Hello all, I am buying a house soon with a Vivint system in it. I am curious if it is possible to use the window/door sensors with OpenHAB in some fashion? Thanks, any help is appreciated.
It seems that these devices operate in the 345 MHz UHF frequency⊠(they are 2GIG-DW10-345 OEM?)
This is not going to be easy 
(get ready to hack the airwavesâŠ) I donât know if there is another way to integrate OH2 to the main Vivint systemâŠ
See here: http://www.rtl-sdr.com/reverse-engineering-honeywell-345-mhz-home-automation-sensors-rtl-sdr/
& here:
Hi, good luck on taking over those sensors, I posted the article referenced above in the âOH2 Beginnersâ area. I was able to take over the doorbell camera quite easily, let me know if you need help with yours, (if you have one). There is no reason you cant have it up and running on the vivint system and also accessible to yourself. It has many very cool features like motion detection and auto recording to ftp or smb network share.
My eventual takeover of the other devices eventually ended due to me needing a working security system, so I went with ADT as they were not pushy pricks. That said, Iâm sure I could out-stubborn most of the components eventually. The easiest integration would be to tie into the âalarm outâ contacts in the back of the unit. (Both of my 2GIG and VIVINT panels had 2 separate ones.) Running those to a OH2 sensor you could setup a rule inside the panel for upstairs motion sensor for example: If triggered then trigger alarm1 only if triggered while the system is armed.
Anyway good luck hope this helps for some of the low-hanging fruit.
Thank you for the replies. I did find your thread Luke_Bair. And thank you for probably saving me a bunch of time ha. I think we decided we are more after the Home Automation side of things so I am going to a different route I think from the 2GIG stuff. I need to do some recon into OpenHAB now. I believe the other devices on the System that are Z-Wave are the door lock, smoke alarms and maybe the HVAC panel. Then I will just get some window sensors as I go. I did see someone that piggy backed a 2GIG panel to a SmartThings hub. Buuuut I like the open nature of OpenHAB.
@Luke_Bair, how did you take over the Vivint camera? I have one in our home (our Vivint subscription was cancelled when we moved into the home) and would like to monitor the camera from my phone/computer when Iâm away instead of the control panel directly.
Iâm assuming your Doorbell Cam is paired to your vivint panel already. You can take it over in just a few steps:
#### Updated. Scroll down a couple posts.
There is a simpler method using WDS built into the doorbell. ####
- Open the back of your vivint panel, connect an Ethernet cord to the Ethernet jack and hook up your computer/laptop. (Most laptops these days dont need a crossover cable but you may need one if you are using an older laptop.)
- I had to reboot my panel for it to enable the Ethernet port (after plugging in both sides). Go into your Vivint panel, Settings, Installer toolbox, Networking, Advanced Networking, and toggle Ethernet (RJ45) port for troubleshooting.
- You should get a 172.16.10.x address on your laptop, you are now on the private Vivint LAN managed by your Panel. You can now don your cool hacker shades!
- To access the camera you can open a web page and start guesing the camera IP by taking note of your IP (the last device added to the network) and knowing that 172.16.10.101 is the first DHCP addess handed to other devices. OR⊠you could tool around for the camera on the Vivint panel from the installer toolbox untill you see its IP address. Ether way its probably close to 172.16.10.101.
- Now bring up the cameraâs web interface and login with the default camera manufactureâs password of:
root
adcvideo
Edit the settings as you see fit⊠I joined it to my regular wifi and changed the login password.
Recording Options
- The camera has some built in recording options, so you can simply set that up and record to a network share and be donw.
- I used iSPY at first, a free application that has some decent recording options. I then moved on to BlueIris, which runs about $60ish total cost and has an amazing set of features.
- The cameraâs cpu can overload if you max the quality and framerate, or if you add too many tasks. The first Stream I run at full resolution, 15fps with adaptive quality (smart stream: excellent foreground, good background), works well. I set the 2nd stream at medium resolution, 10fps same streaming.
- If your cool you can even program custom scripted actions that the camera can performâŠ
If you need to pair your camera to your Vivint control panel:
- Plug in the power to the camera and hold the doorbell button for 30ish seconds until it flashes red. Then hold the button for 5ish seconds and it will start telling you its time to connect to your Vivint panel
- Go into your Vivint panel, Settings, Installer toolbox, Smart Home devices, Cameras, and at the very top right âAdd cameraâ.
- If you get lost there are youtube videos that have screens you can reference from âVivint Academyâ.
Hope that helps, you could probibly pair the camera to your laptop via adhoc and log into the web interface but I havent tried it.
Hope this helps you, feel free to post questions.
Wow! Great stuff @Luke_Bair! Thanks!
I have a Vivint system, including monitoring, currently installed. I am seriously considering cancelling the monitoring service. Itâs too expensive and the hardware has been a problem since we had the system installed 9 months ago. As I am sure âyallâ are aware, if you cancel the Vivint monitoring subscription, the system essentially becomes an expensive way to lock your door. The cameras are not accessible through the control panel and you canât even access the system with your laptop. This is from Vivint with whom I just got off of the phone. I assume âyallâ already know all of this.
I want to discontinue the monitoring âserviceâ from Vivint, but since I purchased all of the hardware outright, I donât want to âthrow it awayâ just because I donât like the expense of the Vivint âserviceâ.
So here are my questions:
- Is it (reasonably) POSSIBLE to âhackâ the Vivint system hardware so that I can use it as it was designed but without Vivint âmonitoringâ. The question is NOT âCan I do it?â It IS, âIs it POSSIBLE for someone sufficiently sophisticated, but not and NSA hacker, to get the hardware I have (cameras, automatic door locks, etc.) to function as designed (for security)?â
Or,
- Am I just screwed if I cancel my monitoring subscription with Vivint?
Thanks,
Paul
Hi, Ill help as best as I can. I still have most of my sensors but only really use the doorbell camera these days. For the sake of future googlers maybe you could make a list of what you have and Ill try to make some instructions for each item. If your willing we can do some over the phone and write our results here.
Thank you for that generous offer!
I will have to get back to this in a few hours. My website is down and thatâ the highest priority at the moment. I will come back with a list of hardware, and contact information.
Thank,
Paul
Sorry it took longer than I thought. âThingsâ got away from me yesterday.
How detailed do you need the sensor descriptions to be? For example: I have two cameras, three motion detectors, and four door sensors. Do you need specific model numbers, etc.?
Thanks,
Paul
PS - Doesnât look like I have been a member long enough to allow me to send PMs. If you PM me, I will pass on my contact info.
Paul
Hi Paul, no worries. Life is pretty busy the last several weeks here too. Ill need the models of the cameras. Maybe a picture if you cant find it. Door sensors are increadibly cheap so if we cant get the vivant ones working there are probibly some you could swap out. Before you kill your service get the installer code from o e of the techs, its your equipment and if they give it to you then theres alot more we can do. For instance everything will remain paired to the panel and we may be able to tie into one of the alarm out circuits to openhab which would have a rule like send you a notification. The motion sensors may be proprietary which means it would be better to tie into the panel if possible.
I am in this same boat. Bought a house in Dec with the lastest Vivnit System installed and verified that the software is version 3.6 which from what I have read can not be hacked into. I did call Vivnit but they would not tell me who the tech was that installed the unit and not give me the installer code unless I reactivated the system @ like $45 a month and I was like no way. So basically I have a worthless system installed. It appears that if I purchase a 2GIG system that all of the sensors have the same dimensions so I would just need to swap them all out. I wasnât able to get into the Vivnit panel so I have no idea what all devices are in my house. I have seen the door sensors, what appears to be a glass break sensor, and 2 motion detectors. Does Vivnit install windows sensors too because I have not seen any of those? Any help or advice would be great.
Hi Cole, sorry for the long pause. I took a closer look at my Vivant left overs and Im more convinced that I would keep only the parts that your able to find online references to, as in several seem to be fairly proprietary and until someone posts a detailed (somewhat easy) guide on that stuff, its probably going to be way easier to spend a little money on the various smart home stuff thatâs already got support. That said the doorbell camera is totally useable and I would be happy to post more detail on taking it over. It does require some basic computer network knowledge, and I may be able to simplify the instructions.
Ill take a look at the smart thermostat this week as well as the smoke detector and the door keypad. Most people get those items in the basic install package, so Ill post my findings here. Take a look at the glass break detector if its accessible and send me pictures. If its the same as mine Ill look into that too. Thanks for being patient.
My glassbreak sensor is Honeywell so its a go for takeover and the front door lock looks like a 50/50 chance.
The motion sensor and all the window and door sensors had a vivant lables on the inside so Iâm going to say probibly not, good thing they are cheap parts.
Hi @Luke_Bair ,
Were you able to replicate the same doorbell capability from the Vivint app to Openhab? eg: live stream of the camera, doorbell notifications to your phone through cloud service, doorbell sound to be played through speakers, an easy way to access the recordings from your network share in HABPanel
If so, would you be able to share the steps and your config files on how you did that?
thanks!
Rich
Well the ability is there, through the âCustomized scriptâ option inside the camera:
Here is an example of the syntax see page 37-39:
http://download.vivotek.com/downloadfile/downloads/usersmanuals/ip21x2manual_en.pdf
That said I just use it for recording video\audio. It does have a two way audio if you pull up the web interface inside internet explorer and there is an app (android\apple) that probably works with it though I havenât tried the app.
https://www.vivotek.com/iviewer/#views:view=jplist-grid-view
I use it with blueiris (a nice inexpensive dvr that is compatable with almost all cameras) which I launch via shortcut inside openhab, but there is a nice writeup on full integration here:
The camera also has the ability to save recorded video\pictures to a network share or ftp server, so you can set it up without any additional software. There is quite alot of cool motion detection/event capability baked right into the camera.
I have a feeling to get the doorbell button working your going to need to get your hands dirty with the custom script using the examples in the manual and the variables listed under âSystemâ => âParametersâ Here is a screenshot of the area youâd be interested in.
I have a large glass window on my front door so there was little motivation to get that part working.
The first steps are to pair the doorbell to your wifi⊠here is a good how to to get into the doorbell if your comfortable with how WPS works:
Let me know if you have any other questions, or get stuck. Most of it is self explanatory once you get into the web interface of the camera. If you decide to get adventurous and play with the scripts post how far you get so others can maybe add to it. I havent gone that far but hopefully the links here helps get you to the right place.
@Luke_Bair many thanks for your contributions
To confirm, in order to take over the doorbell I simply need to use WDS to pair it with my router - then I can log in with root/adcvideo by hitting the DHCP IP address thatâs given to it. Is the admin gui served on port 80 or a different port? From the screenshot it looks like 80, just want to confirm (I donât have network access yet at my home)
Which other sensors have you been able to take over? I saw you mentioning the glassbreak sensor and the front door lock, were you able to take these over?
Iâm pretty new to smart home tech but Iâm no stranger to linux, scripting or networking⊠so I figure it should be pretty easy for me to get well adjusted here. But for the sake of covering all my bases - anything that is critical to know for this type of hacking? I keep hearing about a SDR is that needed for the doorbell at all or only for the other sensors?
Thanks and sorry for the noobie questions 
Yes, that is correct. Default port 80 is working on mine. I bought a zwave stick and played with paring various devices with mixed success. I am very new at this as well and Iâve got a busy home life, so I only really got the things working that I really need. Openhab can see the front door lock but I havenât assigned it any rules or tried to do much with it. These days Im leaning towards maybe getting a smart hub that is Openhab compatible instead.
I have some indoor PING cameras from Vivint that I would like to reuse. I have the following questions:
- Is anyone got it working with the Openhab hub?
- Where do I found the menu for the indoor PING camera?
- How to put it on my local wifi network instead going through the vivint panel?
hey would love help on taking over my vivint equipment would you mind. i have a door bell, window sensors, camera and door sensors. Is it possible to take over?