Qolsys Gateway - qolsysgw

Qolsys Gateway (qolsysgw) is an AppDaemon automation that serves as a gateway between a Qolsys IQ Panel (2, 2+ or 4) and Home Assistant. Qolsys Gateway works by establishing a connection to your Qolsys Panel and uses the MQTT integration of Home Assistant. It takes advantages of the MQTT discovery feature (automatically enabled when you setup the integration) to declare the device, alarm control panels (for each partition) and different sensors, and keep them up to date with the information coming from the panel, while providing you with the means to arm, disarm or trigger your alarm directly from Home Assistant, manually or through automations.

• How It Works
• Requirements
• Installation
  • Installing Home Assistant
  • Installing an MQTT Broker
  • Installing AppDaemon
  • Installing HACS (optional, recommended)
  • Installing Qolsys Gateway
    • With HACS (recommended)
    • Manually
• Configuration
  • Configuring the MQTT integration in Home Assistant
  • Configuring your Qolsys IQ Panel
  • Configuring Qolsys Gateway
    • Required configuration
    • Optional configuration related to the Qolsys Panel itself
    • Optional configuration related to the representation of the panel in Home Assistant
    • Optional configuration related to MQTT & AppDaemon
• Other documentation
• Acknowledgements and thanks

How It Works

Qolsys Gateway is an async application and has a few parallel workflows:

1. The communication with the Qolsys Panel

   1. Qolsys Gateway connects to your Qolsys Panel using the configured information (hostname, token, port), thanks to a Control4 interface

   2. As soon as the connection is established, Qolsys Gateway requests from the panel the information on the current state of the panel, its partitions and sensors

   3. Qolsys Gateway listens for messages from the panel, and calls a callback method everytime a message can be parsed to an executable action; the callback will push that message in an MQTT thread (that step is not mandatory but doing that loop allows to debug the application from Home Assistant by sending events directly in MQTT)

   4. Every 4 minutes, a keep-alive message is sent to the connection, in order to avoid the panel from disconnecting Qolsys Gateway

2. The communications with MQTT

   1. Qolsys Gateway listens to an event topic, when a message is received, we update the state of the panel according to the event (it can be updating the sensors, the partitions or the panel itself). Messages in that topic are the messages that come from the Qolsys Panel, and that we intepret as change to the state of the panel. In general, with the update, we will trigger a few MQTT messages to be sent to update the status of the element at the source of the event in Home Assistant.

   2. Qolsys Gateway also listens to a control topic, when a message is received, we communicate the action to perform to the Qolsys Panel. Messages in that topic are coming from Home Assistant as reactions to service calls on the alarm_control_panel entities, or of manually configured actions. They can be used to arm or disarm the system, or even to trigger the alarm on the device.

Requirements

• A Qolsys IQ Panel 2 or 2+ (software version 2.5.3 or greater), or 4 (software version 4.1 or greater), for which you have the dealer code (defaults to 2222). In some cases, the installer code (defaults to 1111) might be sufficient, but in my experience, it was not, as the required menus were not visible.

• Understanding that this automation is not part of the core of Home Assistant and is thus not officially supported by Home Assistant. By using it, you agree that neither Home Assistant nor myself are responsible for any issues with your Home Assistant configuration, loss of data, or whatever could be caused by using Qolsys Gateway. Setting up Qolsys Gateway requires enabling the Control4 protocol on your Qolsys Panel, which may open to security issues and someone taking over control of your alarm system, so please be aware of what you are doing, and only do it if you are ready to take those risks.

Installation

Installing Qolsys Gateway requires the following steps.

Installing Home Assistant

You can get to the Home Assistant documentation for installation page in order to setup Home Assistant for your needs.

Installing an MQTT Broker

You will require a working MQTT broker alongside your Home Assistant installation. Home Assistant provides documentation on how to install and configure an MQTT broker. If you wish to use MQTT through a docker deployment, you can use the eclipse-mosquitto docker image. If you can, setup a username and password to secure your broker even more.

Installing AppDaemon

Qolsys Gateway is an AppDaemon automation, which means it depends on a working and running version of AppDaemon, connected to your Home Assistant. You can find all the resources necessary in AppDaemon's documentation about how to install AppDaemon and how to configure it with the HASS plugin for communicating with Home Assistant, and with the MQTT plugin for communicating with your MQTT broker.

If you wish to use AppDaemon through a docker deployment, you can use the acockburn/appdaemon docker image.

Installing HACS (optional, recommended)

HACS is the Home Assistant Community Store and allows for community integrations and automations to be updated cleanly and easily from the Home Assistant web user interface. If it is simple to install Qolsys Gateway without HACS, keeping up to date requires manual steps that HACS will handle for you: you will be notified of updates, and they can be installed by a click on a button.

If you want to use HACS, you will have to follow their documentation on how to install HACS.

Installing Qolsys Gateway

Installing Qolsys Gateway is pretty simple once all the applications above are setup. You can either follow the path using HACS (a bit more steps initially, easier on the longer run) or use the manual setup approach.

With HACS (recommended)

To install Qolsys Gateway with HACS, you will need to make sure that you enabled AppDaemon automations in HACS, as these are not enabled by default:

1. Click on Configuration on the left menu bar in Home Assistant Web UI
2. Select Devices & Services
3. Select Integrations
4. Find HACS and click on Configure
5. In the window that opens, make sure that Enable AppDaemon apps discovery & tracking is checked, or check it and click Submit
6. If you just enabled this (or just installed HACS), you might have to wait a few minutes as all repositories are being fetched; you might hit a GitHub rate limit, which might then require you to wait a few hours for HACS to be fully configured. In this case, you won't be able to proceed to the next steps until HACS is ready.

Now, to install Qolsys Gateway with HACS, follow these steps:

1. Click on HACS on the left menu bar in Home Assistant Web UI
2. Click on Automations in the right panel
3. Click on Explore & download repositories in the bottom right corner
4. Search for qolsysgw, and click on Qolsys Gateway in the list that appears
5. In the bottom right corner of the panel that appears, click on Download this repository with HACS
6. A confirmation panel will appear, click on Download, and wait for HACS to proceed with the download
7. Qolsys Gateway is now installed, and HACS will inform you when updates are available

Manually

Installing Qolsys Gateway manually can be summarized by putting the content of the apps/ directory of this repository (the qolsysgw/ directory) into the apps/ directory of your AppDaemon installation.

For instance, if your Home Assistant configuration directory is in /hass/config/, you most likely have AppDaemon setup in /hass/config/appdaemon/, and you can thus put qolsysgw/ into /hass/config/appdaemon/apps/.

Configuration

Configuring the MQTT integration in Home Assistant

The MQTT integration of Home Assistant needs to be configured with your MQTT broker in order for Qolsys Gateway to work. If you haven't setup the MQTT integration yet, you can do so with the following steps:

1. Click on Configuration on the left menu bar in Home Assistant Web UI
2. Select Devices & Services
3. Select Integrations
4. Click on Add Integration in the bottom right corner
5. Search for MQTT, and click on the MQTT integration
6. Fill in the information as configured for your MQTT broker (hostname, port, and username and password if setting things up with an authenticated connection)
7. Click on Submit, Home Assistant will try and connect to the MQTT broker, and the integration will be setup upon success.

Configuring your Qolsys IQ Panel

If you already have the Control4 token for your Qolsys IQ Panel, you can skip that step. If you do not understand what that sentence is about, you definitely need to go through that step.

Qolsys Gateway communicates with your Qolsys Panel using a protocol that exists for communications with Control4 automation. That protocol is not enabled on your Qolsys Panel by default, so we will need to enable it and note the token that will be provided to us.

To enable the feature and get your secure token, you will need to:

1. Connect your Qolsys Panel to your WiFi network (if not already done)

   1. Swipe down from the top menu bar and select `Settings`. 2. Touch `Advanced Settings` and use either the _installer_ code or the _dealer_ code (you might have access with the main user code, too). 3. Touch `Wi-Fi`. 4. Check the `Enable Wi-Fi` box if not already active. 5. Available networks will appear in a list. 6. Touch the desired network and use the keyboard to type the password (if required).

   

2. Enable 3rd party connections

   1. Swipe down from the top menu bar and select `Settings`. 2. Touch `Advanced Settings` and use the _dealer_ code (you **might** have access with the _installer_ code, too). 3. Touch `Installation`. 4. Touch `Devices`. 5. Touch `Wi-Fi Devices`. 6. Touch `3rd Party Connections`. 7. Check the `Control4` box to enable 3rd Party Connections. 8. The panel will reboot in order to apply the change. 9. Come back to the same menu once the reboot is done. 10. Touch `Reveal secure token` and note the token that the panel is providing you, we will need it to configure Qolsys Gateway. 11. If you ever leak that token, come back to this menu and touch `Regenerate secure token` in order to make sure that nobody can get access to control your alarm system.

   

Configuring Qolsys Gateway

Qolsys Gateway needs to be configured in the apps.yaml file of AppDaemon. If your Home Assistant configuration directory is in /hass/config/, and AppDaemon in /hass/config/appdaemon/, you will find this file in /hass/config/appdaemon/apps/apps.yaml (next to the qolsysgw/ directory we moved here previously).

Required configuration

The minimum configuration to use Qolsys Gateway is the following:

qolsys_panel:
  module: gateway
  class: QolsysGateway
  panel_host: <qolsys_panel_host_or_ip>
  panel_token: <qolsys_secure_token>

With:

• qolsys_panel: the name of the application for AppDaemon. You can run multiple instances of Qolsys Gateway, each with a different Qolsys Panel, if you ever need so. See the configuration options below, specifically panel_unique_id, to be able to configure multiple devices.
• module: the main module from which QolsysGateway will be loaded. This parameter is mandatory and cannot be changed as it references the qolsysgw/gateway.py file.
• class: the name of the class that will be loaded by AppDaemon for that automation. This parameter is mandatory and cannot be changed as it references the QolsysGateway class in the qolsysgw/gateway.py file.
• panel_host: the hostname or IP address of your Qolsys Panel, as connected to your network. That hostname or IP address must, of course, be accessible from the server running AppDaemon.
• panel_token: the secure token we got from enabling Control4 on the Qolsys Panel.

Optional configuration related to the Qolsys Panel itself

• panel_port: the port to use to connect to your Qolsys Panel with the Control4 protocol. This is not really configurable on the panel itself, but available as an option if needed (for instance, for NAT needs). Defaults to 12345.

  ```yaml qolsys_panel: # ... panel_port: 4242 # use the port 4242 # ... ```
• panel_mac: the mac address of your Qolsys Panel. This is something you can find from your router, and might allow you to link the device created in Home Assistant by Qolsys Gateway to other entries related to your Panel. Not used by default, and Qolsys Gateway will try to resolve the mac address using ARP - which does not work when using appdaemon in docker, except if using the host network mode -, or ignore it entirely if not possible.

  ```yaml qolsys_panel: # ... panel_mac: aa:bb:cc:dd:11:22 # ... ```
• panel_user_code: the code to send to your Qolsys Panel to disarm your system (and arm when in secure arm mode). This needs to be a valid user code added to your Qolsys Panel. It is recommended to use a distinct user code if setup, so you have the ability to roll it as needed. If unset (or null), you will not be able to disarm your alarm system without providing a code in Home Assistant. Defaults to null.

  ```yaml qolsys_panel: # ... panel_user_code: 1234 # there is a code '1234' allowing me to disarm my Qolsys Panel # ... ```
• arm_away_exit_delay: the delay to set when arming away through Qolsys Gateway. Setting the value to 0 will instantly arm the alarm system. Setting to null will let the panel use its default value. Setting to any other positive value will set that delay. This will not change the default behavior of the panel when handled manually, simply what will happen when arming away from Home Assistant through Qolsys Gateway. Note that if "Auto Stay" is enabled (may be the default in some cases), an exit delay is configured, and no door is opened or closed during the delay, the panel will be set to "Arm Stay" instead. Defaults to null.

  ```yaml qolsys_panel: # ... arm_away_exit_delay: 0 # arming instantly when triggered from Home Assistant, since related to automations # ... ```
• arm_stay_exit_delay: the delay to set when arming stay through Qolsys Gateway. Setting the value to 0 will instantly arm the alarm system. Setting to null will let the panel use its default value. Setting to any other positive value will set that delay. This will not change the default behavior of the panel when handled manually, simply what will happen when arming stay from Home Assistant through Qolsys Gateway. Defaults to null.

  ```yaml qolsys_panel: # ... arm_stay_exit_delay: 10 # arming in 10 seconds when triggered from Home Assistant # ... ```
• arm_away_bypass: whether or not to bypass sensors that are "open" when arming away through Qolsys Gateway. Bypassed sensors are then ignored until the next time the panel will be armed (this means that closing and reopening those sensors after arming with the bypass will not trigger an alarm). Setting the value to true will always bypass open sensors when arming away, while setting it to false will always disable the bypass. If you have a default behavior for this defined in your panel, this parameter will override it. Leaving the parameter unset will leave the panel decide what to do. Defaults to null.

  ```yaml qolsys_panel: # ... arm_away_bypass: true # will bypass the open sensors if any # ... ```
• arm_stay_bypass: whether or not to bypass sensors that are "open" when arming stay through Qolsys Gateway. Bypassed sensors are then ignored until the next time the panel will be armed (this means that closing and reopening those sensors after arming with the bypass will not trigger an alarm). Setting the value to true will always bypass open sensors when arming stay, while setting it to false will always disable the bypass. If you have a default behavior for this defined in your panel, this parameter will override it. Leaving the parameter unset will leave the panel decide what to do. Defaults to null.

  ```yaml qolsys_panel: # ... arm_stay_bypass: false # will NOT bypass the open sensors if any # ... ```
• arm_type_custom_bypass: the type of arming to use when using ARM_CUSTOM_BYPASS from Home Assistant. This arming type will automatically enable bypassing the open sensors. Setting the value to arm_away will lead to the panel being armed in away mode with bypass enabled when ARM_CUSTOM_BYPASS is used. Setting the value to arm_stay will lead to the panel being armed in stay mode. Defaults to arm_away.

  ```yaml qolsys_panel: # ... arm_type_custom_bypass: arm_stay # to arm the panel in stay mode when using the custom bypass arming type # ... ```

Optional configuration related to the representation of the panel in Home Assistant

• panel_unique_id: the unique ID of the device that will be created for the panel in Home Assistant. All the partitions and sensors unique IDs will be based on that unique ID to, in order to separate cleanly the potential multiple panels you would setup with Qolsys Gateway. Defaults to qolsys_panel.

  ```yaml qolsys_panel: # ... panel_unique_id: meerkat # there cannot be another device with 'meerkat' as ID, it can help if you want to use Qolsys Gateway for two+ panels # ... ```
• panel_device_name: the name of the device as it will appear in Home Assistant. Because Qolsys Gateway provides a unique ID for all its elements, you will be able to change the name in the user interface of Home Assistant. Even though, this is the name that Qolsys Gateway will advertise for your panel. Defaults to Qolsys Panel.

  ```yaml qolsys_panel: # ... panel_device_name: Steve # hey, Steve! # ... ```
• ha_check_user_code: whether or not the check of the user code should be done in the Home Assistant user interface. If set to false, the code will never be checked in home assistant even if required for arming, disarming or triggering the alarm, and will always be sent to Qolsys Gateway for checking. If set to true and the code is required for one of the actions, if will be checked by the Home Assistant user interface, and never sent through the network to Qolsys Gateway (a session token is shared to Home Assistant by Qolsys Gateway to make sure it is receiving control messages from the right instance). Note that in case of issues of checking a code in Qolsys Gateway, things will simply fail silently. Requires panel_user_code to be set, will silently revert to false otherwise. Defaults to true.

  ```yaml qolsys_panel: # ... ha_check_user_code: false # we want Qolsys Gateway to receive the code and perform the check # ... ```
• ha_user_code: if you want to use a different disarm code in Home Assistant than the actual disarm code that Qolsys Gateway will use with the panel, you can define it here. You can use numeric codes (will show a numeric pad in Home Assistant's user interface) or any characters (will show a text box). If ha_check_user_code is set to true, then the verification of that code will be done in Home Assistant directly. If set to false, Qolsys Gateway will use that code to compare against what Home Assistant will send in the control topic. Requires panel_user_code to be set, will raise an error otherwise. Defaults to null.

  ```yaml qolsys_panel: # ... ha_user_code: $up3r$ecre7!! # this will be the code expected from the user # ... ```
• code_arm_required: whether or not we require to type-in the code to arm the alarm system. Requires panel_user_code to be set, will raise an error otherwise as the Qolsys Panel does not require any code to arm the alarm system, and Qolsys Gateway cannot do that check without a configured code. Defaults to false.

  ```yaml qolsys_panel: # ... code_arm_required: true # ... ```
• code_disarm_required: whether or not we require to type-in the code to arm the alarm system. Will silently be forced to true if panel_user_code is not set, as Qolsys Gateway will not be able to disarm the alarm system without a code. Defaults to false.

  ```yaml qolsys_panel: # ... code_disarm_required: true # ... ```
• code_trigger_required: whether or not we require to type-in the code to trigger the alarm system. Requires panel_user_code to be set, will raise an error otherwise as the Qolsys Panel does not require any code to trigger the alarm system, and Qolsys Gateway cannot do that check without a configured code. Defaults to false.

  ```yaml qolsys_panel: # ... code_trigger_required: true # ... ```
• default_trigger_command: the trigger command to use among the valid control commands that Qolsys Gateway support. Defaults to TRIGGER.

  ```yaml qolsys_panel: # ... default_trigger_command: TRIGGER_FIRE # if we want to trigger the fire alarm by default # ... ```
• default_sensor_device_class: the sensor device class to use by default if a Qolsys sensor type is not directly mapped to a device class in Qolsys Gateway, but is still part of the identified sensors. Defaults to safety.

  ```yaml qolsys_panel: # ... default_sensor_device_class: null # if we do not want to get a sensor if the device class is not directly mapped # ... ```
• enable_static_sensors_by_default: whether or not sensors that will not be updated by the panel (e.g. Bluetooth) should be enabled by default in Home Assistant. Even if setting this to false, you will have the ability to enable them on a sensor-by-sensor basis in Home Assistant. If setting it to true, you will also be able to disable them on a sensor-by-sensor basis in Home Assistant. Defaults to false.

  ```yaml qolsys_panel: # ... enable_static_sensors_by_default: true # ... ```

Optional configuration related to MQTT & AppDaemon

• mqtt_namespace: the MQTT namespace to use to read and send messages in MQTT. This should be the same as configured in appdaemon.yaml, so if you did not use mqtt, you will need to use that option for Qolsys Gateway to work properly. Defaults to mqtt.

  ```yaml qolsys_panel: # ... mqtt_namespace: mqtt-homeassistant # if we used that namespace in appdaemon.yaml # ... ```
• mqtt_retain: whether or not we should set the retain flag on availability and states messages of the partitions and sensors. This is interesting as if Home Assistant starts listening to MQTT right after we sent our status messages and we do not use retain, then Home Assistant will not know the state. However, using retain means that we need to handle the cases where AppDaemon is killed, this means that for this option to be considered, we need the birth_topic and will_topic of AppDaemon to be the same, so we can consider AppDaemon's availability as an information of the availability of our partitions and sensors. Defaults to true.

  ```yaml qolsys_panel: # ... mqtt_retain: false # if we do not want to use MQTT retain # ... ```
• discovery_topic: The topic base that Home Assistant listens to for MQTT discovery. This needs to be the same as the discovery_prefix configured for the MQTT module in the Home Assistant configuration, which is homeassistant by default. Defaults to homeassistant.

  ```yaml qolsys_panel: # ... discovery_topic: hass-discovery # if the discovery_prefix was changed to hass-discovery in Home Assistant # ... ```
• control_topic: the topic to use to receive control commands from Home Assistant. If using {panel_unique_id} as part of the value, it will be converted to the value as defined by the panel_unique_id parameter, allowing to automatically handle multiple instances of Qolsys Gateway for multiple panels, since you will have to define different unique IDs for each. Defaults to {discovery_topic}/alarm_control_panel/{panel_unique_id}/set.

  ```yaml qolsys_panel: # ... control_topic: panel_{panel_unique_id}/control # ... ```
• event_topic: the topic to use to write (and also read) the Qolsys Panel events. If using {panel_unique_id} as part of the value, it will be converted to the value as defined by the panel_unique_id parameter, allowing to automatically handle multiple instances of Qolsys Gateway for multiple panels, since you will have to define different unique IDs for each. Defaults to qolsys/{panel_unique_id}/event.

  ```yaml qolsys_panel: # ... event_topic: panel_{panel_unique_id}/event # ... ```
• user_control_token: a fixed control token that can be used as an alternative to the session token for control commands sent to Qolsys Gateway, if you want to trigger control commands that are not supported by an Home Assistant service. When set to null, this is simply disabled (only the session token will be considered valid). Defaults to null.

  ```yaml qolsys_panel: # ... user_control_token: My$ecr3tT0k3n! # ... ```

Other documentation

• The known Qolsys Panel interactions
• Qolsys Gateway's control commands
• Qolsys Gateway's entities

Acknowledgements and thanks

The initial findings that made this project possible are discussed in the community forum of Home Assistant, where the Control4 interface was initially mentioned, as well as a number of the events and actions that could be used once the connection initiated with the Qolsys Panel.

The ad-qolsys project by @roopesh, which I used before deciding to rewrite the automation from scratch with different features and a different way to handle events and actions. This project is not using a line of code of ad-qolsys, but was initially inspired by it.