Intruder alarm integration

[DavidL]

Morning all.

I've been asked to look at installing an alarm system that would integrate with Loxone.
I have various links to Texecom integration, which have quite a bit of information and certainly help towards selecting an alarm system that would work.
I have advised the virtues of using Loxone as an alarm system itself, but my client is going for a very minimal Loxone installation and would just like to tie in a 3rd party product.

My main question is for anyone who may have done this before, how easy it is to tie in arming and disarming an intruder alarm via Loxone? I've seen very basic details about sending key presses via RS232 using radio buttons.
I'm leaning towards Texecom, because that's the bulk of the information I have, but I'm equally willing to look at other products that may work.

Does anyone have any pointers or Loxone Config advice and configuration details they'd be willing to share?

David

[LoxoneN]

Texacom to Loxone integration is very rudimentary.

Me and my installer spent an age and only got basic integration which wasnt ideal.

so we now run the loxone alarm and texecom separately. activate both from the loxone app but 2 different buttons to control.

[DavidL]

Thanks for the reply.

When you say you activate both from Loxone, do you use Loxone to send key presses to Texacom? Or do you have a button set up so you can press it to activate the alarm?

I'm reasonably happy with how to do the basic integration, it's just examples for arming the texacom alarm from Loxone that I'm looking for more examples.

David

[Aleš Berka]

Jablotron with RS485. I don't have personal experience yet, it's currently being added to my house by Loxone partner. He has a good experience with it, though (and I do trust him). We didn't choose Loxone as an alarm as it is not (and most likely never will be) certified as proper security device / alarm system. Insurance companies do cut the reimbursement when something happens, at least here in CZ.

[LoxoneN]

it's a button in loxone, which sends the key presses in the background.

[Dils]

I have Cytech Comfort Alarm system. www.cytech.biz

It allows full integration with Loxone, including arm and disarm, and sensor triggers.

Can be connected via RS232, RS485, or via KNX. 

 

[Peter]

What if anything constitutes 'a proper security device' in the U.K.?
I can't think of anything Loxone doesn't or can't provide except maybe an audible external alarm and that can be purchased separately anyway.
In fact by the time I've finished my Loxone security will be far advanced of anything an alarm company could provide. In addition all of the stuff which will act as the alarm system has other smart home uses. Win win

[David]

Agree Peter.

However good luck getting a discount on your insurance which you can with an "approved" install.

[Duncan]

i found that most insureres in the uk offer very little discount for an alarm, and if you then claim and are in the house but dont have the alarm on (eg at night with you in the house) they wont pay out. so i tell my insurer i dont have an alarm, therefore have no obligation to set it at night.

given the cost of keeping an approved alarm serviced/recognised by insurers, it wasnt worth the discount on the insurance

[Ard]

I have integrated Loxone with a HKC alarm. I have a button on the app to arm/disarm, a button to partset the alarm and the app also shows the status of the alarm incase somebody arms it through the alarm keypad. If the alarm is activated lights flash on/off and a notification goes to their phone. It works well

[DavidL]

On a similar vein to this, does anyone have any experience with keypads and Loxone?
I'm wondering if using a keypad that outputs weigand protocol, and then using a converter to get the signal to RS485/RS232 is a sensible route forward?

David

[smartbusinesstools.be]

We have done this before, and will pick up on this again soon. 

Actually we are looking to offer a large range of keypad, rfid readers and fingerprint readers that output via wiegand protocol, and also sell RaspberryPi's pre-installed with our software pre-installed to read the wiegand codes, and interact with Loxone, so you can control multiple doors or alarms and PIN codes from within the Loxone app.

Easiest and cheapest is to communicate via ip, but we will also add a RS485/RS232 communication for cases where using the LAN is insecure.

We will sell these (3rd party readers, keypads, tokens, RPis) to our loyal Loxone customers at a large discount.

[DavidL]

I did notice you had a post on your website about Arduino wiegand protocol software, but didn't see any products as such yet.
This could be a nice set of products to have access to for various projects. Do you have an idea of your time frame for these?

I found a wiegand to RS485 converter, so wondered about picking one up to experiment with. This could in theory be tied in with a simple keypad.

David

[smartbusinesstools.be]

We did set up an Arduino before to read the wiegand protocol and send pin codes, key presses or token IDs  along with a reader code to Loxone over ip and had all the logic in Loxone. 

You could do with a wiegand to RS485 converter for a single keypad, but for multiple keypads or for access to multiple doors, you would not know where the code comes from. We also have (or had, I'll need to check our stock) keypads and rfid readers that can output directly to RS232/RS485 so you can connected them directly to a Loxone RS232 or RS485 Extension.

We have ordered some products from our existing distributors and will start testing them next month, and add them to our webshop. These all are 'secure' readers with or without keypad, but we will also add more common 'insecure' readers if they have a nice design.

[DavidL]

Sounds interesting.

I'll be intrigued to see what products you'll be offering once you've done some testing. What direct RS485/RS232 products do you sell?

David