Add support for the (stateless) 'Button' entity as event trigger so it can then be for example used as a button to manually trigger panic alarm (a.k.a SOS), or buttons to start a fire alarm and medical emergency alarms, etc.

[Hedda]

Please consider adding support for the stateless 'Button' entity in Home Assistant as event trigger so it can then be for example used as a button to manually trigger panic alarm (a.k.a "S.O.S."/"Police/Duress"), or buttons to start a fire alarm and medical emergency alarms, etc. and similar.

• https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/button/

The use case and goal would be for Alarmo be able too add button entities as a new device type sensor and then configure any such button entity to be used as an event to trigger an alarm, which the user can set as events to trigger alarms and send notifications or perform actions (such as sound a siren or turn on a light).

Checklist

• I checked for similar existing requests (both open and closed) before posting.
• My request is generic, other users may benefit from it too.

Proposal

Code support for users to add any 'Button' entity in Home Assistant as a sensor in Alarmo and use that as event condition to trigger different actions.

Additional info

Please note that many Zigbee and Z-Wave have IAS zone devices that are either stand-alone panic buttons or an IAS remote control unit (such as an alarm control panel keypad) that features one or more dedicated buttons marked with different icons that are meant to manually active an alert for example panic, fire, and/or medical emergency.

As an example check out these three buttons on the popular Ring Alarm Keypad (Z-Wave):

Frient Intelligent Keypad (Zigbee) also similarly has a button for SOS:

Of course there are are many different styles of SOS and Panic buttons like Fibaro's "The Button" (that uses Z-Wave):

And even more that uses Zigbee (these are just a few example so better is to just to a search for "zigbee panic button" yourself):

• https://alarmdetector.en.made-in-china.com/product/kwxAGJSZOgfu/China-Zigbee-3-0-Tuya-Emergency-Call-Button-Alarm-Elderly-Personal-Sos-Panic-Button.html
• https://www.develcoproducts.com/products/sensors-and-alarms/panic-button/
• https://shop.swiss-domotique.ch/en/remote/1834-frient-zigbee-30-emergency-button.html
• https://www.globalsources.com/Panic-button/ZigBee-Waterproof-Panic-Button-1158154818p.htm
• https://www.owon-smart.com/zigbee-panic-button-with-mobile-notification-product/

Note! This was kind of partially requested before in this other request but they did not suggest just using the existing 'Button' entity.

• Panic Button Support #248

PS: While not user-friendly, a possibe workaround to convert other entiry into a button that could be used can be done by creating a device template (using templating) in Home Assistant:

• https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/template/

  • https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/configuration/templating/

[nielsfaber]

Thanks for your efforts in making this request. I appreciate that you did some investigation before posting.

Before I can consider your request of adding support for the button entities, we should consider the bigger picture. With that I mean the concept of 'panic', 'fire' and 'medical emergency' alarm (and would the list be complete?)
Also note that alarmo has to comply with the states for an alarm_control_panel entity in HA, which doesn't consider any of these.

Please consider adding support for the stateless 'Button' entity in Home Assistant as event trigger so it can then be for example used as a button to manually trigger panic alarm (a.k.a S.O.S), or buttons to start a fire alarm and medical emergency alarms, etc. and similar.

What is a panic alarm precisely? How should alarmo respond when this is initiated by the user? Also, how is a panic alarm un-triggered.
Fire alarm? medical emergency alarm? Alarmo doesn't implement these (yet). How would this look like?
I would like to emphasize/repeat that alarmo is intended as a burglar alarm, I don't want to add more responsibility to it. Especially not because some manufacturer decided to add extra buttons to their panel.

The use case and goal would be for Alarmo be able too add button entities as a new device type sensor and then configure any such button entity to be used as an event to trigger an alarm, which the user can set as events to trigger alarms and send notifications or perform actions (such as sound a siren or turn on a light).

Triggering the alarm is already possible (via action alarm_control_panel.alarm_trigger.
However, alarmo will have always the same response when the alarm becomes triggered.
Setting up different response to the event of a button being pressed would be conflicting with this, and would require additional functionality to be added,

Code support for users to add any 'Button' entity in Home Assistant as a sensor in Alarmo and use that as event condition to trigger different actions.

I don't think we should map a button entity as a sensor. It would be confusing since it isn't a physical sensor.

Did you read the entire discussion #248? It seems you are requesting similar functionality, in the discussion some questions came up after which (perhaps falsely?) the conclusion was made not to add anything to alarmo. So I think it would be best to start this topic where we left off.

Please share your thoughts on the above (to get a discussion starting).

[Hedda]

I don't think we should map a button entity as a sensor. It would be confusing since it isn't a physical sensor.

Did you read the entire discussion #248? It seems you are requesting similar functionality, in the discussion some questions came up after which (perhaps falsely?) the conclusion was made not to add anything to alarmo. So I think it would be best to start this topic where we left off.

Please share your thoughts on the above (to get a discussion starting).

@nielsfaber OK I am closing new issue this and instead posted a more relevant reply to the previous issue to restart that discussion if that issue could maybe be reopened? See -> #248 (comment)