New Konnected equipment

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Since there are a bunch of Konnected users here, thought I would share.

This coupled with the other firmware enhancements in 2.3.0 (yay, OTA firmware updates and MQTT are coming!), is pretty exciting in my opinion. Good job @nate!

I would love to swap my 18 zone, 3 board system for 2 Alarm Panel Pro boards (as I have a POE switch 12 inches from the current boards), but I'm afraid the wife will consider that cost prohibitive.

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Interesting, although $230 for 12 digital inputs does seem a bit steep! POE is nice, and the Konnected software is nice as well... But $230 for 12 inputs? A NodeMCU ESP32 is only about $10 shipped from Amazon, and is simple to integrate with Hubitat with free software. :wink:

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PLUS now if you want to upgrade the Konnected interface kit, you have to purchase the Konnected alarm panel 2 AND Konnected alarm panel interface kit. A ribbon connects the two boards together and your talking about $89 for the Konnected panel 2 and $29 for the interface panel. Just wondering if they will eventually dump updating the firmware in the older products.

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$230 for 12 inputs ! You can buy a top of the range alarm panel with this capability and supporting wireless zones too and the box, and PSU for less. I think they’ve mispriced this.

K

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It does seem a little steep to me, too.

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200ish for POE. Get it off the WIFIs... I will probably consider it.

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It doesn't scale well cost wise past 12 zones - in my opinion.

I very much like that the input surge and overvoltage protection is built-in now, though. No more goofy resisters/diodes to wire up any more.

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Thanks for posting this @JasonJoel and I'm glad to hear that everyone here is as excited about the new products as I am! They're really a big step up in terms of reliability and build quality.

I just wanted to quickly comment on the price / value because there seems to some disappointment about the price tag for the Pro board with Ethernet. We've spent a whole lot of time, energy and money in R&D on both the hardware and software side to get a PoE capable Ethernet board to a viable working solution. This would be very tough (if not impossible) for a DIYer to build themselves with a $10 ESP32. In addition to the R&D that went into the design and the ongoing R&D on the software/integrations, the price tag also includes:

  • short circuit & lightning protection (my EE has literally zapped this thing with 1000+ volts via the sensor wires and it still lives!)
  • built-in overcurrent protection
  • FCC compliance
  • full safety/certification testing for the relevant European "CE" directives. This in itself is very expensive and complex, but it makes for a safer and assuredly compliant product that can be distributed worldwide.
  • flexible power requirements -- either PoE+ or using a 12V power adapter you can run up to 5A through the board
  • flexible outputs: 1 dedicated 12V alarm output, 1 dedicated 3.3V output, and a third output that can be either 12V or 3.3v

Also keep in mind that that the product is a one-time purchase and ongoing software an integration updates will be free. This may not be relevant to Hubitat users just yet, but we're also working on cloud integrations that can enhance the experience and/or provide alarm/automation features with out needing a hub.

No, definitely not! We're not abandoning the ESP8266-based firmware. In fact, the new Alarm Panel 2 (6-zone modules) are using the same ESP8266 chip and firmware as our original NodeMCU-based device, so this firmware is very much still alive and under active development.

Even if Konnected did go away one day, our ESP8266-based firmware and integrations are all open source, so they'll live on forever in the public domain.

Anyway, thanks for the discussion and the enthusiasm in the products. I'm happy to answer any questions that come up.

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Thanks Nate ! Will be looking for some new updated videos Lolo .With the enhancements you mentioned, I'll probably upgrade to the new interface kit. Previous version working flawlessly though so still have some reservations on upgrading, but with pre production savings and $10 off for previous purchases, it probably better now or never.

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Resistors are not there for surge protection. They are there for security. For example, if I have a door sensor that is closed when the door is closed, but have a resistor wired in parallel to the sensor, when the door opens it's not an open circuit, it's a circuit with the resistance value of my EOL resistor on it. These values vary per alarm vendor.

If a bad guy cuts into a wall next to a door and manually bridges the wires together or cuts wires, that resistance measurement will usually thwart his efforts if the resistor is installed correctly. Unfortunately most alarm installers are lazy and install the resistor at the panel side, which does nothing. For an attack like this to be successful with a properly installed resistor, the attacker would need to know the value of the resistor, which means they need to know the manufacturer of the alarm panel since they all use different values.

Also, in more complex systems, it allows you to use 2 sensors on just 2 wires by using a combination of parallel and series resistors to give you a 4-way multistate reading. Super useful for devices like motion sensors that have a tamper switch. Elk M1 supports this, not sure who else does.

Bottom line is resistors are not there to protect your equipment, they are there to thwart attacks where someone gains access to the wiring somehow.

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You are right in the case of traditional wired alarm panels, but not Konnected. Konnected doesn't support tamper protection, and can't be used with resistors. what Jason was referring to were blocking diodes that we supplied for EMI protection on the v1 boards.

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Dang, I had no idea this was coming out and bought the original less than a month ago. The significant other would NOT understand upgrading so soon.

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our return policy allows for returns within 60 days

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I went back and looked at my emails, it was Aug 12 so looks like I have a week or so to make a decision to stay w/in 60 days. Thanks for the info.

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I bought the 6-zone Alarm Panel Interface because I am not interested in pulling out the original panel in case I move in the near future but I am a little confused about the terminology in the new products.

  1. What would I have to buy to have equivalent system with the new product?
  2. If I want to have 12 zones, I assume I would just need another $29 interface in addition to what I have to buy to achieve #1
  3. To confirm, these products are not going to be available until December so I would have to go without until then if I were to return my current one correct?
  4. Is there a way to connect the new $29 interface to what I have currently to get me to 12 zones even if it requires a little wire cutting and soldering.
  5. And unrelated to the previous 4 questions, is Konnected spending any time trying to solve the issue with Zone 1 problem with the Vista panels? In my excitement in finding your product so that I could utilize my existing alarm devices with ST & Hubitat, I completely skimmed past the part where Zone 1 of my panel won't work with Konnected board so now I only have 5 usable zones. I would love to be able to arm/disarm my existing panel with Hubitat but I can't spare another zone.

Thank you for taking the time to respond.

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In the new generation of products, we've built out the INTERFACE module to a separate add-on component instead of a standalone product like the 1st generation that you have. So the equivalent to the INTERFACE board that you currently have is the $29 interface module plus $89 Konnected Alarm Panel 2 kit (with add-on module).

The interface module itself does not have any communication capabilities, just the circuitry to interface in parallel. It requires a connection to the Alarm Panel 2 or Pro.

If you wanted 12 zones to be connected in-parallel, you'd need a 12-zone Alarm Panel 2 kit ($139) plus two interface modules ($29 x 2).

Yes, current estimate is that we'll receive the new products and start shipping in December.

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Nate, I ordered the new Interface module AND the new Konnected Alarm Panel 2 kit (NOT the add on kit) to replace my original Konnected INTERFACE modulefor my 6 zone system. Am I correct that with the INTERFACE module , you can use EITHER the Konnected ALARM Panel 2 kit OR the Alarm panel 2 ADD ON Kit with just a 6 zone wired alarm system? Is there any difference in the two and is one recommended over the other for a 6 zone system?

Thanks again for clearing up things for us

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Yes that's right. To get feature parity with the 1st gen INTERFACE panel that you have, you would want the add-on board. The add-on board has an output for a relay that can be used for an arm/disarm keyswitch.
The Alarm board has a 12V siren output, but no support for a 5V relay.

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Nate, are you saying if I get the new alarm 2 ADD ON board that I can use my old INTERFACE module and not need to order the new interface module? Or in your opinion is it best to install Both new alarm2 module and new interface module for future compatibility and upgrades.