My Fibaro controlled alarm (Part 2) - The Setup (Scenes)

So this is what I have setup so far to get a working alarm.  Important, as I have said previously, I didn't want to use LUA code in this, just wanted to use blocks and variables.  I am sure there are a number of ways to do this, this is what I came up with.  I have decided to share as I haven't seen anything comprehensive (even if wrong).  If you know of other ways or think I have got this completely wrong, please let me know in the comments or on the Fibaro forum.

Firstly, as I have an Everspring siren this is just seen as a switch.  Once getting this included I changed the controlled device from "Other device" to "Lighting".  A major issue with this is if you switch on all your lights at home...the alarm will sound!!  I am going to play with the other device types and will update this if/when I find another way.

Second, I started doing this with the idea that I would use scenes to control the arming and disarming of the alarm.  The idea was that I would control both with a ZWave.me key-fob, button 1 for arming and button 2 for disarming.  Thanks for this blog for showing how to setup the key-fob which I am not going through.  But the Key-fob is just the interface, all my testing was actually done from my Android phone running the scenes.

Arming Scene
These are the scenes that I have setup, for Arming the alarm:

Essentially, I checked on something that I could completely control...in this case the front door being closed, and then armed all my devices from that sending a push message to my phone. Also, for arming I didn't want to be putting in PIN codes as I would be using a key-fob.

Disarming Scene
This was basically the reverse!

Although I added a turn-off of the siren in case it was sounding but this has been a waste and doesn't work, I will remove it in part 3!

Controlling device sensors

Then to control the timing of the motion control devices and / or windows/door sensors, I wanted to add time to get out of the house and be out in enough time that I didn't get exceptions while arming.  I did this by adding a 45sec delay to the arming of the device. (initially this was 30sec but I have since extended it)

The same for when I wanted to disarm, I added a disarming delay which essentially allows you to walk into the house and for the alarm to not be in a "breached state" for the 30 seconds.

Siren
Next, the sounding of the siren.  So initially, as the siren is now seen as "lighting" I added the device to the alarm panel with a 30 sec delay (same as per disarming above) and also added a notification to send me a push message if the alarm was sounding.

Testing and issues
I have run some tests to see how this will all work and come across some issues, but essentially it does actually work.  Running the script starts off the sequence, and by going to the devices section (or in the Android app) there will be a countdown for each of the sensors.  Once this reaches zero, the sensors should all arm, and the alarm panel will report that the alarm is armed.

Devices Arming Countdown

Devices Armed

Alarm Panel

Disarming, same process by running the disarming scene...but be quick.  If you aren't quick I found that it would timeout and not disarm!

Now onto some of the issues and why I have actually started to move to a mix of scenes and other interfaces.

Issue 1 - Then, disarming the alarm with the disarming scene when it is sounding gives me an "access denied" (and with the key-fob obviously no feedback and the alarm still sounding!!) as running of scenes is disabled during the alarm sounding EVEN when the setting "Do not allow alarm to stop scene while alarm is running" is checked.  I cannot find why this is the case, but this seems to be a bug.

Issue 2 - When the alarm is sounding, from the mobile app as I can't use the scene I used the alarm panel on Android, it only deactivates THE SENSOR THAT IS BREACHED...all other sensors stay active.  I can see this as being a feature as you want the house to continue to be armed if one room is breached so that the alarm will sound again but I was not aware and it caused me issues, plus makes switching off the siren more difficult.

Issue 3 - When breached the siren will sound and even if the sensor is deactivated/disarmed and it will continue to sound.  There is no stopping these as part of the disarm process within HC2, and the feedback from Fibaro support was "sorry action on disarm is still not implemented".  To disarm you either have to switch it off manually (which is what I did initially) or write a scene that works to check (in part 3)

Issue 4 - Phone notifications, they sometimes arrive and sometimes not (on Android that is) so don't rely on them at all.

Other ways of arming
Then came the realisation that I really needed a device, at the entrance door (or centrally placed) to be able to arm and disarm.  The key-fob was an initial idea but with the problems with scenes not running with alarms properly it means I had to fumble with my phone or run up to the PC to get the siren off and the alarm disarmed....not something that my wife would put up with. ;-)

With that I decided to use an iPad 2 that I have around the house, mounted on the wall to control my home automation and the alarm.  This also came with the realisation that the iPad app is far easier to use (Android Alpha version is not really there at the moment) than my phone or the key-fob.  Seems expensive but it was an option that I have...and I will explain the changes in part 3.