Crow/AAP Alarm IP Module for Home Assistant

This is a custom integration for Home Assistant to control Crow Runner, AAP (Arrowhead Alarm Products), and compatible alarm systems equipped with the IP Module (ESIM/TCP) running Firmware Ver 2.10.3628 2017 Oct 20 09:48:43.

Unlike previous solutions, this integration uses a direct local TCP implementation (the driver is vendored inside the integration, so no external Python dependency is installed) to ensure robust connection handling, specific command sequences (Code -> Command -> Enter), and accurate status parsing.

Current release: 2.2.0. Targets Home Assistant 2026.9.3. Users on Home Assistant 2026.8 or older should stay on 2.0.0. 2.2.0 reworks the zone devices: all zone entities now live on one device (Crow Alarm Sensors) and the retired per-type devices are cleaned up automatically. Existing entity ids are left untouched, so no dashboard or automation needs editing. The 2.1.0-beta.* and 2.2.0-beta.1 pre-releases are superseded - update to 2.2.0 (HACS shows it without enabling Show beta versions).

✅ Requirements

• Home Assistant 2026.9.3 or newer (Home Assistant 2026.9 requires Python 3.14.2+).
• A Crow Runner 8/16 or AAP ESL-2 board with the IP Module / APP POD.
• The panel must speak the ASCII line protocol on TCP port 5002 (the default).

📚 Documentation

Design documents (in this repository)

Document	What it covers
Architectural Design Document	Context, architectural decisions, runtime view, quality attributes, risks
Software Design Document	Modules, signatures, data models, protocol tables, per-entity contracts
Workflows and Diagrams	Mermaid diagrams: setup, data flow, commands, connection lifecycle, release
Dashboard	Ready-to-use Lovelace dashboard (standard + expert view) with an offline preview

Wiki

Page	Audience
Home / landing page	Everyone - picks the right track for your version
HA 2026.09 Development Branch	Users of the 2.1.0 release
Archived Documentation	Users still on 1.x / 2.0.0

Interactive architecture map - GitDiagram renders the repository as a component graph. Note that it reads the default branch only (master).

🌟 Features

• Alarm Control Panel:

• Supports Arm Away, Arm Home (Stay), Disarm, and Trigger (Panic).

• Keypad Support: Forces a numeric keypad in the UI to input your user code. Set a default code on the entity if you want to arm and disarm without the prompt.

• Correct Command Sequence: Automatically handles the required protocol sequence (e.g., Code + ARM + Enter).

• Entities become unavailable when the TCP connection drops, instead of silently showing stale state.

• Binary Sensors (Zones):

• Supports up to 16 zones.

• Configurable device class (Motion, Door, Window, Smoke, etc.) via the UI.

• Real-time status updates (Open/Closed/Alarm/Tamper).

• Zones are grouped into a single sub-device (Crow Alarm Sensors) linked to the main panel. The zone type (door, window, motion, ...) sets the sensor's icon and device class, not the device it is registered on.

• Switches (Outputs):

• Control up to 8 board outputs.

• Buttons:

• Toggle Chime, plus Relay 1 / Relay 2 momentary activation.

• System Status:

• Monitors Mains Power, Battery Health, Tamper, Phone Line, Dialler and Zone Battery.

• Handles "Power Failure" and "Low Battery" alerts correctly (no false alarms on restart).

• Device page: the panel reports its firmware version, the configured host and links to http://<host>.

• Diagnostics: downloadable from the integration page with area codes and the host redacted.

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Dashboard

A ready-to-use Lovelace dashboard for this integration ships in dashboards/. It needs no packages, no template sensors and no custom cards - the only requirement is an input_boolean.expert_mode helper.

Standard view	Expert view

• Standard (expert_mode = off) - arming with the compact alarm-modes tile, the state of the house, doors, windows and motion, plus conditional banners for alarm, panel fault and exit delay.
• Expert (expert_mode = on) - adds the panel diagnostics, the classic keypad card with a guarded panic trigger, a 72 h event log and a 24 h zone history.

Every summary is computed by the cards themselves, so there is nothing else to install. See dashboards/README.md for the install steps, the entity ids and the offline preview.

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📥 Installation

Option 1: HACS (Recommended)

This integration is not yet in the default HACS store, so you need to add it as a Custom Repository.

1. Open HACS in your Home Assistant sidebar.
2. Click on the Integrations tab.
3. Click the three dots (menu) in the top-right corner.
4. Select Custom repositories.
5. In the Repository field, paste the URL of this GitHub repository:

https://github.com/acdcnow/Crow-AAP-Alarm-System-for-Home-Assistant

6. In the Category dropdown, select Integration.
7. Click Add.
8. Close the dialog, find the new Crow/AAP Alarm IP Module integration in the list, and click Download.
9. Restart Home Assistant.

Option 2: Manual Installation

1. Download the crowipmodule folder from this repository.
2. Copy the crowipmodule folder into your Home Assistant's custom_components directory.

• Path: /config/custom_components/crowipmodule/

3. Restart Home Assistant.

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⚙️ Configuration

This integration uses the Home Assistant Config Flow (UI). No YAML configuration is required.

1. Go to Settings > Devices & Services.
2. Click + Add Integration.
3. Search for Crow/AAP Alarm IP Module.
4. Follow the setup wizard steps:

Step 1: Area Configuration

• Area 1 / Area 2 Name: Give your partitions a name (e.g., "House", "Garage").
• Default Code: (Optional) If you enter a code here, it will be used as a fallback. However, it is recommended to leave this blank and enter your code via the Lovelace UI Keypad for security.

Step 2: Relay Configuration

• Relay 1 / Relay 2 Name: Name your switchable outputs (e.g., "Garage Door", "Gate"). Leave blank if not used.

Step 3: Zone Count

• How many zones do you have? Enter the total number (1-16).

Step 4: Zone Details

• The wizard will generate fields based on the count you entered.
• Name: e.g., "Kitchen Window".
• Type: Select the device class (Motion, Door, Window, Smoke, etc.). It also decides the sub-device the zone is grouped into.

Step 5: Connection

• IP Address: The local IP of your Alarm IP Module.
• Port: Usually 5002.
• Keep Alive: Default 60 seconds.
• Timeout: Default 10 seconds.
• Arm Sequence: How the panel expects to be armed. Leave the default unless arming does nothing - see Arming Sequence.

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🎮 Usage

Alarm Panel Card

Add the standard Alarm Panel card to your dashboard.

• To Arm: Press Arm Away or Arm Home. If no code is stored for the area, Home Assistant asks for one first; otherwise the stored code is sent automatically.
• To Disarm: Press Disarm and enter your user code (again, unless a code is stored for the area).
• To Trigger: Press Trigger to raise a panic alarm (PANIC).

Bypassing a zone

Bypassing is not available from Home Assistant. The panel reports the bypass state of every zone (the bypass attribute of each zone entity, fed by the panel's ZBY / ZBYR messages), but this integration exposes no service, no button and no alarm mode that sets it - bypass from the panel keypad.

Arming Sequence

The Crow protocol has no single "arm with code" command. Depending on the firmware and how the panel is programmed, either

• the bare ARM / STAY command completes the arming, or
• the panel sends ARM / STAY and then waits for the user code followed by Enter.

Select the matching behaviour with the Arm Sequence option, under Settings > Devices & Services > Crow/AAP Alarm IP Module > Configure (it is also the last step of the setup wizard).

Option	Arm Away sends	Arm Home sends	Use when
Command, then code + Enter (default)	ARM then KEYS <code>E	STAY then KEYS <code>E	The panel waits for your code before it arms. This matches the behaviour of 2.0.0.
Command only	ARM	STAY	The panel arms immediately on the command, and a following code press would cancel the arming.

The trailing E in KEYS <code>E is the Enter key, so the sequence above is the keypad equivalent of typing your code and pressing Enter. No separate Enter button is required.

Disarming is always keypad style - the code followed by Enter (KEYS <code>E, then STATUS ) - regardless of the selected arm sequence.

Note

If Command, then code + Enter is selected but the area has no code stored, only the arm command is sent and a warning is written to the log. Store the area code, or switch to Command only.

Switches

Entities will be created for switch.relay_1 and switch.relay_2 (if named). These can be used to toggle the PGM outputs on the board (e.g., to open a garage door).

Outputs are momentary on the Crow protocol: turning a switch on sends the OO<n> command, so the board toggles its output. Two consecutive toggles within one status refresh are debounced to avoid double-triggering.

Buttons

• Toggle Chime - toggles the panel's keypad chime.
• Relay 1 / Relay 2 - briefly energise the board relays (RL1 / RL2).

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🛠️ Troubleshooting & Debugging

If you experience connection issues or incorrect status updates, please enable debug logging. This will show the raw communication between Home Assistant and the Alarm Panel.

Add the following to your configuration.yaml:

logger:
  default: info
  logs:
    custom_components.crowipmodule: debug

Common Issues:

• "Connection Refused": Ensure no other device (or previous instance of Home Assistant) is connected to the IP Module. Older firmware only tolerated one active TCP connection at a time; newer firmware allows reconnects while an old socket is still winding down, and the integration retries with exponential backoff.
• Status not updating: Ensure your IP Module is configured to send ASCII messages.
• "Unknown" state on boot: The integration actively queries the status on connection. If the panel is busy, it might take a few seconds to sync.
• Arming does nothing: The panel is waiting for your user code. Set Arm Sequence to Command, then code + Enter and make sure the area has a code stored - see Arming Sequence.
• The panel disarms instead of arming: Set Arm Sequence to Command only. On these panels the code press that follows the arm command is read as a disarm.

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🌐 Supported Languages

The configuration flow is fully translated into:

• 🇬🇧 English
• 🇩🇪 German
• 🇪🇸 Spanish
• 🇮🇹 Italian
• 🇫🇷 French

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Credits

Based on the pycrowipmodule library by @febalci, which the driver inside custom_components/crowipmodule/pycrowipmodule/ is derived from (MIT). Original custom component and pypi author: @febalci. Refactored for Home Assistant 2026.9+ with Config Flow support, entry.runtime_data and a brand/ asset directory.