Connecting HMI panel to Elk M1 gold

[pstiles]

Has anyone ever connected a HMI panel to an Elk M1 gold, or know of anyone who has. The reason for this questions is I replaced a PLC based automation system and an Ademco alarm system with an Elk M1 Gold. I would like to use the Maple Systems HMI I currently have to display parameters in the M1 Gold.

I know I cannot connect these devices directly, because the HMI does not have address registers the M1 can write to.

I was thinking of using a Triangle Research PLC in between the M1 and the HMI, but I would have to write code for the PLC to receive data from the M1 gold and write it to memory location, that I then could display on the HMI.

I was wondering if there may be a device on the market that would allow the direct connection of the M1 and the HMI that would work with limited programming.

 

[Gearhead]

Sounds like you are looking for an Elk-to-Modbus gateway.

 

[pstiles]

Sounds like that is what I am looking for. I am sure nobody makes such a device.

 

[pstiles]

I put a small PLC between the Elk panel and the HMI. Does any one have experience transfering and reasing the ASCII data from the Elk panel? I have the the RS-232 Protocol document from Elk, but I am unsure what to do. I have the Elk and the PLC connected over a TCP/IP connection and I can send data from the Elk panel via their SDK program.

 

[Lagerhead]

The M1 sends some messages spontaneously (upon the occurrence of events) while you must inquire or poll for others.

The spontaneous (asynchronous) messages are controlled by Global settings (in RP2 this is Globals tab G29-G24 Special, Serial Port 0 Transmit Options). These cover the event log, zone changes, output changes, task changes, lighting changes and keypad keys. If you enable these,then the M1 will blurt a string whenever any of these happen. Just follow the syntax for decoding these messages.

If you are going to do any polling, you will need to deal with the required message checksum. Case 1, if you can limit your polling messages to a few unchaning strings, then you can develop the whole string using the SDK and just embed the canned string in your programming. Case 2, if you are going to have variable polling strings, then you have to write a checksum routine. It's not difficult but you can't avoid it.

 

[pstiles]

Lagerhead,

Thanks for the information.