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# Powermax Binding

Visonic produces the Powermax alarm panel series (PowerMax, PowerMax+, PowerMaxExpress, PowerMaxPro and PowerMaxComplete) and the Powermaster alarm series (PowerMaster 10 and PowerMaster 30). This binding allows you to control the alarm panel (arm/disarm) and allows you to use the Visonic sensors (movement, door contact, ...) within openHAB.

The PowerMax provides support for a serial interface. This serial interface is not installed by default but can be ordered from any PowerMax vendor (called the Visonic RS-232 Adaptor Kit).

In case your alarm panel is directly connected to a serial port of your openHAB server (or to an USB port through a serial to USB converter), you must setup a serial connection thing type in openHAB.

But you even don't need to have your alarm panel directly connected to your openHAB server. You can connect it for example to a Raspberry Pi and use ser2net Linux tool (opens new window) to make the serial connection available on LAN (serial over IP). In this case, you must setup an IP connection thing type in openHAB.

Here is an example of ser2net.conf you can use to share your serial port /dev/ttyUSB0 on IP port 4444:

4444:raw:0:/dev/ttyUSB0:9600 8DATABITS NONE 1STOPBIT

Visonic does not provide a specification of the RS232 protocol and, thus, the binding uses the available protocol specification given at the ​domoticaforum (opens new window).

The binding implemntation of this protocol is largely inspired by the Vera plugin (opens new window).

# Supported Things

This binding supports the following thing types:

Thing Thing Type Description
ip Bridge The IP connection to the alarm system.
serial Bridge The serial connection to the alarm system.
x10 Thing A X10 device.
zone Thing A zone representing a physical device such as a door, window or a motion sensor.

# Discovery

The alarm system is not discovered automatically. First you have to create manually a bridge thing, either of type ip or serial depending on how your openHAB server is connected to the alarm system. Then the binding will automatically discover all zones and X10 devices that are setup in your alarm system.

# Binding configuration

There are no overall binding configuration settings that need to be set. All settings are through thing configuration parameters.

# Thing Configuration

# IP connection

The ip bridge thing requires the following configuration parameters:

Parameter Label Parameter ID Description Required Default
IP address ip The IP address / The IP address to use for connecting to the Ethernet interface of the alarm system. true
TCP port tcpPort The TCP port to use for connecting to the Ethernet interface of the alarm system. true
Motion reset delay motionOffDelay The delay in minutes to reset a motion detection. false 3
Allow arming allowArming Enable or disable arming the alarm system from openHAB. false false
Allow disarming allowDisarming Enable or disable disarming the alarm system from openHAB. false false
PIN code pinCode The PIN code to use for arming/disarming the alarm system from openHAB. Not required except when Powerlink mode cannot be used. false
Force standard mode forceStandardMode Force the standard mode rather than trying using the Powerlink mode. false false
Panel type panelType Define the panel type. Only required when forcing the standard mode. false PowerMaxPro
Sync time autoSyncTime Automatic sync time at openHAB startup. false true

# Serial connection

The serial bridge thing requires the following configuration parameters:

Parameter Label Parameter ID Description Required Default
Serial port serialPort The serial port to use for connecting to the serial interface of the alarm system e.g. COM1 for Windows and /dev/ttyS0 or /dev/ttyUSB0 for Linux. true
Motion reset delay motionOffDelay The delay in minutes to reset a motion detection. false 3
Allow arming allowArming Enable or disable arming the alarm system from openHAB. false false
Allow disarming allowDisarming Enable or disable disarming the alarm system from openHAB. false false
PIN code pinCode The PIN code to use for arming/disarming the alarm system from openHAB. Not required except when Powerlink mode cannot be used. false
Force standard mode forceStandardMode Force the standard mode rather than trying using the Powerlink mode. false false
Panel type panelType Define the panel type. Only required when forcing the standard mode. false PowerMaxPro
Sync time autoSyncTime Automatic sync time at openHAB startup. false true

Some notes:

  • On Linux, you may get an error stating the serial port cannot be opened when the Powermax binding tries to load. You can get around this by adding the openhab user to the dialout group like this: usermod -a -G dialout openhab.
  • Also on Linux you may have issues with the USB if using two serial USB devices e.g. Powermax and RFXcom. See the general documentation about serial port configuration for more on symlinking the USB ports.

# X10 device

The x10 thing requires the following configuration parameters:

Parameter Label Parameter ID Description Required
Device number deviceNumber The device number. true

# Zone

The zone thing requires the following configuration parameters:

Parameter Label Parameter ID Description Required
Zone number zoneNumber The zone number. true

# Channels

The following channels are available:

Thing Types Channel Type ID Item Type Access Mode Description
ip / serial system_status String R A short status summary of the system
ip / serial system_armed Switch RW Whether or not the system is armed
ip / serial arm_mode String RW System arm mode (accepted values: Disarmed, Stay, Armed, StayInstant, ArmedInstant, Night and NightInstant)
ip / serial alarm_active Switch R Whether or not an alarm is active
ip / serial ready Switch R Whether or not the system is ready for arming
ip / serial with_zones_bypassed Switch R Whether or not at least one zone is bypassed
ip / serial trouble Switch R Whether or not a trouble is detected
ip / serial alert_in_memory Switch R Whether or not an alert is saved in system memory
ip / serial pgm_status Switch RW PGM status
ip / serial mode String R System current mode (Standard, Powerlink or Download)
ip / serial event_log_1 ... event_log_10 String R Event log entry (1 is the most recent)
ip / serial update_event_logs Switch W Switch command to update the event logs
ip / serial download_setup Switch W Switch command to download the setup
x10 x10_status String RW X10 device status (accepted values: OFF, ON, DIM and BRIGHT)
zone tripped Contact R Whether or not the zone is tripped
zone armed Switch R Whether or not the zone is armed
zone last_trip DateTime R Timestamp when the zone was last tripped
zone low_battery Switch R Whether or not the sensor battery is low
zone bypassed Switch RW Whether or not the zone is bypassed

# Console Commands

The binding provides few specific commands you can use in the console. Enter the command openhab:powermax to get the usage of each available command.

Usage: openhab:powermax <bridgeUID> info_setup - information on setup
Usage: openhab:powermax <bridgeUID> download_setup - download setup

The command info_setup displays in the console informations about your current panel setup. The command download_setup will trigger a new download of the panel setup.

Here is an example of command you can run: openhab:powermax powermax:serial:home info_setup.

# Notes & Limitations

  • For Powerlink mode to work, the enrollment procedure has to be followed. If you don't enroll the Powerlink on the PowerMax the binding will operate in Standard mode, and if enrolled in Powerlink mode. On the newer software versions of the PowerMax the Powerlink enrollment is automatic, and the binding should only operate in 'Powerlink' mode (if enrollment is successful).
  • In Powerlink mode, the binding is downloading the panel setup at startup. When openHAB is starting, unfortunately this download is often failing on a Raspberry Pi for an unclear reason (maybe too many things running at the same time). A retry mechanism is implemented in the binding to retry until 3 times with a delay of 1 minute between each try. My experience is that the download finally succeeds. In case it fails after all the retries, you still have the option to later trigger the download either by using the channel download_setup or the appropriate console command.
  • Visonic does not provide a specification of the RS232 protocol and, thus, use this binding at your own risk.
  • The binding is not able to arm/disarm a particular partition.
  • The compatibility of the binding with the Powermaster alarm panel series is probably only partial.
  • In order to be able to bypass zones, you must first enable this feature by updating your panel configuration. Look at your installer's manual.

# Full Example

demo.things:

Bridge powermax:serial:home "Alarm Home" [ serialPort="/dev/ttyUSB0", allowArming=true, panelType="PowerMaxProPart", autoSyncTime=true ] {
    Thing zone kitchen "Window kitchen" [ zoneNumber=9 ]
    Thing x10 lamp1 "Lamp 1" [ deviceNumber=1 ]
}

demo.items:

Switch SystemArmed "System armed" {channel="powermax:serial:home:system_armed", autoupdate="false"}
String SystemArmMode "System arm mode" {channel="powermax:serial:home:arm_mode", autoupdate="false"}
Switch PGM "PGM" {channel="powermax:serial:home:pgm_status", autoupdate="false"}
String SystemStatus "System status" {channel="powermax:serial:home:system_status"}
Switch SystemReady "System ready" {channel="powermax:serial:home:ready"}
Switch WithZonesBypassed "With zones bypassed" {channel="powermax:serial:home:with_zones_bypassed"}
Switch AlarmActive "Alarm active" {channel="powermax:serial:home:alarm_active"}
Switch Trouble "Trouble detected" {channel="powermax:serial:home:trouble"}
Switch AlertInMem "Alert in memory" {channel="powermax:serial:home:alert_in_memory"}
String SystemMode "System mode" {channel="powermax:serial:home:mode"}
Switch UpdateEventLogs "Update Event logs" {channel="powermax:serial:home:update_event_logs", autoupdate="false"}
String EventLog1 "Event log 1" {channel="powermax:serial:home:event_log_1"}
String EventLog2 "Event log 2" {channel="powermax:serial:home:event_log_2"}
String EventLog3 "Event log 3" {channel="powermax:serial:home:event_log_3"}
String EventLog4 "Event log 4" {channel="powermax:serial:home:event_log_4"}
String EventLog5 "Event log 5" {channel="powermax:serial:home:event_log_5"}
String EventLog6 "Event log 6" {channel="powermax:serial:home:event_log_6"}
String EventLog7 "Event log 7" {channel="powermax:serial:home:event_log_7"}
String EventLog8 "Event log 8" {channel="powermax:serial:home:event_log_8"}
String EventLog9 "Event log 9" {channel="powermax:serial:home:event_log_9"}
String EventLog10 "Event log 10" {channel="powermax:serial:home:event_log_10"}
Switch DownloadSetup "Download setup" {channel="powermax:serial:home:download_setup", autoupdate="false"}

Contact WindowKitchenTripped "Tripped [%s]" <contact> {channel="powermax:zone:home:kitchen:tripped"}
Switch WindowKitchenArmed "Armed" {channel="powermax:zone:home:kitchen:armed"}
DateTime WindowKitcheneLastTrip "Last trip" <clock> {channel="powermax:zone:home:kitchen:last_trip"}
Switch WindowKitchenLowBattery "Low bettary" {channel="powermax:zone:home:kitchen:low_battery"}
Switch WindowKitchenBypassed "Bypassed" {channel="powermax:zone:home:kitchen:bypassed", autoupdate="false"}

String Lamp1 "Lamp 1" {channel="powermax:x10:home:lamp1:x10_status", autoupdate="false"}