I’m very happy with how this appliance came together. It’s been running in my basement, attached to my panel, for a few days with no issues. My next step is to integrate this with my home automation system, which is controlled by pimatic <http://pimatic.org> running on a Raspberry Pi B+. My ultimate goal is to have the alarm system send me a text message via twilio (<https://www.twilio.com>) whenever an exceptional event occurs.
Hardware
- Raspberry Pi A+ <https://www.adafruit.com/products/2266> $25
- 4GB SD card <https://www.adafruit.com/products/1121> $10
- 5V 1A USB power supply <https://www.adafruit.com/products/501> $6
- Micro USB cable <https://www.adafruit.com/products/592> $3
- USB WiFi module with external antenna <https://www.adafruit.com/products/1030> $20
- AD2PI <http://www.alarmdecoder.com/catalog/product_info.php/products_id/33> $70
- JBtek case <http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SSOQFRM> $7
Grand total: $141
Software
- Raspbian 2015-02-16
- avahi-daemon
- ser2sock
Build Notes
- The Raspberry Pi was initially configured using a console cable attached to the serial GPIO pins: <https://www.adafruit.com/product/954>. The console cable power wire was not used; the Pi was powered via micro USB at all times.
- The PL-2303-based console cable required a Mac driver: <https://www.mac-usb-serial.com/>
- The Raspberry Pi was configured with the name “ad2pi” by editing /etc/hostname and /etc/hosts
- The WiFi module was configured to disable power saving modes and avoid dropout issues by following the instructions on this page: <https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruits-raspberry-pi-lesson-3-network-setup/test-and-configure>.
- The avahi-daemon was used to advertise the ssh service via mDNS so that the device can be found in Mac OS X Terminal’s “New Remote Connection…” browser. On the Pi:
- Code: Select all
# apt-get install avahi-daemon
# update-rc.d avahi-daemon defaults
# cat <<EOF >/etc/avahi/services/sshd.service
<?xml version="1.0" standalone='no'?>
<!DOCTYPE service-group SYSTEM "avahi-service.dtd">
<service-group>
<name replace-wildcards="yes">%h</name>
<service>
<type>_ssh._tcp</type>
<port>22</port>
</service>
</service-group>
EOF
# /etc/init.d/avahi-daemon restart
- After the WiFi module and avahi-daemon had been configured, the Raspberry Pi was shutdown, the console cable was detached, and the Pi was restarted.
- After reconnecting to the Pi via SSH, the serial console was disabled so that the serial port could be used with the AD2PI, as described here <http://www.alarmdecoder.com/wiki/index.php/Raspberry_Pi>:
- Remove "console=ttyAMA0,115200" from /boot/cmdline.txt
- Remove "T0:23:respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyAMA0 115200 vt100" from /etc/inittab
- The top of the JBtek case was modified (cut) using a coping saw so that it would fit over the screw terminals on the AD2PI. One of the rubber feet that came with the case was stuck to the top of the HDMI connector to provide insulation between the connector and the board.
- After the appliance was fully assembled, the Pi was restarted and ser2sock was installed and configured: <https://github.com/nutechsoftware/ser2sock>
To Do
- I would like to power my Pi directly from the alarm panel, as described here: <http://www.alarmdecoder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=136>. My plan is to wire up one side of switching DC regulator <http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/V7805W-500/102-2448-ND/2757917> to a micro USB cable, and the other side into the connectors on the AD2PI.
