Sensor vs Alarm

Do the channels for Sensor and Alarm report the same thing but just using different items types? If that are reporting identical information, what are the reasons why one would use one over the other? I tried to find something explaining why the two channels but couldn’t locate anything.

If they are supposed to be reporting the same thing, then the Alarm channel on my door sensors is not working properly. Fortunately everything else seems to be working with them since @chris participated in a really long thread to get a few of us working. If there are no real reasons why I’d need the “alarm_entry” channel over “sensor_door” channel then I won’t concern myself.

Thank you,
B34N

I believe that depends on the device firmware. For some of my motion sensors the vendor assumed they would be for security to the motion is labelled as alarm. Others are labelled just as a switch.