Elk M1 - Two sources possible on SP12's?

Hi guys, I'm looking at installing an M1 system throughout a 2000sq ft home. Down the line, I would also like to integrate HomeSeer with the Elk and would like to play the HS announcements (not music) throughout the house.

I thought the Elk's flush-mounted SP12s would be a good option to play the HS announcements, but have not figured out a way to make this work while maintaining the Elk's announcement functionality.

At the minimum, I think that I would need to feed HS's line level soundcard output to an Elk800 and then to the SP12s. But not sure how to integrate with an Elk so both work together without issue.

Any ideas...? Thanks!

You will need to switch the speakers with relays between the Elk Output and the Elk800 or whatever other source you are using. Rules will be needed or a command sent to the Elk by HS to tell it to switch the relays, make the announcement and switchback.

I've been doing something similar for years - I have an Elk124 hooked up in parallel with my SP12's. I actually just hooked both up simultaneously and didn't bother with a relay; it's never been an issue, though when the system first powers on, the elk and the announcement module try to "talk" at the same time which overdrives the speakers for about 2 seconds. The other 99.5% of the time it's a non-issue.

Here's a pretty old thread that talks about hooking two sources up in parallel; the product listed is no longer made and has an extra serial board involved for control - you can ignore all that; the point is they show it being totally safe just hooking up two sources directly to the speakers with the referenced capacitors.
http://cocoontech.com/forums/topic/16178-elk-audio-distribution-ideas/page__view__findpost__p__136312

I have three SP12s on three floors that I wanted to pipe CQC announcements though to supplement the Elk M1's limited vocabulary so I got an M1TWA and followed the guide detailed in the CT thread entitled "Elk volume change with automation rules:" http://cocoontech.co...__fromsearch__1 (I hope that's the link, but I'm not sure I figured out how to post it here).

The setup requires an Elk relay too, but it works like a charm for the things I wanted to announce from CQC including alerts, unlimited text to speech announcements, automated audio weather reports, music (I use some short WAVs for specified events and triggers). Basically, all I do it turn on output 3 (which triggers the relay) for X seconds whenever I want CQC to use the elk amplifier and speakers. The relay provides power to the amp on the M1TWA and pipes the input from CQC into the ELK system

TurboSam said:

I have three SP12s on three floors that I wanted to pipe CQC announcements though to supplement the Elk M1's limited vocabulary so I got an M1TWA and followed the guide detailed in the CT thread entitled "Elk volume change with automation rules:" http://cocoontech.co...__fromsearch__1 (I hope that's the link, but I'm not sure I figured out how to post it here).

The setup requires an Elk relay too, but it works like a charm for the things I wanted to announce from CQC including alerts, unlimited text to speech announcements, automated audio weather reports, music (I use some short WAVs for specified events and triggers). Basically, all I do it turn on output 3 (which triggers the relay) for X seconds whenever I want CQC to use the elk amplifier and speakers. The relay provides power to the amp on the M1TWA and pipes the input from CQC into the ELK system

Click to expand...

This sounds like what I need. So I read and re-read the thread that you linked. It seems like the Elk speakers can handle two audio sources (Elk announcements + external source) only by using the M1TWA, overriding the jumpers and writing rules in Elk to control output 10.

Where does a relay come into all of this? Thanks!

Replying to my own post, but after reviewing it yet again, I think I understand....maybe

The Elk 924 relay would intercept J2/Pin5 and J2/Pin6 of the Audio Network Interface cable and the Line level +/- output of my HA system. The relay would be triggered by the line level output of HA system. So whenever the relay detects voltage from the HA system, it "connects" the audio interface cable to the line level output of my Hh. However, when the relay is not energized, it will complete the connection of the audio interface cable, as intended.

Does this make sense?

HJ, I was out of town when I posted my original reply, and I knew there was a second CT thread I followed but could not find it.

Check out post #5 in "Using M1G Mic/Spkr Feed To/from Home Automation," http://cocoontech.com/forums/topic/15440-using-m1g-micspkr-feed-tofrom-home-automation/, which explains how the double throw ELK relay disconnects the feed from the PC home automation system when not in use to prevent mixed signals and turns on the amp built into the TWA.

I love the way it works and it greatly expands the Elk's minimal speech capabilities.

As you can see, I shamelessly copied what others had done before me....