texmond - Texecom Premier Elite Panel Event Monitoring

This is a daemon designed to be run with Linux and Mono that will take control of your Texecom Premier Elite panel and monitor its status. Status messages are logged to Syslog where you can act on them using a Syslog monitor. Additionally, it supports executing an event program or event script so that you can write custom actions that occur in response to events logged by your alarm panel. This could be things like zones triggering, alarm conditions, tamper conditions, etc.

A reasonably complete example event script is provided where you only have to fill in the blanks to a program that will send a text message (or email, or anything else you want) when alarm, tamper, or error conditions occur.

Also included is a simple web interface that allows you to see the status of zones and arm/disarm your panel remotely. The web interface is fully responsive and supports installation to the home screen on Apple and Android devices. Thanks to its responsive design, it also looks and works great on desktop computers.

This code has a long history, filled with a bit of happiness and a lot of frustration; I started reverse engineering Texecom's Simple API all the way back in 2019 and managed to get it to a working state after a few months of tinkering in my free time. Unfortunately, the local Subversion repository I used to document changes at the time got lost when Windows Update trashed my development computer and all I had was a recent checkout of the code. That's why there is no revision history here on GitHub that goes back that far. The "initial commit" here reflects the last major update from December 2020.

About the Name

Originally, this project was called texecomd, but I assume Texecom, Ltd. wouldn't be very happy if I used their company name as the project's public name. I wanted to use montexd, but they already have a product called MonTex, so I chose the next best thing.

Should I Use This?

This project is not affiliated, endorsed, recommended, or supported by Texecom, Ltd. in any way. Do not contact them if it screws up your panel or if things break otherwise. You are responsible for what you do. If you don't like tinkering and experimenting with your home alarm system, leave the job to a professional installer and ask them to set up Texecom Cloud for you. That's a great and affordable solution for casual users who want peace of mind.

But if you enjoy tinkering with things, you've come to the right place. Have a seat and make yourself comfortable.

Screenshot

Example Log Output

Jan  8 12:29:36 pi texecomd[2388]: [ZONE EVENT] Zone 4 ("Test PIR") changed to state: Active. Alarmed? False. Auto bypassed? False. Manual bypassed? False. Failed test? False. Faulty? False. Masked? False.
Jan  8 12:29:36 pi texecomd[2388]: Event script: /opt/texmond/event.sh "ZONE" "4" "Test PIR" "Active" "FALSE" "FALSE" "FALSE" "FALSE" "FALSE" "FALSE"
Jan  8 12:29:36 pi texecomd[2388]: [ZONE EVENT] Zone 8 ("Test PIR 2") changed to state: Active. Alarmed? False. Auto bypassed? False. Manual bypassed? False. Failed test? False. Faulty? False. Masked? False.
Jan  8 12:29:36 pi texecomd[2388]: Event script: /opt/texmond/event.sh "ZONE" "8" "Test PIR 2" "Active" "FALSE" "FALSE" "FALSE" "FALSE" "FALSE" "FALSE"
Jan  8 12:29:43 pi texecomd[2388]: [ZONE EVENT] Zone 4 ("Test PIR") changed to state: Secure. Alarmed? False. Auto bypassed? False. Manual bypassed? False. Failed test? False. Faulty? False. Masked? False.
Jan  8 12:29:43 pi texecomd[2388]: Event script: /opt/texmond/event.sh "ZONE" "4" "Test PIR" "Secure" "FALSE" "FALSE" "FALSE" "FALSE" "FALSE" "FALSE"
Jan  8 12:29:52 pi texecomd[2388]: [ZONE EVENT] Zone 8 ("Test PIR 2") changed to state: Secure. Alarmed? False. Auto bypassed? False. Manual bypassed? False. Failed test? False. Faulty? False. Masked? False.
Jan  8 12:29:52 pi texecomd[2388]: Event script: /opt/texmond/event.sh "ZONE" "8" "Test PIR 2" "Secure" "FALSE" "FALSE" "FALSE" "FALSE" "FALSE" "FALSE"
Jan  8 12:37:25 pi texecomd[2388]: System voltage: 13.63V / Battery voltage: 13.63V / System current: 288.00mA / Battery charging current: 36.00mA / Reference voltage: 12.32V
Jan  8 12:37:25 pi texecomd[2388]: Event script: /opt/texmond/event.sh "POWER" "13.63" "13.63" "288" "36" "12.32"
Jan  8 12:52:31 pi texecomd[2388]: System voltage: 13.63V / Battery voltage: 13.56V / System current: 288.00mA / Battery charging current: 36.00mA / Reference voltage: 12.32V
Jan  8 12:52:31 pi texecomd[2388]: Event script: /opt/texmond/event.sh "POWER" "13.63" "13.56" "288" "36" "12.32"

Prerequisites

1. A Texecom Premier Elite panel, such as a Premier Elite 48, Premier Elite 64-W, etc.
2. A serial port connection to your panel, e.g. using the official Premier Elite USB-COM cable if you can source one
3. A working Linux system — a Raspberry Pi works great for this!
4. A few hours of time to get things set up and working properly
5. Your panel's UDL code, access to the installer menu, and the installer's manual
6. A working copy of Wintex (will make your life a lot easier)

Hardware Setup Guide

Serial Port Connection

1. If you have a Premier Elite USB-COM cable, this is easy: just plug it in as described in the included manual (INS246-2)
2. If you don't have that cable, you will need to buy an FTDI USB-Serial adapter and then follow this guide

Once the serial port connection is working, you can proceed.

Software Setup Guide

The software consists of these parts:

• The core daemon, written in C# and can technically also run under Windows, but this is not recommended
• The web interface, written in PHP, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (jQuery); uses EventSource to receive live updates from the backend
• A tiny C program, nudge.c, to make arming via the web interface work
• An example event shell script written in Bash

All of the instructions that follow are valid for Devuan Linux Chimaera 4.0.

Building the Daemon

You need Mono installed: apt-get install mono-complete. This will install more than you need, but the alternative is picking out the required Mono packages manually, which is rather painful.

1. If necessary, make the build script executable: chmod +x build.sh
2. Then run it: ./build.sh

You should get one warning about xbuild not being able to understand some proprietary Microsoft stuff in the solution file; that's fine.

Now you're ready to copy the compiled files:

mkdir -p /opt/texmond/
cp texmond/bin/Release/texmond.* /opt/texmond/
cp texmond/bin/Release/settings.ini /etc/texmond.ini

If you want, you can install the init script:

cp initscript.sh /etc/init.d/texmond
chmod +x /etc/init.d/texmond
update-rc.d texmond defaults
update-rc.d texmond enable

Building the Nudge C Program

You'll need to have GCC installed: apt-get install gcc

gcc nudge.c -o nudge
cp nudge /opt/texmond/
chmod u+s /opt/texmond/nudge #sorry

The nudge program needs to be SUID root so it can write into the protected /opt/texmond/ folder and send SIGUSR1 to the daemon. It's tiny and designed to do as little as possible as carefully as possible. The web interface uses this program to write the arm file. Without it, you'd have to make either PHP or the entire web server run as root, which would be a lot worse.

Building a Debug Build on Windows

1. You need to download Mono for Windows to get the referenced Mono.Posix library (so the Syslog enums resolve; Mono.Posix isn't used otherwise)
2. Afterwards open the solution file with Visual Studio, set the configuration to "Debug" and build as usual

Note that the debug build will look for the INI file in the directory the EXE file lives in. The release build looks for the INI file in /etc/texmond.ini.

Building a release build with Visual Studio is prohibited by a guard clause in Program.cs

The Web Interface

Installing

First you'll need a web server with PHP set up and running. How you do it is up to you, as there are hundreds of tutorials on how to set up e.g. nginx + PHP.

Then you essentially just have to copy the smarthome folder to your web server's public-facing directory, for example:

cp -r smarthome /var/www/html/htdocs/

Remember to add ?auth=changeme to the URL when trying to access it for testing. The next section deals with changing changeme to something else.

Setting up the Event Script

The example event script includes the necessary glue logic to make the web interface display state information. You'll need to copy it to the right place and make it executable:

cp examplescript.sh /opt/texmond/eventscript.sh
chmod +x /opt/texmond/eventscript.sh

Then open /opt/texmond/eventscript.sh and search for TODO to find the lines you need to modify.

Now set up the state folders and state files:

# You may need to adjust 40 to reflect the actual number of zones your panel supports.
for ((i=-1; i<=40; i++)); do
    mkdir -p "/opt/alarm/zones/$i"
    echo -n 0 > "/opt/alarm/zones/$i/state"
    echo -n 0 > "/opt/alarm/zones/$i/fault"
    echo -n 0 > "/opt/alarm/zones/$i/tamper"
    echo -n 0 > "/opt/alarm/zones/$i/battery"
done

Test that the event source works:

curl http://localhost/smarthome/eventsource.php?auth=changeme

You should get a JSON array as a response, followed by a colon every few seconds. Press CTRL+C to terminate curl.

Configuration

Settings INI File

Open /etc/texmond.ini in your favourite editor and follow the instructions in the comments. It's that easy.

If you've been following the instructions above, here's a suitable example where you just need to change the Port and UDLCode settings.

[texmond]
; Set to the COM port used by your Texecom Premier Elite panel
Port=/dev/ttyS0

; Do you want to sync the panel's time with your computer's time?
; Set to 1. Otherwise set to 0.
SyncTime=1

; The UDL code of your panel as configured in Wintex.
UDLCode=123456

; Set to 1 to output debug logs to Syslog. Useful while setting up
; the daemon. For normal operation, 0 is recommended.
DebugLog=1

; Specify the path to an executable (or shell script with the
; executable bit set) that will be called when an event happens.
EventScript=/opt/texmond/eventscript.sh

; Do you want to log when the event script is executed? Set to 1.
; Otherwise set to 0. Very useful when setting up the daemon.
LogEventScript=1

; If you want to arm the panel by writing to a file, set to the
; path that the daemon should watch. If you don't want this, leave
; it blank.
ArmFile=/opt/texmond/armfile

; Do you want to poll panel power information? Then set this to
; the number of minutes to wait between polls. If you don't want
; this, leave it blank.
; Panel power information tells you about mains current draw and
; battery health. It will be logged and the event script can act
; on the results.
PollPanelPower=1

Web Interface

Open config.php in your favourite editor and follow the instructions in the comments. If you have a working installation of Texecom's Wintex tool, it will make setting up the config file a lot easier.

If you've set things up as described in this document, the STATE_DIR and ARMFILE_SCRIPT settings are fine as-is.

Set AUTHLINE to a long and secure password. To access the web interface, you need to add ?auth=, followed by your AUTHLINE to the URL. This obviously isn't secure over HTTP, so you should also consider configuring your web server to enforce HTTPS. If you want to add even more security, you could configure your web server to enforce basic or digest authentication, but this can break things when pinning the web interface to the home screen on iPhone, because it doesn't want to remember the password for reasons only Apple knows.

Now you need to take care of the three arrays that follow and this is where Wintex will help you.

1. $ZONES needs to map the zone numbers of your panel to sensible labels for display purposes. Zone -1 must not be removed, because it refers to the panel itself, but you may change its text as you please.
2. $PART1OMIT, $PART2OMIT, and $PART3OMIT need to contain the zone numbers that are omitted during the respective part arms. Go through all zones in Wintex and check if the respective checkboxes are set. If they are, add that zone number to the array(s).
3. $ARMMODES defines the labels shown on the web interface for the various arm modes. 4 is always disarm, 0 is always full arm, so don't remove those. 1, 2, and 3 specify the three different part arm suites and you should set the labels to the text shown in Wintex.

Below the arrays are all of the strings that are shown on the web interface. If you want to translate the web interface to your local language, you can edit them.

Interacting with the Daemon

Event Scripts

If you set EventScript to an executable or a shell script, the daemon will attempt to execute it whenever an event is logged by the panel.

The event script receives several command line arguments, the first of which is the type of event that was logged. This is followed by a number of event-specific arguments as documented below:

Event	Arg1	Arg2	Arg3	Arg4	Arg5	Arg6	Arg7	Arg8	Arg9	Arg10
Critical error	ERROR	PANEL if there is a communications error (e.g. no response or timeout), CRASH when the daemon has crashed.
Power status report	POWER	System voltage	System current draw	Battery charging current	Reference voltage
Area log event	LOG	AREA	Event date/time as UNIX timestamp	Event type as a string (see PanelEventLogEventType enum)	Event group as a string (see EventLogGroupType enum)	String with names of affected areas, separated by commas	Parameter sent by the panel, can be ignored	Whether communication of the event was delayed; either TRUE or FALSE	Whether the event was sent to a connected communicator; either TRUE or FALSE
Zone log event	LOG	ZONE	Event date/time as UNIX timestamp	Event type as a string (see PanelEventLogEventType enum)	Event group as a string (see EventLogGroupType enum)	Zone number	Zone text programmed into panel	Whether communication of the event was delayed; either TRUE or FALSE	Whether the event was sent to a connected communicator; either TRUE or FALSE
Keypad logon event	USER	User number	User's name as programmed into panel or <ENGINEER> if user number is 0	Either USER CODE if logged in using PIN, or TAG if logged on using proximity tag
Programmable output changed event	OUTPUT	Output number	State the output changed to (0 or 1)
Area state change event	AREA	Area number	Area text as programmed into panel	Area state as a string (see PanelAreaStates enum)
Zone state change event	ZONE	Zone number	Zone text as programmed into panel	Zone state as a string (see PanelZoneType enum)	TRUE if the zone is in alarm state, otherwise FALSE	TRUE if the zone is auto-bypassed, otherwise FALSE	TRUE if the zone is in a failed test state, otherwise FALSE	TRUE if the zone was manually bypassed, otherwise FALSE	TRUE if the zone is in fault, otherwise FALSE	TRUE if the zone is marked, otherwise FALSE
Debug event	DEBUG	Raw debug message as a string (you will never see these events unless you work at Texecom, Ltd.)

Arm Files

If you set ArmFile to a file path in /etc/texmond.ini then the daemon will regularly check if that file exists and examine its contents.

The content of the file has to be the command to perform, followed by a space, followed by one or more area numbers. Separate each area number with a space.

Send SIGUSR1 to the daemon to make it wake up and process the arm file immediately. Otherwise it will process the arm file the next time the event loop is scheduled to wake up.

Place the following contents into the file to trigger arming or disarming:

Examples

PART1ARM 1 2

This will part-arm areas 1 and 2 with part-arm set 1.

FULLARM 1

This will fully arm area 1.

DISARM 1 2 3 4

This will disarm areas 1, 2, 3 and 4.

The following commands are supported:

Command	Description
PART1ARM	Part-arm the specified area(s) with part-arm zone set 1.
PART2ARM	Part-arm the specified area(s) with part-arm zone set 2.
PART3ARM	Part-arm the specified area(s) with part-arm zone set 3.
FULLARM	Fully arm the specified area(s)
DISARM	Disarm the specified area(s)

Help Wanted

Do you own a Premier Elite panel other than a Premier Elite 48 or Premier Elite 64-W? Please try this software and report any bugs, because I had to make some assumptions on how these panels work and they may not be correct. I'm especially interested in feedback from property owners who have a Premier Elite 168 or a Premier Elite 640 that is set up so it uses the maximum number of supported areas and zones.

Of course, I'm also interested in feedback and bug reports from Premier Elite 48 and Premier Elite 64-W users. 😃