You can control Abode alarm status from Hubitat, as well as act on real-time updates of Abode status changes, CUE automations, and actions from Mobile clients.
2020-07-18T07:00:00Z Version 1.0.1 features
Can be installed via Hubitat Package Manager
Login to the API Portal -- supports MFA auth
Arm/disarm Abode from Hubitat driver page or Rule Machine
Synchronize Abode-initiated mode changes with Hubitat Mode / HSM
Copy Abode timeline events to Hubitat device events
Subscribe to Abode events in other apps: Rule Machine, Maker API, ...
I am considering adding in Abode to use as my primary security system, instead of just using HSM alone with z-wave/zigbee sensors. This is primarily to use the Abode sensors which I assume do not rely on mesh and should communicate directly back to the Abode gateway from what I’ve read. Also I like that if the power goes down the Abode gateway and sensors will still work on battery backup, where as my zwave mesh would not work. My questions are, is there any way to have the same alarm modes like I had in HSM (night, home, away)? Also if I do not pay for an abode plan, will this integration still work to allow me to use the abode door sensors in my normal HE automations (ex:lights, etc)? Lastly, does this integration rely at all on internet services to work between Abode and HE or will it still work if the internet is down, so long as my home network is still functioning?
The Abode API is only available through their Cloud service. There is no way to communicate directly with the local unit (they have said, and nobody else has found otherwise)
The reverse engineered API is a known thing they don't officially support, but unofficially are "aware of" and have pointed people to.
I have been using this driver for a couple of weeks, and it it overall working great - thanks for your hard work, @endorphin_junkie!
One thing I have noticed a couple of times is that events in the 'My Alarm' timeline don't appear as they should, and because of that, some of my virtual devices don't stay synced properly, screwing with my automations (Example: My Alarm timeline doesn't report my patio door closed > my virtual door in Hubitat does not report as closed > my thermostat remains off)...any way to troubleshoot this issue/improve the syncing of devices between abode and Hubitat?
Depending on what you want the status of, exactly, you could use the "-isArmed" child device to show whether or not the abode system is armed. What I did is I created three new virtual devices in Hubitat (abode-Standby, abode-Away, abode-Home), and used RM to update those devices based on the gatewayTimeline events coming in from the main device. You could either add any of those devices to your dashboard, or (what I did) use those virtual devices to better sync the modes between abode and Hubitat, and just add a Hubitat mode tile to your dashboard. Hope that helps.
TL;DR - can we have the realtime status of door/window sensors in abode populate in Hubitat, instead of relying on gatewayTimeline entries?
Long version:
I think I may have found my issue, and I'm wondering if there is a better way...
I created a bunch of virtual devices in Hubitat (one for each contact sensor in abode) in order to use them with automations (turn off HVAC, etc.) The way I was updating the virtual sensors was to watch for changes in the gatewayTimeline from your driver. I had one large-ish RM rule to run, any time there was a change in that timeline, to update all virtual devices accordingly (a big IF-ELSE-IF block)...what I think I figured out was that, if multiple entries were made in the gatewayTimeline while that rule was running, the logic stopped, and my virtual devices never got updated properly.
My temporary fix was to separate out each sensor, and have a RM rule run for each door. Smaller IF-THEN loop=smaller chance a second entry in the gatewayTimeline to foul it out. So far, that seems to have fixed my issue, but I'm wondering if there is a better way.
Instead of relying on gatewayTimeline and using manually created virtual devices and RM logic to create synced contact sensors in Hubitat, can your driver be used to pull/sync the status of door and window sensors in realtime? Or better yet, could an app be used to identify all abode sensors, then prompt the user to select which sensors to bring over to Hubitat, and would then keep those selected sensors synced in Hubitat?
A whole different set of code would need to be created to do that. I would either need to create an app to do that sync (can't do it from a driver) or perhaps create a HubConnect plugin. Neither of these is likely in the short term due to far too many other real-life priorities...
...and in the long term I'm seriously reconsidering whether I'm wasting time with Hubitat given their abysmal track record in regards to security. They continue to downplay it, both in the forums in their broadcasts, and even go so far as to actively dismiss and silence people who bring real-life considerations up in the community. It's their show, they can keep running plain-text HTTP, plaintext Z-Wave, etc and keep dismissing security concerns forever. While I haven't found an appropriate alternative yet, I find myself seriously discouraged to continue investing in this platform.
What does this additional level of indirection give you, when you can make rules against changes to gatewayMode ? Likewise if you are syncing to HSM, you don't need to care about Abode status at all.
My driver doesn't support syncing to virtual devices at all, not sure what improvement you want from nothing? I can suggest it is 2x or 4x better now because multiplying by zero...
Sorry, I haven't found Dashboards to be of interest, so I know nothing of them. I would imagine it is no harder than making any other device status visible.
If I made an app (no plans so far) then making a dashboard would be fairly easy I assume... but you know how that's spelled
Let me just start be reiterating my thanks for making this integration - it is greatly appreciated!
...and that is precisely what I was pitching to you...an app/driver combination that brings all of the sensors/devices more directly into Hubitat instead of relying on the 'gatewayTimeline' and RM to recreate everything. I'd love to see an 'abode Integration' app, with an 'abode Gateway' parent device and multiple child devices created for every abode sensor/device that I wanted to pull into Hubitat. This would allow the abode sensors to be put into dashboards easily (i.e. glance at the dashboards to confirm all doors/windows are closed, etc.) I'd be more than happy to help with the coding, but my knowledge of Groovy/Hubitat app and driver development is precisely zero...
Agree with you 100%, but I just recently read about an unsupported way to enable/force HTTPS and upload your own certificates...I think a former employee was working on it, never finished it, and it was stumbled upon by the community. I'm guessing Hubitat is now scrambling to figure out what to do with it (hopefully finish/support it!)
I originally wanted to create tiles for a dashboard allowing me to change current abode status. At the time, I wasn't sure if I wanted abode or Hubitat in charge of things, and the other just following suit...I have since decided to put Hubitat in charge, and have abode mode synced to the Hubitat mode via RM rules. I still have a tile on one of my dashboards showing the current abode status (from 'gatewayMode'), but it's now more of a "trust but verify" assurance
I was referring back to the request to create that app/driver above (I could have typed that better )
I completely get the lack of time/desire to continue development of this, with the Hubitat security concerns, abode's lack of an officially supported API, their recent cloud outages that put a wrench in all of this...I guess I'm hoping to "kindly" twist your arm to reconsider, LOL!
I'd highly recommend investigating the HubConnect API as a better source for this, as it will give you a lot of what you need on the Hubitat side, then just grab the hub login interface from one of the multiple hacked-up attempts to play with Abode's API.
P.S. a lof of what you see even in the API responses is wrong, like when the session tokens time out, etc. Believe what your tests show you.
Hi @endorphin_junkie. Haven't had time to mess with my automation system much lately, but it's generally been pretty stable, including the communication between abode, Hubitat, and the rest of my home automation system.
I'm going to be creating some network segmentation to improve security in my home network - creating VLANs for IOT, etc. I had thought to put abode and its cameras on their own VLAN, and keep hubitat on the same VLAN as my home automation computer, since Home Control Assistant watches HE's IP for app messages. I'm trying to remember if your driver for abode talks to it locally via the LAN or logs into via cloud. I seem to recall it's the latter.
Do you have any thoughts on whether hubitat and abode need to be on the same VLAN/subnet for your driver to work?
Thanks!
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