You'd probably want to use PowerG sensors for detached buildings. They have a much greater range than older wireless technologies.
Absolutely. This is what I meant by the distance support for this platform.
There is also the DSC PG9WLSHW8 PowerG to hardwire that supports partitions so you can hardwire a garage including sirens, smoke and contact sensors etc.
I've been learning a lot about what's possible. They have remote keypad/screen now, but you are limited to adding 3 of them. You can get the Pro panel for hardwire and add the remote keypad/screens. The pro can do addressable loops. I do not know if it supports control4. I found no references and since the control4 diver is older there were no references there.
I'd like to leverage proximity tags for arm/disarm, but oddly the IQP4 doesn't have a reader in it. Only the hardwired keypads have it. You can run a couple hardwired keypads off the PowerG to hardware device mentioned above.
System ordered. I have the hardwire, IQP4 and the remote. I picked up a doorbell sensor as well to test them out for universal needs.
I saw in the firmware update that there is virtual device support. I'm not quite clear on how that works. I'm also not clear on how Alarm.com fits into everything.
Looks like there is a Zigbee daughter card available with a short list of supported devices.
I've confirmed that the newer IQ Pro panel does support the Control4 driver and then should work with this driver.
FWIW: the IQ Pro Panel with the metal enclosure has an external antenna for the cellular connection and should provide better signal strength. You cannot use the external antenna with the plastic case version. Also, the Pro has an ethernet connection.
Yes, and a Z-wave one. But that's not for them to act as a node -- they only work as controllers on the mesh and there is no interactivity from other devices.
It has the Z-wave in all units. The Zigbee is an add-on.
Not sure what you mean by no interactivity from other devices. Yes, the Qolsys panel acts as the controller. There are some cases where that can make sense.
I must have been thinking of another panel that made you choose between Zigbee and Z-wave, only having enough room for one daughter card. Probably my old 2gig panel.
Regardless, my point is that you can't integrate the Qolsys to your HE mesh and then use HE to do anything with the panel (i.e. you can't arm/disarm it, nor see the status of sensors). Alarm panels also typically want to be the primary controller, which causes issues if you put them on the same mesh as your HE.
Bottom line, unless you're keeping a separate mesh (not a bad idea if you want to separate security like locks from the rest of your automation), the fact that the Qolsys has these features is useless.
Got the system set up and am happy to say that it was pretty straight forward. All of my wired and 433 sensors were imported. Thank you @dcaton1220
New PowerG products are coming so I'll look at how the drivers work in case I need to create something.
Qolsys has an "Arm Night". Any chance we can update the driver in the future to add the Arm Night option? This option was somewhat recent in the firmware updates. It will show up in the UI once you add a sensor to one of the groups that supports night. If you don't use one of the groups it wont show up.
Also, I added some motion detectors and I guess the driver made a device for the motion detector with a name I later changed on the panel. What's the ideal (hopefully automated) approach to resolving name changes on the panel side? I see Label and Name.
I did a quick look and can't find anywhere that the other reverse-engineered Qolsys-Control4 API systems are using that.
I wouldn't be surprised if the "Arm Night" isn't exposed -- Control4 would have to be making use of it.
Also, the only difference it makes (from what I can find) is that your perimeter sensors are changed to instant-alarm -- no entry delay -- when the system is Armed Night.
You can set sensors to group 21 so that they are bypassed at night. So you can set up the basement on a group that alerts because you don't go down there at night, but bypass motion in the upper hallway where you have bathrooms or expect someone could be out at night.
Probably. I imagine it's just a different value sent in the arming_type field. Not sure I understand the difference between Arm Stay and Arm Night though, but I'll look into it.
I ran into this myself not long ago. Name should always contain the name of the sensor as it is on the alarm panel. If you change the name on the panel, running Configure should update it on the HE side, but wasn't.
Pretty sure I fixed this. I need to release an update, but it probably won't be until I can come up for air after the holidays.
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It only affects motion sensors, not contacts or any other type of sensor. There is a somewhat mind-bending number of permutations beginning on page 68 in the installation guide:
IQ Panel 4 Installation Manual 4.4.0 230815 FINAL (qolsys.com)
Seems to me that you'd only need Arm Night if you also arm the system while you're home but not sleeping, and want motion detectors enabled/disabled based on night/stay. Don't personally have any use for that as the only time we arm stay is when we go to bed.
If you don't mind this is a simple example. If you have two floors and have motions sensors on each floor. The bottom floor is a basement space that you don't use at night. Maybe it's the entertainment space with a lot of windows. Your bedrooms are upstairs. You set the basement motions sensor to group 44 and the floor with the bedrooms to group 21. Because you have set 1 sensor to group 21 you now have Arm Night as an option on your panel. Now if you Arm Night your basement motion sensor will trip instantly if there is motion while your upper floor motion sensor will not so you can freely walk to the kitchen for a glass of water without setting off the alarm. Now when you Arm Away both sensors will trip instantly if they sense motion. Neither of the motion sensors will trip if you have set the panel to Arm Stay.
There are several possible combinations.
In a larger house or house with areas that are not in use at night this can help add some piece of mind. I'm setting this up for our basement space because there is a lot of glass and it's impractical to set up glass break sensors. It's just easier to set up contact sensors for doors and windows plus motion to catch any access through the glass. I'm testing out the PIR/MMwave sensors and curtain sensors.
Thanks, I pretty much came to the same conclusion after looking at the various motion sensor groups. Seems to me only useful if you want to arm (parts of) the system while you're in the house, but not asleep.
When I have some time (and more important, my wife is out for a few hours) I'll try setting things up so Arm Night becomes an option and see if I can get the driver to recognize that.
Thank you, sir. Yea, that's how I intend to use it, but there may be other uses I haven't considered. With name like Night it's generally intended to be the at home and not moving around much mode, but potentially some. Those use cases of using the bathroom or the kitchen and having the other parts of the house armed is how they talk about it in the sales and firmware update videos.
Happy to test it out for you when you have something.
So I use HE as my main automations controller and interface to Alexa as I prefer Alexa over Siri.
But I also use HE to present a number of non-supported zigbee and z-wave devices to the Apple Home App because I prefer the fluidity and smoothness of the Home touchscreen interface of my Apple Phone and Watch to that of the HE Browser based Dashboards. And since the release of the HE Home integration, I'm hoping to eventually be able to retire my HomeBridge.
That said, I am in the process of a home remodel and need some new structured wiring done as well as a new security system, smoke & co2 detection, and monitoring that can interface and utilize some of my existing wired security devices. I called a few local security companies and they are advocating QolSys but don't support integrations with products in ecosystems that they do not support.
So here are my questions:
- Are the latest Qolsys systems (Would that be IQ4?) supported by this driver package?
- Is this installable/upgradable through the HE Package Manager?
- What can this driver package provide functionality for within Hubitat?
- Can a current Qolsys system be armed/disarmed through Hubitat automations?
- Can the Hubitat HomeKit integration provide for arming and disarming a current Qolsys system in the Apple Home App?
- Anything else that can be presented to HomeKit?
- Are you still excited about this project and will this be an ongoing and supported project to maintain a reasonable level of confidence for future compatibility and support? Or is it becoming tedious to maintain as did the MyQ integration for that developer?
If you can do home automation, you can install an alarm system yourself and save the installer markups and charges. Use PowerG wireless for all new sensors, and a hardwire module for the existing devices you wish to retain. QS7121-840 (16 zone) or QS7120-840 (8 zone). Or if you want something with programmable outputs for sirens, relays, hardwired smokes or CO detectors, the PG9WLSHW8.
1, Yes
2, Yes
3. Arm/Disarm, system status, status of alarm sensors. No reporting or control of z-wave devices connected to the IQ panel.
4. Yes
5. No idea, I don't use Homekit. That would be a question for whoever wrote the Homekit driver or app.
6. Likewise.
7. Excited? At this stage of my life, it takes a bit more than some computer code to get me excited 
.
To answer your last question, I wrote this driver for my own personal use and when I felt it was stable, made it available to the HE community. At least half of my automations in HE rely on this driver in one way or another. The alarm system status acts as a presence indicator (home/sleep/away) for various lighting rules, and certain door contacts and motion sensors trigger rules as well. In the unlikely event the driver stopped working, my house would stop working.
This driver uses an interface that is not publicly documented, but I think it's highly unlikely it will change or disappear in any future firmware update of the IQ panel, as that would break Control4 integration and I doubt QolSys would intentionally do that. It's not a terribly complicated driver, and if I get mortally wounded by a mob of flying reindeer, anyone else could figure it out and maintain it.
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I'm likely to get a new alarm system. I'm also a Control4 user. So a Qolsys panel probably makes the most sense. If you are using a monitored Qolsys system you are going to have Alarm.com too. There is a cloud based Alarm.com integration for Home Assistant. It's pretty slow, so not really usable for sensor automation. If you've got walls opened up I'd suggest using as many wired sensors as possible, fewer batteries to deal with. If you use wired sensors you'll need to use an add-on board or the pro panel. Here's a comparison of options:
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