Honeywell Ademco Vista Alarm Panels Plugin via AD2USB

[dj2020]

I have a scenario I hope someone can help me with. I?m trying to use one of my wired Ademco Vista  motion sensors for some of my scenes. When my alarm system is disarmed, I can use the wired motion sensor to trigger scenes without issue. But when the alarm is armed in stay or night mode, the motion sensor will not trigger my scenes. I think the issue is because when my alarm is armed stay or night mode, the motion sensor is actually bypassed by the programming in my Ademco Vista system.

How can I get Vera to see the wired motion sensor tripped even when the alarm is armed stay/night mode?

[Buxton]

The scenario you have occurs because the Honeywell panel will not send partition events to the keypad (AD2USB) if the panel is armed.  The exception to this is a monitor zone (zone type 12) which will send events armed or not.  The way to get around the problem is to set up a second partition and put only your motion sensors on that partition.  You can leave the partition unarmed for most occasions (while your primary partition is armed), which allows it's sensors to send you data, and if you need to arm the motion sensors, you can then arm your sensor partition as well as your primary partition giving you 100% coverage.

[dj2020]

The scenario you have occurs because the Honeywell panel will not send partition events to the keypad (AD2USB) if the panel is armed.  The exception to this is a monitor zone (zone type 12) which will send events armed or not.  The way to get around the problem is to set up a second partition and put only your motion sensors on that partition.  You can leave the partition unarmed for most occasions (while your primary partition is armed), which allows it's sensors to send you data, and if you need to arm the motion sensors, you can then arm your sensor partition as well as your primary partition giving you 100% coverage.

Thanks. I think I understand what you mean. That means I will need the installer code for my alarm panel to get in and set up a secondary partition and place the motion sensor in that and leave everything else in the primary partition, correct?  This secondary partition cannot be created by the AD2USB plugin for Vera purposes?

Might be wishful thinking getting the installer code from the monitoring service.

I?m thinking it might be easier to just get another zwave motion sensor instead.

[Buxton]

Yes, that's the way to do it and yes, you need the installer code. The partition is a property of the panel, not AD2USB--which is essentially a keyboard.  There are ways to reset the code but it's best that the alarm company give the code to you so everyone's on the same page.  Partitions are typically used when you have two or even three areas that need different security requirements, for a given overall coverage environment.  It is no more difficult for the monitoring company to monitor one partition or three.  They are monitoring the panel state, not specific zones or partitions.

It's a fairly straight forward process to modify the panel.  Lots of sequential button presses, but very doable.  All the manuals are on the internet, and if you follow the step by step, it should not be too difficult.

[dj2020]

Thanks Buxton for your explanation.

[djrobx]

Not sure why so many people have issues with the AD2USB - I set mine up 8 years ago and have 26 different door, window, motion and other sensors and they work much more reliably than some of my other zwave sensors and switches!

I strongly suspect they have something else going on that's causing luup to restart often.   

I have had an ad2usb going for many years as well.  The device itself is extremely reliable, more so than my old Vera 2 was (crashes due to out of memory become an issue).   I eventually programmed my Vera to reboot every day as a preventative measure.   Once I did that, maybe 1-3 times a month I'd see a "AD2USB connection down" error.   It just sometimes didn't "open" properly after the reboot.    Restarting Luup would fix it every tine.   

So if someone has a system where luup resets itself more often, they will see issues more frequently.   The AD2USB plugin never attempts to retry if there are issues with the connection.   I eventually replaced my vera with a new VeraPlus which hopefully won't need to be rebooted as often.   I haven't seen connection down yet, but time will tell.  If it becomes a thing again I'll probably look at periodically checking for the error and restarting luup if it's there.   Would be better if retry logic was built into the plugin, though.