Carbon Monoxide Sensor Notifications from a Lyric via Apple HomeKit

Hi DIYers. I'm George from AlarmGrid. Today, I'm going to be going over why you may not be receiving sensor notifications from your carbon monoxide detector on your Lyric via the HomeKit app. So first thing I want to touch base on is HomeKit and the Lyric. Yes, the Lyric is compatible with HomeKit. It does have HomeKit. It can be integrated with HomeKit. However, in order to get HomeKit, it does need to be activated by a monitoring company. So if you're buying a Lyric expecting HomeKit to work, it does not work directly out of the box. You need to have a monitoring company to enable it, which will require some level of service. Now I'd just like to make sure I let everyone know this before they get the Lyric because a lot of people just assume that as soon as they get the Lyric, they're going to be able to make it work with HomeKit. That is incorrect. You need a monitoring company to enable it. Second of all, HomeKit and carbon monoxide detectors-- first thing you have to realize is HomeKit is very specific, which means it's only capable of reporting specific sensor names if they're set to an entry/exit, perimeter, and an Interior follower or interior follower with the delay. What this means is entry, exit, and perimeter are usually used for door/window sensors. Interior follower and interior follower with delay are usually used for motions. So carbon monoxide has a different response type, not any of those. So whenever you have a sensor that's set to a response time that's not set to any of those four, you just get general HomeKit notifications. It'll basically just say your Lyric-- whatever you've named the Lyric-- has been triggered. But it doesn't let you know what sensor triggered it. It doesn't really you know anything. It just lets you know that the sensor's been going off. So it could be a fire alarm, could be a medical alarm, could be a CO alarm. You'll never know. Now to avoid these issues, we recommend users that if they're signing up for service, you might as well sign up for a service that has Total Connect. Almost 95% of our plans come with the Total Connect app. Total Connect is Honeywell's app that's intended for Honeywell systems, and you need the internet or a cellular connection to the system to the app. So for instance, my Lyric since it has Wi-Fi built-in, I have it activated on a Lyric system. And Total Connect again is another subscription, another app that you only get once you're monitored-- kind of like the same concept with HomeKit. So Total Connect actually is an app made by Honeywell, so it's very specific. It lets you know who disarmed it, how it was armed, lets you know any specific alarm. So it doesn't matter if it's seal fire or auxiliary, medical, the app will let you know. And I'm going to show you guys in a second the difference between HomeKit and Total Connect notifications. All right, so the first thing you want to do is I actually have my iPad here set up. So let me go ahead and get it ready for you. One moment. OK, let me set up the screen recording-- all right. So the first thing you want to do in HomeKit is just make sure if you don't have the notification enabled, you enable it. So first firstly I'm going to do is I actually have my HomeKit app in the bottom right corner. I'm going to hit HomeKit, and I'm going to go ahead and hit Edit. I'm going to select my default Lyric. And all I want to do is make go to status the notifications right in the middle, and I just want to make sure that my notifications are allowed. They're on. Yes, if you have that set to off, that could be one of the reasons why you're not getting any notifications on any kind of your sensors. So you want to make sure you have alarm notifications on. Once I've done that, I'll just have done. I'll have done in the top right. I know that my HomeKit is ready. So if I set off an alarm, I should get some kind of alarm through HomeKit. The other thing I'm going to do make sure I'm logged into my Total Connect app, which it is, cool. I'm going to have stayed the HomeKit screen. And using my CO detector, I'm going to press to CO test but in here. I'm going to hold it down for about one or two seconds, and it will actually let me know the battery status, the sensor life. CO sensor is good. Remaining sensor life is at least 12 months. Battery life is at least 12 months. The alarm will now sound in five seconds. Press test to cancel. Oops, so it just said in five seconds, the alarm's going to go off. You'll see there that Lyric HomeKit already lets you know right away that the Lyric was triggered. Now I want you guys to wait and see until the Total Connect notification comes in. Now the HomeKit one pretty much goes right away because it goes through the local Wi-Fi, so it basically has a direct connection to the Lyric system, the Total Connect one has to go through servers, has to go through AlarmNet servers. Then it has to be pushed down to the panel or to whatever tablets, iPads you're getting. I also have text messages set up, so I'm going to show you guys with text messages look as well. First, I just want to let the notification come through on Total Connect. Carbon monoxide alarm. Carbon monoxide detector. [BEEPING] I'm going to go ahead and disarm it at the panel two times. All right, so as you guys can see, it took a little bit for the CO detection to go through Total Connect, again, because it has to go through multiple servers, multiple layers. But as you guys saw there, when the HomeKit notified you, it just said the default room Lyric was triggered. When the Total Connect notified you, it actually says carbon monoxide detector sensor. Alarm has been reported on 9:36, lets you know the time, the date, and it lets you know what sensor it was. All right, and then in a little bit, it should say that the system was cleared as well. But now I want to show you guys the text message as well. So if I open up my text messages, you'll see here it says alarm alerts. Office Lyric sensor five, carbon monoxide detector sensor alarm. It gives me the date, May 2, 2019, at 9:36 AM. I have the camera. This little camera up here is enabled to take a picture any time someone disarms. So to clear the alarm, I have to disarm the system. So it's a couple of pictures. You can access that through the Total Connect app only. And then a couple of seconds later, you'll see here that at 9:37-- the very last text message-- it lets you know that the carbon monoxide detector sensor alarm was cleared. All right, so not only did I get specific notifications through Total Connect. I can also set up email and text message notifications through the app. So you can get that in an email as well. You can send it to as many phone numbers. All right, now, that is the main difference between HomeKit and Total Connect. As you saw there, Total Connect's events are now starting to flood in, but you can see that Total Connect is just a little more specific than HomeKit, especially when it comes down to these kinds of sensors. All right, if you guys do have any questions about HomeKit, how to get it activated, how to enable it, what sensors work with it, what don't, feel free to email us. Our email is support@alarmgrid.com. If you found the video helpful, make sure you hit Like underneath, subscribe to the channel, also enable the notifications so whenever we upload new videos, you guys get notified. I'm George, and I'll see you guys next time.