Electrician needs a hand.

[Snelens 0]

Gday forum users.

 

Looks like  a lot of pretty smart people on here so I hope I can learn and maybe contribute.

I'm an electrician based in Melbourne Australia. I have a small business thats been operating for nearly 30 years. We have been providing services inc standard light & power work, security systems and CCTV in the residential service market.

I am in the process of cabling our family home new build and have started looking around at what integration I would like to install. Z wave appears to be the most reliable and suported. 

One of the 1st things I wanted to do was intergrate the security system with the z wave controller. I'm hoping to use the security system field devices as inputs for scenes or actions.

I can see that there is a DSC plug in but cant find anything to suit the Paradox range of system. Paradox do a ASCII module that also supports C-Bus. Anyone have any ideas on where to look to help teh systems talk?

 

2nd thing is integrating thermostats. At the moment the house will need to be cabled to suit 9x thermostats! This seems crazy!

Climate control systems include; 4x under tile heat mats, 4x HVAC (2 levels 4 zones) and 1x hydronic heating unit. These will require 3 apps. 

 

I'll imediately start looking through the forum right now!

 

Thank you and look forward to it. 

 

 

 

[Tim__ 110]

@Snelens welcome! You might regret admitting that you are a sparky ?

Fibaro is by no means perfect, but better than what else is out there, well done on your choice.

Re security systems, I have decided that home automation systems are not mature enough to take care of house security. Better to use a dedicated security solution (this may be old school but what you need is reliability, not bleeding edge). Then integrate the security system back to the automation system, generally just to turn on/off, using smart implant or fibaro switch if required.

You may well find what you need in the forum, otherwise there are some knowledgeable people here to ask.

[Snelens 0]

Thanks Tim. 

Yes I was planning to use a dedicated security system. Areas, zone configuration etc are too important. Now I need to work out how to get the controller to talk to the hub !

 

[Martin_N 143]

@Snelens Hi,..

 

You can visit thist post:

 

And when it comes to full integration with the security system, it's actually unnecessary. All you need are states of guarding or alarm.
If you still insist on integration (for example, due to window / door contact sharing), I recommend starting to write your own QA. I'm going to do it for a long time, but I have a lot now.
How would I proceed for Paradox:
PRT3 + iTach Flex components (rs232).
The protocol for PRT3 is nicely described. We've already done a couple of houses in conjunction with Crestron, so I know it works.
For Fibaro, however, there is no protocol connection. You have to write it down. It's a lot of work, a lot of tuning and advice, you have to keep in mind that this will make a "hole in the house" if you don't save some things.

Write more, we can talk about your needs.
eM.

[Tim__ 110]

I came across this, it's a great guide on how to connect a Bosch 3000 alarm to Fibaro Home Centre. It uses Smart Implants rather than APIs but still useful.

 

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[Scott 1]

This doesn't really help, but I have a Ness D8 alarm and I have loved being able to arm the house and it turns off all of the lights, aircon and music etc via my HC2.

I found that

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developed a plugin for the HC2 and the D8 and I had to also buy an Elk IP232 RS232.