Does anyone know if support is available for integration with Ring alarm systems instead of SmartThings? I saw there was a thread about people asking for HomeKit Integration and it was alluded to that there is not Ring integration but it’s not clear to me. What exactly needs to happen to integrate with other systems?
I was able to get my Ring Retrofit alarm to work with my Konnected alarm panel. To do this, I used 12Kohm resisters in series to isolate the Ring Retrofit from the Konnected panel. This is needed because the battery powered Ring retrofit behaves differently than normal hardwired alarms. When a circuit goes open, the Retrofit voltage goes high (as expected) but only for about 1 sec before pulling the voltage low again. The 12K resister allows the Ring Retrofit to pull low without pulling the Konnected signal low (indicating a closed circuit). With this setup, I get to use Ring to monitor my Retrofit alarm while also using SmartThings / actiontiles in parallel.
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Tyler Tolman, can you please provide me with further feedback on how you got the Ring Retrofit and the Konnected (I have version 2) to play along together? I tried putting a 12K resistor in series (just on one port for testing purposes), and my Konnected would sense the door opening but immediately after would update to close. Not sure if I did something wrong.
Thanks!
You can try larger resistors until the voltage seen at the Konnected remains high enough to register as an "open" after the RING actively pulls it low.
The RING only temporarily lets the voltage float high when it senses the closed to open transition from your contact sensor before actively pulling it low again. The Konnected wants to see the high voltage (normally ~3V) constantly to indicate the Open condition. This is what is causing your Konnected to switch back to closed even though the door remains open.
Using Ohms law, V=IR, the higher the Resistor, the higher the Voltage will be on Konnected side (The Ring side of the resistor will be close to zero). Of course too high a resistor might make the Ring not detect an open vs close contact condition so you can't go too high. I found 12K was the right amount for my setup on 7 of 8 ports. But on 1 port, although it still works, I can see some instability on the Konnected where it flashes closed (when contact remains open) about once per minute. I was able to fix that by bumping the resistor on that port to 15K. It has been working flawlessly for 4 months now.
You might want to measure the voltage you see at the Konnected side of the resistor while the RING is pulling low. You probably need to get the Voltage up over 1.5V minimum (2V would be better) for the Konnected to register as Open. ~3V is what you would see without the RING pulling it low.
Thanks, I'll give it a try, and if that works. By any chance, are you using the Konnected Alarm Panel INTERFACE Module as part of your setup?
In my configuration, I am not using it. I have the contacts hooked directly into my Konnected Alarm Panel and Addon Panel, and from them, running a parallel wire into the Ring Retrofit Panel.
I am using the INTERFACE Module, but only through the ribbon connector to the Alarm panel. I'm not connecting anything to the INTERFACE terminals. I originally bought the INTERFACE module thinking it might be necessary for the RING setup... but after getting it going, I thought the only actual benefit of the INTERFACE module was the LEDs which allow me to see open/close status without looking at my phone. But on 2nd thought, maybe it gives the Alarm panel more pull up current capability than the alarm panel alone. That might help getting a higher OPEN voltage with smaller resistors to the RING unit. I will check by disconnecting the ribbon cable... but since this is a vacation home, I'll have to try it next time I am there in a few weeks.
So today I installed the 12k resistor to 7 of the 8 zones. 4 zones are windows and 3 are doors. 3 of the 4 window zones are reporting open on Ring, and closed on Konnected. When I open a window, Konnected would rapidly toggle open/close. Ring would do nothing, but when I close the window, it would chirp (as configured), and the history would show a closed/open quick toggle. As for the doors, they are all reporting closed. When I open a door, Konnected would rapidly toggle open/close and Ring would actually show the correct status. I ran out of time so didnt troubleshoot much. Measured the voltage at when a door was opened, and measured 1V at the Konnected input and 0.13V at the Ring input. I used heat shrink for my resistors connection to the jumpers so couldnt easily access the voltage at the other end of the resistor, so the closest reading was the 1V at the Konnected.
Finally had a chance to check my setup with regards to how the INTERFACE board is affecting the operability of the RING/Konnected setup working in parallel to each other. It turns out the Alarm panel connection to the INTERFACE IS REQUIRED to make this work. I just got lucky by having it setup this way when I initially set this up. When I disconnected the ribbon cable, the behavior of my system is similar to your description where the OPN connections will quickly switch back to closed. You could probably make this work with pull up resistors instead (which is what I think the INTERFACE module is effectively doing) but it is much cleaner just plugging in the ribbon cable between the Alarm panel and INTERFACE module. It also gives you the benefit of seeing the LED status indicators right at your alarm system.
Thanks for checking. From what I was informed, to use the Interface module I need a voltage reference so I tried not to use it. What I did instead, is I built a setup with 50K Ohms variable resistors. My windows work with about 30K and my doors with about 24K.
For everyone in a similar situation, another data point that the method with resistors at the Ring retrofit kit works without the need for the interface board.
In my case, the 33kOhm resistors worked for my door sensors and motion sensors.
The sensors are connected to the Konnected board as usual and the Ring connects in parallel to it.
For clarity, the resistors are at the Ring sensor ports while one of the Konnected C ports is connect to one of the Ring C ports.
If the resistors are too low, you’ll see the “turns on but immediately off” effect and if they are too big it shows as always open.
Attached a photo of my (messy but working) setup.
Came here to confirm a similar result with a Retrofit Kit and a Konnected board (few years old, not 100% on revision). All I had on hand were 22k-ohm 1/4W resistors, so I gave it a try. One suggestion - for wire, I used an old serial extension cable that I cut in half and plugged into itself. This allows me to unplug the Retrofit Kit from my security system and - since it's battery powered - walk it near the base station for troubleshooting. Proved advantageous for adding it to my Ring as it's right on the edge of the signal area. Anyway - one 22k-ohm resistor in series with the wires connecting the Retrofit's zone terminals to the Konnected's zone terminals, and of course NO resistor in the "common-to-common" wire, and it was ready to rock! THANK YOU to those above that forged the path, really appreciate your sharing on here! Cheers!