Elk wiring tips

Hi,
 
For wiring to the various external devices I'm using solid CAT5 cable. Not sure this is the best choice as wires can break at the terminal screw.
Is it better to use stranded, at least for short runs to the wireless receiver, LCD etc? If using stranded should the stripped ends be tinned?
Or are crimped spade terminal ends best?
 
I'm using an ELK enclosure but i don't see any easy way to strain relief the wires inside the cabinet using tie wraps or similar. I'm sure something can be rigged but not sure how. Lots of holes but hard to get a tie wrap through the holes when already mounted.
 
For input contact switches i see that a 2200 Ohm resistor is required. Are these normally attached at the terminal screws and ganged with the contact switch wires?
 
Thanks
 
 
 
 
 
 

I use 22 AWG solid wire to connect local devices like the wireless receiver.  Either solid or stranded is ok, whatever your prefer.   No need to tin the wires.
 
If you want to secure the wires inside the enclosure, one way to do it is to use adhesive tie wrap mounting pads. Stick them wherever you need one and loop a tie wrap through it.
 
The 2200 ohm resistors are end-of-line (EOL) resistors and should be mounted at the switch contact, not back at the panel.  Their purpose is to allow the panel to tell whether the wiring to the contact is ok, or whether a short or open exists.  If you place the resistor at the panel, it does no good at all.   The 2.2k EOL resistors are not required on the zones.  You can configure each zone to operate without EOLs if you prefer.

My advise is to solder any and all splices on the data bus. i had a poor crimp connection when I first installed my system that was very difficult to troubleshoot. The system would just speak messages randomly and I had to resort to just cutting and re-splicing each connection one at a time.
 
Also when I need to connect two wires into a screw terminal on the panel I like to twist the wires together. If more than two wires it is good to just put one wire into the screw terminal and splice the other wires to it with a bean type crimp. I also strip wires when using the bean crimp even though it is not supposed to be necessary.
 
The system has very low current on the data bus and zones and is not very tolerant of resistance in a splice. You want good splices.
 
Mike.

I am a firm believer that you should never terminate field wiring directly onto equipment. I terminate all my wiring onto 66 blocks and then do jumpers from my Elk panel and other equipment to another set of 66 blocks. I then cross connect from the equipment blocks to the field wiring blocks in whatever way makes best use of the field wiring pairs. This has served me well over the years as equipment goes obsolete and is replaced I just rework the equipment blocks and cross connects without putting any wear and tear on the field wiring.

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Is that in your home?

mikefamig said:

Is that in your home?

Click to expand...

 
Yes this is an old picture I uploaded to Cocoontech years ago (you can tell by the monitor). Since then everything below the Stargate has been replaced with Elk equipment. I only had to change things on the bottom row of blocks and recross. The top blocks where the field wiring terminates did not need to be messed with. The phone system and Stargate that were not getting changed were not impacted by the cutover to Elk despite the fact the many of the field wiring cables are shared with some pairs used for phone or Stargate and some pairs utilized by the Elk M1.

Re: upstatemike...  I have [almost] no words...  that looks pretty complex!  Normally I'd recommend against a cross connect point as that's another point of failure but that's a decision that needs to be made carefully depending on your situation and risks.
 
For sensors, I really hate CatX, but it's cheap and used often.  For sensors, yes - it's easy to screw it up during installation... that said, once installed, if it works, it'll work for 20+years.  
 
As eluded to, the EOL resistor is optional.  Few use it honestly - and it's only useful if you do it right and use it at the sensor.  Doing it at the panel is pointless.