Generator Monitor?

[SteveT]

I have a Vista 20P and the Pi Version of AD. I managed to get everything working and its been really solid for the first month.

My next step is I'd like to connect it to my generator so I'll have both an event log and an email notification when the generator starts and stops.

I think that if I connect a small 12 volt relay to connections 23 and 194 of my standard 4 wire generator switch I can put a supervisor resistor on the other side of the relay and connect that as a zone type 23 on the Vista 20P.

That would get me in the logging.

But as far as a notification, what is the easiest way to create a custom notification? The Pi webapp doesn't let you screen for zone number. I don't mind hacking the Pi webapp but wanted to see if there is a way I am missing?

[mathewss]

I have not tried zone type 23 or at least I can not recall if it did what you need.

A simple test. Set a zone on your panel to this type. Arm the system. Then fault this zone. Does the keypad show FAULT XX

If it does then it will be trivial to then alert on this zone.

If it wont report when armed you have many other options that will report. You can use a physical zone expander board and it will report an EXP message that can be triggered on regardless of panel state.

Re
Sean M

[mathewss]

Another way if you have Ademco 5816.

If you look inside you will see they have a terminal block designed to attach a closed contact and when closed will trigger one of the loops and send an RFX message to the AD2Pi.

You could still configure the sensor as a zone with type 23 if you want to see keypad messages as well as get a notification via email etc. Or you could leave it unprogrammed and just use the RFX messages for alerts.

They are around $15 on ebay and the batteries last several years with minimal use.

Re
Sean M

[kevin]

The ability to ignore (exclude) specific zones from notifications is in the todo list and is coming down the pipeline - this will allow you to configure a notification on zone fault (or restore) for specific zones.

If you wanted to roll your own, you could write a python script using the AlarmDecoder library - use a SocketDevice class to connect to the AlarmDecoder device, and utilize the on_zone_fault and on_zone_restore event handlers to send out your notification.

[SteveT]

Thanks for the ideas. I decided to give the 5816 a try. I wasn't really looking forward in august to stringing a wire through my attic to the garage anyway.

I'm pretty sure zone type 23 will work. I get other faults logged even when the system is not armed so thats what I am hoping for with the generator. If for some reason that didn't work I skimmed the programming manual apparently you can create a custom zone with whatever characteristics you want so that would be my fallback.

Once I get the 5816 I'll cobble together a notification in python and post the results here.