turbo427 said:
Thanks that makes me feel better about only running one CAT6. Can I use remote power instead of running heavier gauge power cord could I plug into 110 in the Garage maybe even have it on a APC battery back up then power is local. Also how do plug up the data bus do they plug in parellel on th M1 board or does the second data bus plug into one of the ports on the first data bus. The wireless expander manual states
The M1XRFTW "two-way" transceiver must be addressed and enrolled as the 1st zone expander (Data Bus Address # 2) on
the M1 or M1EZ8 Control. For extended range and coverage up to 3 additional M1XRFTW transceivers may be installed. If
installed these must be enrolled as the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th zone expander (Data Bus Addresses 3, 4, and 5) on the M1 or M1EZ8
Control. If another hardwire or wireless expander is presently enrolled at one of these addresses it will be necessary to move
that device to another address in order to make accomodation for the M1XRFTW transceiver. Refer to Appendixes A, B, & C for
additional details on the use of multiple transceivers
Can you explain this to me confused as to which port the wireless expander will go in at the main house and at the garage
Thanks again for all your help
To wire up the two branches of the data bus, just wire them in parallel, placing 2 wires under each screw terminal on the M1 board. Connect each of the two cables to a M1DBH (one in the garage, one in the house), and then plug your other device cables into the jacks on the DBH. Each DBH should then have a terminating plug installed in the first unused jack. No other terminators should be installed anywhere else.
You can place an auxiliary power supply with battery backup in the garage. But there are some things to think about before you take that approach.
You want a battery backed power supply because if you lose AC power, the M1 will be unhappy when the bus devices out there go missing. A UPS isn't a good solution. Better to use something like an
Altronix AL400ULPD8 that is meant for this sort of thing. They are often available on eBay at reasonable prices.
If you live in a cold climate and the garage is unheated, that may cause problems with the battery. SLA batteries don't charge well below freezing and lose capacity the more the temperature drops. In that sort of situation, you'd be better off keeping the power supply in the house and running a heavier cable to the garage.
With multiple Elk wireless receivers, you need to install them as shown in the examples in the M1XRFTW manual. If you have 3 wireless receivers, you need to set them to addresses 2, 3 and 4. Each receiver gets its own unique address set via the switches on the board.
The wireless receivers can provide up to 144 wireless zones. You don't get more zones with the extra receivers, just a wider area of signal coverage. If you don't want to use all 144 wireless zones, that's ok. You can install wired M1XIN expanders above the last block of 16 zones you plan to use.
With 3 wireless receivers, they will take up zones 17 to 64 at a minimum. If you install a M1XIN at address 5, then its first zone will be zone 65.
A good practice is to install the M1XINs from the top of the bus address range and work down (e.g. bus address 12). That will allow you to add more wireless zones later if need be, without having to move the M1XIN zone assignments because you grew into their original assigned range.
Below is a drawing of what I'm suggesting.
The wired zones would be 1-16 in the house on the M1 itself, 161-176 in the house on the M1XIN installed there, 177-192 on the M1XIN installed in the garage. The wireless zones would be 17-160, across all 3 M1XRFTWs.