Raspberry Pi and Existing Accenta Gen 4 Alarm

Hi Shyam,

Just bear in mind the alarm will probably go off when you take the panel off : ) A pain to deal with unless you're ready with the procedure to reset (will be in the manual, and if you remember the codes!).

Also if he interfaces to the sensors in such a way that breaks the contact at any point will also set it off.

Not that he needs to as he should be able to pick up the PIR input from the alarm directly...Probably;y best to use an optoisolator as to give very little chance that anything will come across from one circuit to the other even if misconfigured.

Also if he interfaces to the sensors in such a way that breaks the contact at any point will also set it off.

Not that he needs to as he should be able to pick up the PIR input from the alarm directly...Probably;y best to use an optoisolator as to give very little chance that anything will come across from one circuit to the other even if misconfigured.

There are so many wires inside those panels sometimes, I think you're right, there may be a risk of nudging a cable and causing some intermittent issue from that moment on. Depends on how good the installation was!

I was thinking a similar thing, an LDR or phototransistor on the LED that is lit or flashes when the alarm is activated, that way no need to even open the panel, and it doesn't matter if it looks ugly if the panel is hidden away somewhere anyway.

Thanks all for your advise...will let you know how it goes.

shabaz is that your git repo I posted a link of?

Hi Shyam,

Good luck!! No, its not mine, I've not seen that one before.

Thanks

I'm assuming I can just get this pack of resistors which will cover the ones I need:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/e3-resistor-480-piece-pack-n63bh

I would order from UK Farnell, but one of the resistors (2k2) is not stocked in the UK

My apologies, I should've checked stock levels

You could buy that kit, though it doesn't include 330Ω resistors. You could substitute for a similar value.

Farnell do have some 2k2 in stock here: MF25 2K2 - MULTICOMP - RESISTOR, 2.2K, 0.25W, 1% | Farnell element14

Thanks Paul

Hi Guys,

I had a few more questions before I attempted this.

1. On the breadboard, do i connect the positive to the 13v terminal on the alarm panel?  and nothing to the 0v one?
2. what pins do i connect the +/- to on the pi?
3. while looking at the connections on this example : https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sidb/PiAlarm/master/breadboard.png

     2A connects to a GPIO Pin

     3A connects to a - on the breadboard

    4A connects to a + on the breadboard

    2C and 4C are linked by a 330R

    J3 connections to a connector on the alarm

    4I is linked to the + from the alarm via a 2k2

   My question is, how comes the connection to the alarm is on J3? and not J2?  Is it because the alarm connection needs to link with the -?

Could I use a tester to see what the output is on the PI side before connecting the PI to it?

Thanks

Shyam

1) 13V to red wire '+'

2)  - to GND, + to 3.3v

3) J2 is connected to pin 3 (an unconnected pin) on the opto-isolator.

As shown on this diagram from the github page:

I'm not sure if you're aware of how the board is wired, it is similar to many plug-in breadboard layouts as indicated in the image below: