Act upon a Z Wave command

[sfhutchi]

My alarm panel (not tied into my Insteon setup with ISY) can output to ZWave devices. I would like to figure out a way to get a notification to my ISY configuration when the system is armed, disarmed, etc. Has anyone come up with a low cost way to provide a bridge? I was thinking about plugging a Zwave light module into an Insteon SynchroLinc with some load (probably a light). This way I could detect the change driven by the Zwave device and use this for my input on the ISY.

 

Not a very elegant solution... but it might work.

 

Any other ideas or suggestions? I am guessing that others have been in this same situation.

[Hurting2Ride]

Hard to say w/o knowing more about your alarm system but the option you mentioned is possible, probably the least difficult, least expensive and most basic. Others include:

 

• - A standalone device that can bridge Zwave and Insteon, such as Vera 2. Could be overkill.

http://www.micasaverde.com/vera.php
- Software that can bridge Zwave and Insteon, such as Homeseer, Linux MCE, etc. Again, possibly overkill and requires a PC or equivalent device.
- If your alarm system can set generic relays (as most can), you could relay power to the input of an IOLinc

 

Your decision probably has a lot to do with just how much information you want to pass back and forth. Simply armed/disarmed? Then the Synchrolinc or relays are pretty simple and inexpensive. If you want to pass more information w/o going as far as bridging software or hardware, you could use something like a iMeter instead of the Synchrolinc. Then assuming you can set a dim level of the Zwave device, you could use the wattage reading of the iMeter to pass a bit more info but still keep the integration itself pretty lightweight.

 

Hope that helps.

[sfhutchi]

Good suggestions. Thanks. I am just looking mainly for status... I will also look at imeter to learn more about it.

[strahan001]

Any luck with this?

[sfhutchi]

Any luck with this?

 

To be honest, I haven't made it a priority. I have an unused Zwave light module that I can trigger with my alarm system... but haven't gotten around to buying an insteon module to plug into it as a trigger.

[mfranzel]

Hi,

I know this is an old topic, but I was trying to do the same thing with my GE Simon XTi alarm through Alarm.com. Please see my original post here:

 

viewtopic.php?f=27&t=10901&p=83700#p83700

 

I got this all sorted out... not the "prettiest" way, but it works.

 

I simply needed to have my alarm turn off ALL lights in my home when I "Arm Away" and turn on the foyer light and living room lights when I disarm the alarm... aka coming back home.

 

I did this by using an I/O linc and a Z-Wave module from GE (http://www.amazon.com/GE-45603-Technolo ... rds=z-wave) and an old 5V power adapter I had laying around.

 

I plugged the positive wire of the power adapter into the SENSE port of the I/O linc and the ground wire into the GROUND port of the I/O linc. I then plugged the power adapter into the Z-Wave module.

 

I set my alarm up so that when I arm the alarm AWAY, the module turns on, therefore activating the I/O linc. And when I disarm the alarm, the module turns off, therefore deactivation ght I/O linc. I then have the proper rules set up in my ISY to turn the lights on and off.

 

Now, this simply turns my lights on and off when I leave and get home. It doesn't do anything for alarms etc. I supposed you could use another setup the same way and program it so when the alarm goes off, it activates the 2nd Z-wave module, then the I/O linc and then a rule in the I/O linc to flash certain lights.

 

Like I said, this setup isn't easy, but it works for exactly what I need it to do.

[NewbieTri100]

I too have an alarm system that controls z-wave devices.

 

There is a Z-wave device that is similar to IO linc. I saw it about a month ago. I was planning on using the two devices as a bridge between the alarm system and the ISY. My thought was to wire the two devices together so that the alarm system closed the circuit when I armed the system. The IO linc would then send a signal to the ISY when the z-wave device open and closed the circuit.

 

From there I could trigger programs every time the alarm system is armed or disarmed. I was going to add another pair of devices so I can distinguish between Armed Away and Armed Stay.

 

That being said, when I found out that ISY was going to support z-wave, I scratched the idea and signed up for the alpha program. I'm still working through the process to get it working using a z-wave appliance module as the Alarm Status indicator.

 

Also, I can't seem to find the z-wave device that has the same functionality as the IO linc anymore. I knew I should have book marked it when I saw it!!!!

[Xathros]

How about this:http://www.fortrezz.com/mimo.html

 

Not exactly an IOlinc - maybe better!

 

-Xathros

[NewbieTri100]

How about this:http://www.fortrezz.com/mimo.html

 

Not exactly an IOlinc - maybe better!

 

-Xathros

 

That has potential. So I assume that I would wire the device to a IOlinc (or 2) to bridge the alarm system to my Inteon network.

[Xathros]

That would do it. Unless you can tie some output of your alarm system to the inputs of this device and instead pair this to the ISY if/when it gets Zwave support for this type of device.

 

-Xathros