My wife works at Comcast (I know…) and she gets free/inexpensive services from them. We just bought a house and I want to get it set up with a smart home system. I love the idea of OpenHab and planned on running it on a Raspberry Pi server with a Zwave antenna. However, since I get free Xfinity Home services and they will monitor our security 24/7, we (my wife) would like to use their services. I don’t like how limited I am to specific hardware with Xfinity.
Question: What is the best way to integrate an OpenHab smart home using a bunch of different hardware with the Xfinity home with monitored security?
I though of just running a few motion sensors on the Xfinity security and having all of my locks, cameras, thermostats and lights on my OpenHab server, but I’d hate to have 2 systems if there is a better way of integrating them that I’m not aware of.
Please let me know if I’m missing something! Thank in advance.
It depends on what/if Xfinity has an API that openHAB can use to communicate with. Otherwise, assuming the communications are not encrypted (in which case free is still too expensive) the likelihood of reverse engineering the API is slim.
Without an API there is no way for OH to send commands to the Xfinity devices nor is there a way for OH to receive information from the Xfinity devices.
That makes a lot of sense and confirms my concerns. I guess I’m stuck with either running two systems, one for monitored security and one for everything else, or giving up on monitored security and going with OpenHab for everything.
Is there a way to have monitored security with OpenHab? I thought I remembered reading that there was at one time.
openHAB does integrate with some alarm systems hardware. I’ve no experience with them but if you search the forum for “alarm” you should find some threads where they are discussed.
Thanks, Rich! I think I’m going to scrap XH and go with OpenHab for everything, even if I don’t end up setting it up to be monitored. Honestly, if I have some cameras I’ll be able to monitor it on my own!
