Old home alarm system - adding smarts

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Bazil

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#302592 4-Dec-2022 20:38

First up a note - I could rip out this system and put in a new one. However the system works fine. I see this as potentially an interesting project, not a "throw money at it" exercise.

I have an alarm system that came with the house. The system works, however I have no ability to know if it has gone off when I am away or to enable/disable it remotely.

I would like to add a home automation setup that connects into this, but the first obstacle is I have no information on the system at all, no manual nothing. The system is unbranded, other than a sticker on the house "spectrum security"

The control panel is very basic:

Recently I needed to replace the battery, so I took a photo of the circuit board of the unit in the roof space at the same time. Note when I took this photo I had removed the power lead (blue connectors) as the alarm was going off.

If anyone has any pointers on how to add a home automation setup to this big bonus :)

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#3005707 4-Dec-2022 20:51

Looks like "solution 6 + 6" from the pic is the name of the alarm

PDF of instruction manual https://www.protectwest.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Bosch-EDM-Solution-66-user-manual.pdf

For Smarts konnected.io

seems to be pretty popular, have not tried it yet myself

Technofreak

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#3005719 4-Dec-2022 21:54

We have a Paradox alarm system. I added remote arm/disarm and monitoring using Home Assistant recently. There's a lot of integrations for Home Assistant for a lot of things. Might be worth look.

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Bazil

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#3005728 4-Dec-2022 22:42

CrunchiePotatoes:

Looks like "solution 6 + 6" from the pic is the name of the alarm

PDF of instruction manual https://www.protectwest.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Bosch-EDM-Solution-66-user-manual.pdf

For Smarts konnected.io

seems to be pretty popular, have not tried it yet myself

Perfect, thank you. Does anyone have experience with Konnected.io?

More than willing to try out, just interested.

jarledb

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#3005730 4-Dec-2022 22:49

Technofreak: We have a Paradox alarm system. I added remote arm/disarm and monitoring using Home Assistant recently. There's a lot of integrations for Home Assistant for a lot of things. Might be worth look.

Very cool. What did you use?

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Technofreak

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#3005738 4-Dec-2022 23:30

I used PAI ( Paradox Alarm Interface).

You also need an interface cable to go from the panel serial port and one of the USB connectors on the Raspberry Pi running home Home Assistant.

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Handle9

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#3005745 5-Dec-2022 03:48

CrunchiePotatoes:
Looks like "solution 6 + 6" from the pic is the name of the alarm

PDF of instruction manual https://www.protectwest.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Bosch-EDM-Solution-66-user-manual.pdf

For Smarts konnected.io

seems to be pretty popular, have not tried it yet myself

You could go to the extent of konnected.io or just run the relay outputs into a pi or similar which can send notifications like arm/disarm, mains failure and alarm. I think solution 6+6 has three programmable relay outputs. The bigger issue will be getting access to program the panel via the keypad.

Edit: Solution panels are great but have potato level smarts. Your one doesn’t even have a phone jack. As you can see from the pcb it’s from 1996 so temper your expectations.

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Handle9

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#3005746 5-Dec-2022 04:01

Have you checked what happens if you set off the alarm?

Out of the box the STR output is meant to go to the strobe and OUT1 would go to the horn. N/O would go to the inside screamer. I don’t think any of these are connected to anything?

Bazil

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#3005748 5-Dec-2022 06:18

Handle9: Have you checked what happens if you set off the alarm?

Out of the box the STR output is meant to go to the strobe and OUT1 would go to the horn. N/O would go to the inside screamer. I don’t think any of these are connected to anything?

Everything certainly works - it is very loud!

Handle9

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#3005749 5-Dec-2022 06:26

Interesting. You've got something a bit funky going on somehow.

Anyway here's the wiring diagram FYI

davidcole

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#3005754 5-Dec-2022 07:15

Technofreak: I used PAI ( Paradox Alarm Interface).

You also need an interface cable to go from the panel serial port and one of the USB connectors on the Raspberry Pi running home Home Assistant.

or the ip module..ideally one on the old firmware.

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Technofreak

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#3005806 5-Dec-2022 08:00

davidcole:

Technofreak: I used PAI ( Paradox Alarm Interface).

You also need an interface cable to go from the panel serial port and one of the USB connectors on the Raspberry Pi running home Home Assistant.

or the ip module..ideally one on the old firmware.

If I already had the IP module I'd use it otherwise I think the serial to USB cable is the best (simple, cheap, easiest) option.

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esawers

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#3005814 5-Dec-2022 08:49

We had a Solution 660 panel, the installer kept all of the sensors and sirens and replaced the panel with a Solution 3000 (with ip panel?) so we can use the phone app to turn the alarm on and off. The app is very basic though