Detached garage grounding

rsw686 said:
Thanks for all the info. I'm going to use all shielded cable for the low voltage and ground one end. This is easy enough to do for the security cable as I can attach it to the ground terminal on the OmniPro panel, which connects to the Elk transfer ground. For the Cat5e that I'm using for the audio balun it looks like the best solution is to use Ubiquiti tough connectors with the ground wire attached. Originally I was going to terminate all Cat5e runs to a patch panel, however shielded pass through patch panels are expensive. Additionally they rely on the network switch attaching the shield to ground.
Click to expand...
There is a difference between shielding and drain wiring vs. grounding. Shielding is not for surge suppression.
 
Lou Apo said:
Mykeypad notifies me every time a zone opens.  It chirps, scrolls the name of the zone across the top notification area, then it leaves an icon in the notification after the scroll where you can do a pull down and see a list of recent zone opens.  The app does have to be running in the background for this to work.
 
And as mentioned, I typically turn it off since I do get notification every time the motion detector picks up.  I would imagine that there would be a way around that.  Maybe a rule that bypasses your motions when not armed?  I don't know, I didn't really care to try.
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does the app need to be left open all the time in order to do that?
 
mikefamig said:
does the app need to be left open all the time in order to do that?
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As I mentioned, the app needs to run in the background.  Once you connect to the panel, you can close the app window, but it keeps running in the background until you disconnect from the panel.
 
I just looked around in ekeypad and it does have notifications turned off. I didn't even know that it had notifications so I'll have to play with it to see how it works.
 
I still want the system speakers to voice zone changes. I'm constantly missing alerts and calls on the phone because I didn't hear them or I didn't even have the phone with me. I'm not attached to my phone like some people.
 
Mike.
 
mikefamig said:
I just looked around in ekeypad and it does have notifications turned off. I didn't even know that it had notifications so I'll have to play with it to see how it works.
 
I still want the system speakers to voice zone changes. I'm constantly missing alerts and calls on the phone because I didn't hear them or I didn't even have the phone with me. I'm not attached to my phone like some people.
 
Mike.
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I just got an email from fry's selling a 7 inch android tablet for $26  http://www.frys.com/product/8566389?site=72premail101415  (I think the sale ended, but still its only $39)  Mount that to the wall and run the free mykeypad on it and no worries about where your phone is.  It might even be possible to get android to speak the zone changes using tasker.  I have tasker reading my text messages to me but haven't looked into other stuff.  You could also link your phone number to google voice and run hangouts on the tablet and it will ring when someone calls you or texts you.
 
Lou Apo said:
I just got an email from fry's selling a 7 inch android tablet for $26  http://www.frys.com/product/8566389?site=72premail101415  (I think the sale ended, but still its only $39)  Mount that to the wall and run the free mykeypad on it and no worries about where your phone is.  It might even be possible to get android to speak the zone changes using tasker.  I have tasker reading my text messages to me but haven't looked into other stuff.  You could also link your phone number to google voice and run hangouts on the tablet and it will ring when someone calls you or texts you.
Click to expand...
No I don't want to depend on a bottom of the barrel tablet to run 7x24 for any length of time, especially in new england weather. I'll just stick with the elk speakers.
 
Mike.
 
Lou Apo said:
I just got an email from fry's selling a 7 inch android tablet for $26  http://www.frys.com/product/8566389?site=72premail101415  (I think the sale ended, but still its only $39)  Mount that to the wall and run the free mykeypad on it and no worries about where your phone is.  It might even be possible to get android to speak the zone changes using tasker.  I have tasker reading my text messages to me but haven't looked into other stuff.  You could also link your phone number to google voice and run hangouts on the tablet and it will ring when someone calls you or texts you.
Click to expand...
There si also the point that I use the speakers for alarm noise. The Elk system is very nice and doing what I want to do. Besides this is way off topic now. Tho original topic is proper grounding of a detached building which is really what I am interested in learning more about and possibly improving.
 
We have two Iphones, two Ipads  and an LG andriod tablet so I'm pretty well fixed for hardware devices right now.
 
Mike.
 
mikefamig said:
No I don't want to depend on a bottom of the barrel tablet to run 7x24 for any length of time, especially in new england weather. I'll just stick with the elk speakers.
 
Mike.
Click to expand...
 
"bottom of the barrel" probably means it isn't very impact durable, doesn't have very much memory, doesn't have the most beautiful screen, the camera is probably low rest, etc. None of that would affect a device your bolting to the wall to more or less never touch again and serves only to display the status of your alarm panel.  I wouldn't be worried about it getting cold, I would be worried about heat.  Cold might make the screen not work the greatest, but it would just be temporary till it warmed up.  
 
But I really think I would look at this as a "bells and whistles" convenience, not a necessity, so if it goes down, you just temporarily don't get to know that your wife opened the front door.
 
Even if you wanted a fairly nice tablet, your still talking a lot less money than all that wire and labor to install a speaker, especially if internet was already a for sure part of the plan.  Plus the tablet also is keypad, saving you $$ there too.
 
I was just looking at mykepyad and they list that you can filter zone notifications by "favorite" zones.  But I haven't figured out how to designate my favorite zones yet.  Basically I would get rid of the motions.  I currently am connected and my wife is obviously in the kitchen as the kitchen motion keeps dinging me, which of course would eventually drive me nuts.
 
EDIT:  I think you click the yellow star on the "zones" page to designate favorites.
 
Lou Apo said:
"bottom of the barrel" probably means it isn't very impact durable, doesn't have very much memory, doesn't have the most beautiful screen, the camera is probably low rest, etc. None of that would affect a device your bolting to the wall to more or less never touch again and serves only to display the status of your alarm panel.  I wouldn't be worried about it getting cold, I would be worried about heat.  Cold might make the screen not work the greatest, but it would just be temporary till it warmed up.  
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Good point and it would be fun to play with.
 
Lou Apo said:
Even if you wanted a fairly nice tablet, your still talking a lot less money than all that wire and labor to install a speaker, especially if internet was already a for sure part of the plan.  Plus the tablet also is keypad, saving you $$ there too.
Click to expand...
 
Do you understand that my system is already installed with a keypad, speakers, input and output expander in the garage? There are also UPB rocker switches and the elk controls lighting and overhead door openings in addition to monitoring security zones.
 
Lou Apo said:
I was just looking at mykepyad and they list that you can filter zone notifications by "favorite" zones.  But I haven't figured out how to designate my favorite zones yet.  Basically I would get rid of the motions.  I currently am connected and my wife is obviously in the kitchen as the kitchen motion keeps dinging me, which of course would eventually drive me nuts.
Click to expand...
Is it acceptable to remove the kitchen from your favorites and then only announce favorites?
 
mikefamig said:
Is it acceptable to remove the kitchen from your favorites and then only announce favorites?
Click to expand...
 
That appears to be the case.  I just selected to only get notifications from favorites and I selected only the doors in the house as favorites.  My wife is still wandering the kitchen and I am no longer getting notifications.
 
rsw686 said:
Out of curiosity did you run shielded cable between the buildings and use shielded connectors? It is my understanding that the shield will direct stray current to ground. I'll probably just run per-terminated fiber to be on the safe side.
Click to expand...
 
Here is a summary of what shielding does.
 
  • Shields reduce Differential mode coupling
  • Shields reduce Electric field coupling onto wires
  • Shields Reduce voltage transients
  • Shields Reduce lightning transients
  • Shields, Supply a Faraday-Shield/Cage Return Reference
  • Shields, Control ESD path
  • Shields Enhance Filtering, and Isolation techniques
Shielding will not block a lightning transient that travels from one end of a wire to the other because there is a potential difference at each end however.  In other words, what we are talking about here.  If you have a router in building 1 plugged into bldg 1 power and grounded in bldg 1, connected using a shielded cat 6 traveling to building 2 where it plugs into a computer that is powered in bldg2 and connected to bldg2 ground, a potential between those 2 grounds could "choose" to use that cat6 as a path and fry everything at both ends.
 
Lou Apo said:
Here is quite a complete description of grounding.  It supports the notion that grounding should go back to the power supply and not stakes in the earth.  Grounding stakes are prone to increasing lightening risk and failure to clear a ground fault voltage per this article.  All-in-all, there is quite a bit of complexity to all of this.
 
http://ecmweb.com/bonding-amp-grounding/grounding-vs-bonding-part-1-12
Click to expand...
 
Yes that's a good read. I read it when a41 posted that link in message #70.
 
Mike.
 
I'm going to dig up this discussion on surge protectors and earth grounding again.
 
With all that we have said in this discussion about the path between a surge device and earth needing to be shorter and have less resistance than the path between that same surge device and the equipment it is protecting I want to know how can this device work when it is grounded to an AC outlet? I understood that grounding to an AC outlet is not sufficient protection.
 
https://www.jmac.com/v/vspfiles/files/PMFiles/ditek/InstallationManual/1F31X-InstallationManual.pdf
 
Mike.
 
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