How to trigger panic alarm with Envisalink?

🚧 Developers
1

Using the information found on this forum, I've successfully integrated HE with Envisalink 4 to be able to arm/disarm my DSC alarm system. Just wondering how I would go about using HE to trigger a panic alarm (Fire, Ambulance, Police)?

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Personally... I wouldn't use HE, or any other home automation system, to initiate such a critical event. That's no slight on these systems or those involved in developing or promoting them... If you want something you can rely on in a crisis, I would seek out appropriate systems or methods designed specifically for those situations. By all means use HE to detect motion, contact sensors opening, water leaks, CO levels, etc, and alert you to these or raising alarms in the house.... But this will often involve bringing together a range of devices from different manufacturers who may develop their products with very different use-cases in mind than you are intending.... Let alone the complexities of bringing together these devices in the various network configurations required.

For situations where you know you need "the authorities", you want to know the devices needed to detect these situations will work together as a cohesive system and have been tested with this configuration in mind, plus that the alerting mechanism is fit for purpose with adequate redundancy and monitoring to make sure any outages are detected before an emergency arises.

Have I harped on enough.... :slight_smile: I guess my point is that systems like HE and other commercial HA systems, in my opinion, are built to "elevate your environment", but to protect your family you want something built with that purpose in mind.

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3

Thank you for your reply and I agree with your view. I have DSC smoke/fire sensors connected to my DSC alarm system and can initiate panic alarms via the DSC panels and remotes. I wanted to make use of the other sensors and buttons that are connected to the HE and the Rule Machine to be able to initiate panic alarms to the DSC system via Envisalink. i.e. I rely on my DSC system to safely handle the panic alarms. I just wanted to add additional functionally/flexibility with the understanding that HE may fail to initiate or falsely initiate a panic alarm.

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