Recent content by ReasonablePerson

I would run 4-conductor fire wire just because it isn't that much more expensive than running 2-conductor and gives you more options. We had GE 449 series in the last house we built and they worked well...i at least presumed they would work well, we actually never had a fire. but they always...

Picta-when they put the sensor in the concrete or gypcrete, it is a good idea to put it in a piece of PEX tubing with a cap over the end to keep the concrete out. run the other end of the tube either up to the thermostat, down to the crawlspace or other accessible area. this way the sensor can...

Work2Play-- Yes, this is what i was thinking of doing, i.e., read the input status for all the zones, send the commands to switch them to an input dedicated to the Elk, and then switch them all back individually. I was just looking at the command structure for the HTD and there is not a...

It is new construction with a gypcrete floor, professionally designed but just with non-communicating thermostats (uponor). When using a slab, the control is somewhat different than when using under floor tubes as in your first reference. As Work2Play mentioned, overshoot is a real problem...

We are going to have wood floors, so slab temperature is the #1 priority. The system would only have flowrate (and therefore delta-T) control if variable speed pumps or proportional valves are used. That isn't out of the question but right now we are only budgeting for standard on/off zone...

I would expect that the door stop is a different piece of material than the door jamb. remove that, and cut a groove in the back of it and then drill a hole through the jamb to the strike and then either at the top or bottom for the feed. Depending on how far you have to go, i wouldn't go...

I agree with the Zwave door locks being great fun. Maybe i am old enough that these little things entertain me, but there is something about having doors lock themselves whenever the exit delay expires and the system calling me if something fails to lock properly. The Mrs has been pretty...

We are looking for a thermostat to use with our Elk M1 system for zone control with radiant floor heat. The thermostats we find that have a 2nd temperature sensor to maintain the floor temperature are not communicating and i have not seen that any compatible with the Elk have floor temperature...

Ah--very good point about being able to silence voice alarms but still have the doorbell announce. this alone is a deciding factor. using one of the listen-in boards pretty well consumes the voltage outputs on the main board, so for me all other outputs need to be on expansion boards --...

Work2Play-- yes it was one of your posts from about 2008 that got me thinking about this. alternatives for door chime, etc. the little tele-recorder adapter looks like a good find and useful for this application. Since i presume you don't need the separate triggers and such, what prompted...

DELInstallations--Yes, i have looked at the 120 and 124 but i would like to integrate the custom sounds as part of the speech output. Does anyone know if there is an easy and passive way to "sum" the output of multiple amplified devices (like the M1, 124, etc.) to drive a single speaker without...

I haven't figured out for sure if there is a way to download WAV files directly to the elk-M1 for custom sounds or it is only possible to use the telephone to record. From what i can tell, all of the elk voice/recording seems to be antiquated compared to others and at this point in time it...

Installed a new M1G with several expansions, keypads, ZWave interface, etc., and everything has been going great and has been running for a week or two. However, over the weekend one of the input modules jumped its address from 2 to 6 as if the 4 switch were changed; of course the elk started...

The Elk controller and 485 expander boards all have a pair of molex type 4-position connector that we can use with IDC and ribbon cable or IDC with discrete twisted pair. (e.g., J1 & J2 on the M1, J2&J3 on the M1XIN) and are much more convenient to use than the larger Phoenix type connectors...

Thanks Cocoonut, but the point is moot. I went ahead and got the XSLZW, installed it and it is working great controlling/communicating with my Vizia devices. the part i mentioned about the firmware i copied/pasted in directly from the M1XSP user manual (page 4) where it says the M1XSP and the...