Alarm — Implementation Manual¶

A step-by-step build guide for the household alarm: Ring is the brain, Home Assistant is the automation layer. The Ring Alarm system runs as a self-contained, professionally-monitored alarm — the existing wired zones join it natively via the Ring Retrofit Alarm Kit — and HA taps the whole system with ring-mqtt so every sensor is available for automations and dashboards.

Why it's built this way¶

A Ring-native alarm keeps working and dispatches with the correct per-zone information even if the HA/Beelink server is down — the right property for life-safety. HA does not arm the system or trigger dispatch; it observes the Ring sensors and alarm state (via ring-mqtt) and runs automations on top: lights, presence, notifications, TTS, dashboards.

Wired zones ─► Retrofit Kit ─┐
Ring keypad ─────────────────┤
Ring contact + motion ───────┼─► Ring Alarm base ─► Ring Protect Pro ─► dispatch (native, per-zone)
ZCOMBO-G smoke (Z-Wave) ──────┤        │
Schlage lock (Z-Wave) ───────┘   ring-mqtt ─► Home Assistant (automations only)

Trade-off accepted: HA's sensor copies are cloud-fed (Ring cloud → ring-mqtt), so HA automations on them carry slight latency and pause if internet/Ring is down. The alarm itself is local to the Ring base and unaffected. Don't build life-safety logic on the HA copies.

Prerequisites¶

Phase 1 — Ring core (mostly done)¶

In the Ring app:

1. Confirm the base station, keypad, and native sensors (personnel-door contact, motion) are added.
2. Set up professional monitoring (Ring Protect Pro) and verify the monitored address.
3. Configure modes (Home / Away), per-sensor mode participation, and entry/exit delays.

Phase 2 — Existing wired zones via the Retrofit Kit¶

1. Mount the Retrofit Kit; land each existing zone loop (the two zone wires) on a separate Retrofit zone input — one input per door/zone so each shows individually.
2. Power the Retrofit Kit per its manual; pair it to the Ring base station ("Add Device → Retrofit Kit") in the Ring app.
3. In the Ring app, name each zone (Front Door, Rear Door, Garage Door, Motion…) and assign mode participation + delays.
4. Test each zone (open the door / walk the PIR) and confirm it reports in the Ring app.

Phase 3 — Native Z-Wave devices to the Ring base¶

The Ring base station is a Z-Wave hub. Pair these to Ring (not to a separate HA stick):

• ZCOMBO-G smoke/CO — the one third-party Z-Wave sensor Ring accepts as a triggering alarm sensor. Pair via Ring app → Add Device → Z-Wave; configure as a fire/CO sensor (24-hr).
• Schlage BE469ZP deadbolt — pair via Ring app; set a Ring Bond (e.g. lock when armed away). Manage user codes in the Ring app.

Both still surface to HA via ring-mqtt for automations.

Phase 4 — ring-mqtt (tap Ring into HA)¶

1. Settings → Add-ons → Add-on Store → ⋮ → Repositories, add:

   https://github.com/tsightler/ring-mqtt-ha-addon
   

2. Install ring-mqtt. In its Configuration, MQTT auto-discovers the Mosquitto broker. Set enable_cameras: false (alarm-only) so ring-mqtt doesn't duplicate the cameras/chimes the official Ring integration already provides. enable_panic stays off — Ring dispatches natively, so HA doesn't need panic switches.
3. Start → Open Web UI → log in with the primary/owner Ring account + 2FA (stores the refresh token). ⚠️ Watch for browser autofill silently re-filling a different saved Ring login — if a re-auth doesn't actually switch accounts, uninstall/reinstall the add-on to clear the token and log in via a private window.
4. ring-mqtt publishes via MQTT discovery; HA gains, on its own:
   • alarm_control_panel.blairmont_alarm (named after the Ring location — observe arm state; not ring_alarm)
   • binary_sensor.* for each native/Retrofit zone + the contact (binary_sensor.personnel_door) and motion (binary_sensor.foyer_motion_sensor) sensors (+ smoke/CO once paired)
   • lock.* for the Schlage (once paired)
   • base-station / keypad / range-extender siren + tamper + battery + info entities; siren switch switch.blairmont_alarm_siren

Note: the Ring Alarm enumerates over a separate per-location websocket that connects ~2–5 min after the cameras (which come over REST) — don't assume "no alarm" from an early add-on log.

Phase 5 — Register entities (test gate)¶

make snapshot          # needs HA_URL + HA_TOKEN — pulls the live entity registry
git add tests/fixtures/entities.txt
git commit -m "auto: snapshot — add Ring alarm zones/sensors via ring-mqtt"

For not-yet-paired devices referenced ahead of time, add an entry to tests/fixtures/entities_allow.txt with a justifying comment.

Phase 6 — HA automations (the point of ring-mqtt)¶

HA does not dispatch, and doesn't own the security logic — but it does arm/disarm as a routine convenience: Good Night arms Home, Good Morning disarms (script.good_night / script.good_morning; codeless — disarm_code is empty). Ring still owns dispatch, the keypad, and the app. It also reacts to Ring state for everything else. Build these in automations.yaml (single source of truth → CI hot-reloads on push):

• Lighting & presence — Ring motion / contact binary_sensors drive lights, occupancy, and scenes.

• Notifications & TTS — on alarm_control_panel.blairmont_alarm → triggered, announce the zone on Sonos/Echo and send a critical push with a Ring camera snapshot. Example trigger:

  - alias: "Alarm — Ring triggered → announce + push"
    id: alarm_ring_triggered_notify
    triggers:
      - trigger: state
        entity_id: alarm_control_panel.blairmont_alarm
        to: triggered
    actions:
      - action: notify.mobile_app_louis_iphone
        data:
          title: "🚨 Alarm triggered"
          message: "Ring alarm triggered — check the app."
          data:
            push: { sound: { critical: 1, volume: 1.0 } }
      # + Sonos/Echo TTS, Inovelli light flash, Ring snapshot
    mode: single
  

• Lock logic / dashboards — surface lock.* and the alarm panel on the Command Dashboard; mirror arm state to tiles.

• Retire the mocks — automations.yaml §12 has three input_button.*_test placeholders. Once the real Ring binary_sensors exist, repoint or remove them and delete the helpers from configuration.yaml. See Automations Reference.

Testing & validation¶

Entity reference (fill in real IDs)¶

See Entity IDs once make snapshot has run.

Operations & gotchas¶

• Cloud dependency (HA side only): ring-mqtt entities depend on Ring's cloud — fine for automations, not for life-safety logic. The Ring alarm itself is local to the base and keeps working/dispatching if HA or the internet is down.
• One Ring account: ring-mqtt runs on the primary/owner account (a secondary/shared account has no device-API access). The official Ring camera integration runs on the same account and coexists fine. ring-mqtt is alarm-only (enable_cameras: false) so the cameras/chimes aren't duplicated.
• ZCOMBO-G is special: it's the only third-party Z-Wave sensor Ring accepts as a triggering alarm sensor; generic third-party Z-Wave sensors enroll monitoring-only and won't trigger dispatch.
• Konnected is not used here — the Retrofit Kit reads the wired zones. The board is freed up.
• Alexa/Echo TTS can go stale — the "Alexa — Heal When Unavailable" automation reloads the integration; don't assume an announcement was heard if the Echoes were unavailable.

Related¶

• Security & Alarm — subsystem reference & status
• Notifications & Alerts — alarm push/TTS copy
• Automations Reference — per-section automation reference
• Entity IDs — entity registry reference