connectors and mounting for daisy-chain Elk M1 gold

lifespeed

New Member
Hi,
 
I'm trying to assemble my alarm and am running into some mounting and wiring questions.  First, is there a good connector and/or method of daisy-chaining devices on the RS-485 bus?  I would prefer not to cut the CAT6 wires.  At the moment I only have an M2P keypad to connect using CAT6.  I looped the wire into the wall so it can continue throughout the house if I want to attach other devices.  Although to be honest I am unsure which devices are simple switches vs RS-485 serial interface.
 
I have window and door wired sensors installed, I think these are Hall-effect switches and each has a wire pair coming into the wire closet.  I also have a Bosch motion sensor and 6 glass break detectors that aren't wired yet.  Perhaps these are switches also?  Down the road I will install smoke/CO detectors connected to the alarms.  Will these utilize RS-485 interface?
 
Lastly, is there a good technique for mounting the alarm board into a Leviton structured wiring panel?  I have a couple mounting tabs for the Elk I purchased, but as best I can tell I will just have to drill them into the Leviton panel.  Is there any compatible mounting hardware available?
 
Thanks for helping a newbie.
 
Lifespeed
 
If your cat6 wiring is truly daisy chained from one keypad to the next, the simplest thing is to cut the cat6 cable and connect the the wire from each cable to the pigtail leads on the keypad.
 
If you had wired things with a homerun from each keypad back to the alarm panel, then you could use the Elk M1DBH to create the daisy chain connection back at the panel.
 
If you currently have only one keypad to connect to the cat6 cable and don't have others to connect to the rest of the daisy chain, you want to end the wire at the first keypad.  You shouldn't have the remaining wire connected if there is nothing else down the line.  Doing so will create problems, as the RS485 bus needs to be terminated at the end of the chain.
 
The door/window contacts, glassbreaks, PIR and smoke detectors all wire up to the zone inputs on the M1. The RS485 is only for keypads, zone expanders, etc.   Glassbreaks and 4-wire smoke detectors will also require 12VDC power connections (VAUX and SAUX).
 
Thanks for the info.  It sounds like I will not have any need to preserve a length of CAT6 to daisy chain future devices.  I can connect directly to the Elk M1G at any time in the future as there is conduit into t he attic to chase wires from the alarm.  I have no plans for a second keypad or zone expander, which apparently are the only likely RS-485 devices.
 
One last question, the M1KP2 directions make a reference to termination, but it is not entirely clear how this is done.  Do I just jumper the two pins near the 6-wire connector?
 
The RS485 bus requires 2 terminator jumpers to be installed.  Each keypad has a jumper for this, labeled JP1. If you have only one keypad on the bus and no other devices, then you should place a jumper on JP1 on the keypad and also another jumper on JP3 on the M1 board as the second terminator.
 
There are other devices in addition to keypads and zone expanders that connect to the RS485 bus that you might want to add to your system at some point, such as an automation interface for UPB or Z-wave devices. 
 
I do intend to add a Z-wave interface to my Yale touch-screen deadbolt for the purpose of disarming.  And then look into home automation software, IP camera recording, etc.  Which I would want to have access to the same Z-wave deadbolt.
 
Back
Top