ELK M1 Random System Starup

RogueOne

Active Member
A few minutes ago I was sitting in my livingroom and all of a sudden my alarm keypad started beeping.  It showed that there were 5 violated zones.  These were all wireless zones.  I reset them by opening and closing doors and testing the smoke detector.  Now my wireless zones are GE and ELK and all were violated.  I checked the log and it said "System Startup".  Any idea why this happened?
 
Thanks
 
RogueOne said:
 
Ok.  5.3.10 supposedly has fixes for code bugs that caused occasional reboots.  But maybe there are still some problems that Elk didn't uncover.
 
On the other hand, it could just be a random hardware problem that caused the reboot.  If it doesn't regularly re-occur, I wouldn't worry about it.
 
The wireless zones can be a pain after a reboot.  The transmitters only send a status update once an hour or so, unless there is an immediate change, such as a door opening or closing.  So when the panel reboots, it doesn't know the current status of all the wireless zones and assumes they are not secure.  If you don't do anything, the M1 will eventually get the hourly updates and then everything will be ok.
 
Mine does it also.  I set it to send mail on startup, and I find about every 2-3 months it will do a reboot.  Not a big deal for me, but annoying.
 
I’d check the logs in ElkRP. Do you see anything happen right before the reboot that could be an issue?


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hgupta1 said:
No, unfortunately there is nothing in the logs that provides any indication of what is going wrong.
How often do the reboots happen?   Do they happen at random times of day, or always about the same time?
 
Have you checked your batteries (both the 12V backup battery and the 2032 coin cell on the M1 board)?  Have you checked the AC voltage output from the transformer ?
 
RAL said:
How often do the reboots happen?   Do they happen at random times of day, or always about the same time?
 
Have you checked your batteries (both the 12V backup battery and the 2032 coin cell on the M1 board)?  Have you checked the AC voltage output from the transformer ?
 
 I did change out the battery coin battery to a nice new Duracell battery, and swapped out the backup batteries, and I thought it solved the problem.  The transformer output is right at 16.5 to 17v Unfortunately it just happened again.  What else can I check?
 
Also, I forgot to mention that these happen randomly, probably every 10 days or so. I have not been able to find any pattern.
 
I struggled with this problem and have been able to make it happen much less frequently. According to Elk tech support one cause for reboot is a glitch or intermittent connection in a power supply line to a zone expander or keypad or maybe other device in the system. I never determined which device but in my case I think that it is the zone expander in the detached garage. I checked and double-checked all of the screw terminals with no help and then it occurred to me that I have a number of RJ-45 plugs in the system in the DBH hub that supplies the garage among other things.
 
Long story short I found that removing the RJ-45 connectors and spraying the plug and sockets with electronic cleaner got rid of the re-boots for months at a time. Now I clean them up now and then and I pull the plugs in and out a few times to clean them up any time I have the system powered off for any reason. I rarely have re-boots any more.
 
Look for any questionable connections in the system, especially12v  power supplies.
 
Mike.
 
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