I know there has been some discussion on using an existing alarm system and Konnected together. Like many others have stated, I want to use the existing keypad/app/remotes. In my scenario I don't care to arm/disarm via Konnected/Smartthings. I'm good, actually prefer, doing this through the existing system. I still plan to add some Fire tablets to see which sensors are open but don't plan to use them for alarm activation.
Maybe this has been answered. Maybe it won't work. But I'm wondering if this can be done in a different manner than most have asked. Instead of going through the existing system first, or concurrently, is it possible to leave the siren and keypads connected to the existing system but connect all the door/motion/etc sensors to Konnected. Then place a set of relays between Konnected's outputs and the inputs to the existing alarm. Since I have the 24 zone setup with 4 outputs, I'm thinking I would set up 4 zones in the existing alarm. 1: delayed door, 2: instant door/window etc., 3: motion (or other "stay" sensors), 4: smoke/heat/fire. The siren would remain on the existing system.
In this setup, Konnected (as designed) is in charge of monitoring the sensors and notifying Smartthings that something happened. Smartthings can do whatever we want with that knowledge then turn on the corresponding Konnected output based the sensor category that was tripped (see the 4 zones listed above). This would trip the related relay which acts as an open/close sensor on the proper zone for the existing system. The existing alarm would determine what to do next based on it's own status (off/stay/gone).
Example: The front door, which should be delayed, is attached to any input zone on any Konnected panel (let's say it's on KonnectedPanel2). When it opens, Konnected tells Smartthings. Smartthings turns on a light, turns on a camera, or whatever, then tells Konnected to turn on the KonnectedPanel1's output (which is predetermined to be for delays). That sends juice to Relay1 which acts as an open/close to the existing systems Zone 1 which is designated as the delayed zone. The existing system decides what to do with the siren, strobe or notifying anyone that maybe monitoring it. I'm also hoping the existing system is smart enough to know to ignore a motion sensor that was tripped after the door was opened. This way I don't have to code for that stuff in Smarttings.
Like I said, I'm not knowledgeable enough to know if there is an issue with this. But I thought it was worth asking before I start re-configuring.
I have the same question - have been looking at the other threads to find your reference of "some discussion on using an existing alarm system and Konnected together" but haven't found the right ones yet.
I may just need to research how these things work as I was hoping to somehow "split" the sensors to feed both the existing panel and the konnected panel to run in parallel. I'm not sure if that works based on circuits being completed or not ... but would love to know if there is a way to do this. Eventually I would like to get rid of the existing panel and move everything over to konnected, but I'm not ready to do that yet as I need to tinker with the entire system, panels, etc.
Did you figure out your scenario? Or do you know if a complete parallel operation is possible?
Everything is up and running with Konnected feeding the existing alarm system. I did have to reprogram the existing alarm to remove some of the unused zones and to adjust some of the ones I wanted to use, like changing the zone types and HW settings to N/C. I left the smoke alarm and siren attached to the old system.
It's nice to be able to use all these sensors for automation and still have everyone else use the alarm as they always have before.
Thanks Nate.
This is amazing.
Would be great to have this fully documented & supported by Konnected - I imagine many others (like me) are interested in this approach, but might not have the programming skills required.