Elk M1G - Telephone remote control

[ecborgoyn]

I've been away from the forums for a bit... Holidays, vacation, other projects, job search efforts, etc.....

I'm finally getting around to setting up monitoring of my Elk M1G system. I'm most likely going with AlarmRelay after reading the chatter on these forums.

Today I was setting up and testing the telephone line configuration. For testing, I was trying to use the voice response remote interface. I turned on internal/external control in the Global area in RP. Access from a telephone INSIDE the house works great.

My question comes when I attempt to use the remote control via an inbound telephone call. I'm looking at 'number of rings' and the 'call/hangup/call again' feature. And all of this in conjunction with a telephone answering machine (machine in the house, NOT a telco service).

If I turn OFF the answering machine, the panel DOES answer on the configured number of rings. Or with the answering machine on the number of rings set low to have the M1G pickup BEFORE the machine does.

BUT, I can't get the 'call/hangup/call again' feature working reliably. AND I can't get the M1G to recognize the '***' command if/when the call goes to the answering machine.

I don't want to debate the use of the telephone remote control feature, as I'm NOT sure that I'm going to use the EXTERNAL mode, but I wonder why I can't make it work.

I KNOW that the external remote feature has little to do with monitoring, but I was using for testing the telephone interface....

Do folks use the feature? Does it work for others?

I have f/w 5.2.10 in the panel.

Thanks.

 

[Del91574]

Are you using a cell? Check DTMF tone length.

Ring/hang/ring really refers to downloading and RP on the panel. # of rings is a subjective subject. I had Elk state there should be a low # in there, but in the case of a machine, it does interfere. Usually I run at 6 rings but *** will bypass the machine when dialing in remotely.

 

[ecborgoyn]

DEL,
Yes, I was testing with a cell phone. The DTMF length is a good point to check. I'll experiment tomorrow.. Perhaps when the answering machine picks up the line, the DTMF detection logic needs a longer tone to work properly. When the panel answers the call without the answering machine on the line, the cell phone '***' works OK.

But with the dial/hang/dial test, the panel doesn't even answer the call. I need to test more.

Thanks.

 

[Del91574]

I've had some flukey results with some accounts that have EZ8's and getting the ring/hang/ring and RP to work reliably, but I'm still able to connect at some rate. Usually I have a failed connection then RP connects or I get disconnected and the panel's still on the line and I have to wait for it to hang up before trying.

Usually the ring/hang/ring will force the panel to be listening on the line for the *** command. Might be the machine causing an issue (I have seen that with some telco provided VM services). Might need to tweak the # of rings on the machine and M1 and experiment, as I had one account that needed that method as none of the "typical" values seemed to work as expected.