Third-party intrusion detection

If you already have an alarm system in place, you can integrate it with Kisi's Intrusion Detection to get Kisi access control on top of it.

The Kisi native and the third-party Intrusion Detection capabilities are available both on the Kisi Controller Pro 1 and on Kisi Controller Pro 2 devices. The difference is in the number of inputs: while the Kisi Controller Pro 1 has eight pre-configured inputs (four contact sensors, four request-to-exits), the Kisi Controller Pro 2 has twelve generic inputs, configurable as either contact sensor or request-to-exit.

The integration works in two directions. Kisi sends arm and disarm commands to the alarm panel by pulsing a relay output on the Kisi Controller, wired to the panel's key switch input. The alarm panel reports its current state back to Kisi through its own relay outputs, each wired to a contact sensor input on the Kisi Controller. Kisi does not replace the alarm panel; the panel continues to manage its own sensors, siren, and alarm logic.

Alarm states

Kisi uses four normalized alarm states to represent what the third-party alarm panel reports:

State	Description
Disarmed	The alarm is not armed.
Armed Away	All sensors are active. Typically used when nobody is inside the facility.
Armed Stay	Perimeter sensors are active; interior motion sensors may be bypassed. Used when people remain inside.
Violated	The alarm has been triggered. Alarm panels may call this an alarm condition, triggered state, zone fault etc.

These states are Kisi's normalized representation of common alarm system behavior. The exact terminology and configuration on your alarm panel may differ.

Hardware requirements

The third-party alarm system

The third-party alarm system will include an alarm panel and possibly some other additional boards. The alarm panel must have:

• A key switch input that accepts an external arm/disarm command. A key switch input is a pair of terminals on the alarm panel that, when briefly shorted together, change the panel's armed state. Kisi uses a relay output on the Kisi Controller to simulate this signal. The panel must support at least Armed Away mode. Armed Stay support is optional.

• At least 3 relays that can be programmed to be triggered (closed) depending on the state. Each relay corresponds to exactly one alarm state. For Disarmed, Armed Away, and Armed Stay, only the relay for the active state may be closed; all others must be open. Violated is an exception and follows the relay behavior described in the table below.

  Alarm state	This relay closes	All other relays
  Armed Away	Armed Away relay	Must be open
  Armed Stay	Armed Stay relay	Must be open
  Disarmed	Disarmed relay	Must be open
  Violated	Violated relay	Disarmed must be open; Away/Stay may be either

• Sensors such as door contacts, motion detectors, or glass break sensors, wired to and managed by the third-party alarm system. When a sensor trips, the alarm panel changes state and closes the corresponding relay output.

note

The siren, if present, will be wired to and configured with the third-party alarm system.

The Kisi Controller

The Kisi controller must have:

• At least 3 available contact sensor inputs to connect to the alarm panel's relay outputs — one per alarm state. 3 inputs cover Disarmed, Armed Away, and Violated. A 4th is needed if Armed Stay is also configured.

Each input is wired to one relay on the alarm panel. When the alarm panel enters a state, it closes that relay, which closes the corresponding Kisi input. Kisi reads the closed input and applies the mapped alarm state. Only one input should be closed at any given time.

Some alarm panels do not expose relay outputs directly and require an external relay board to do so. See the example below.

note

The relay trigger duration varies by alarm panel model and configuration. This affects only the arm/disarm command Kisi sends out, not the contact sensor feedback coming in.

Example: Integration with VISTA21iPLTE alarm system

The VISTA21iPLTE does not expose programmable relay outputs directly. An Ademco 4204 relay board is added to provide this — it connects to the panel's keypad bus and exposes four dry-contact relay outputs that can each be mapped to an alarm state. These outputs are wired to the contact sensor inputs on the Kisi Controller.

For this setup, Kisi needs to be able to:

1. Arm/disarm the Vista system. One relay from the Kisi controller is wired to the key switch of the panel:

   • A pulse of 0.5 seconds changes the mode to arm away
   • A pulse of more than 1 second changes the mode to arm stay
   • A pulse while the system is armed changes the mode to disarmed

2. Know if the system is currently armed, disarmed or violated. The Vista board is connected to an Ademco 4204 relay board and configured as follows:

   Relay	Triggered when	Connected to
   1	Alarm violated	Contact Sensor 1 of Kisi Controller
   2	Armed away	Contact Sensor 2 of Kisi Controller
   3	Armed stay	Contact Sensor 3 of Kisi Controller
   4	Disarmed	Contact Sensor 4 of Kisi Controller

note

The relays from the Ademco board must be wired as NO (Normally Open), meaning that when they're not in use there is no contact between the circuits, and when the relay is triggered the circuit closes.

Add a zone

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Currently you can add only one third-party alarm zone in Kisi. You can't add a third-party alarm zone if you already have a Kisi-native zone added, and vice versa.

1. Sign in to Kisi
2. In the left-hand menu, click Intrusion Detection and select your place in the top left corner
3. Click Add Zone
4. Enter the zone name
5. Open the Alarm Type dropdown and select 3rd Party Alarm Integration
6. Click Save

Configure the zone

1. Click on the zone you created
2. Toggle on Enable Intrusion Detection
3. Select the Alert Policies tab and enter the email address of the user that should be notified when the alarm is triggered
4. Click on the user to configure the notification preferences
5. Select the Alarm Controller tab:
   • In the Relay field, select the Kisi Controller relay that is physically wired to the alarm panel's key switch input
   • In the Arming Delay field, define how long Kisi should wait after a trigger event before sending the arm command, giving people time to exit the zone
6. Click Save
7. Select the Contact Sensors tab and assign each controller input channel to its corresponding alarm state: Away, Disarmed, Stay, or Violated
8. Select the Doors tab and click Add Door
9. Select the door you want to add. You can also enable Exterior Door if the door is used to leave or enter the zone. Click Add.
10. Select the Away tab and set the Action. This defines how Kisi triggers the relay to tell the alarm panel to enter Armed Away mode. Select When triggered for the duration for a pulse-based key switch setup, or When triggered constantly if the alarm panel expects a maintained signal.
11. (Optional) Select the Stay tab, enable it and enter the duration of the signal to trigger the Armed Stay mode

note

The action and duration must match what the third-party alarm panel expects from its key switch input. Refer to your alarm panel's documentation for the correct behavior. Away, Disarmed, and Violated states must each be connected to a contact sensor. Stay is optional.

Procedure in case of alarm violation

If there is a violation, you will need to reset the third-party alarm panel and then reset the zone on the Kisi dashboard. The sequence for an alarm in away mode will be:

1. The contact sensor for away on the Kisi Controller is closed
2. The contact sensor for violated closes. Kisi triggers a violation, users defined in the alert policies receive an email, and the readers start blinking red and blue
3. Reset the third-party alarm panel on-site or via the alarm platform when available. This opens the contact sensor for violated, leaving only the away contact sensor closed
4. In the Kisi web app, click Reset to default to return the system to armed away

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When the alarm is triggered, the Kisi Reader Pro 2.0 will blink red and blue. For more information on reader feedback colors, see the Kisi Reader Pro 2.0 reference page.

Tamper alert

The Kisi Reader Pro 2 and Kisi Reader Pro 2.1 are equipped with a magnetic sensor that detects if the reader has been removed from the wall. If the tamper protection flag is turned on, an event will be created and the alarm will be triggered.

If the door assigned to the reader is part of an armed (stay or away) intrusion detection zone, a tamper alert will lead to a zone violation, triggering the reader to blink red and blue.

Find out how to enable tamper protection on the reader here.