Soft Intruder Alarm IoT Alerts and hints

Stoner

A quick point.

I've been asked a number of times to see how you link an intruder alarm panel so it can automatically do something.


So here's a soft suggestion that works for me...... most of the time

If you have an intruder alarm that has access SMS service, you can use the received text as a trigger to do something else using IoT services.

You can install IFTTT from Apple itunes or Google play store

Create a new applet, essentially pick a trigger and an action/ Do

So If

Then

do that

In this case

If = SMS service ( text received )

Do = Turn on Philips Hue lights

So on the if. You have a good few options on the SMS

We get a text on alarm activation so you either select
SMS received from a number
Or
SMS received containing text

A lazy one would be to add the number from your sim card however
If you get a text from your panel saying

Alarm Gross (followed by a zone no)

Add that so you only get the right trigger if it's an activation.

You could make another for texts containing "unset" to turn off a Philips hue light

The most secure would be if you had a schedule service ( not hue ATM) but say lightwaverfs schedules.

Set up a 2 min run time on the lights.

And have any text from the sim card activating it. This means the timer will reset on every alarm panel SMS received, but it will turn off 2 min after the final one

Using the "contains text " option means anyone could text your phone with "Alarm Gross" and it will trigger the hue lights.


Note if your panel sends you an email you could use that too. This could be considered more robust as say if your panel emailed you from a consistent email address you could use the receipt of the mail (in the Google server) to trigger, so it works with your phone off.

However most people are using a text service

Next tip Alarm Activation Log Book

Use the same SMS trigger in IFTTT to log all activity from that number to a Google spreadsheet
Again a 2 minute job and very useful.


All these items need your phone to auctually be on and to have received a text.

You can deactivate IFTTT applets

But note this is good but not solid either as IFTTT can be slow and in this case needs internet connections and your phone on, receiving texts.

However it's a free way to do things like switch on security lights or flash your hue lights if the alarm goes off.

Again not as solid as a wired option, but you could probably do it now in 5 minutes.

Also you wouldn't do this for turning off heating unless you could get a text from your panel when's it's armed

bittihuduga

thanks for the suggestion.. i was lookin for something like this.
i have the spc alarm which sends email (and app alerts but no texts)
i think i will set it up with the email.
i think ifttt works with yeelights, so will follow your tips for switching it on.

bk

You could also have IFTTT in turn trigger a Stringify flow, if you want to do multiple things (e.g. turn on different lights, camers, etc.).

Stoner

bittihuduga wrote:

thanks for the suggestion.. i was lookin for something like this. i have the spc alarm which sends email (and app alerts but no texts) i think i will set it up with the email. i think ifttt works with yeelights, so will follow your tips for switching it on.

Good stuff so use the email trigger, better again.