Elk M1G Configuration

[Linwood]

OK, system on order from AutomatedOutlets.

I asked about a power supply and they suggested a UPS, e.g. for the GSM device instead of trying to use the Elk power. I'm not enamoured with that as it is (generally speaking) unsupervised, so if it starts to go bad it will be harder to tell (yes, I could run power from it to a PC, try to montior it from there but.... )

I'm told that OOTB the GEM devices (he recommeded an HAI) do not have the ability to be powered from the M1G, they have their own power supply transformer, but said more or less "maybe you could splice into it and run from the M1G instead".

Comments? I don't mind the separate power supply if it ends up being more reliable than having a UPS. And for a variety of reasons I want to know this will work in a power outage.

 

[chrisexv6]

OK, system on order from AutomatedOutlets.

I asked about a power supply and they suggested a UPS, e.g. for the GSM device instead of trying to use the Elk power. I'm not enamoured with that as it is (generally speaking) unsupervised, so if it starts to go bad it will be harder to tell (yes, I could run power from it to a PC, try to montior it from there but.... )

I'm told that OOTB the GEM devices (he recommeded an HAI) do not have the ability to be powered from the M1G, they have their own power supply transformer, but said more or less "maybe you could splice into it and run from the M1G instead".

Comments? I don't mind the separate power supply if it ends up being more reliable than having a UPS. And for a variety of reasons I want to know this will work in a power outage.

I just installed an Uplink 2500 that I plan to connect to my M1G.

Purchased the Uplink unit, an M1XSP and an Elk P983....the P983 is made for housing the Uplink unit. Its a 12" can with enough room for the Uplink, the XSP, at least one battery for battery backup purposes, and includes the necessary power board to charge the battery and supply 12V to the Uplink unit. It will run off a standard Elk 16.5VAC adapter (wallwart), so I ran data to the XSP and 18/2 for the power input from the location the Elk M1 will end up.

I wouldnt bother attempting to feed it off the M1G, I would just get the wallwart and the P983 setup and let the power board charge the battery for backup purposes.

FWIW I have the whole setup fairly remote from where the M1G will reside.......thats also a plus, you can use the can to house it anywhere you want, for signal strength reasons. Its also one less thing that will be cluttering the area around my M1G.

 

[amazander]

Linwood: I just finished my installation but want to get some new sensors: What smoke, heat detector do you finally use for your new Elk? ALso, I need to buy some wireless motion sensors too - I have Honeywell - do you use wireless and if you do what wireless motion sensors did you finally settled down with? How about wireless CO detector?

I have hard time understanding why a lot of people buy glass-breaking sensor - shouldn't motion detectors cover it if someone breaks in through window without triggering the door alarm?

 

[Del91574]

There's a few choices, so I'm not sure if you're going completely RF or hardwired, or what flavor of RF is being installed.

GBD's are used as perimeter devices, they should alarm before someone enters the property, where a PIR, the person needs to be inside and moving around prior to an alarm. Time factor, not to mention PIR's aren't perfect for every application. In the case of a casement window, unless the screens are wired, there's not too many better forms of protection for them.

 

[Linwood]

Linwood: I just finished my installation but want to get some new sensors: What smoke, heat detector do you finally use for your new Elk? ALso, I need to buy some wireless motion sensors too - I have Honeywell - do you use wireless and if you do what wireless motion sensors did you finally settled down with? How about wireless CO detector?

I have hard time understanding why a lot of people buy glass-breaking sensor - shouldn't motion detectors cover it if someone breaks in through window without triggering the door alarm?

I did all (or almost) all hardwired. I ran home runs for the smokes, each on its own zone, and used 449CSTE's which have the built in end of line relay for supervision. Not at home now and don't recall the heat detector but it was a System Sensor; there's a lot less choice there as they are pretty dumb devices. I did like System Sensor's mounting/wiring brackets better than the GE 449's, but the built in EOLR made for a much cleaner installation on the 449.

I did put in one Honeywell wireless heat detector more than anything else to gain some experience with wireless (I bought it for the fobs). I do networking for a living, and the result is I love wires and distrust wireless, especially for anything related to life safety.

Glass breaks -- I didn't use them as we have hurricane glass. It's probably easier for them to break through the wall, and certainly easier to come through the door. So we have motions inside. But some reasons I can see:

- Glass breaks aren't prone to false alarms from pets and the like (and yes of course there are things one can do to mitigate)
- Glass breaks respond in "stay" mode, whereas mostly people turn off interior motion detectors.
- As mentioned above, quicker response

Contacts on casements, frankly, are more about "did I leave the window open" as it's hard to see how one opens the window from the outside without breaking it.

 

[amazander]

yeah, for glass breaking detector, STAY mode makes more sense...
Thanks for the info.

 

[chrisexv6]

I put contacts on all of my casement windows, and the areas the windows reside are blanketing with motion AND glassbreaks. The contacts and gbs will be armed when in STAY (I can force the contacts if the windows happened to be open on purpose), those + motions in STAY AWAY.

The main reasoning for contacting the casements was so that I could (eventually) change to alarm screens. An added bonus for now is that I can tell when the window is open, and in fact I can tell when the window is still unlocked as well.....that last bit of "pull in" from locking the window sets the contact from open to closed.

 

[amazander]

I put contacts on all of my casement windows, and the areas the windows reside are blanketing with motion AND glassbreaks. The contacts and gbs will be armed when in STAY (I can force the contacts if the windows happened to be open on purpose), those + motions in STAY AWAY.

The main reasoning for contacting the casements was so that I could (eventually) change to alarm screens. An added bonus for now is that I can tell when the window is open, and in fact I can tell when the window is still unlocked as well.....that last bit of "pull in" from locking the window sets the contact from open to closed.

Nice. What contact sensor do you use for your casement window? "lock in" is hard for my case I think but maybe I am missing something...

 

[chrisexv6]

I used Tane "pill" contacts (you can get them on Ebay, or a few other suppliers...I went with terminal connect so I didnt have to muck with soldering wires). A friend of mine saw one mounted and asked why I had pills hanging in the corner of my windows

I was able to tuck them up into the corner of the casements.....once the screens are installed the frame of the screen hides almost 100% of the contact so you cant even tell they are there.

I think the lock-in works in my case because of the thick gaskets on my casements.....cranking it shut doesnt compress the gasket, but once you lock it the gasket compresses and the contact and magnet line up.

When my kids are older and tend to stay away from tearing my screens (not on purpose, but one poke in the wrong spot and you have a broken circuit) Ill probably change over to alarm screens.

 

[amazander]

I used Tane "pill" contacts (you can get them on Ebay, or a few other suppliers...I went with terminal connect so I didnt have to muck with soldering wires). A friend of mine saw one mounted and asked why I had pills hanging in the corner of my windows

I was able to tuck them up into the corner of the casements.....once the screens are installed the frame of the screen hides almost 100% of the contact so you cant even tell they are there.

I think the lock-in works in my case because of the thick gaskets on my casements.....cranking it shut doesnt compress the gasket, but once you lock it the gasket compresses and the contact and magnet line up.

When my kids are older and tend to stay away from tearing my screens (not on purpose, but one poke in the wrong spot and you have a broken circuit) Ill probably change over to alarm screens.

In my situation, I can not use wired contacts... but it is good to know about Tane product...

 

[Del91574]

Tane's Pills are wired contacts.

 

[video321]

Since they're being mentioned...I used Tane Pill contacts on my windows as well. I went with the ones with the leads so I would only have the very small, and white, wire on my white vinyl windows where if I used terminals I'd have (even small) black/red wires seen. They do hide well and look good.

 

[chrisexv6]

Since they're being mentioned...I used Tane Pill contacts on my windows as well. I went with the ones with the leads so I would only have the very small, and white, wire on my white vinyl windows where if I used terminals I'd have (even small) black/red wires seen. They do hide well and look good.

I thought about that too......worst case I would use white liquid electrical tape to cover the exposed edges. The reality was that the way I ran it you can see very very little (if any) of the red/black insulation. And the outer jacket of the wire I used is white so it blends in pretty well.

 

[Del91574]

If you're careful when stripping the jacket, then the individual pairs, you can generally push the jacket back up against the contact itself, but the secret is to keep the stripping to a minimum.

Doable, but takes a little skill/practice.