If I understand this right, I will be able to enable the IQ panel as the secondary controller, and still be able to control lights, locks etc from the alarm.com app as well as control everything from the Smarthings app and Echo?
With firmware 1.6 and later, yes. However it sounds like the issue with device status may come back due to the IQ panel as a secondary. However I cannot say for certain as we have not used Smart Things with the IQ.
I just spent the weekend attempting to integrate a V2 Smartthings hub into my home. Iāve had a lot of ongoing issues with my Qolsys IQ panel with regards to the z-wave network, the mesh network seems to degrade over time but I digress. Main goal was to have more control over automation without giving up the integrated features I get from Alarm.com. Smartthings made sense here as a primary controller.
So, I can confirm limited success running the Smartthings Hub as primary and the Qolsys IQ panel as secondary. After lots of testing, I enrolled all the devices into the Smartthings Hub. Next I attempt to add the ST controller in the IQ panel and pull all the devices into ADC. The issue I have, however, is with 18 devices to send over the the Qolsys panel, the Smartthings Hub goes offline during the payload send (not sure why, may be a ST issue). Many times this resulted in a failure on the Qolsys panel saying it couldnāt receive the manufacture information. After trying probably 50 times I eventually figured out if I just unplugged the SmartThings hub when the device transfer started, the Qolsys Panel would seemingly process the devices one by one and add them.
Issues: Firstly, one of my older Schlage BE369 locks does not get pulled over to the Qolsys panel despite having it registered as a device previously (with limited abilities unfortunately since the lock didnāt update state changes on Qolsys although it does just fine in SmartThings). Additionally, I get about 8 phantom unknown z-wave devices on the Qolsys panel that donāt show up on the ADC website. I think 2 of these are my MyQ garage door devices that seem to take up placeholders as z-wave devices for some reason but the rest are unknown to me what they could be.
Anyway, I can also confirm that statuses do update in Alarm.com and SmartThings with regards to lock status, light status etc. I even added my Logitech Harmony Ultimate Home remote into the mix and I can see lock status, thermostat and lights from my home theater remote!
I really wish there was better integration with other automation products. I know ADC has made improvements over time but I want more haha. With the way I have things integrated now, it gives me hope that future integrations will be possible and much more simple. I wasted so much time trying to get things integrated and gave up when I had all the lights shared and 2/3 of the locksā¦
WRXfanatic thanks for the info on this. What you tried to do was exactly what I wanted to do, but seems like I will hold off for now after seeing your results.
My gripe is more with alarm.com and Amazon Echo integration than Qolsys, so I guess I will have to suck it up for now
No problem. I still consider my configuration a success really. Besides the hassles of setting it up once, itās up and running and the devices exist in both controllers which was the goal. If youāre looking for native Alexa control, using the SmartThings isnāt a terrible option. I have some really old Z-wave devices, my Trane TZEMT043AB32MAA thermostat is 7 years old! My Schlage BE369 is 6 years oldā¦My guess is that things might work slightly better with z-wave devices that all support newer standards.
One other note here, I upgraded my Qolsys panel software to 1.6.2, I didnāt have much success at all on 1.6.1 so I think this is critical if you want to integrate with SmartThings. I will likely open a ticket with Qolsys to see what they have to say. They really could do more to expose more z-wave network options which might help. For instance I wish there was a āReceive from Primaryā option rather than only the "add/remove controllerā¦
Have you found that the on/off status of your lights and locks update in real time in the ADC app even when running the Qolsys panel as the secondary?
It seemed they were when I first configured, however, upon re-checking now after several re-configuration attempts (to troubleshoot why my ST Hub crashes during inclusion), the ADC is pretty much unresponsive to device state changes. I can still control devices from the ADC app and the status changes are near realtime in the ST app but if I take action on a device from the ST app the ADC app doesnāt seem to take notice of the status change, even if I refresh the device (refresh lock for instance).
Iāll have to play around more because I swear it worked before. One potential change is on this last inclusion attempt I no longer have the Qolsys panel itself included in the ST hub. I donāt think it did anything anyway but now that the ST hub is crashing every time I try to include the Qolsys panel, ST never really gets the device information back from the panel although the Qolsys panel does get the payload of z-wave devices so itās able to add them.
In an attempt to clear the issue of crashing, have you used the remove all devices feature on the Qolsys panel before re-pairing? A panel reboot would be good as well.
Oh yes, Iāve tried everything I can think of. When you use the āadd controllerā inclusion mode, all devices on the panel get wiped anyway (as Iāve found out on unsuccessful attempts to update the Qolsys with a new device Iāve added). But, Iāve also tried āremove all devicesā. Iāve even gone so far as to put my ST hub into general exclusion mode (equivalent of Clear Device on the Qolsys panel I assume) and then hit āadd controllerā on the Qolsys panel and I get a āsuccessā status on the ST app for this action. I think the ST Hub is crashing when the Qolsys panel is trying to return a status to it would be my guess, especially given I can unplug the ST Hub in the middle of inclusion and the Qolsys continues onā¦
Qolsys got back to me and essentially said they donāt support using the panel as a secondary controller nor do they have instructions for it.
SmarttThings support says they donāt support using the hub with a secondary controller.
Why even offer the setting if no one will support it haha. 
As I understand Z-wave networking, part of the problem may be due to the device type differences between a static controller and a portable controller. Portable controllers typically have more robust secondary controller support because I believe the idea is you might buy several remotes for your house, setup your z-wave network on one remote and essentially copy the network to the rest of the remotes as a secondary device. I havenāt found a static controller yet that will play well with a secondary controller scheme (although the old GE z-wave remote used to work pretty decently on my Simon Panelsā¦)
Z-wave has been a home automation standard long enough that youād think companies would be a little more forward thinking about their configuration and use cases but it still feels like companies assume people will control a light or two, a door lock and a thermostat and thatās it. I guess if you really want to do home automation you need to pay big bucks and use Control4 or something similarā¦
Ok, so looks like I was able to pair the ST hub to the panel with the Qolsys as the secondary.
When I transfered over the devices to the Qolsys from ST hub, none of the device names imported so I have to manually rename and figure out which device was which on the Qolsys panel. Is that normal?
Also, if I add a new device to the ST hub, will it simply link to the Qolsys panel now?
Did your SmartThings hub crash during the inclusion process? Do you see the Qolsys panel as a device in the ST hub? And yes, because the device IDs will most likely be different the names will be defaults. I just used the ADC web interface and tested each light to figure out what was what and renamed.
ST hub did not crash, it actually imported very smoothly, but I was only importing 8 switches.
And the Qolsys panel was shown as a āthingā in the ST list of devices
After I confirmed that the import did work, I wanted to add my Kwikset 910 locks. They were recognized as Z wave locks in the ST hub, but when imported into the the Qolsys panel only 1 imported over as āother deviceā.
Also, so far it does seem like alarm.com is updating the status of the light, but at a slower rate that in the past.
Nice. Iām wondering if the fact that Iāve integrated with my Harmony remote may be causing some of the issues during inclusion. The harmony activities show up as ādevicesā in my ST hub but I wouldnāt assume they would be treated as fake z-wave devices during inclusion. My Qolsys panel is receiving 6-8 phantom devices (havenāt officially counted as Iāve tried the inclusion so many times I gave up on the little stuff).
Iām considering removing all devices that are not z-wave from the hub, removing my old BE369 Schlage lock (which I still enjoy since I modified it to be bump proof by disabling the key backup) and then trying inclusion again to see if maybe these device types are causing issues during the import.
So when you add any new device on the DT hub do you have to run the ads controller process again or is there a way to just sync the new device?
Sadly with the limitations of the z-wave support on the Qolsys panel, add controller is the only way to do it. Youāll lose custom device names in the panel as itās reloading all devices (not incremental) so I wouldnāt bother setting them on the panel (just set them on ADC website). Secondly, as a note, if you run into issues with the inclusion, youāll end up with zero devices on the Qolsys panel. If you leave it this way for long, all z-wave devices will be deleted from the ADC website too and then youāll definitely have to rename everything on the website.
Thatās what I was afraid of. I guess the only way to try and get the the locks to register as locks on the panel is to keep reloading all devices and see if they eventually take.
Thatās what I was afraid of. I guess the only way to try and get the the locks to register as locks on the panel is to keep reloading all devices and see if they eventually take.
I have not had experience using ST on Qolsys, but in general certain rules should be followed. For the best chance of success and rule out general issues, make sure the panel and ST hub are within a few feet of one another when pairing the two. Also make sure to leave them in close proximity for 5 minutes or so to make sure all transmission is complete.
Locks tend to be the first thing to have trouble when distance is a concern.
While I agree that close proximity is a good thing to practice, based on my experience so far, it seems as though the ST hub sends the device list as a single payload, including locks. I say this because when my ST hub crashes and reboots itself, Iāve got in the habit of unplugging the ST hub after I see it lock up because thatās the only way results in success on the Qolsys. I only bring this up because I find the behavior curious. Even with the ST hub unplugged, the Qolsys panel cycles through adding nearly all devices (missing one old lock) one at a time adding them, chiming as each one is done being added. Logs from the ST hub seem to coincide with this single payload too. Iām not even sure how this is possible to do with locks but the other two I have are newer Yale locks that donāt seem to require low radio power secure inclusion like the old Schlage.
So after adding another dimmer today, I had to re add the controller and re import all devices. The ST hub was going offline almost everytime but as WRXfanatic stated, if I unplugged the ST hub all of the devices still transfered to the Qolsys panel, with the exception of 1 Lock.
I am also getting some phantom devices reading āother devicesā and the devices totaling more than I actually have.
The issue is going to be if I get everything to sync, and then add 1 more device I will have to resync ALL devices again and risk the locks not pairing again.
Overall the process is very clumsy and it doesnt make much sense for the hub and panel manufactures to offer this as an option and then have it barley functional. I think the only reason this is useful is if you are very desperate to get away from the Qolsys panel as the primary.
I am considering dealing with it as the ST hub has some good functionality for Z-wave window shades and the Echo integration is pretty flawless.
Did anybody have the Linear/ADT garage door opener on Smartthings, and have it import into the Qolsys?
The Linear GD00Z-4 is compatible on the latest Qolsys firmware and Alarm.com, but I do not have experience with it through ST.
