Alphavision Security &Visionic Powermax

[ludwigkilian]

Is a connection with an Alphavision ML with wired sensors and Visionic PowerMax wireless components in Domoticz already built or tried before?

The nicest functionality is to operate the security system from one interface. I am firstly interested in getting the status of the components in and do not mind operating security system through panel or separte app.

Regardless whether the security system is armed the status I'm looking for is :
- Movement, Smoke, window open/closed
- Battery status of the wireless components

I like to use e.g. movement for switching on/off the lights, switch on/off heating if windows open without installing new sensors in the room.

Any alternatives of tips are welcome.

Ludwig

[RobertT]

I'm also very interested in listening in to Powermax nodes as well!
I'm thinking of same use-cases as you mention.

I have the visionic protocol enabled in RFXtrx433E, but in general it hears nothing from my Powermax or it's sensors. It has captured only one event since on, 1 device had appeared in the device list (an arm away event was recorded)
I have not yet spend any time investigating if RFXtrx433E is supporting the Powermax. Since the sensors need to be learned by Powermax, perhaps similar procedure needs to be done with Domoticz?
Also still working with the factory antenna on the RFX, appearantly much better result with antenna upgrade (in range at least, not sure if that is a factor at the moment).

Sorry, can't offer any solution yet, newby on Domoticz
making my first miles since this weekend, playing around with:
-X10 RF
-Wunderground
-ZWave devices (plan to migrate all my x10 in later stage)
-SolarEdge inverter

future interests:
-somfy (hence the RFXtrx433E)
-weather station
-Powermax
-X10 PLC (for backward compatibility during transition period)
-smartphone proxity by ip#
-integrate production readout of my windturbine (remote, shares)
-and loads of scripts around all that

rgds, Robert

[mbulles]

Hi,

Please check the frequency your Powermax uses.

Most Powermax systems sold in the EU use 868 Mhz.

So actually your Rfxtrx433E (433Mhz) will not be able to find the Visonic PowerMax Sensors if it uses 868Mhz freq.

[ludwigkilian]

Hi,

Yes Powermax uses 868 Mhz. I was hoping in combination with the Alphatronics that collects all information from the Powermax and other sensors, and has a IP out port to talk to apps. Perhaps somebody might have found a way to pick this communication up and presented it through Domoticz.

[arnoldg]

there is a serial port on the ml, maybe this is spitting out some kind of info.
i know on the old brother an alphavision 96 or NG this is so.

but the you have to reverse enginere the protocol.

within the software supported for the ML you can turn on ethernet API with a key. but without the API specifications you can't do anything.

[Bikey]

Hi,

Yes Powermax uses 868 Mhz. I was hoping in combination with the Alphatronics that collects all information from the Powermax and other sensors, and has a IP out port to talk to apps. Perhaps somebody might have found a way to pick this communication up and presented it through Domoticz.

I have an Alphavision NG alarm system also with Powermax RF and wired sensors. Just like the ML it has an RS-485 interface to connect to the alarmpanel and other add ons. I think the ethernet module of the ML might also be connected to the system using this RS-484 bus.

I'm sure that if you reversed engineered the protocol on the RS-485 bus that you could get all the information and control the system.
That however is too much work (and I don't have the skills to do that), so I've taken another approach: to use the normal (programmable) inputs and outputs of the alarm system to signal about the status of the system and to arm/disarm the system.
These inputs/outputs are connected to the GPIO-ports of my Raspberry PI with Domoticz. Now that some bugs with GPIO-handling of Domoticz are solved it really works well: I can see the status of 3 zones and can activate each zone from within Domoticz, using the web interface or an App (Imperihome for iOS). This means that I can also trigger events based on the status of the alarm system, like swithching on lights and sending push notifications.
See also a description of my project in this topic.

If you really want a full integration at IP-level, it good to know that somebody here has done integration with a Satel alarm system. That however would mean you have to replace your Alphavision system and the Powermax sensors which are probably not compatible.

[arnoldg]

i'm in the proces of reverse enigenering the rs485 protocol on the bus, i hooked an rs485 chip to the A en B line, now i'm able to read the data from the bus.
My Goal is not to control the alarm system, but to monitor the status of the connected sensors, and the status of the sections.

so when for instance a window is open, i could turn off the heating. when a pir detector sense a motion, i could turn on the light in that room.

keep you informed.

[edit]
after analysing the data, the zone's mounted on the ml main board, aren't presented to the RS485 bus.
i think i only see the data to control the OK led on the keypad.
[/edit]

[Bikey]

Wow, great work!
You can program the system to change the status of the A, B an C Leds, to reflect the status of a zone. This can also be done sepperately for multiple control panels. If you could monitor these Led statuses on the RS485-bus you should be OK Another approach would be to actually send command to the system to request the status of all the zones, or watch the logfile, like you can do on the control panel.

[arnoldg]

i run out off any ideas, i think i bring home my company laptop, to see what the serial port of an ML spits out.
i hope that there is some kind of data flow like with the NG.

With the NG i know you could get all zone information out off that data stream, i already did that in the past.
I lost the program to do that. i made a tool to see if a zone comes in alarm, sabotage or it is ok.

The best way is to have the API documentation of the generic ip interface, if someone know how to reverse engenere that port please let me know so i could try it.

[Bikey]

I only have an Alphavision NG, which has the universal RS485 bus that is also used for serial communication to a PC, so no API. But that is only for programming not for status-info. If you could emulate a control panel on the RS-485 bus you should be able to get all the info. Reverse engineering however is probably a lot of work.
I think you would also need to reverse engineer de API or do you have documentation of that?

[arnoldg]

i'm trying to emulate a knx module, but when sending some data to the RS485 bus the ccs isn't accepting the data.
does someone know what the timming is.
if someone has some kind of information it would be great.

[CowboyTW]

Hi, a year or two later now. Did anyone get hold of the IP-based API of the Alphatronics (ML) system? Really looking into bidirectional communications between the ML and Domoticz.

[mosjonathan]

There is an api but cannot disclose it due to nda.