Frequently Asked Questions

LocknAlert works with Magellan (MG), Spectra (SP), and EVO series Paradox panels — the panels installed in the vast majority of South African homes.

The connection uses the panel's built-in serial port (TTL 5 V) via the proprietary LocknAlert cable included in the box.

Panels running firmware below version 7.50.000 are supported. Firmware 7.50.000 and newer is not compatible.

If your installer recently updated your panel, verify the firmware version in Babyware before purchasing. Not sure? Email us a photo of your panel's label and we'll confirm.

No — and IP modules are not supported and not needed. LocknAlert connects directly to the panel's built-in serial port. This is simpler, cheaper, and more reliable than routing through an IP module.

The IP150, IP150+, USB 307 adapters, and all third-party serial converters are not compatible.

Yes. LocknAlert uses the serial port only and has no interaction with the panel's own dialler, SIM card, or communication to your monitoring station. Your armed response setup is completely unaffected.

Your Panel ID and PC Password must match (be the same value). The factory default is usually 1234 or 0000.

Confirm or change this in Babyware: right-click your panel → Properties → PC Communication (Babyware) Tab. You can update it after setup for added security.

Yes. The included cable plugs directly from the Bridge into the panel's serial port, so the Bridge must be installed at or near the alarm enclosure. Once wired it connects to your home Wi-Fi wirelessly for everything else.

No. LocknAlert communicates only via the panel's local serial port. Cloud-based third-party modules and hosted alarm services are not supported.

Yes. The Bridge connects your alarm to a local MQTT broker and pairs automatically with an existing Home Assistant instance on your network. If you don't already have HA running, the Home Hub comes with everything pre-configured and ready to go.

No. LocknAlert is a once-off purchase. There are no monthly fees, no cloud subscriptions, and no licence costs. Buy it once, use it forever.

The Bridge includes the device and the proprietary serial cable for the Paradox serial port.

The Home Hubs additionally include the Raspberry Pi unit with NVMe storage and a fully pre-configured Home Assistant installation.

Yes — the complete step-by-step installation and user guide is available here:

📄 LocknAlert User Guide →

It covers unboxing, wiring the serial cable, Setup Portal walkthrough, Home Assistant pairing, and common troubleshooting steps.

1. Connect the cable from the Bridge to your Paradox panel's serial port and plug in power.
2. On first boot the Bridge broadcasts a hotspot named LocknAlert-Setup.
3. Connect your phone or laptop to that hotspot.
4. Open a browser and go to https://locknalert.local — the Setup Portal loads.
5. Log in (admin / password123) and change your password immediately.
6. Enter your home Wi-Fi credentials and your panel's baud rate, then save.
7. The Bridge reboots and joins your home network.
8. Open Home Assistant — it auto-discovers the Bridge and walks you through pairing.

No. You need basic comfort with a web browser and your home Wi-Fi password. The Setup Portal has a simple guided UI — no config files, no command line, no coding required.

If you get stuck, email [email protected]. We offer hands-on remote support via a built-in secure tunnel.

The Setup Portal is a secure web interface built into every LocknAlert device. Access it at https://locknalert.local once on your Wi-Fi. It lets you:

• Configure Wi-Fi and panel serial settings
• View real-time status — Paradox service, Wi-Fi signal, network connections
• Restart the alarm service or reboot the device
• Manage Home Assistant pairing
• Enable / disable remote support via Tailscale
• Perform a full factory reset

Username: admin  |  Password: password123

Change the password on your first login. After 5 failed attempts the IP is locked out for 2 hours.

On the login screen click "Forgot Password". This instantly resets the admin password back to password123. Log in and set a new password straight away.

If unsure, start with 38400 for EVO or 9600 for SP/MG. You can change it in the Setup Portal and restart the service at any time.

There's a built-in Wi-Fi watchdog that waits 60 seconds after saving. If the device can't connect to your network in time, it automatically falls back to hotspot (AP) mode so you can reconnect and fix the SSID or password.

The Bridge announces itself on your network via mDNS (_locknalert._tcp.local). Home Assistant discovers it automatically and calls the Bridge's pairing API, which securely provisions unique MQTT credentials for HA — no manual config needed.

After pairing, a signed token is issued and stored by HA for future re-pairing, so credentials stay protected.

Yes. The Paradox panel's serial port supports only one active connection at a time. If Babyware (or any other panel software) is connected, LocknAlert cannot communicate. Close Babyware before starting the Bridge service.

No. All alarm data, zone states, and automations stay on your local network. The Bridge talks directly to your local MQTT broker. Everything Home Assistant processes runs on hardware inside your home. Nothing is sent to LocknAlert's servers or any third party.

The system keeps working as long as your local network is up — no internet required. For load shedding, a UPS on your router and the Bridge ensures uninterrupted operation. LocknAlert was built with South African conditions in mind.

Yes. Because LocknAlert processes no personal data on external servers — everything stays on your own devices inside your home — it is inherently aligned with POPIA's data minimisation and local processing principles.

Only if you explicitly enable it. The Bridge has Tailscale (a secure encrypted VPN) installed, but it is off by default. You toggle "Remote Support" on or off yourself in the Setup Portal's Settings page. When it's off, nobody can reach your device remotely — period.

Yes. The Portal runs over HTTPS with a TLS certificate generated on the device at first boot. Sessions expire after 20 minutes of inactivity. Five failed login attempts trigger a 2-hour IP ban. Session cookies use HttpOnly, Secure, and SameSite=Strict flags.

• Arm / disarm your alarm — away, home (stay), sleep — from your phone, tablet, or a wall-mounted panel.
• Real-time zone states — open, closed, alarmed, tampered, bypassed.
• Push notifications — instant alerts for zone triggers, arm/disarm events, and trouble conditions.
• Automations — e.g. flash lights when a zone opens, lock the gate when you arm away.
• Everything in one app — alarm, lights, plugs, locks, gates, cameras, sensors.
• Works fully offline — all of the above keeps working with zero internet.

Yes. Supported modes:

• Arm Away — full perimeter armed
• Arm Home (Stay) — perimeter armed, interior zones bypassed
• Arm Sleep (Night) — configurable partial arming
• Disarm

Yes. Each partition on your panel is exposed as a separate alarm control panel entity in Home Assistant. You can arm and disarm them independently or together.

• Zone states: open / closed / alarmed / tampered / bypassed
• Partition states: armed away / armed stay / armed sleep / disarmed / alarm triggered / entry & exit delay
• System health: battery voltage, DC voltage, AC power, trouble events
• User events: which user armed or disarmed (by user number)

No. The Home Hubs come pre-configured — alarm entities appear automatically after pairing. The dashboard is drag-and-drop. Automations use a visual flow editor. Coding is entirely optional and only needed if you want advanced custom logic.

• Nabu Casa — Home Assistant's official cloud subscription (~$7/month). Easiest option, works out of the box.
• Tailscale — free encrypted VPN built into every LocknAlert device. Toggle it on in the Setup Portal. End-to-end encrypted, no HA Cloud account required.

Yes, indirectly. Home Assistant has official integrations for both. Once your alarm is in HA you can expose it to Google Home or Alexa. Note: voice control via those assistants requires internet to reach their cloud — your alarm always works locally regardless.

Yes — visit demo.locknalert.co.za to see a live Home Assistant dashboard showing what your system will look like in practice.

PAI (Paradox Alarm Interface) is the open-source Python service running on every LocknAlert device. It connects to the Paradox panel via the serial port, reads all zone, partition, and system state continuously, and publishes it to the local MQTT broker. It also listens for arm/disarm commands on MQTT and forwards them to the panel in real time.

MQTT is a lightweight publish/subscribe messaging protocol widely used in smart home and IoT systems. Home Assistant supports it natively. LocknAlert publishes all alarm state to a Mosquitto MQTT broker running locally on the Bridge — HA subscribes to those topics and automatically builds sensor and alarm panel entities. There's no proprietary cloud API to maintain or update.

Default base topic is paradox/ (configurable). Key topics:

• paradox/zones/<name>/states — zone open/closed/alarmed/tampered
• paradox/partitions/<name>/states — partition armed/disarmed state
• paradox/system/states — system health events
• paradox/events/raw — raw panel event stream
• paradox/control/partitions/<name> — arm/disarm commands

Yes. In the Setup Portal you can configure a custom MQTT host, port, username, and password. PAI will publish to that broker instead of the local one. The "Reset MQTT" button reverts back to the local broker at any time.

The Bridge runs on an Orange Pi single-board computer with a LocknAlert Linux image. The Home Hubs run on Raspberry Pi boards with NVMe storage. All units run Mosquitto (MQTT broker), PAI, and the Setup Portal. Home Hubs also include a fully pre-configured Home Assistant instance.

1. Open the Setup Portal and check the Paradox log for specific error messages.
2. Confirm the serial cable is firmly seated in the panel's serial port.
3. Verify the baud rate matches your panel (38400 for EVO, 9600 for SP/MG).
4. Check the Panel Password — it must match the PC Password set in Babyware.
5. Ensure Babyware or any other panel software is not running simultaneously.
6. Click "Restart Paradox" in the Portal. If it keeps failing, send the log to [email protected].

If the Wi-Fi credentials were incorrect, the watchdog reverts the device to hotspot mode after 60 seconds. Look for the LocknAlert-Setup Wi-Fi network, reconnect, and correct the SSID or password in the Setup Portal.

If the device is on your network but locknalert.local doesn't resolve, check your router's DHCP table for the assigned IP address and use that directly.

• Confirm the Bridge and HA are on the same local network / subnet.
• Check that the Paradox service is running (green "active" badge in the Setup Portal).
• Ensure mDNS / Bonjour passthrough is not blocked by your router or firewall.
• In HA: Settings → Devices & Services → Add Integration → MQTT → follow the discovery flow.
• If re-pairing after a reset: Setup Portal → Settings → "Allow Provisioning" to reopen the pairing window.

• Confirm the HA MQTT integration is connected and showing as active.
• Restart the Paradox service from the Portal — this forces a re-publish of all entities.
• Check that the MQTT topic prefix in HA matches the one on the Bridge (default: paradox).

In the Setup Portal → Home → click "Full Reset". This will:

• Reset the admin password to password123
• Revoke and regenerate the Home Assistant MQTT credentials
• Point PAI back to the local MQTT broker
• Re-open provisioning so HA can pair fresh

Log in immediately after and set a new password.

Go to Setup Portal → Settings → toggle "Remote Support" on. This connects the device to Tailscale, a secure encrypted VPN. Then email [email protected] or WhatsApp us. Turn remote support off again once the session is done — you always control the toggle.

LocknAlert ships across South Africa. See the Shipping Policy for current carrier details and lead times.

Standard delivery is typically 3–5 business days. Lead times may extend during supply chain disruptions — the announcement bar on the store shows current notices.

Yes. Full details including the warranty period, claim process, and exclusions are in the Returns & Warranty Policy.

• Email: [email protected]
• WhatsApp: +27 78 856 5706
• Remote hands-on support via the built-in Tailscale VPN in the Setup Portal.

LocknAlert is founded and run by Raine Pretorius, based in Johannesburg. LocknAlert (Pty) Ltd is a small South African company — we design our own hardware, build our own software, and support customers directly. No middlemen, no monthly fees, no cloud dependency.

Built in South Africa, for South African conditions — Paradox panels, load shedding resilience, and all.