Ademco/Honeywell Vista ICM

[p5yph3r]

I was wondering if anyone had one of these, and if so, have you had any luck getting it to work with LinuxMCE. I have a Vista 20P board, and I was originally looking at the 7845i Internet Communicator, to connect my security panel to my LAN, until I found this:

http://www.security.honeywell.com/hsce/products/wiring/ic/92291.html#Product%20Literature

[dustball62]

I think the 7845i is a Alarm company reporting tool ONLY. where as the ICM is a browser enabled alarm interface.

[los93sol]

I have a Monitronix Vista-15PMT, I'm almost certain it is simply a rebranded Honeywell Vista-15P.  Anyways, I ordered the Vista-ICM last night so I will be doing some testing once I have it installed.  I'm also looking to tie my HVAC into the security panel and let LinuxMCE manage everything.  If you've got any information on tying the HVAC stuff together with that alarm panel please let me know.  Hopefully we can work together to figure something out since we're dealing with the same hardware.

[tschak909]

guys,

*hmm*

don't @#($@# with these god awful alarm panels.

wire the sensors directly into the system via 1 or 2 GC-100's and let LinuxMCE manage them.

-Thom

[los93sol]

The panel is already installed, the ICM module puts the panel on the network and allows control and monitoring of the system over the network.  I think I'm missing the point of wiring directly when this module should allow it to interface the same as the officially supported alarm panels that are connected over ethernet.

[tschak909]

one less man-in-the-middle interface to deal with.

-Thom

[teedge77]

there was a lot of discussion here about the same thing.

http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=3744.0

i see thoms point of cutting out the middle man side of a panel. there are quite a few reasons to keep the middle also though. the biggest one is not buying additional hardware when you have a working panel already. one of the attractive things about linuxmce is supposed to be its easy interface design allowing it to control and interact with just about anything. so having it work with more stuff instead of trying to find workarounds is still nice. no one wants to spend hundreds making a new "alarm system" in linuxmce if they can just interface it with an already set up panel. gc100s arent cheap and buying two or more is much more expensive than the panel. not everyone has a stable core or has even decided to commit to linuxmce. so they dont want to buy gc100s that they may not use if they decide linuxmce is too much for them.

[los93sol]

I got the module and have it installed, but I can't for the life of me figure out how LMCE is supposed to interface or even be configured to use an ethernet enabled security panel (supported or not)...I know I have to configure this panel manually through the web admin, but haven't been able to nail down any info on configuring devices in this manner with it.  Any suggestions?

[tschak909]

You have to create a new device template, to interface with it.

You will need the protocol specifications to do this, and the development can be done entirely within the web admin.

Since this is a relatively simple device, the device template can be based on Ruby. (And run inside the Generic Serial Device)... Set the communication type to Ethernet, and make sure you choose the appropriate device category... if you need to, make a manufacturer...

Once you do this, implement ruby codes for the required commands... You can find more information on this in the wiki, search for GSD...an example of an ethernet based GSD device, is the Panasonic IP camera #24. An example of a security panel GSD device, is the Apex 6100.. It's serial based, but the communication method is just the same...you just need to make sure when you create the device from the template, to set the IP and MAC for the device, so that GSD knows where to send data that is passed out the _conn.send() method.

-Thom

[los93sol]

Forgive my ignorance, but I am lost on how these elements are working together.  I've searched the Wiki and think I understand the end result, but I'm failing to understand the elements involved and their specific roles.  If I'm able to get this working, can my template be ripped and shared for others to use so the panel would be supported out of the box?

[tschak909]

quite correct. We have a mechanism that will do just that.

-Thom