Hi all, I have found this forum very helpful even though I am very new to security and home automation, and I want to thank anyone reading for taking the time to help guide me through what I’m trying to solve for!
Quick lay of the land: I have a bunch of 2GIG equipment (GC2 panel, 6 smoke alarms, 6 CO alarms, 15+ door sensors, 5+ window sensors, 5+ motion detectors, etc.) as well as a SmartThings hub, and I have also just bought and installed a number of Kwikset 916 Z-Wave locks.
I’m trying to figure out how to get the door locks to lock after a period of time after which the 345Mhz door sensors signal to the GC2 panel that the door is closed again. One would think this would be simple, but I can’t figure out how to make all the pieces work.
I can’t seem to find any logic in the GC2 panel (firmware 1.16) to make this happen. Is it there and I’m missing it?
Secondly, I have tried to configure the GC2 panel as a secondary Z-Wave controller so as to get it to talk with my SmartThings hub (which currently the locks are included on), but this also seems to be a dead end?
It seems SmartThings can’t initiate control of the locks based on the door sensors as the GC2 panel won’t signal any of its stateful data on the 345Mhz sensors outward to any other device, much less bridge the sensor data across its internal HW/SW and do something helpful like be able to signal sensor states to another Z-wave controller. It’s really weird to me that for as much as people complain about Z-wave not being reliable for security, that the GC2 and 2GIG ecosystem isn’t then subsequently allowing for their (in theory) superior equipment to be the system/devices of record.
Any thoughts on how to solve this? I have a ton of 2GIG equipment I don’t want to abandon, and it seems ridiculous to me that said logic must be pushed outward to a monitored service (reliant on cloud, versus the panel) which then induces delays and recurring costs.
I’m trying to figure out how to get the door locks to lock after a period of time after which the 345Mhz door sensors signal to the GC2 panel that the door is closed again. One would think this would be simple, but I can’t figure out how to make all the pieces work.
I can’t seem to find any logic in the GC2 panel (firmware 1.16) to make this happen. Is it there and I’m missing it?
For security, Door locks cannot be automated by sensor activity. This is not an option in the panel or in Alarm.com rules.
It seems SmartThings can’t initiate control of the locks based on the door sensors as the GC2 panel won’t signal any of its stateful data on the 345Mhz sensors outward to any other device, much less bridge the sensor data across its internal HW/SW and do something helpful like be able to signal sensor states to another Z-wave controller.
No professional alarm panel will transmit sensor status data via Z-wave.
Up until fairly recently, Z-wave lacked any UL certification for security application. It is not in use for security application in major panels because of this and its limited range, especially for battery operated nodes.
I have a ton of 2GIG equipment I don’t want to abandon, and it seems ridiculous to me that said logic must be pushed outward to a monitored service (reliant on cloud, versus the panel) which then induces delays and recurring costs.
The alarm panel is simply not designed for this use. Professional alarm systems transmit alarm and sensor status data securely to a monitoring service with an alarm signal receiver.
Alarm.com receives the info and arranges it in a useful manner for the user. Most Z-wave rules, to address the delays question, are created in ADC and saved at the module/panel and run locally. If you create a rule stating to turn on a light by opening a door, Alarm.com is not sending the command each time. Your panel is processing this locally.
Note that suretyDIY is an Alarm.com services dealer. It sounds like you are probably looking for something the equipment is not designed for. You might be better served with something like a Vera Secure.
Hi Jason, thanks for the thoughtful feedback. I don’t pretend to understand this space particularly well, just found it frustrating that devices that COULD talk to each other can’t/won’t either due to revenue models (subscription services) or perceived security concerns.
On the latter note, I started to do some research on the 345mhz sensors themselves and came away with some interesting findings. You mention that the panel can transmit to the alarm service securely - but it appears that between the sensors and the panel itself, there’s actually no security, encryption, handshakes, or anything of the like. I’m basing this off of the findings of the gentleman that wrote up the link below on how he employed a software-defined radio (SDR) + open source software to reverse-engineer Honeywell’s 345mhz sensors’ transmissions, and to use them within OpenHAB:
Upon reflection I think I will be going the route of OpenHAB, perhaps also in conjunction with the GC2 panel - maybe it’s the SmartThings hub that will end up being redundant - for as far as I can tell, the 345mhz 2GIG sensors I have are likely using the same protocol as the Honeywell 345mhz equipment (someone on this board mentions compatibility here) and frankly I don’t want to actually arm or disarm the alarm system based off of these events - I simply want to listen to the events. As it stands, via an SDR operating on an OpenHAB install, I’m pretty sure I can listen to the alarm’s wireless events and then configure rules or scenes thereafter, and none of the OpenHAB automation should impact the panel’s ecosystem whatsoever.
Will report back as this evolves so as to share more info with the community for other folks with similar challenges.
but it appears that between the sensors and the panel itself, there’s actually no security, encryption, handshakes, or anything of the like
With 2GIG/Honeywell wireless yes, the sensor transmission itself can be listened to/spoofed with the right equipment as they do not use encryption or spread spectrum.
For encrypted wireless sensors look to the Qolsys IQ Panel 2, Qolsys S-Line sensors use encryption. Another example is Power G.
The Vera Secure I mentioned actually listens to 345 mhz.
for as far as I can tell, the 345mhz 2GIG sensors I have are likely using the same protocol as the Honeywell 345mhz equipment
Yes, they are. 2GIG Panels are natively compatible with Honeywell 5800 series sensors (345 mhz sensors)