Starting Slowly

[fedsanchez]

I have a fair bit of experience with programming the Arduino, as well as building electronics. I have a Vista 20P alarm system, and can program it using my 6150 keypad, which is rather crippling as there is no alphanumeric display.

But I don't have any experience with GitHub or Home Assistant. So, I was thinking about starting slowly by setting up an Arduino display only, while only using a 6150 keyboard for data input. Then I would go from there slowly to full implementation.

After examining the wiring schematics, I figure of that the Green wire is the 'Data In' wire to the Keypad. If I'm only doing the display, would I only need it and NOT the Yellow wire? And does it only require a Voltage drop to 5V to the Arduino (I was thinking of using 2 resistors, with a 5.1V Zener diode and a small capacitor parallel to the lower resistor) without an opto coupler?

As far as the Arduino code, would your full implementation work without the other wires hooked up? I was going to add an alphanumeric display to the Arduino code.

Thank you so much for your project!

[Dilbert66]

The green wire is data to/from peripherals to the panel and the yellow is data from the panel. You might get away not using the green wire but why? You need the yellow wire absolutely, otherwise you will not see anything coming from the panel. The optocoupler is there for a reason, as it's a switch between the red line and the green line. Zeners are not switches. The other alternative to an optocoupler is to use a pnp/npn transistor pair since this is a high side switch.

Also note that this is not technically true arduino code, this is an ESPHOME implementation. I advise you to read up on ESPHOME: https://esphome.io/

The resistors are for passive reading of the lines, the optocoupler or transistor pair are needed for sending to the panel.

[fedsanchez]

Thank you for your reply.

I got confused about using the Green wire for some reason. Sorry about that.

If I only use the Yellow wire with a voltage divider for Data In to the Arduino, I would use a Zener diode parallel to the lower resistor not as a switch, but rather to keep the voltage at 5.1V maximum.

I find the EspHome setup rather confusing and will tackle it after getting this part straight.

I suppose I should start with keypad-firmware (by TANC-security) for the arduino code that I can modify to show the Yellow wire output to a display, right?

[Dilbert66]

If you just want to capture data from the panel, yes the yellow wire only is needed. The esp devices are 3.3 volt inputs not 5.1 , FYI. Ensure you use a high enough resistor to not load up the bus. At least 10k if possible. There is a full blown web based keypad component that fully emulates a display keypad, where you would use your browser to access the panel. No need for a physical one.
https://github.com/Dilbert66/esphome-components/blob/dev/README.md#esp32-web-keypad-component

[fedsanchez]

That is fantastic!

Can this virtual keypad be used for programming the Vista 20P (ie using the installer code, etc)?

[Dilbert66]

Yes. Absolutely

[fedsanchez]

That's great.

I'd rather use it locally, however. Do you think I could just use the serial monitor of the Arduino IDE?

[Dilbert66]

The serial monitor? It would just display logs? I don't understand. This is not an Arduino IDE project. It will not work with the IDE. This is an ESPhome application. The web keyboard runs on the local ESP32 so it is all local. If you're not planning on using ESPhome with an ESP32 device then I can't really offer any assistance.

[fedsanchez]

I meant that I'm a little reluctant to use Telegram to control my alarm panel.

I suppose if I only use the yellow wire and your virtual keyboard for display, I can still use the keypad for data entry.

As far as you being helpful, you have been fantastic. Thank you so much for your help.

[Dilbert66]

Telegram is a different component to the keypad component. They are not the same or related. They are all optional. You don't need to have the telegram component installed. I don't know why you would go through the bother of building it only with the yellow line. To use the virtual keypad, you need to have the green circuit to talk to the panel anyhow. Anyways, good luck with your project.

[fedsanchez]

Thanks again.

I think my main confusion is that I've never used Github or Esphome.

From your readme file:
"ESP32 Web Keypad component.
This component provides a virtual keypad for each partition of your alarm system via a web page as well providing all sensor statuses. You can configure all buttons and keys using a config file. l've provided an example yaml file in my components directory. Just configure the yaml as usual for your system. There is an added section called web_keypad: for this new teature.
You don't need to configure anything by default. Just add the section as is also insuring that "web_keypad" is also listed in the external_components section above. All code and config files will be retrieved automatically from my repository and compiled in. You can modify the files to your liking after if needed."

I don't know how to make the config file to mention.
I cannot send to find the example yalm file in your components directory. I cannot find "web_keypad" in the yalm files I did find. I cannot find "external_components section" you mention either.

As you can see, I am totally lost, but it sounds so promising.

I'm feeling this is just beyond me.

Thanks for your help.

[Dilbert66]

This is why I sent you the link to esphome so you can read up about it. The web keypad is part of a configuration in the VistaAlarm.yaml from the components directory. You would would just modify this one file. I can't go into details as you really need to read up on how this all works.

[fedsanchez]

Looks like I'll have to dedicate a fair bit of time for this. I'll give it a try in the new year.

Thanks again!

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!!

[Dilbert66]

Have fun and Happy Holidays and New to you as well!

[fedsanchez]

After seeing your comments on HA, I decided to try again. I had thought you need HA to install ESPHome on the ESP32. I'd actually be very happy not bothering with HA or another home automation system. Yet more complications fo me.

I managed to install the ESP32, using the online tool (https://web.esphome.io). I can see it on http://10.0.0.91.

I used command line on OSX terminal to install python, added the appropriate PATH, did "pip3 install wheel" and "pip3 install esphome", and now the esphome version is 2024.12.1. Great!

So, looks like I got the ESP32 going, and my terminal set up.

I made the demo "esphome wizard livingroom.yaml" and is looks good by "esphome config livingroom.yaml"

BUT, "esphome logs livingroom.yaml" does not seem to work because neither logging choices connect.

ALSO, "esphome run livingroom.yaml" runs well, but ends with a series of the following:

INFO Installing platformio/framework-arduinoespressif32 @ ~3.20005.0
^CTool Manager: Error: Please read https://bit.ly/package-manager-ioerror
ERROR Error: Please read https://bit.ly/package-manager-ioerror
Tool Manager: Warning! Package Mirror: HTTPSConnectionPool(host='usc1.contabostorage.com', port=443): Max retries exceeded with url: /250040e607e8431abaff8727621872f9:pioregmirrorus/tools/d2/b2/7c6d9f7ce6e600a1b0f94c67f659581566c2c867751bd199218db2f51e87/framework-arduinoespressif32-3.20005.220925.tar.gz (Caused by SSLError(SSLError(1, '[SSL: WRONG_VERSION_NUMBER] wrong version number (_ssl.c:1018)')))
WARNING Warning! Package Mirror: HTTPSConnectionPool(host='usc1.contabostorage.com', port=443): Max retries exceeded with url: /250040e607e8431abaff8727621872f9:pioregmirrorus/tools/d2/b2/7c6d9f7ce6e600a1b0f94c67f659581566c2c867751bd199218db2f51e87/framework-arduinoespressif32-3.20005.220925.tar.gz (Caused by SSLError(SSLError(1, '[SSL: WRONG_VERSION_NUMBER] wrong version number (_ssl.c:1018)')))
Tool Manager: Looking for another mirror...
WARNING Looking for another mirror...
Tool Manager: Error: Please read https://bit.ly/package-manager-ioerror
ERROR Error: Please read https://bit.ly/package-manager-ioerror

No folder of bin is created that I may be able to install via web.

I cannot seem to find out what is the problem, or how to generate the bin file that I may be able to install by the web interface.

Any suggestions?

[Dilbert66]

That's an ESphome error. I can't help you with that. They've made a lot of updates lately so this might be related. You might want to post this on the esphome forum for help. I don't think it's anything you did wrong. There is an issue with the esp library that's it's trying to download.

[fedsanchez]

I managed to flash it with the demo livingroom.yaml. I really don't know how it ended up working.

Where do I go from here?

Thanks!

[fedsanchez]

Just curious, why did you make your own template for text sensors etc? What are the benefits over using the defaults?

[Dilbert66]

The reason I use customized sensors is to enable me to set and store the sensor id type for each alarm panel sensor, otherwise I won't know what the sensor represents. Ie, a zone, a display , etc. Customizing allows me to set whatever attributes I need. Be aware that esphome does not keep track or store the "id" anywhere in the object list data for the sensors so being able to identify which sensor is for instance "z5" is impossible unless I add code to store the "id" somewhere or populate an array in the alarm code to keep track of the association.

[fedsanchez]

Interesting. I suppose that cannot be accessed in yaml, only the .cpp file, correct?

[Dilbert66]

The sensor maps are accessible anywhere.. Read the api docs about it. Specifically the get_binary_sensors and get_text_sensors
https://esphome.io/api/classesphome_1_1_application#ac2d7efc1189ec47b6ae6e4b728d0d6fe

[fedsanchez]

I see. But it seems you can only use "get_binary_sensors" in a custom component, correct? You cannot access it by the yaml unless you have implemented that. Is this correct?

[Dilbert66]

You can use it in lambda's like this. App is globally defined by default.

  for (auto *obj : App.get_binary_sensors()) {
      //do something with obj->get_object_id();
  }

[fedsanchez]

Very nice. Thanks.

[fedsanchez]

I'm thinking of adding an LM7805 to run the ESP32 off the Vista. In your diagram you note this is not optimal. Have you tried it? I don't have any wired sensors, just RF. Do you think it would be ok?

[fedsanchez]

Just an update. 28 days running, and things are stable and working fantastic. Thanks so much!!

I am now using a Step Down Buck Converter to power the ESP32 off the Vista's 12v supply. 5 days now and no issues.

I have a question, if you don't mind.

I managed to find a second Vista system. I'm going to use it for testing outputs before putting them on the main system. Do you think that the second system getting input from the RF sensors could mess up the primary system? I don't think so, but wanted to get your opinion.

[Dilbert66]

I use those buck converters and they work great. Also, I'm pretty sure you'll be fine running the second system with those sensors as long as they are only talking to one panel.

[fedsanchez]

Thanks. What do you mean by “talking to“? Both panels would be receiving information. Does the system panel provide information to the sensor?

[Dilbert66]

Rf sensors send to the transceiver which is connected to the panel. I have never tried having an RF sensor send data to two different transceivers. I assume that should work fine as it's a one way communications. I don't have an RF setup for the vista since my main system is a DSC. I wrote the vista rf code using logs of other users systems

[fedsanchez]

I hooked the second one up. So far so good. No interference. Well, you did a great job on the RF if you didn’t test it at all. I only use RF. No hardwired sensors or outputs yet. That’s what my second panel is for testing. Thanks again.

[Dilbert66]

Well, I simulate the panel RF data packets so that I can test the results as if there was real instance.

[fedsanchez]

Interesting. I did not set up the sensors on the Vista, but only added the RF numbers to the yaml. They are reporting as expected, but not triggering alarms, as expected. It looks like it may receive even if the RF numbers were not added to the yaml. Again, makes sense.

I thought you might be interested.

[Dilbert66]

You don't technically need the RF sensors programmed in the yaml for it to work. The main reason that functionality is there is provide immediate detection of the zone closing and opening. As you know, on the Vista, it does not specifically report close events so I depend on timeouts to determine a zone is no longer faulted. By watching the RF sensor or zone expander data directly I can immediately capture a close event and act accordingly. Unfortunately, the rf sensor data does not contain zone info so that's why it needs to be entered in the yaml.

[fedsanchez]

But it wasn’t working prior to my adding the RF numbers to the yaml.

[Dilbert66]

That means that you did not have the zones programmed in the panel for those rf channels and have the zones setup in the yaml.

[fedsanchez]

Right. That's what I said earlier. Sorry for the confusion.

[Dilbert66]

There is logic in the code that automatically clears faults if the partition status is Ready since there should be no open zones with that state. You should add the zone to the panel config so it will work correctly

[fedsanchez]

Would there be a way to make this optional? For internal sensors it would be useful to know if they are open even if they are not hooked up. I tried to do this by trying different zone types on the vista panel, but there is none that match this idea. The zone type 00 (ie not active) works well, but resets to closed by your code. Having it not reset would be helpful to me. But of course may cause issues I am not aware of.

[Dilbert66]

I've added a condition to not reset external set zone open statuses. That way, panel and extender set zones will be controlled separately. It should work fine for your scenario.

[fedsanchez]

Thanks great! I'll give it a try.

[fedsanchez]

Sorry, but I'm getting a compiling error. I haven't downloaded your versions in a while.

Failed config

binary_sensor.vista_alarm_panel: [source VistaAlarm64.yaml:522]
  platform: vista_alarm_panel
  id: alm_1
  name: Alarm
  internal: false
  web_server: 
    sorting_group_id: sorting_group_alerts
    sorting_weight: 10
  publish_initial_state: True
  on_state: 
    then: 
      - 
        Unable to find action with the name 'text_sensor.template.publish'.
        text_sensor.template.publish: 
          id: triggered_sensor
          state: alm_1

[fedsanchez]

This is the sensor that is now faulty:

  - platform: vista_alarm_panel
    id: triggered_sensor  
    name: "Trg Sensor"
    internal: $hide_on_webpanel
    on_value:
      then:   
        - lambda: |-

[Dilbert66]

Don't use an alarm sensor to do a template publish action. Use a platform: template sensor for that. I removed all template publish from alarm sensors as they are not the same. In this case, make sure the sensor with id "triggered_sensor" is a platform: template

[Dilbert66]

Now the panel where the sensor is hooked is notifying me every minute that the sensor is open. I guess that was the unexpected complication I feared.

I don't understand why it's telling you every minute? The zone update should only push a change if there was a change?

[Dilbert66]

Edit: I think I see the issue. I do run a refresh every minute but seems like in your case it's causing some confusion. I'll see what I can do.

[Dilbert66]

Ok, i've pushed an update that will only publish a change if the sensor value differs from the current state.

[Dilbert66]

You said "I've added a condition to not reset external set zone open statuses." I was asking if you could make it optional. So I am now asking if it is optional, or just fixed. If it is optional, how do I toggle it?

It's code logic, not an a yaml option. The code will flag the source of the open/close status internally so will be able to treat them differently. You don't need to do anything.

[fedsanchez]

Great. Thanks.