Get Status of PIR when system is armed

[DaKevster]

I've seen a couple posts/feature requests going back a year or two, and also on Homeseer forum around this. Figured worth a poke to see if anyone has a solution.

I just finished getting my Vista 20P, EVL4, and Homeseer3 all talking together and all is working well when in disarmed mode. I would like to use status from a couple Vista interior hard-wired motion detectors to trigger HS events, when in armed-stay mode. For example, use living area Vista motion to turn on/off lights at night if someone gets up. It doesn't appear that EVL sees/reports status change on the motions while in stay mode. Looking at EVL dashboard while in Stay mode, there are no status changes showing for the motions.

I posted to reddit homesecurity forum and one person claims (with pictures) that they have this working (getting motion status in Homesser through EVL from Vista sensors while in Stay mode), but they didn't do the programming, didn't know how it was done. So it does seem possible, I just don't know how. Any ideas or am I just left getting some Z-wave battery wireless motions dedicated to HS3 for the homeauto functions I want?

[jac1987]

Isn't true that on vista panels you can get pir sensor status while on stay/away mode?

[NonTech]

I'm gonna throw this out there, but maybe put the PIR sensor(s) in a separate partition that is not armed while the main partition is armed? Might work if your windows and doors have contacts installed and the PIR are just "belt and suspenders".

Good luck.

Thinking out loud, wouldn't it make more sense to add additional PIR sensor(s) at the appropriate locations, to the alarm system and put those duplicate PIR sensor(s) on a separate partition that is not armed while the main partition is armed. By so doing, the original PIRs remains active in away mode and the new duplicate PIR sensor(s) (on separate Partition) are active in both away or stay modes and will send signals to Homeseer3 or any other third party devices.

[user17600]

Having owned a Vista 20 (and now a DSC), the Vista panels *do not* transmit the status of PIRs when in an armed mode.

This is a limitation of the Vista panels (and an apparent advantage of DSC).

This is not an EVL thing, it's a Honeywell thing. If that Reddit reviewer pulled it off (short of having the PIRs in a separate partition that was not armed, as previously noted), there would be a significant amount of interest.

I wrote my original reply in 2014 when I owned house with a Vista panel, and I write this now owning a house with a DSC panel.

[IWANNALARM]

Will the Eyezon Uno panel transmit the status of a PIR when armed?

I understand that the Vista Panel with an EVL4 won't transmit the status of a PIR when armed but that a DSC panel will (although I believe the old DSC panels are discontinued and the NEO panels don't have full integration with the EVL4.)

I am hoping that the Eyezon Uno panel acts like the DSC panel and not like the Honeywell panel since it is supposedly based on the DSC panel. So, if the Uno is armed in Stay mode (i.e the PIR's won't trigger the alarm) will it transmit the status of the PIR so it can be used for home automation like the DSC panel would?

If it matters, I have a PIR with a form C relay -- that is it has both normally open and normally closed outputs that could be wired to separate zones.

[GrandWizard]

Yes, the UNO panel reports all zone states regardless of whether the panel is armed or not. It was designed with home automation in mind.

[IWANNALARM]

That's good to know. A couple of related questions:

How do you wire PIRs to the Uno? I did not see any reference to that in the manual and I assume the wiring is different than a wired door sensor as the PIRs require power.

Once you have wired the PIR to the Panel, what type of zone definition would you assign to the PIR if you want it to trigger an alarm in away mode but just trigger an automation in Stay mode. Would it be "Interior Zone (Stay)" where the manual says "This interior Zone will be automatically bypassed when the user arms the partition in arm-stay mode."?

[GrandWizard]

The manual that comes with your PIR will explain how it is wired. You need to provide it power, normally from the AUX but not required.

Yes, PIRs are typically set to Interior Stay/Away zones.

[IWANNALARM]

In the UNO manual posted on line I do not see a reference to an "Interior stay/away zone". I only see a reference to an "interior zone (stay)" which says "This interior zone will be automatically bypassed when the user arms the partition in arm-stay mode." Is that what I would use if I want a motion sensor to trigger an automation in stay mode but trigger an alarm in away mode?

[GrandWizard]

Yep, you got it.