Awesome

MQTT Alarm Panel for Home Automation Platforms

This project is a MQTT Alarm Control Panel and has originally been created for use with Home Assistant's Manual Alarm Control Panel component. However, the Alarm Control Panel should work with any home automation platform that supports MQTT messaging, such as OpenHab, Node-Red, and SmartThings. Alarm Panel is designed specifically for Android Tablet devices, usually mounted inside your home or business.

Support

For issues, feature requests, comments or questions, use the Github issues tracker. For HASS specific questions, you can join the Home Assistant Community Discussion page, which already has a lot information from the community.

MQTT Alarm Panel does not support Android versions prior to Android 4.4

• Alarm Panel Video.
• Google Play Store.
• Android Things and Raspbery Pi 3 (Deprecated).

<a href='https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.thanksmister.iot.mqtt.alarmpanel&pcampaignid=pcampaignidMKT-Other-global-all-co-prtnr-py-PartBadge-Mar2515-1'><img alt='Get it on Google Play' src='https://play.google.com/intl/en_us/badges/static/images/badges/en_badge_web_generic.png' width='240'/></a>

Features

The alarm panel acts as an interface for Home Assistant's Manual MQTT component, but adds additional features not directly supported. You can set the alarm state to away, home, night, or custom bypass and you disarm the alarm using a code. In addition it has some nice features, such as weather forecast, displaying your alarm sensors, face detection and screen saver mode.

MQTT allows for communication between the alarm panel application and your home automation platform. The alarm panel interface will reflect the current state of the remote alarm system. This means that it is your home automation platform, that is responsible for triggering the alarm, when entry is detected and sounding the physical sirens or sending alerts. The alarm panel's role is providing a wall-mounted interface or key pad for your alarm system.

Here are some key features of the application:

• Alarm sensors, display a list of configured sensors and their states in the alarm screen.
• Stream video, detect motion, detect faces or read QR Codes.
• Capture and email images, when the alarm is disabled.
• MQTT commands to remotely control the application (speak text, play audio, display notifications, alerts, etc.).
• Device sensor data reporting over MQTT (temperature, light, pressure, battery, etc.).
• Day/Night mode themes based on MQTT sun values or user settings.
• Optional screensaver mode using a digital clock, Imgur images or webpage.
• Three day Weather forecast using MQTT.
• Home Automation Platform webpage support for viewing home automation dashboards.
• Support for Android 4.4 (API level 19) or later.

Hardware & Software

• Android Device running Android 4.4 (API level 19) or later. It's also recommended that you use your own screensaver, like Daydream for Android, so that your device does not go to sleep. You also want to disable your lock screen. The application will not work, if your device sleeps (i.e. you need to unlock your device to open it).

• There is a known issue with Fire OS devices from Amazon, as they usually have a custom OS and may not include Daydream. You will then need to use the built-in screensaver features or you need to install an alternative solution. Some Fire OS devices also lack haptic feedback for key presses and the ability to customize the alarm sound.

• The WebView shipped with Android 4.4 (KitKat) is based on the same code as Chrome for Android version 30. This WebView does not have full feature parity with Chrome for Android and is given the version number 30.0.0.0.

Screen Shots:

Main Screen

Arming Options

Disarm Screen

Armed Home

You can also load multiple home automation platform webpages. Each page will slide from the right on the main screen to expose additional home automation controls.

Dashboard

Installation

You can clone the repository and compile the APK using Android Studio, then side load the APK file onto your device. You can also side load the built APK from the release section or just install the application from the Google Play Store.

Home Assistant Setup

Alarm Panel should work with any MQTT broker and does not require Home Assistant. If you are using Home Assistant, then you will want to use the Manual MQTT component and the built in MQTT integration for your setup.

• Setup Home Assistant
• Configure the MQTT service, note the broker address and username/password if applicable.
• Add the MQTT Manual Home Assistant component to your configuration with the default settings.
• Add any sensors (like Zwave door sensors or sirens) and configure automations to trigger the alarm.

Example Home Assistant Manual MQTT component:

alarm_control_panel:
  - platform: manual_mqtt
    state_topic: home/alarm
    command_topic: home/alarm/set
    pending_time: 60
    trigger_time: 1800
    disarm_after_trigger: false
    delay_time: 30
    armed_home:
      pending_time: 0
      delay_time: 0
    armed_away:
      pending_time: 60
      delay_time: 30

-- If I set the alarm mode home, the alarm will immediately be on without any pending time. If the alarm is triggered, there will be no pending time before the siren sounds. If the alarm mode is away, I have 60 seconds to leave before the alarm is active and 30 seconds to disarm the alarm when entering.
-- Notice that my trigger_time is 1800 and disarm_after_trigger is false, this means the alarm runs for 1800 seconds, until it stops and it doesn't reset after it is triggered.

-- Be sure to change the settings in the Alarm Control Panel application to match these settings. By default the pending_time and delay_time are used for all alarm modes, unless otherwise changed.

Home Assistant Alarmo Integration

Alarm Panel supports the Alarmo integration used with Home Assistant. This integration allows arming and unarming with codes, as well as additional alarm modes such as Night and Custom-Bypass. Alarmo communicates with Alarm Panel using MQTT. For MQTT setup, use the following in Alarmo settings to match the MQTT topics in Alarm Panel:

MQTT Alarm Setup

Under the settings (gear icon) enter the MQTT information, that you configured in your MQTT service. This might include a username and password. If you are not using SSL, just enter the IP address of your broker like 192.168.1.1. You enter the port and credentials in separate fields. The alarm will try to connect using TCP, unless you enter HTTP/HTTPS in front of the IP address like http://192.168.1.1. However, for most MQTT brokers, using TCP is fine.

Note about MQTT:

Depending on your MQTT broker, after you setup mqtt, you may not receive the "initial" state or message from the broker. This may mean that features, that depend on MQTT such as weather, sun and the alarm state, may initially be in their default or disabled states until data is received.

Android applications depend upon the Android Pahoproject from Github. This open source project seems to be out of date and those running Android 9 or higher may experience crashes or disconnectivity. There is no other library compatible with Android to manage MQTT connections at this time. In encourage you to help update this project if possible since it provides a valuable way for Android applications to communicate with MQTT servers.

Supported States and State Topic

Alarm panel subscribes to MQTT state changes published from the remote alarm system. The default state topic is home/alarm and can be changed in the settings. Here is a list of state values and their descriptions, that the application can handle.

• Note not all states are supported by the HA Manual MQTT component and would need to manually handled. Sending additional states is optional and the alarm panel will function without the additional states arm_away, arm_home, arm_night, arm_custom_bypass.

Supported Commands and Command Topic:

Alarm Panel can send to the server commands for different alarm states. The MQTT Broker listens to these commands to update the state of alarm. The default command topic is home/alarm/set, which can be changed in the settings. Here is a list of commands sent from the application to the MQTT broker.

• Note: not all commands are supported by the Home Asssistant Manual MQTT component. You will need to listen to the incoming command and handle the command manually, using an automation or blueprint to handle modes ARM_NIGHT, ARM_CUSTOM_BYPASS, PANIC. If you are using your own MQTT broker, you can optionally handle these commands.

By default, alarm commands send a single payload on the command topic:

Command topic: home/alarm/set Command payload: ARM_AWAY

However, if you want to send the alarm code with the command, the alarm panel will send the payload as JSON, which you will need to listen for and manually handle to parse out the command and the code value:

{
  "command": "ARM_HOME",
  "code": "1234"
}

Supported Event and Event Topic

Alarm Panel can subscribe to an event topic to receive additional information from the remote alarm system. For example, the event topic will notify the application of alarm errors, such as invalid codes and the inablity to activate the alarm due to open sensors. The default topic for event is home/alarm/event and can be changed in the settings. Here is a list of event payloads that Alarm Panel can handle, note that the payload is using JSON.

If you wanted to send the error that an invalid code was entered to disarm or arm the alarm, you would send the following JSON formatted payload on the event topic:

{
  "event": "invalid_code_provided"
}

Each device will display or handle the error message accordingly, either by showing a message or updating the interface.

In addition to sending error events, we can also use the event topic to sync the device or multiple devices with the same command value. In the remote server, you can subscribe to the command topic, and when you receive a command message, send out that message as an event topic. This will sync all devices listening to the event topic. For example, receiving a command ARM_AWAY from one device should send out the same ARM_AWAY payload, so that all devices receive this same command.

To do this, we send a JSON payload that contains the event and any additional information such as the delay time, the time before the alarm is armed or triggered. The delay time is optional and can be omitted from the JSON payload.

• Example payload on the state topic with a delay (Consider the scenario where the user sets the alarm to arm_away and the application displays a countdown of how much time before alarm is armed so the user can exit the home):

{
  "event": "arm_away",
  "delay": 60 # exit delay
}

• Optionally without the delay value:

{
  "event": "arm_away"
}

• Example payload on the state topic with a delay (Consider the scenario where the user sets the alarm to arm_away and an entry was detected, the application displays a countdown of the time before the alarm is triggered.):

{
  "state": "pending",
  "delay": 60 # disarm time
}

The payload contains extra information about the alarm command, in this example the delay time is the time before the alarm is set to armed_away or before the alarm state is triggered. If the delay time is 0, you can omit this value from the JSON. Default delay values are also set in the application, receiving the delay with the event topic will overwrite the stored delay values used in the device.

Alarm Security and Remote Code

Under the settings, you can update the default security code, it is 1234 on first instalation. The security code is used to access the alarm settings and disarm the alarm from the alarm control panel application. You can choose to use the security code to disarm or arm the system. The security code is not sent over MQTT, it is only used from the application to control the alarm.

There is an option called Remote Code that will send both the alarm state and the code entered when arming or optionally disarming the alarm to your MQTT broker. The payload will be sent as JSON. This requires extra work on your part to parse the code and command payload from the JSON payload using your available platform tools. Here is an example JSON payload of an alarm command with the code:

{
  "command": "ARM_HOME",
  "code": "1234"
}

When choosing to use this feature, the security code you set within the application settings, is only used to access the settings and it is no longer used to arm or disarm the system. When entering a code to arm or disarm your system, the code will now be sent to the remote server along with the command as a JSON payload.

The server must respond with either a alert message or return the new alarm state. You must validate the alarm code on the server and either update the alarm state or return an alert message that the code is invalid.

Alarm Sensors

Under the Alarm Sensors option in the MQTT settings, you can add sensors devices to display on the alarm interface. For each sensor, you must specificy the topic and active state of the sensor, such as closed for a door or off for motion. The inactive state shows as green in the interface and red for any other reported state. The topic should include the entity id or name of your sensor and the current state. Here is a sample automation for a Home Assistant platform automation.

alias: MQTT Inside Motion
description: ''
trigger:
  - entity_id: sensor.inside_motion
    platform: state
condition: []
action:
  - data:
      topic: home/alarm/sensor/inside_motion
      payload_template: '{{states("sensor.inside_motion")}}'
      retain: true
    service: mqtt.publish
mode: single

Create an automation like this for each of the sensors, sending the topic with the entity id and using a payload template to send the current state. The resulting payload for a door sensor might look like this for a closed door sensor:

Command topic: /home/alarm/sensor/inside_motion Command payloads: no

And this if the door sensor is open:

Command topic: /home/alarm/sensor/inside_motion Command payloads: yes

This really depends entirely on your platform and setup. You can configure the alarm sensors to have the topic and state in the settings to match your MQTT setup.

Panic Button

This feature will display a panic button on the main interface that, when pressed, will send a command with a single payload, you must handle this command as you want in your home automation platform. This would be like an emergency call or way to silently trigger the alarm.

The alarm panel will send the following command and payload by default:

Command topic: home/alarm/set Command payload: PANIC

If you have opted to use the remote code feature, the following JSON payload will be sent:

{"command":"PANIC","code":""}

The code will be blank as it is not required.

MQTT Communication

The Alarm Panel application can display and control components using the MQTT protocol. Alarm Panel and Home Assistant work together to control the Home Assistant Alarm Control Panel, display weather data, receive sensor data, control the application Day or Night mode and send various remote commands to the application.

You can also interact and control the application and device remotely using either MQTT commands, including using your device as an announcer with Google Text-To-Speech. Each device requires a unique base topic which you set in the MQTT settings, the default is alarmpanel. This distinguishes your device, if you are running multiple devices.

MQTT Weather

Update We have deprecated support for Darksky, now you can use any weather integration.

You can also use MQTT to publish the weather to the Alarm Panel application, which it will then display on the main view. To do this, you need to setup an automation that publishes a formatted MQTT message on an interval. Then in the application settings, you can use almost any weather integration, as long as it supports the standard attributes. I am using Met.no integration (https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/met/) for my weather with this automation to send weather data to the application.

alias: MQTT Weather
trigger:
  - minutes: /15
    platform: time_pattern
condition: []
action:
  - data:
      payload_template: >-
        {'weather':{'condition':'{{states.weather.home.state}}','humidity':{{states.weather.home.attributes.humidity}},'temperature':{{states.weather.home.attributes.temperature}},'forecast':{{states.weather.home.attributes.forecast}}}}
      retain: true
      topic: alarmpanel/command
    service: mqtt.publish
mode: single

For an alternate way of getting the payload with the current condition, you can use this for the payload_template:

payload_template: >-
        {% set attrs = states.weather.home.attributes %}
        {% set result = dict(attrs, condition = states('weather.home')) %}
        {'weather':{{result}}}

In the developer tools template, you can test out the payload by pasting this:

{''weather'':{''condition'':''{{states.weather.home.state}}'',''humidity'':{{states.weather.home.attributes.humidity}},''temperature'':{{states.weather.home.attributes.temperature}},''forecast'':{{states.weather.home.attributes.forecast}}}}

The output will be this:

{''weather'':{''condition'':''sunny'',''humidity'':61,''temperature'':27.2,''forecast'':[{'condition': 'sunny', 'temperature': 19.8, 'templow': 13.5, 'datetime': '2020-11-30T15:00:00+00:00', 'wind_bearing': 101.4, 'wind_speed': 30.6}, {'condition': 'cloudy', 'precipitation': 1.2, 'temperature': 23.0, 'templow': 16.8, 'datetime': '2020-12-01T15:00:00+00:00', 'wind_bearing': 17.1, 'wind_speed': 24.5}, {'condition': 'partlycloudy', 'temperature': 26.0, 'templow': 20.5, 'datetime': '2020-12-02T15:00:00+00:00', 'wind_bearing': 48.8, 'wind_speed': 14.0}, {'condition': 'partlycloudy', 'precipitation': 0.3, 'temperature': 25.2, 'templow': 19.7, 'datetime': '2020-12-03T15:00:00+00:00', 'wind_bearing': 71.5, 'wind_speed': 22.7}, {'condition': 'partlycloudy', 'temperature': 22.7, 'templow': 18.0, 'datetime': '2020-12-04T15:00:00+00:00', 'wind_bearing': 105.5, 'wind_speed': 33.5}]}}

You can also test this using the "mqtt.publish" service under the Home Assistant Developer Tools:

{
  "payload_template": "{''weather'':{''condition'':''{{states.weather.home.state}}'',''humidity'':{{states.weather.home.attributes.humidity}},''temperature'':{{states.weather.home.attributes.temperature}},''forecast'':{{states.weather.home.attributes.forecast}}}}",
  "retain": true,
  "topic": "alarmpanel/command"
}

Note that many weather sources work. For example, the Accuweather integration has been affirmatively tested. Also note that the template engine has an issue, if you have an entity where a section starts with a digit. This means that, if you have an entity like weather.1234_main_st you will have to use a different template method to access the entity data:

states.weather['1234_main_st'].attributes

MQTT Day/Night Mode

Similar to how weather works, you can control the Voice Panel to display the day or night mode by sending a formatted MQTT message with the sun's position (above or below the horizon). To do this add the sun component to Home Assistant, then setup an automation to publish a MQTT message with an interval:

alias: MQTT Sun
trigger:
- minutes: /30
  platform: time_pattern
condition: []
action:
- data:
    payload_template: '{''sun'':''{{states(''sun.sun'')}}''}'
    retain: true
    topic: alarmpanel/command
  service: mqtt.publish

The resulting payload will look like this:

{
  "payload": "{'sun':'below_horizon'}",
  "topic": "alarmpanel/command"
}

You can also test this using the "mqtt.publish" service under the Home Assistant Developer Tools:

{
  "payload_template": "{'sun':'{{states('sun.sun')}}'}",
  "topic": "alarmpanel/command"
}

If you wish, you can use an offset to change the day or night mode values or send a MQTT message at the desired time with "above_horizon" to show day mode or "below_horizon" to show night mode. If you wish to use always the night mode, you need only to send one MQTT message with "below_horizon" and the app will not switch back to day mode. Be sure to turn on the Day/Night mode under the Display settings in the application.

MQTT Alarm Commands with Mosquitto

Sending commands to your MQTT Broker to arm or disarm the alarm, include your MQTT Broker IP address, port, and optionally the username and password, if needed. The "-d" is to get the debug information.

mosquitto_pub -h 192.168.1.2 -t home/alarm/set -m "ARM_HOME" -d -p 1883 -u username -P password
mosquitto_pub -h 192.168.1.2 -t home/alarm/set -m "DISARM" -d -p 1883 -u username -P password

Publish a message from your MQTT Broker to your MQTT client (the Android application). You may need to add -h localhost, but you shouldn't, since you are publishing directly from your MQTT broker.

mosquitto_pub -t home/alarm -m "armed_home" 
mosquitto_pub -t home/alarm -m "disarmed" 

Note that the application, when sending a command, expects a MQTT response. If you use the application to set the alarm to be armed home, the MQTT Broker should respond with the message that the alarm was set to armed home. The application is just an interface for the MQTT service, it´s not the alarm system. The alarm system is your server, either Home Assistant or your MQTT Broker and server.

MQTT Commands

• The base topic value (default is "alarmpanel") should be unique to each device running the application, unless you want all devices to receive the same command. The base topic can be changed in the application settings.
• Commands are constructed via valid JSON. It is possible to concatenate multiple commands:
  • eg, {"clearCache":true, "relaunch":true}
• MQTT
  • WallPanel subscribes to topic [alarmpanel]/command
    • Default Topic: alarmpanel/command
  • Publish a JSON payload to this topic (be mindful of quotes in JSON should be single quotes not double)

Google Text-To-Speech Command

You can send a command using either HTTP or MQTT to have the device speak a message using Google's Text-To-Speech. Note, that the device must be running Android Lollipop or above.

Example format for the message topic and payload:

{"topic":"alarmpanel/command", "payload":"{'speak':'Hello!'}"}

MQTT Sensor and State Data

If MQTT is enabled in the settings and properly configured, the application can publish data and states for various device sensors, camera detections, and application states. Each device required a unique base topic, which you set in the MQTT settings, the default is "alarmpanel". This distinguishes your device, if you are running multiple devices.

Device Sensors

The application will post device sensors data per the API description and Sensor Reading Frequency. Currently device sensors for Pressure, Temperature, Light and Battery Level are published.

Sensor Data

NOTE: Sensor values are device specific. Not all devices will publish all sensor values.

• Sensor values are constructued as JSON per the above table
• For MQTT
  • WallPanel publishes all sensors to MQTT under [alarmpanel]/sensor
  • Each sensor publishes to a subtopic based on the type of sensor
    • Example: alarmpanel/sensor/battery

Home Assistant Examples

sensor:
  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: "alarmpanel/sensor/battery"
    name: "Alarm Panel Battery Level"
    unit_of_measurement: "%"
    value_template: '{{ value_json.value }}'
    
 - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: "alarmpanel/sensor/temperature"
    name: "WallPanel Temperature"
    unit_of_measurement: "°C"
    value_template: '{{ value_json.value }}'

  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: "alarmpanel/sensor/light"
    name: "Alarm Panel Light Level"
    unit_of_measurement: "lx"
    value_template: '{{ value_json.value }}'
    
  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: "alarmpanel/sensor/magneticField"
    name: "Alarm Panel Magnetic Field"
    unit_of_measurement: "uT"
    value_template: '{{ value_json.value }}'

  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: "alarmpanel/sensor/pressure"
    name: "Alarm Panel Pressure"
    unit_of_measurement: "hPa"
    value_template: '{{ value_json.value }}'

Camera Motion, Face, and QR Codes Detections

In addition to device sensor data publishing, the application can also publish states for Motion detection and Face detection, as well as the data from QR Codes, derived from the device camera.

• MQTT
  • WallPanel publishes all sensors to MQTT under [alarmpanel]/sensor
  • Each sensor publishes to a subtopic based on the type of sensor
    • Example: alarmpanel/sensor/motion

Home Assistant Examples

binary_sensor:
  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: "alarmpanel/sensor/motion"
    name: "Motion"
    payload_on: '{"value":true}'
    payload_off: '{"value":false}'
    device_class: motion 
    
binary_sensor:
  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: "alarmpanel/sensor/face"
    name: "Face Detected"
    payload_on: '{"value":true}'
    payload_off: '{"value":false}'
    device_class: motion 
  
sensor:
  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: "alarmpanel/sensor/qrcode"
    name: "QR Code"
    value_template: '{{ value_json.value }}'
    

Application State Data

The application can also publish state data about the application such as the current dashboard url loaded or the screen state.

• State values are presented together as a JSON block
  • eg, {"currentUrl":"http://hasbian:8123/states","screenOn":true}
• MQTT
  • WallPanel publishes state to topic [alarmpanel]/state
    • Default Topic: alarmpanel/state

Capture Images (Telegram/Mailgun)

If you would like to capture and email images, when the alarm is deactivated, then you need to setup a Mailgun account. You will need to enter the domain address and API key from your Mailgun account into the application settings screen, along with other information.

You may also use Telegram to receive a notification with the image, when the alarm is deactivated. To use Telegram you need a chat Id and a Telegram Bot API token. Follow the Telegram guide on Home Assistant to setup Telegram. Enter the chat Id and token into the application settings screen.

The camera only captures images, when activated in the settings and MailGun is setup properly. Images are captured each time the alarm is deactivated. You may use either Mailgun, Telegram, or both to send notifications.

Screensaver, Unsplash, Clock, Webpage

Since the application was designed to run as a full-screen dedicated wall panel application, it is important that you have a screensaver enabled. You can use Android's built-in DayDream, which does a nice job dimming the screen. However, on some devices like the Fire OS tablets, this is not an option. Instead, activate the screensaver feature under the Display Settings section. The default screen saver will display the current time, and if you are sending weather data, the current weather conditions. You can change this to display a webpage of your choosing, even with animation or you can display one from Unsplash. Performance may vary depending on your device.

Dashboard or Webpage View

You can load your Home Assistant (or any web page) as alternative view by entering your Home Assistant address. The address should be in the format http://192.168.1.1:8123 and include the port number. You can use HADashboard or Home Assistant kiosk mode as well. This feature uses an Android web view component and may not work on older SDK versions.

Note Dashboard Issues

Rendering issues with the webpage you are trying to view. Android applications use a component to render webpages, it's called the WebView component. WebView is not the same as Google Chrome app, it does not render the pages the same. The biggest issue is that your version of WebView is not capable of rendering the webpage you are trying to view. The only way possible to fix this issue is to update the WebView component (from Google Play Store), use a different webpage, or update your device OS.

MJPEG Video Streaming

Use the device camera as a live MJPEG stream. Just connect to the stream using the device IP address and end point. Be sure to turn on the camera streaming options in the settings and set the number of allowed streams and HTTP port number. Note that performance depends upon your device (older devices will be slow).

Browser Example:

http://192.168.1.1:2971/camera/stream

Home Assistant Example:

camera:
  - platform: mjpeg
    mjpeg_url: http://192.168.1.1:2971/camera/stream
    name: Alarm Panel Camera

Notes

• To use TTS and the Camera you will need Android Lollipop SDK or greater, as well as camera permissions. Older versions of Android are currently not supported. The application is locked into the landscape mode for usability. It is meant to run on dedicated tablets or large screen devices, that will be used mainly for an alarm control panel.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Colin O'Dell whose work on the Home Assistant Manual Alarm Control Panel component and his MQTT Alarm Panel help to make this project possible. Thanks to Juan Manuel Vioque for Spanish translations and Gerben Bol for Dutch translations, Jorge Assunção for Portuguese, electricJP and jncanches for French translations.

Contributors

Sergio Viudes for Fingerprint unlock support and his Home-Assistant-WebView component.