I'm worried if I have enough current capacity without extra power supply.
How is the right way to do it?
I did the spreadsheet thing. I did it twice, once with max draw and once with idle. My idle I can compare to the Elk-measured value, and I get 0.523 (calculated) vs. 0.320 (measured), so I am not all that sure of the spreadsheet numbers. BUt they come from the spec sheets.
My calcualted total is a whopping 2.254A, but that's with all smokes sounding together. With the smokes at idle, and removing the siren (so I don't PO the neighbors) the spreadsheet says I should be at 1.558. So I
set off the alarm and it then showed 0.405A on the keypad (and I had both keypads in use, one to set the alarm, one to view, so both were active). That's quite different from 1.558 calculated. I did it twice, got about the same value each time.
My multimeter only does 400ma, so I would need to buy another to measure separately from the Elk. Is the Elk's measurement usually accurate? During an alarm state?
And what's the real target I am aiming for. It has a 2.5A power supply, a 1A continuous rating. The spreadsheet recommends a new power supply if the alarm condition current exceeds 1A (all the amounts on it appear to be maximums, so I assume that is alarm condition not standby). Is that right, or is it 1A standby and 2.5A in max alarm draw?
Basically I have conflicting info -- calculations for a given configuration are different by a factor of 3 from the spreadsheet. Most of this is probably in the M1TWa, which is rated at 1A. Since that is the primary thing drawing in an alarm condition (with no siren or smokes sounding) one would thing it is drawing about .1 (the difference in the 0.320 measured idle vs. 0.405 sounding). That's a huge difference from the 1A rated amount, which may be if you have a ton of really low impedence speakers? But I'm off even further than the .9 difference there in the calculation.
Should I trust the keypad measurement?
Should I go buy a bigger multimeter?
How is the right way to do it?
I did the spreadsheet thing. I did it twice, once with max draw and once with idle. My idle I can compare to the Elk-measured value, and I get 0.523 (calculated) vs. 0.320 (measured), so I am not all that sure of the spreadsheet numbers. BUt they come from the spec sheets.
My calcualted total is a whopping 2.254A, but that's with all smokes sounding together. With the smokes at idle, and removing the siren (so I don't PO the neighbors) the spreadsheet says I should be at 1.558. So I
set off the alarm and it then showed 0.405A on the keypad (and I had both keypads in use, one to set the alarm, one to view, so both were active). That's quite different from 1.558 calculated. I did it twice, got about the same value each time.
My multimeter only does 400ma, so I would need to buy another to measure separately from the Elk. Is the Elk's measurement usually accurate? During an alarm state?
And what's the real target I am aiming for. It has a 2.5A power supply, a 1A continuous rating. The spreadsheet recommends a new power supply if the alarm condition current exceeds 1A (all the amounts on it appear to be maximums, so I assume that is alarm condition not standby). Is that right, or is it 1A standby and 2.5A in max alarm draw?
Basically I have conflicting info -- calculations for a given configuration are different by a factor of 3 from the spreadsheet. Most of this is probably in the M1TWa, which is rated at 1A. Since that is the primary thing drawing in an alarm condition (with no siren or smokes sounding) one would thing it is drawing about .1 (the difference in the 0.320 measured idle vs. 0.405 sounding). That's a huge difference from the 1A rated amount, which may be if you have a ton of really low impedence speakers? But I'm off even further than the .9 difference there in the calculation.
Should I trust the keypad measurement?
Should I go buy a bigger multimeter?