time today and started working on this again. In my alarm panel there are two outputs (17 and 18). I ended up taking a bit of wire and attaching across PIN 1 (output 17) and the one labeled ground. I then went into installer mode on the alarm and in to field 80. I set function 1 up to close the contacts when the zone type of arming away was initiated. I then set function two up (also to output 17) to go open when the zone type of entry delay was initiated. Finally I set function 3 up (also on output 17) to go open on disarm. Here's my logic:

 

If the alarm is in away, I want to know that so I can trigger lights to shut off and thermostat to go down.

If the alarm is on and the pantel goes into entry delay then someone has opened the door, by going open I can then turn the light on in the entry way (making it easier to see the panel).

If for some reason someone turned the alarm on, but decided to disarm it (without opening the door) then I also wanted everything to go to normal.

 

I then set up zone 5 as a keyswitch zone (zone type 77), I connected two wires to the i/o linc from the two terminals for that zone to the normal open and the ground. I then set the controller to only close momentarly for 1second. This will activate/deactivate the alarm perfectly.

 

From a program standpoint, I created several programs:

 

The first one says, if control alarm is switched on

and control alarm is not switched off

 

then set scene all lights off (all of my lights are a member of this scene except for the entry way)

wait 45 seconds

then set entry way light off

 

(the purpose of this was so you could find the way out of the house after you turned the alarm on)

 

It the annoyed me that I could only toggle the alarm off using the on button in the console, to help fix this I wrote another program that says:

 

if control alarm is switched on

and control alarm is not switched off

then

set alarm activate off

else

nothing

 

Alarm activate is what I renamed the alarm relay function to. This basically just sets activate = off (which seems to do nothing) when the alarm is activated. I then renamed the buttons in the mobile app so that it says turn on and turn off in the status.

 

Finally, I created a program for heat:

 

Program1

if the alarm is on

then set heat = 64, cool = 76

 

Program 2

if the alarm is off and it's between 6:30am and 10:30pm

then set heat = 67 and cool = 76

 

if the alarm is off and it's between 10:30pm and 6:30 am (next day)

then set heat = 64 and cool = 76

 

As a failsafe,

if the io linc stops responding for some reason

and the temp drops below 53 degrees

 

then set heat to 65

wait 15 minutes (from what I understand the wait condition is reevaluated if the if statement changes, so if the temp goes up I will never see the alert.

notify me via text.

 

From my tests if I walk over to the alarm and turn it into away, the I/O linc notices and the heat goes down, lights go off. When I open the door the heat comes back up to normal, entry light goes on as well. When the alarm is in away, it also uses the entry delay, so the light would come on in that case too. This works well if my fiance goes home before I do and she has the alarm in stay mode, then I can see my way in as well. The I/O linc sensor input was also renamed Alarm - Away Status. I can easily look at this on my phone or the web and verify the alarm is in away mode.

 

The only issue I can potentially see with this is if we fail to turn the alarm to away when we leave, the alarm by default is set to go into stay mode when the away button is pushed and no doors are opened. The idea of this is to help prevent false alarms by someone pushing the wrong button. In this instance the I/O linc would turn it to away, but the alarm would switch back to stay because no doors were opened. I haven't decided if this is a big deal or not. The setting for this can be changed in the alarm, at the same point, you're still able to turn the alarm on, the motion detectors just aren't activate (stay vs away modes). You're also able to turn off the alarm remotely for someone if they were visiting).

 

Hope this helps someone,

 

Craig