I have a Vivint system today. For a bunch of reasons I’m looking to replace it.
I really liked the UI and features and capabilities of the IQ4 panel, and also read the IQ5 is being released soon.
Today, I have homebridge integrated into Vivint. That plug in exposes my Z-wave locks, the sensors and the video streams. My wife and kids live in Apple home, and we also have Apple TVs throughout the house. And those devices are all shared with Apple HomeKit.
It’s really convenient to be able to see the video streams, lock status and doorbell alert on the TVs without having to use the app.
I saw that there are homebridge and hubitat plugins that integrate into the panel via a control4 interface which is great.
However I read on both plugins GitHub info - that the panel / system doesn’t expose the Z-wave devices and also doesn’t expose the video streams.
Any chance that would change at some point on the IQ4 or even the upcoming IQ5?
I would also note that native HomeKit integration would be amazing - though I have no knowledge of what Apple would require from you guys to make that happen.
The Homebridge and Hubitat plugins use the Control4 integration in the IQ Panel. It doesn’t support Z-Wave devices. We’ve requested more integration capabilities from Qolsys (we think it would be a huge win for everyone, including Qolsys) but I’m not aware of anything concrete in the works yet.
The person who originally made the Homebridge integration has found a new approach that is brilliant and does expose Z-Wave devices. Instead of using the Control4 integration, emulate a secondary touchscreen. This exposes just about everything, including Z-Wave devices.
I’m only aware of it being used in Home Assistant, not Homebridge. But Homebridge supports MQTT integrations so it might work. If you decide to try it, let us know!
Alternatively, there is this plugin that has basic support for Z-Wave devices. But it’s communicating with Alarm.com so it’s not as immediate as getting it directly from the IQ Panel.
I’m not aware of any way to get video Alarm.com video into Homebridge. But there are Alarm.com TV apps for Android TV, Apple TV, and Fire TV to show video on TVs. See here for more info.
huge thanks for the reply and all of that great info @ryan.boder !
so it appears with hubitat or home assistant i can get most of what i want - exposing the panel and locks to HomeKit and viewing cameras on my apple tv’s with the alarm.com tv app.
from what you said and what i read:
i won’t be able to view the cameras via HomeKit on my apple tv’s. But I can view them via the alarm.com app (not ideal, but not a show stopper)
i won’t be able to get pop up’s on my apple tv when someone rings the doorbell (maybe not a show stopper - but a bigger deal)
with my continued reading i have one other question - with the newer generation (non battery) doorbells - can i view that live stream:
via the alarm.com iOS / iPadOS apps?
via the alarm.com TvOS app?
i thought i read yes to the first question - and no to the second - which kind of didn’t make sense to me.
and any thoughts as to whether alarm.com might integrate into HomeKit natively?
