DSC PC1550 Upgrade Konnected Pro – HASSIO

During my transition from OpenHab2 to HomeAssistant, I found myself looking at my aging DSC PC1550 wired alarm system.

Goal: Replace my functioning, but offline DSC PC1550 alarm. I wanted push notifications and IFTTT automation based events/triggers. This needed to fold into my existing smarthome ecosystem (Alexa/HASSIO).

Compatibility & Hardware

The property has pre-existing DSC PC1550 wired alarm. I wanted to leverage this with my existing smarthome (Hue, Alexa, HASSIO). Due to the age of the panel an EyezOn unit[1]https://www.eyezon.com/ was not an option. Konnected seemed like they had a great product, but all their units were wireless. Browsing their new products though, they recently added a new POE/wifi unit, Konnected Pro[2]https://konnected.io/collections/pre-order-new-v2-products/products/konnected-alarm-panel-pro-12-zone-kit. Though, pricey at the time ($229 USD).

Out of the box, the Konnected unit offers full compatibility with all of my existing zones and integration[3]https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/konnected/ with HASSIO. From the reading it seemed as easy as update, wire, ??, PROFIT!

Prep & Setup

The Konnected unit came with some labels. I numbered each one (not necessary), but let me keep track of all my zones. I ended up running around the house opening/closing windows and doors to see which zones trigger.

There are two primary resources I used to setup, the help portal Getting Started[4]https://help.konnected.io/support/solutions/32000015807 and the HASSIO Konnected integration page[5]https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/konnected/.

When labeling the wires, I ended up grouping the shared positions. For example, Z1/COM/Z2 on the DSC panel I grouped as #1. This maps directly to the Konnected 1/G/2 positions.

Below you’ll see the Konnected Pro and the mappings highlighted.

Note

One of the biggest pieces of the prep was to factory reset[6]https://help.konnected.io/support/solutions/articles/32000025437-how-do-i-factory-reset-the-device-to-default-settings- the unit and apply the firmware updates to BOTH the ESP32 firmware[7]https://help.konnected.io/support/solutions/articles/32000028976 and the Konnected software/firmware[8]https://help.konnected.io/support/solutions/articles/32000023470-flashing-konnected-firmware-software. Keep in mind, you’ll need a PC (laptop preferrably) with USB-A and PuTTy to flash and debug.

Once everything is updated and on the latest version you should be ready to add it to your smart home hub.

Issues

Unresponsive after reboot ~5 minutes
While initially setting up the Konnected Pro board[9]https://konnected.io/collections/pre-order-new-v2-products/products/konnected-alarm-panel-pro-12-zone-kit, I was unable to get a stable connection to my HomeAssistant environment. HomeAssistant sees the device, reports just fine, but the device became unresponsive and stopped reporting to HomeAssistant after a few minutes. In order to pull the below log, I had to debug the device by connecting my laptop via USB and using PuTTy[10]https://help.konnected.io/support/solutions/articles/32000023786-device-debugging-with-screen.

To resolve the above issue, I stumbled upon this post[11]https://community.home-assistant.io/t/konnected-alarm-panel-connect-a-wired-alarm-system-to-ha-new-in-0-70/53620/94. The core of the issue is that HomeAssistant was using DNS/hostname while Konnected Pro needs to use an IP address.

http:
base_url: http://homeassistant.local  #hassio hostname
and
konnected:
api_host: http://192.168.0.5 #hassio IP

The api_host could not communicate with homeassistant.local and needed the IP address of the hassio computer. Once I added the api_host and access_token (in the below configurations.yaml) I factory reset the Konnected device. Once it came back online it adopted the settings from HASSIO and has been working since.

Disconnecting after 24-48 hours
While running the Konnected Pro board, I experienced an odd issue where the unit would become unresponsive and go offline after a day or two. After researching I found that the device is going into discovery mode. The solution was to hard-code discovery: false in the configuration.yaml file[12]https://help.konnected.io/support/solutions/articles/32000023968-disabling-device-discovery (below).

HomeAssistant /config/configuration.yaml

Original DSC board & Konnected Pro

Everything all setup in HomeAssistant

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4 thoughts on “DSC PC1550 Upgrade Konnected Pro – HASSIO”

  1. Hello there I am trying to get a better understanding on the setup. My parents have the dsc 1550 panel I have been looking at connected. Where you able to keep your existing keypads?

  2. Can you give me some insight how you arm/disarm the system. What did you replace keypads with? Also where you able to keep the siren with konnected?

  3. Hi, I never got that far, unfortunately. However the Konnected device seems to support auxiliary devices like speakers. The keypad would need to be digital and integrate with whatever system you’re using to control the zones/arming. You may be better off installing a honeywell panel since it’s not your home system.

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