ADT SafeWatch Pro 3000 System - Can it be 're-used'?

When I bought my current house it had an ADT system, with a multitude of sensors. These include switches at all doors/windows and few PIRs for presence/motion detection. All sensors/components are hard-wired and about 15~ years old. Can any of the hardware be re-used then interfaced with openHAB?

Have a look at konnected.io - will let you integrate all the wired sensors into openhab assuming the sensors are compatible.

Thank you. That looks interesting, though not sure the number of I/O compares with my current system. I have a total of 5 (2 strand) and 7 (4 strand) wires … that makes 42 individual wires connected to the board … I’m starting to believe that while the sensors could be recycled, other components might not be, easily at least.

Would like very much to post a couple of photos … but can’t find how to in this forum.

Looks interesting, though not sure the number of I/O compares with my current system. I have a total of 5 (2 strand) and 7 (4 strand) wires … that makes 42 individual wires connected to the board … I’m starting to believe that while the sensors could be recycled, other components might not be.

My box in the basement, looks very much like the one below, with many more wires where the resistors are connected.

The konnected boards are linkable - I have 2 in my system. Have a look through the help site to determine your wiring and how it all connects up. https://help.konnected.io/support/solutions/articles/32000022571-identifying-your-wiring

There’s also a new board launching next year which will do 12 zones and connects via ethernet instead of wifi. If I didn’t have the system already I’d be waiting for that instead.

Thank you, useful link. From their description:

  1. The 2-strand wires are for door/windows switches, and sometimes there could be multiple switches connected in series (e.g. multiple windows in the same room).
  2. The 4-strand wires are for PIR motion sensors

ADT did not bother labeling the various wires … so now, all I need is trace the various wires, label them, and hopefully re-use them … nothing comes easy.

I had a similar situation only they took the board. All I had was a bunch of wires hanging down in a closet. Thankfully they labeled the wires.

For now, I have the simple door sensors working using 3.3v out from an RPi 0W GPIO. That was simple enough. But the vibration sensors and window sensors appear to need more than 3.3v. I can’t attach a 5v to the GPIO pins (though the RPi does provide 5v out) so I have some little chips to go from 5v to 3.3v but I’ve not tried to wire them up yet. I mainly just wanted to know about the doors, but knowing when I’ve forgotten the windows would be nice. Perhaps a nice Christmas break project since I have all the parts I think I need.

I’ve thought about replacing the RPi0W with an ESP8266 but it’s harder to get 5v out of it. I think konnected.io Shannon recommends handles this so it might be a better choice.

The big thing is the need to do a little research to figure out what voltage the sensors need to drive them.

Only half of them connect directly to the board. One of the wires you supply a voltage. When the sensor trips, it allows the voltage to come back on the other wire. Only this other wire need to be wired to the pins on the board. You can get the source voltage from anywhere, so long as it’s a voltage required by the sensor. If the sensor takes more than two wires, it is probably something more complex than you can easily integrate without doing a lot of research.

Copy the image to the clipboard and paste it in to the post usually works. I tend to use the snipping tool. Otherwise there is an upload icon to the right of the “Preformatted text” icon (</>).

Thank you @rlkoshak … you always have very valuable information :).

Here are some pics of the various ADT components in my house:

  1. Typical Motion Sensor (PIR ?)
  2. Control Box, by the garage door
  3. Typical Door Sensor
  4. Master Circuit/Panel, in the basement

My initial thinking was to find a way to hack into the board/controller but that will likely be a frustrating activity. At the very least, I think re-using the sensors might be the more ‘reasonable’ approach. Yes, I also have few RPIs and maybe now is the time to put them to good use.

image
image
image
image