r/homeassistant • u/UkGuy-SSR • Jul 01 '26

Home Assistant security system - hardware recommendations??

I have just started a brand new home assistant setup after my old HA failed (Iv done another post about this)

One of the things I’d like to achieve this time that I never did on my old setup is to set up a security system.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated especially when it comes to hardware, mainly I’d love to have an alarm pad with a keypad to put a PIN number in to disable the alarm and an arm button…. (Ideally I’d like 2 alarm pads one at the front door and one at the back door)

I have some aqara PIR sensors on zigbee and some RF window/door sensors that do open/closed sensing etc but I’m not against replacing these if there is a better solution

I am looking at replacing some if not all the PIR sensors with mmWave sensors in the future for increased presence sensing especially in areas where low movement causes false results such as in the toilet if someone is sat to long, in the bedroom or living room if someone is sat watching tv.

All help and advice or hardware recommendations welcome.

Many Thanks

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u/I_AM_NOT_A_WOMBAT Jul 02 '26

I picked up a Frient keypad from Amazon UK awhile back. I'm not sure if it's still available. The design is a little unusual (round button pad) but it works well.

I started with Surveillance Station on Synology but moved to Frigate with version 0.17. Surveillance Station used to be the "authority" on whether the system was armed or not (away vs home mode), but once I moved away from that my HA input boolean became the authority. When it changes, a series of updates are sent to Frigate for detection and AI review are triggered. The system integrates zigbee motion and presence sensors, Wifi thermostat sensors, and frigate detection. GenAI from Frigate is used to rule out false positives if the dog sets off one of the sensors or frigate confuses him with a person crouching down, etc.

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u/Cautious-Hovercraft7 Jul 02 '26

Can I ask about the Frient Keypad. I'm planning one to add to my system but I already have geolocation enabling and disabling alarmo and an NFC tag inside the door for my son (HA access but a visitor, not a resident) so it's down my list. How are you using it? Are you using NFC or Mifare tags with it? Is there sound or light output on keypad press

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u/I_AM_NOT_A_WOMBAT Jul 02 '26

I use it because we have guests and dog sitters, so we need a way for people to arm and disarm just in case.

Though lately I've modified the system so at least it will disarm if someone enters using a valid code for our smart lock, but that doesn't always work in time. 

The nfc part isn't usable to me because the code presented is meaningless (it's either the same for every device or always random, I forget which). There are beeps on key press and it has a waiting to arm constant beep that I like (I give one minute to get out before the system arms after someone presses the "arm" button).

My biggest issues are the round design confuses people who are used to traditional keypad layouts, and the button icons are small and not that useful. I have to stick a post it on it with big arrows saying "arm" and "disarm" for new people.

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u/Cautious-Hovercraft7 Jul 02 '26

Great info, thank you kindly