Best Practice for Elk M1 periodic testing

raymondh

Member
I've got my Elk system setup and working reliably and am getting ready to go out of test mode with nextalarm. One thing that I have read in a few places is that the system should be tested frequently.

Can one of the alarm pros here help me put together a test plan (i.e. what do I test, when, etc.)? Also, I've read something about a "periodic test report" that the Elk sends to the monitoring company, what is that?
 
I've got my Elk system setup and working reliably and am getting ready to go out of test mode with nextalarm. One thing that I have read in a few places is that the system should be tested frequently.

Can one of the alarm pros here help me put together a test plan (i.e. what do I test, when, etc.)? Also, I've read something about a "periodic test report" that the Elk sends to the monitoring company, what is that?
I believe NextAlarm recommends monthly testing. The periodic test report is simply a communications test that the M1 sends to NextAlarm. You can set the frequency and time of testing in ELKRP. The test report only determines at that point in time that the M1 sent a signal, the phone line was working, and that NextAlarm received the signal. You can walk test your system at any time. Just open doors and windows and the M1 will show not ready. You can then look to see which zones are violated. Don't forget that any test while armed should be preceded by putting yourself on test with NextAlarm.
 
I do a periodic test with NextAlarm every 3 days, although it hardly seems necessary now that my uplink is sending contactID codes pretty constantly, resulting in a stream of emails from nextalarm :(
 
I have my M1 send a test every day to NextAlarm which then sends a confirmation text message to my cell phone. Another nice NextAlarm feature is that if my ABN goes off line, I get a text message when off line (which is very rare) and another when it restores. I have my ABN set to handshake every 15 minutes. I hope that when direct IP monitoring is available, communication drops will send immediate notification.
 
I have my M1 send a test every day to NextAlarm which then sends a confirmation text message to my cell phone. Another nice NextAlarm feature is that if my ABN goes off line, I get a text message when off line (which is very rare) and another when it restores. I have my ABN set to handshake every 15 minutes. I hope that when direct IP monitoring is available, communication drops will send immediate notification.

What do you do for the daily test? Is it a rule that triggers a non-existing sensor?
 
I have my M1 send a test every day to NextAlarm which then sends a confirmation text message to my cell phone. Another nice NextAlarm feature is that if my ABN goes off line, I get a text message when off line (which is very rare) and another when it restores. I have my ABN set to handshake every 15 minutes. I hope that when direct IP monitoring is available, communication drops will send immediate notification.

What do you do for the daily test? Is it a rule that triggers a non-existing sensor?
Go to your RP and I believe under the Communicator section then make the desired changes.
 
For the M1, goto System RC's in ELKRP. Enable the Automatic Test RC. You can then set the frequency of the test in days and the time of day it occurs. The test is then automatic without using any rules. If you are using an ABN you can set the polling from every 5 to 60 minutes or disable it under ABN information in your NextAlarm account.
 
We recommend testing with an actual alarm (i.e. arm the system, open up as many things as possible, let the siren sound, disarm it) once a month. That's in addition to whatever periodic automatic tests you have set in your system, which you can set as frequently as you like. It may be overkill to recommend both, but it is your security, and better safe than sorry.
 
Thanks for all the help everyone!!

Is it standard practice to have the panel report all trouble (i.e. everything in the system RCs of the Elk) to the monitoring company? If so, can you specify the type of response to each? For example, on AC trouble just send an automatic email, if output 2 shows trouble call me, etc.
 
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