6160 Keypad MQTT Service

MQTT service for interfacing a Honeywell 6160 alarm keypad with HomeAssistant.

Requires an Arduino running Arduino2keypad connected via USB serial.

Usage

The service exposes three HomeAssistant entities via MQTT auto-discovery:

• Keypad Mode (select) -- Controls the keypad indicator LEDs and displays the mode on line 1 of the LCD. Options:
  • Disarmed -- READY LED lit, one chime
  • Armed Away -- ARMED LED lit, backlight off, two chimes
  • Armed Stay -- ARMED STAY LED lit, two chimes
• Keypad Backlight (light) -- Toggles the LCD backlight on or off.
• Keypad Message (text) -- Sends arbitrary text (up to 16 characters) to LCD line 1.

Line 2 Notices

Line 2 rotates between active notices and the current date/time (always shown last). When no notices are active, it displays only the date/time.

Notices are managed via two MQTT topics:

• notice/set -- Add a notice to the rotation. Accepts plain text or JSON.
• notice/clear -- Remove a notice by its id or message text.

See HA Automation Examples below for usage.

Hardware

A Raspberry Pi Zero W connects over USB serial to an Arduino Mega running Arduino2keypad. The Arduino handles the non-standard 4800 baud keypad bus protocol and exposes an F7 command interface over 115200 baud serial.

Architecture

graph LR
    HA[HomeAssistant] -->|MQTT| Broker[MQTT Broker]
    Broker -->|MQTT| K[keypad6160]
    K -->|serial| Arduino
    Arduino -->|keypad bus| Keypad[6160 Keypad]

Loading

Configuration

All settings are controlled via KEYPAD_* environment variables. See quadlet/keypad6160.env for the full list.

Development

pip install -e ".[dev]"
git config core.hooksPath .githooks
pytest

Container Build

podman build -t keypad6160:latest .

Deploy (Raspberry Pi Zero W)

Flash Raspberry Pi OS Lite (Bookworm, 32-bit) to an SD card using Raspberry Pi Imager. Configure the hostname (raspberrypi-zerow), WiFi, SSH, and user pi in the Imager settings.

After first boot, SSH in and run the setup script:

git clone https://github.com/brianegge/6160-st-device.git
cd 6160-st-device && bash setup.sh

The script installs podman, copies the quadlet files to ~/.config/containers/systemd/, enables the auto-update timer, and sets up SNMP and backups. Review the env file for MQTT settings, then start the service:

systemctl --user start keypad6160

The container image is pulled from ghcr.io/brianegge/keypad6160:latest and auto-updates via podman auto-update. Check for updates manually with:

podman auto-update --dry-run

MQTT Topics

All topics are under the configurable prefix (default homeassistant/6160):

Topic	Direction	Description
status	publish	LWT: online/offline (retained)
mode/set	subscribe	Set alarm mode (e.g. Armed Away)
mode/state	publish	Current mode (retained)
backlight/set	subscribe	ON or OFF to toggle LCD backlight
backlight/state	publish	Current backlight state (retained)
message/set	subscribe	JSON: {"text", "line_no", "backlight"}
message/1/set	subscribe	Plain text for LCD line 1
message/2/set	subscribe	Plain text for LCD line 2
notice/set	subscribe	Add a notice to the line 2 rotation (see below)
notice/clear	subscribe	Remove a notice by id or message text
tone/set	subscribe	Play a tone (0–7), auto-resets after 1.5 s
reset/set	subscribe	Reset the Arduino via DTR toggle
key/event	publish	Keypress event: {"event_type":"key_press","key":"5"}
uptime/state	publish	Uptime in seconds (updated every 60 s)

Notice Payloads

The notice/set topic accepts two payload formats:

Plain text -- adds a transient notice that auto-expires after 60 seconds:

Doorbell Ring

JSON -- for persistent notices or custom TTL:

{"id": "washer", "message": "Washer Done"}

Field	Required	Default	Description
message	yes		Text to display (max 16 characters)
id	no	message	Unique identifier used to update or clear the notice
ttl	no	0 if id given, 60 otherwise	Seconds until auto-expire; 0 = no expiry

The notice/clear topic accepts the notice id (or message text) as a plain-text payload.

HA Automation Examples

Persistent notice (cleared by a second automation)

# Notify when the washer finishes
- alias: "Notify washer done"
  triggers:
    - trigger: state
      entity_id: sensor.washer_state
      to: "complete"
  actions:
    - action: mqtt.publish
      data:
        topic: homeassistant/6160/notice/set
        payload: '{"id": "washer", "message": "Washer Done"}'

# Clear when the laundry room door opens
- alias: "Clear washer notice"
  triggers:
    - trigger: state
      entity_id: binary_sensor.laundry_door
      to: "on"
  actions:
    - action: mqtt.publish
      data:
        topic: homeassistant/6160/notice/clear
        payload: "washer"

Transient notice (auto-expires in 60 seconds)

- alias: "Doorbell ring notice"
  triggers:
    - trigger: state
      entity_id: binary_sensor.doorbell
      to: "on"
  actions:
    - action: mqtt.publish
      data:
        topic: homeassistant/6160/notice/set
        payload: "Doorbell Ring"

Custom TTL

- alias: "Garage open warning"
  triggers:
    - trigger: state
      entity_id: cover.garage_door
      to: "open"
      for: "00:05:00"
  actions:
    - action: mqtt.publish
      data:
        topic: homeassistant/6160/notice/set
        payload: '{"id": "garage", "message": "Garage Open", "ttl": 300}'