ISY Alert from Skylink Alarm/Dialer

[bigscience]

I have a Skylink Wireless alarm system with a dialer to give me a call when the alarm goes off. Everything works fine but I'd like to get rid of the land line and just use ISY to send me a text when the alarm goes off in stead. Has anyone ever done any integration with one of these systems?

 

http://www.amazon.com/Skylink-SC-1000-C ... B0002YPFBS

 

I looked inside the dialer and there are a set of contacts that look they are for hardwiring the dialer to an IO Link to trigger the dialer but I'm looking to go the other way.

 

http://www.smarthome.com/73210/I-O-Linc ... Kit/p.aspx

 

Any thoughts?

[apostolakisl]

If it does not have any voltage out or contact closure to indicate it is in alarm status then you would have to rig it a bit.

 

Does it have any led's that light up while it is in alarm or trying to dial? If so, you can solder on a couple leads to it and connect to a CAI webcontrol board and have it trigger an email itself or send a network command to ISY to do the same.

 

When the LED turns on, the CAI will see voltage and you can use that to send a REST command to ISY.

 

For example, the following program on ISY would check input 1 for voltage. If it is true (1), then it runs a subroutine that sets a variable on ISY to 1 (the webset command). When the voltage shuts off, it sets the variable on ISY back to 0. The webset language is set up separately and is just the REST command that sets the ISY variable you choose along with your ISY IP address, username and password. So, in summary, this toggles a variable in ISY between 1 and 0 depending on if the CAI is getting voltage or not (if the led is on). The CAI board draws essentially no current so you won't over-current your alarm panel.

 

START

TESTEQ IP1 1

CALLSUB ISYSET

TSTEQ IP1 0

CALLSUB ISYUNSET

END

 

ISYSET:

TSTEQ VAR1 1

RET

WEBSET URL1 1

SET VAR1 1

RET

 

ISYUNSET:

TSTEQ VAR1 0

RET

WEBSET URL1 0

SET VAR1 0

RET

[bigscience]

The other thing I was thinking about doing was since I woun't be using the phone lines in it (it has a line in and line out), was to connect the two of them with a IO Link between them. My thought is that when it tries to dial, it would connect between the line in and put it's dialing out. This would signal the IO link that something happened? It's also a little easier hack since it would just be a phone line splice. Thanks for the LED idea, I hadn't thought of that. I'll post back if I get anything figured out.

[apostolakisl]

The other thing I was thinking about doing was since I woun't be using the phone lines in it (it has a line in and line out), was to connect the two of them with a IO Link between them. My thought is that when it tries to dial, it would connect between the line in and put it's dialing out. This would signal the IO link that something happened? It's also a little easier hack since it would just be a phone line splice. Thanks for the LED idea, I hadn't thought of that. I'll post back if I get anything figured out.

 

You could probably hook the led up to the sense input on the iolinc also.

 

If the device "seizes" your phone line, then you could run the 5v from the iolinc output to the phone line input on your alarm and then hook the 5v sense up to the alarm panel phone line output. When the alarm panel seizes the phone, it should cut off the 5v to the phone output wire and trigger the iolinc to register an "off" on the sense wire.

[bigscience]

So I think I finally figured out the hardware side of things. I ended up cutting a phone wire and putting the red and green wires into the ground and sensor inputs on a I/O Linc. Normally, when there is no alarm, the connection in made on these wires but when an alarm is triggered, a relay comes on and flips them on and off. This is all it takes to trigger a signal to the ISY. I wrote a simple program to send a text saying the alarm was triggered.

 

If

Control 'IO Sensor' is switched Off

 

Then

Send Notification to 'BradCell' content 'Alarm'

Wait 15 seconds

Send Notification to 'BradCell' content 'Alarm'

 

Else

- No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')

 

 

It works and sends me 2 texts so hopefully I don't miss the first one. I'm not sure if there is a more elegant way to wait for a bit to make sure it wasn't an accidental set off or to keep sending them if the alarm is still on.

 

Overall I'm happy that I can keep my current alarm for now and can cancel my land line. Thanks ISY!