Alarm status indicator LED with ELK M1G?

I'm just starting to get back into the automation game after some time off and wanted to know if anyone had come up with a simple solution for ascertaining alarm status. We currently have a one keypad system (in the bedroom) but arm / disarm via keyfob when we exit / return.

To be honest, we're not great at always arming when we leave (yes, i know we need to be better) so that means we're also not trained to automatically "disarm" when we get home. We both enter the house exclusively from the garage and have been tripping the interior motion detector with some decent frequency.

I'm sure you married guys know that it's sometimes easier to over-engineer a solution versus having someone change their behavior That being said, can you guys think of a way to have a simple LED status light inside the garage that blinks when the alarm is armed? I'm thinking something simple like a car-alarm blinky red light sitting by the interior door from garage to house... basically a nice blinking "hit your keyfob please" status reminder.

I know this can also be solved by putting another visible keypad in the garage, but if i can solve this problem for $10 versus $137, I'd much rather do a blinking light.

Any thoughts?

Im guessing you can use one of the onboard outputs to trigger a relay that is wired to an LED. Then write a set of rules so that output is turned On when the system is armed and turned Off when the system is disarmed

Do you have wiring out to the garage already?

No, I don't have wiring out to the garage yet, but it would be a ver simple run from the panel through the attic. I wonder if there's an excuse here to buy an insteon or zwave addon

dgarnett said:

No, I don't have wiring out to the garage yet, but it would be a ver simple run from the panel through the attic. I wonder if there's an excuse here to buy an insteon or zwave addon

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Well, there is ALWAYS an excuse but you mentioned 10.00 instead of 137.00 for a keypad. I imagine Insteon/zWave would be (and end up getting) more expensive.

Do this all the time with M1's that have keyfobs and the garage OHD's contacted.

I use 12V LED's, personally I source them from Digikey rather than make spider/resistor contraptions.

You will need a relay. You can use the triggers for tiny loads, but if you really want to do it right a couple of trigger relays driven off the trigger header and it's done.

I use bicolored LED's and run a 4/22, that way I've got 3 color possible (red, green, amber) and then write appropriate rules to drive them.

I installed two speakers in the garage. Twenty seconds after the garage door opens, the following announcement is played: "<beep> System is armed."

The moment the inner door is unlocked and opened (keypad is inside the house, not the garage) the countdown begins and the following announcement is heard: "Please enter security code."

It's all done with M1's rules and voice messages.

IF you can run wiring to a location in the garage I would consider this:

For my friend's Elk install I used two of these 12 volt two color LED's that are already mounted on a wall plate.

I'm pretty sure I wired these directly into his Elk (i.e. did not use limiting resistors) but will have to check as he has all the schematics I drew up.

It is a two color LED on a white mounting plate (you can always use your own plate if you want a different color, just get the nylon ones instead of the cheap plastic from your hardware store so they don't crack when you drill into them).

I used these external relays triggered off of the Elk's outputs because he wanted to have these indicators in two locations, but you can just use the onboard Elk relay (forget the output number) if you are not using it for anything.

You can then just wire a AUX voltage output to the "C", green color of this LED to "NC" and the other red color to "NO". The ground will just go to an AUX ground on the Elk. Then write a rule to turn that output on when armed and off during a disarm.

You can see a (small) picture of it HERE. I also used the plate to mount a small switch and a glass break as well.

I would bench test this first (it would be $12 including shipping). You might also want a low voltage refit box and cut the drywall rectangle for a nice fit of the switch on the drywall. If you have plywood behind the drywall (firewall) then just get some longer wood screws to secure the plate.

My friend and his wife love the two of them I installed (family room and master bedroom) as they were ALWAYS leaving their garage door opened in the evening. This way they can just quickly glance at the LED status to see if it is up or down.

I like the Dialight 607 series. No resistor required and they can be driven directly from a programmable output.

From what you described it sounds like you're using a long-range keyfob and not a proximity fob, correct? If so, I have mine programmed to open the garage door and disarm the alarm. Would that not work better for you?

Im going to take this LED status thing one more step and use it as a way to indicate if the alarm has been tripped. I know I *should* have received a message from my CS, but if for some reason that didnt get to me, or the CS was never informed, or someone else tries to go into the house without knowing that I got a message, Id rather have a quick way of knowing if the house might be unsafe to enter.

Green/Red LED to indicate Safe/Unsafe. And maybe a Green/Yellow/Red to indicate Disarmed/Countdown/Armed. Both in my garage so anyone that pulls in can tell at a glance if they should enter the house or not.

I have a set of red/yellow/green LEDs mounted so that they are visible from the driveway. The LEDs are connected via relays to the M1. I arm/disarm with Honeywell wireless fobs. The LEDs indicate armed (red), not ready or alarm tripped (yellow) and disarmed (green). The red and green LEDs are programmed to automatically turn off after a minute to avoid broadcasting the state of the system. The whole thing works really well and gives additional confidence that the system is in the state you want it to be.

chrisexv6 said:

Im going to take this LED status thing one more step and use it as a way to indicate if the alarm has been tripped. I know I *should* have received a message from my CS, but if for some reason that didnt get to me, or the CS was never informed, or someone else tries to go into the house without knowing that I got a message, Id rather have a quick way of knowing if the house might be unsafe to enter.

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In my case, using my keyfobs, my alarm will not disarm and the garage door will not initially open if a burglar alarm had tripped and I wasn't aware. Instead the siren starts chirping and the strobe goes off. I have it programmed so after initial notification I can hit the button a 2nd time and it will then disarm and open the garage.

video321 said:

In my case, using my keyfobs, my alarm will not disarm and the garage door will not initially open if a burglar alarm had tripped and I wasn't aware. Instead the siren starts chirping and the strobe goes off. I have it programmed so after initial notification I can hit the button a 2nd time and it will then disarm and open the garage.

Click to expand...

That also sounds like a nice setup! Once I get my garage doors into the mix I will look into something like that. Right now I dont have alarm wiring out to the garage (have to fish it thru a breezway ceiling somehow), but once I do I can play around with stuff like that.

For now Ill just be happy to have the alarm completely up and running security-wise. Ive slowly been installing contacts, smokes, etc and am almost ready to have it monitored.

For garage OHD status, I typically use the KP's F keys as status indicators, no additional hardware needed, and since I typically put in KP's and not KP2 or KP3's, I tend to use F5 and F6 as an indicator for a "normal" 2 door garage.

For the LED's, using a bicolored unit, you can get 3 colors, a typical red, green, and amber out of the single unit. As I said, Digikey has some nice units, no current limiting resistors needed, and have a nice bezel and view angle.

I try to aim for up in the soffit or similar when installing, so they're not viewable dead on straight from the ground, but you look up a little (like from a car). Red/green for arm/disarm. Blink red for stay or alternate arm mode. Turn on amber for alarm memory. I've also programmed timers to turn off the armed indication after X time, so the light isn't on all the time (customer request) after arming via fobs. Disarming restrictions also work for limiting or eliminating access if the OHD is tied into the system.

I wish Elk had a little more programmability in regards to F key illumination. I want to use them to indicate garage door status as well as entry door deadbolt status. Thats at least 4 F-keys, it would be nice to use 2 and have solid for deadbolt open, flashing for garage door open, etc. Would also be nice if they were controllable independent of backlight settings, or if we could at least control the backlight with rules to turn on backlight when zones are open, etc.

I know I saw that mentioned here before, and it looks like a couple people requested it from Elk.......havent seen it yet though.