Thanks for the input guys. One of the online places had a special of 20% off that I've been waiting for, so I pulled the trigger on (2) RCS TR40's and the M1XSP. I'm actually the worst when it comes to the thermostats...I totally forget about it, so I know it will help me personally. Also, programming the old thermostats I had wasn't exactly easy and therefore it wasn't ever done, maybe once it was, but then it got erased when batteries in it died or something, who knows. The programming on the TR40 looks easier so there will be more incentive to do it and using setbacks in away mode will help too, especially since the wife or I won't have to run up to the second floor to turn down the thermostat on the second floor (we have two zones, upstairs and downstairs). I'l let everyone know how it goes after I get everything wired up.
Well, I'm not done yet, but have successfully wired my first thermostat into the ELK. At first I couldn't figure out why I couldn't see it on the M1XEP screen, I had doublechecked wiring as I was going an was 100% sure I did everything right. I didn't fully go thru the ELK documentaton since I didn't want to create rules at this time, however I quickly realized that I had to going into ELK-RP to set a name for the first thermostat...
Once I did that, I could see the fruit of my labor and $$$ in the M1XEP screen. As a side note for others, I had ordered (2) of the RCS TR40 units, but was shipped the TR60 units which are labelled weird, parts are labelled TS40 but the unit together is TR60 now, not TR40. I was concernd it might not work, but it seems to work fine, so I guess RCS is just changing the names,etc. Now it's time to clean up he wiring since proof of concept is completed and then wire up the second thermostat. As a side note, the thermostats are nicely made and the WAF so far is high based on the looks of the thermostat and the fact they she could easily manipulate the temperature...LOL.
I'm hoping ELK will increase the support for these thermostat units as it seems a lot of people own these and they work well for retrofit compared to the other solutions.
I'll update this thread as I progress to note any issues, etc I run into, but for now, seems everything is going well.
Well, I wanted to add a few notes to my progress:
1. Regarding cost savings over a regular programmable thermostat, I agree there won't be much cost savings....if you have a predictable schedule. Unfortunately the schedule here is about as unpredictable as can be. Someone is usually home during the day and myself I'm too forgetful to setback the thermostat before I leave to go somewhere. So I'm hoping to reap the benefits of an automatic setback based on ARMED-AWAY modes, etc. The ROI will probably be very long term based on that solely though. However were I do see the bigger ROI is that the RCS TR40 (now TR60) is so much easier to program a schedule in than our old thermostat. With our old thermostat I felt like I was back in my x86 Assembler class from college...ok not that bad, but it sure wasn't intuitive and you couldn't see the whole schedule, you had to step thru the various times of the day, etc, so basically you had to write down a programming sheet on paper that you could follow as you programmed the thing. Not so with the RCS unit, I read the instructions and could easily program a baseline schedule that will be adjusted based on ARMED-AWAY modes, etc.
2. I wired up the second T60 thermostat and the ELK M1XSP manual shows wiring a +Voltage line for the RS485 data bus, but one simply doesn't exist, so I just used the three conductors between the (2) control units which are about 6" apart. Now here's the thing, the M1XSP manual doesn't show any termination on the RS-485 databus used for the thermostats, but the RCS manual does. I don't have any termination in there right now and it's working, but what I noticed is that after I powered up, one of the thermostats said "Unit not responding". I also got this the first time I powered up when I had just the first thermostat wired. I did a bus enrollment again which didn't help, but what seemd to help was kicking off the thermostat to force it to cool for example. Maybe after a power loss, unless the unit is sending data the M1XSP doesn't poll it? BTW, I did program the thermostat's correctly, the first floor one is set to network address 1 and the second floor is set to network address 2. Regardless, after generating some user input that caused cooling to cycle, the thermostat shows in the M1XEP page (no longer "Unit not repsonding") and everything seems fine now. I know there is a setting where the RCS thermostat can autosend and it's currently set to N, would setting it to Y help in this instance?
Ok, here's an update to the update:
I called RCS and spoke with Bruce at Tech Support. The autosend should not be set to Y, leave it at N, otherwise network collisions might exist. He said most RS-485 data bus networks are polled, so I guess I need to call ELK and ask how often the M1XSP polls devices on the RS-485 databus. Also, he confirmed that the TR60 is the new and direct replacement for the TR40, functionally it is exactly the same. Also, the termination on the RS-485 databus for the thermostat is not needed unless the run is greater than 100 feet which in my case doesn't apply, so no termination resistor is necessary.
Well, I just got off the phone with ELK and here's the scoup: The XSP polls the 485 databus every 5 seconds for ALL 16 thermostats, so that's 80 seconds. So technically after 80 seconds the thermostat should display (ie not receive "unit not responding"), unless there is traffic on the 485 databus which might delay things further.
I hope all this helps someone in the future!! :throwup:
Ok, now I'm am just SO thrilled!!!! This works just how I envisioned and it's just beautiful! Almost as good as the flying cars that I was promised would exist when I was a kid.
I have a baseline schedule programmed into the RCS TR40 (now TR60) thermostats for upstairs and downstairs. I wrote the following rule to setback the thermostats when in ARMED-AWAY mode:
WHENEVER our house (Area 1) IS ARMED AWAY
THEN SET First Floor (Tstat 1) COOLING DESIRED TEMP TO 85 DEG. F. (29 DEG. C.)
THEN SET First Floor (Tstat 1) HEATING DESIRED TEMP TO 65 DEG. F. (18 DEG. C.)
THEN SET First Floor (Tstat 1) HOLD TO ON
THEN SET First Floor (Tstat 2) COOLING DESIRED TEMP TO 85 DEG. F. (29 DEG. C.)
THEN SET First Floor (Tstat 2) HEATING DESIRED TEMP TO 65 DEG. F. (18 DEG. C.)
THEN SET First Floor (Tstat 2) HOLD TO ON
When I put the system into ARMED-AWAY mode, it sets the energy saving setbacks on both themostats and puts them in HOLD mode so the scheduled programmed into the RCS thermostat doesn't override it.
Here's the fule I have to put the thermostats back to the baseline schedule programmed into the RCS thermostats when the system is DISARMED:
WHENEVER our house (Area 1) ARM STATE BECOMES DISARMED
THEN SET First Floor (Tstat 1) HOLD TO OFF
THEN SET Second Floor (Tstat 2) HOLD TO OFF
So when I disarm the system it puts the RCS thermostats back into the scheduled RUN mode using the programmed settings in the thermostats.
Life just doesn't get better than this....I am very pleased! :rockon:
Here is a picture of the (2) RCS Control Units next to the existing Lennox Harmony II Zone Control System:
View attachment 2468
Once I did that, I could see the fruit of my labor and $$$ in the M1XEP screen. As a side note for others, I had ordered (2) of the RCS TR40 units, but was shipped the TR60 units which are labelled weird, parts are labelled TS40 but the unit together is TR60 now, not TR40. I was concernd it might not work, but it seems to work fine, so I guess RCS is just changing the names,etc. Now it's time to clean up he wiring since proof of concept is completed and then wire up the second thermostat. As a side note, the thermostats are nicely made and the WAF so far is high based on the looks of the thermostat and the fact they she could easily manipulate the temperature...LOL.
