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Over the last months I have received many questions on how to connect an Aritech CD34 Alarm Panel to Homeseer. Instead of sending PM's to all, I have decided to make a general description and posted it here.

First a bit of basic sensor technology:

- In line with the alarm sensor two resistors (4k7) are connected. These resistors ( one in parallel with the PIR/REED contact and one serial) make it possible to distinguish between four common states:
o Normal, the alarm contact is closed and everything is normal => 4K7 Ohm
o Triggered, the alarm contact is opened and rest is normal => 10K ohm
o Sabotage, the line has a short circuit => 0 Ohm
o Sabotage, the line is cut => ~ Ohm

For my Homeseer system I am only interested in two sensor conditions: Normal & Triggered. Sabotage is handled by the alarm panel. I also want to know if the panel is armed, if an alarm condition is detected and last but not least I want to be able to arm the panel from homeseer.

General setup

The interface I have built partially uses standard components and partially consists of home brew components. These are the most important components:

<b>1. Homeseer,</b> no further introduction required http://www.homeseer.com
<b>2. Belkin USB over Ethernet hub</b>, enables me to separate the location of the Homeseer server and the alarm interface. Details can be found at : http://www.belkin.com/networkusbhub/ or on multiple threads on this forum
<b>3. DigiBee I/O board</b>, a small PCB that comes with its own Visual basic example programs and drivers. The board features 16 Digital inputs, 16 Digital outsputs and 4 analogue inputs. Details can be found at: http://www.pc-control.co.uk/digibee_plus_info.htm
<b>4. Visual Basic interface</b>, a homebrew piece of code that connects to Homeseer and the Digibee board and has two functions: 1) control the digital outputs on the DigiBee board from virtual devices in Homeseer 2) Update the status of Homeseer virtual deviced if a digital input on the DigiBee board changes.

<b>5.Optocoupler interface</b>, again a homebrew project that takes care of galvanic separation of the DigiBee board and its connected inputs.
<b>6. Velleman relay interface K6714-16</b>, an universal relay board that comes with 16 relays and provide galvanic sepration of the DIgiBee outputs and the connected systems. For details refer to: http://www.vellemanusa.com/us/enu/produ ... ?id=351127
<b>7. Analog to digital interface for alarm panel</b>. Interface built on a cheap Atmel Tiny 13 programmable microcontroller that contains a program (developed by a dear friend) that invokes the built in analogue to digital convertor and triggers a digital output based on the input voltage measured. Details on the controller can be found here: http://www.atmel.com/dyn/resources/prod ... /2535S.pdf

The following paragraphs will further detail the various connections:

<b>1. Reading the sensor inputs.</b> In parallel to all Alarm sensors the Atmel Tiny13 controller measures the input voltage. If the sensor status changes, the input voltage changes and this will trigger the digital output of the controller. The digital output is connected to the DigiBee board by means of an opto coupler and eventually the virtual device in Homeseer is updated to reflect the sensor status.
<b>2. Reading the status of the alarm panel.</b> The various outputs of the alarm panel have been programmed to reflect the status of the panel. (armed / partially armed / triggered). The outputs have been connected via the optocoupler board to the DigiBee interface and are feed to Homeseer in the same fashion as the sensor inputs.
<b>3. Controlling the status of the alarm panel.</b> I have programmed an Homeseer event to partially arm the alarm panel when going to bed. To establish this I have programmed an alarm panel input for this function. The input is connected to the relay board and if the corresponding virtual device in Homeseer changes, the alarm panel is armed or disarmed accordingly.

I have included a high level drawing that provides an overview of the complete setup.

I have programmed several events in Homeseer that further automate my home, here are some examples:

- If we leave the house and arm the panel, at daytime all lights are switched off, at night time the security lights are switched on.
- If the panel is armed, security lights will automatically switch on and of depending on the time of day and the dusk/dawn sensor
- If the front door is opened at night, the lights in the hall will automatically switch on
- If the garden door is opened at night the lights in the porch are switched on
- If I enter the living room and it is dark, the Homeseer Touch panel will automatically switch on.

So far, looking forward to replies and comments, please describe your setup!

@PIETER: please feel free to move this to another section if you feel this would be better.

Francois
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Homeseer V2, RFXcom receiver, Harrisson Electric Curtains, Touchscreen + homebrew interface. DigiBee+, Velleman Relay board, homebrew optocoupler interface, homebrew Aritech interface, homebrew DigiBee-Homeseer interface.

Francois,

Absolutely Super Posting!!!
This can be used with other alarms as well if I understand this description correct.

The arming of the alarm is 1 mode I guess: all zones "on" of "off". If I want a third option, being "partial on", I probably need an addtional input. Correct?

THANKS!
Marcel

Yep, as long as the alarm system uses the same methodology to connect the sensors.

The CD34 has the option to program a zone for "partial in", this will arm all zones that have the "partial attribute" set.

I have chosen to not use HS to fully (dis)arm the panel, this is a security feature and you should not mixed security and domotica in my opinion....

Francois
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Francois,

Where did you buy the Belkin USB/Ethernet-hub?

I bought mine at Komplett.nl and picked it up in amsterdam. The article at that time was: "341159 Belkin Netwerk-USB-hub 5 USB 2.0 poorten" please refer to http://www.komplett.nl/k/ki.aspx?sku=341159


Francois
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Francois,

Bedankt voor de info.

Thanks

Francois,

What is your experience until now with the Aritech PIRs? Are they working fine for motion detection to turn on/off lights for example?
Or are these PIRs too slow for this purpose?

I am currently thinking about integrating my Aritech alarm panel with HomeSeer using RFXio.

Regards,

Peter

Peter,

I really like the Aritech PIR's they are super reliable, I am using them now for more then 10 years without any problems. I also have two visonic wired 360 degree ceiling mount PIRS with double detection (IR+RADAR), again reliable and without problems.

There is always a delay but for us it is acceptable, my (subjective) feeling is that the Reed door-contacts respond as fast as the PIRS and that the delay is caused by the X10 interface.

The Visonic can switch between two operating modes: IR AND Radar or IR OR Radar. I first used the double detection mode (AND) but later on switched to single (OR) because it is faster.



Francois

Finally, after a long time, today I also successfully connected my Aritech panel to Homeseer.

My setup looks like the setup which Francois uses, but I am using a Velleman K8061 Extended USB Interface Board.
My goal was to re-use the sensors already in place. In order to achieve this I use the 8 analogue input ports on the K8061 to measure the voltage on the input ports of the Aritech panel. As the Aritech panel expects the currency to be in certain voltage ranges to determine the actual status (tamper, alarm, rest) and the input ports have an resistance of 20 kOhm I added an additional 20 kOhm resistor between each input port on the panel and the input port on the K8061.

For the HomeSeer part I use the plugin from Maikel Wijnen http://www.maikelwijnen.com/pr_homeseer_vm140.php.

Finally I made a small script which translates the input value from the analogue ports (voltage) to the corresponding status and update a virtual device with this value.
So voltage between 1.9 and 2.5 means zone closed; between 2.6 and 3.3 meas open zone and everything else means sabotage. I decided to write a small vb script to limit the number of events I would have to create otherwise.

@ petermdevries
could you please make a sort of drouwing of how you connected the system your way.
i'm verry interrested in connecting my aritech cd 72 to homeseer but until now it looked to difficult to do it lik francois did.
so if i understand correct with the plugin from maikel and the velleman K8061 i can do so without needing to write a sort of program??

vr gr luis

I tried to make a drawing how I connected my system as you can see below.
To keep the drawing simple I only drawed 2 of the 10 sensors I have (S5 and S6) but the other sensors are of course connected in the same way.

In HomeSeer I created an event for each input which runs a small VBScript. This script updates a virtual device to a meaningful status like the sensor has in my alarm system (Tamper, Open, Closed).
I use a small script to limit the number of events needed, but you should be able to do the same without the script. Please feel free to use my script if you like.

Petermdevries thanks for all the effort,

As far i can see its verry interesting and very doable for me your way.
What i see you connected every input paralel on the first connector of the zone with a 20komh "weerstand"
Whats the reason you connected the gnd on the k8061this way? and not from the "hulpspanning" on 28 of the aritech panel?

Is it only possible to connect 8 inputs on the k8061
On my aritech cd 72 i have 16 zones is this possible using the digital inputs of the k8061 for the other 8 zones?

vr gr luis

What i see you connected every input paralel on the first connector of the zone with a 20komh "weerstand"
Whats the reason you connected the gnd on the k8061this way? and not from the "hulpspanning" on 28 of the aritech panel?

I think won't make any difference. I thought the best way to connect the gnd connections would be to use the gnd of the input connectors.

Is it only possible to connect 8 inputs on the k8061
On my aritech cd 72 i have 16 zones is this possible using the digital inputs of the k8061 for the other 8 zones?

In that case you will have to "translate" the analogue output to a discrete signal. In that case you probably will have to use a solution like Francois is using.