New Qolsys IQ Panel 2+ setup

I installed my panel and devices today and have a number of questions: (1) I want to use a Honeywell 5821 and probe as a flood sensor, but I don’t want it to trigger an alarm or notify the monitoring station. All I need is a notification to me via email/text through alarm.com. When I installed the sensor, I selected water as the sensor type because it seemed like the only one that applied. It shows at a group 38-water sensor. Have I set it up correctly or will it trigger an alarm? (2) I have tried to connect my Rachio controller, but when I enter my Rachio user name and password in the alarm.com app I get an error that the user/password combination isn’t recognized. I have confirmed that I am entering the correct username and password by using the same combo to login to the Rachio app and website. I reached out to Rachio for help because I thought it might be an issue on their side. All they did was point me to the instructions for logging in. Not helpful at all. (3) I get an error when trying to set up a connection my Nest Thermostat. It says that option is temporarily unavailable. I just want to be sure it is a system-wide thing and not something I need to do.

Resolved the Rachio problem.

For the Honeywell 5821, when programmed as flood using Group 38, this will cause an alarm. In order for a sensor to not cause an alarm, it would need to be set as a Type: Occupancy Sensor and the group set as 25: Local Safety Sensor. This way you can still set up a notification in ADC but not generate an alarm/send signal to central station. Try these settings and test.

Regarding Nest, Nest devices cannot be connected to Alarm.com at this time, as of 8/18/2019. Although this is expected to change.

To clarify, Google has ended their “Works with Nest” program, so the ability to connect non-Google platforms like Alarm.com to that environment is gone at the moment. It will be replaced by Google Smart Device Management aka “Works with Google Assistant” and Alarm.com states that they will be adopting this new program soon thereafter.

Thanks, Tyler. I switched the 5821 over to an occupancy sensor. What kind of notification do I set up in ADC? I see two potential options: (1) if the sensor triggers an alarm or (2) if the sensor is open. I’m assuming it isn’t the first since an occupancy sensor doesn’t trigger an alarm. But I’m also not sure if the second is correct. Does an occupancy sensor have an “open” status? It currently shows as “occupied.” I guess the only way to test it is to submerge it in water?

Sensor open should be sufficient, but you will want to test it by having the probe tips contacting water for 3+ minutes based on documentation. The Occupancy sensor group is for supervision purposes.

Placing it in water triggered a tamper alert, which I have set for all sensors. As far as I can tell, I received no alert from setting up an open sensor alert. Does that seem like the right way to leave things given what I am trying to accomplish?

Instead of sensor left open, try Sensor Activity for the notification. That should generate a notification once the water is detected after 3+ minutes.

I’ve been informed that setting up Nest Integration is now available again. You can do so on the Alarm.com website by navigating to Settings > Add Device.