The Great Start

Hello,
going to take a crack at this DIY Home Security thing!!! Very excited to be joining this group with all the expertise and knowhow. Looking forwards to meeting the great minds.
I'm an engineer, and for some reason, I'm under the impression that I might be able to do this. I've wired my house thinking I would go with the DSC system, but after lots of looking around, and lots of confusion, I've come to the conclusion that the Elk M1 Gold is the system to go with.
My next step is to buy the equipment and start hooking thins up. I've wired a little under two dozen door and window sensors downstairs, and another dozen upstairs. I have another dozen or so wires coming out of walls, ceilings, corners, and what not (2 conductor wire). Everything ends in my coat closet (a mess of wire you would not believe, or my wife says so). So my first question would be, are there any canned solutions one can follow? or do I need to design the system from scratch?
Would love to hear from anyone interested to help. I live in Irvine California, and like someone else on this forum has already mentioned, local help is very hard to come by.
Thank you all.

Welcome to Cocoontech, Azcrum!
 
Not sure what you mean by a canned solution.  If you mean something that would guide you with how to wire zones and whatnot, I'd say no, there is nothing canned.  Pretty much every install is going to be custom to a greater to lesser extent.
 
When I did my install, I first gave thought to how I wanted to group contacts and zones.  Decided that I'd put every contact on it's own zone, rather than grouping all contacts for a room into a single zone.  That required more zones on the M1, but I liked the flexibility.   I tried to assign zones in a logical manner (to me, anyway), grouping them so it would be reasonably easy to follow without having to constantly refer to a cheat sheet.  But at some point, you do need the cheat sheet!
 
If you haven't done so already, I would recommend watching several of the Elk training videos that are available on the Elk web site, especially the Basic Training webinar.
 
 
One thing to keep an eye on is the amount of power that devices you have connected will draw from the panel (keypads, zone expanders, PIRs, etc).  The m1 can provide 1 Amp max, but it is a good idea to leave some headroom.  Elk has a   current draw spreadsheet that will help you calculate this.
 
You will also find a Program Record worksheet on that same web page that is helpful for keeping track of programming details.

awesome! thanks for the advise.

You are correct that you will have to design the entire system from scratch. When I did mine I drew a map of the rooms in the house, where the control would go, where each zone would be, where the keypads would be and how I would route the wires for those devices.
 
If you haven't already, I recommend that you register at Elk's web site and download the M1 installation manual and start
understanding the control first and then each component and how it attaches to the control. The basic system consists of the M1 control w/battery backup, an ethernet adapter, one or more keypads, several zone sensors and speakers/noisemakers. I assume that you will put the control in the closet where the wires all lead to but you will have to choose the type and size of container. It can be flush mount or surface mount and must house the control and backup battery and most likely an ethernet adapter. It also needs AC power supplied to it.
 
Draw a plan, make a parts list and post it here and I'm sure that you'll get lots of help from the members. RAL who has replied to you already is very knowledgeable.and has been a huge help to me in the past along with others. There's a wealth of knowledge and experiences already posted on this forum so use the search tool too.
 
Mike.

Mike is right about starting with your plans and putting together a parts list.  I overlooked that you said you still need to buy the equipment.   The M1 has lots of flexibility and lots of options, so it is easy to overlook some items as you get started.   There are quite a few threads on Cocoontech where people have posted their parts lists that can be helpful as a starting point.  When I started out, I found many things that I was unfamiliar with that way and reading the lists gave me new things to think about.  Here are a few recent ones.
 
http://cocoontech.com/forums/topic/27983-my-new-elk-m1-install-thread/
 
http://cocoontech.com/forums/topic/27762-new-elk-m1-install-power-planning-help-needed/
 
http://cocoontech.com/forums/topic/27751-new-elk-m1g-install/

Hello All !
my basic installation is done !!
For the first time, I flipped the M1 switch on last night !!!
The thing to do I figured was to start programming. First I tried looking at what's on the EKL-M1KPNAV. Then I figured I'll install the ELKRP. Realizing that it was almost midnight, I decided to stop. The thing to do would be to find some resources on what the first step is as far as programming. If anyone has any thoughts, I'm all ears.
Thanks.

You're on the right track to start with installing RP. Once it's installed you need to create a new customer account with your personal information. Then with the account created and saved your next challenge will be to configure the XEP and connect to the control panel wit RP. I recommend that you first connect to the LAN to simplify the process (no need for port forwarding).
 
Once you have the account created and you are connected to the panel the fun begins. When you connect for the first time RP will compare your new customer account to the control panel and report a bunch of conflicts. To resolve the conflicts you should receive all from the panel and save the account.
 
I won't go any farther than that at this point and others will add to this I'm sure. Your RP customer account will need to be configured with basic account info which is too extensive for me to list here. Install RP and become familiar with it and I'm sure that you have a little better understanding of what needs to be done and will be back with more questions.
 
Mike.

BTW - congrats on the install!

Azcrum
 
I recommend that you start a new message thread in the home security forum where it will get more attention.
 
Mike.

Thank for the support, I sure appreciate it.
I'm not just a novice at Home security installation, I also have 0 knowledge as far as forum etiquette.
Set up LAN connection it is !

Azcrum said:

I'm not just a novice at Home security installation, I also have 0 knowledge as far as forum etiquette.

Click to expand...

 
The Home security forum is frequented by both DIYers and professionals who are familiar with the Elk and you are sure to get plenty of help there. I couldn't have done my install without them.
 
Mike.

All the posts were really informative