ELK-73 Speaker Question

[johndoe74]

This speaker is included in the M1 Gold kit. Does it output a loud high-pitch siren sound? Or is this speaker mainly used for announcement?

If I am to get the ELK-74 siren/speaker, where would I hook it up in the M1? OUT1 and OUT2 only has 2 contacts, while the ELK-74 has three wires. Thanks.

 

[Chris_RM]

First step, I would go into ElkRP to the G26-28 (Output2) tab under "Global" options. The "Output 2 hookup" has 2 check boxes. Check the one labeled "Voltage out". Output 2 can be configured to drive a regular speaker or it can be programmed to give a voltage output so it can be used to drive an external siren driver such as your case.

You will want to connect the BLACK wire to the "OUT2" negative terminal (-).

Now you have two options. The YELLOW wire will give you a steady siren sound, while the RED wire will give you a yelping siren sound. Whichever one you choose, you will connect the selected wire to the "OUT2" positive terminal (+).

The speaker that comes with the M1 kit is intended to be used for output 1. This channel is used for speaking voice phrases, as well as it will give a siren sound in case of a Fire/Burglar alarm...

Hope this helps...

 

[johndoe74]

Thanks Chris,
That helps. I was not aware of ELK-73 can also output siren-type sound. From its installation manual, it seems like it's only a 'speaker' not a siren. As long as it's giving a siren sound during alarms, I guess I don't need the ELK-74. Thanks again.

 

[Steve]

And Output 1 can be configured for either a yelp siren or an industrial buzzer. Also the volume can be set individually for voice vs alarm. These settings can be found in Globals 14-18.

 

[AutomatedOutlet]

Chris,

Welcome to the site!!!

It was great meeting you at the show!

Martin

 

[Chris_RM]

Great meeting everyone at the shows! I had a great time and made a lot of good friends. Sorry that I am not on these forums as much as I want to be... I try to stop by as much as possible to see what everyone is saying. This is a great website with a plethora of knowledge... It is a great recource for us to get valuable feed-back. I look forward to seeing everyone at future events...

Chris

 

[elcano]

Hi John,

I have noticed that the speaker/siren makers call them speaker or siren not based on the output sound, but in the way that you drive it. If it only has the speaker, then it is a speaker. If you take the same speaker and add an internal electronic module and amplifier that makes the siren sound to drive the speaker, then it is a siren.

In the case if OUT1, you can only connect to it a speaker because it is used to produce voice sounds in addition to the siren sound (the sirent sound is produced by the control panel). In the case if OUT2 you can have the Elk control panel produce the sound and connect a speaker to it. Or you can have the Elk control panel just output a 12 volts signal and you have to connect a siren that will produce the sound.

The speaker included with the M1G package yields a decent siren sound, but it is installed inside my house and cant hardly be perceived from outside the house. At least, not from far. For this reason I'm planning on installing another speaker or siren to OUT2 and install it outside the house.

If your have OUT2 with a siren/speaker outside of your house I was wondering what would be the value of having OUT1 driving a siren sound - specially if it cannot be heard outside. Later I found an idea in a securityweb page (I dont really remember where) that said that you want to make the stay in your home as annoying as possible for the burglar. A siren driving 120dB in the room where you keep your valuables is a good dissuasive to convince them to hurry up and abandon your house.

Currently I have only one speaker ( the 73) installed above the stairway. I already have two more speakers that plan to install in parallel to OUT1 (up to 4 can be connected) to improve quality of announcements and make the live miserable to a potential burglar. They will be installed in the kitchen and master room. The only problem is that I cannot control the volume of spoken voices (via OUT1) using rules. I already have enough power resistors and relays to make an attenuator for the night announcements, specially important for the speaker installed in the master room.

 

[rcharris]

John:

Let me add on to what elcano says.

I have a speaker on Out1 inside the house and Sirens on Out2 outside the house. I have programmed a 30 second delay between the time the inside speaker starts making siren sounds and the time the outside sirens start making noise. The reason is to allow myself 30 seconds to dis-arm a false alarm before I wake up all my neighbors. (I believe this makes it a non-UL system).

My thinking is that if the inside siren goes off as soon as a window breaks or is opened or an internal IR detects motion, then any burglar will say "Oh DARN" and hopefully head back out the way he came in. 30 seconds later the whole neighborhood knows something is up, and yadayadayada. But the 30 second grace period for me to correct my own false alarm is, I think, valuable for peaceful relations with the neighbors.

I am curious what others think of this logic. Good practice, bad practice?

-Regards

 

[Tombo]

John:


I am curious what others think of this logic. Good practice, bad practice?

-Regards

I think it sounds very reasonable. I have Zwave lights that I start flashing which might annoy my neighbors but will not wake them up. Turning on an outside alarm can be a problem for a false alarm if it happens often. I bet false alarms happen quite a bit more than the real thing. You do not want people to start ignoring your alarm so I think a delay is a good idea.

Does anyone use strobe lights? I noticed that they are an option for Elk systems.


Tom

 

[Steve]

In my neck of the woods you have to register your alarm and if you have more than 2 false alarms in a year you start getting charged. So I try to minimize false alarms to begin with! The neighbor thing also really depends on what time you may trip it. If it is during the day or early evening and it happens once in a blue moon neighbors I don't think will care. Also, if you are in the house and trip it by accident you can probably disarm it very quickly. Then there are the thieves that do a really quick hit and run. So for all those reasons I have a very short delay (I think 5 or 10 seconds). I have the speakers inside and I have a horn from the old system near the front of the house in the attic (by a ventilation grille). I also have a blue strobe right over the garage door. Most of the neighbors had no clue what the strobe was so they had to be educated. Hopefully if I ever really need it the police will understand.

 

[rcharris]

Tombo:
I also have a strobe light. I have it set to stay on continuously after an alarm, whereas the sirens stop after 10-15 minutes (I forget exactly).

I am thinking of changing my outside sirens to speakers, using the internally generated audio waveforms from the M1. That way I can control the volume automatically. Why? I use the "chirp" feature coupled with RF keyfobs to give feedback on arm and disarm. I think the chirps from the sirens are too loud (the neighbor-thing again) and would like them to be at a lower volume for the chirp than when the alarm is fired off. I don't think that is possible with the sirens.

FYI: So far in three months operation we haven't had a false alarm that got as far as setting off the sirens. The most common cause of near-false to date has been when my wife opens an external master bathroom door first thing in the morning to enjoy the early morning air. This sets off the 30 second entry delay, and I end up sprinting from the bedroom to the kitchen to dis-arm before the alarm starts outside. I will be adding another keypad in the master suite when funds allow that should eliminate that problem. (I suspect it is standard practice to have a keypad at every entrance door, but I have seven doors and the keypads are $140 each...)

-Rod

 

[WayneW]

Regardless of the number of doors, I would put a keypad in the master bedroom. If/when weird things happen, I don't want to run face first into a bad situation.

Soon after we moved into this house, the existing alarm system decided at 3 am to start chirping because it hadn't talked to the central station in X days. Talk about a panic! Both of our cell phones were at the other end of the house. My glasses were in another room, so I couldn't read the panel. I had no idea why it was chirping as it didn't have a display. Talk about bad WAF, I learned a couple of lessons from that episode. Hence the M1 with a keypad in the MBR.

 

[elcano]

I am thinking of changing my outside sirens to speakers, using the internally generated audio waveforms from the M1. That way I can control the volume automatically.

You will need to hardwire resistors to work as attenuators using relays to controlthe volumen since the M1 does not have any way to control volumen programatically.

I have not installed my external speaker or siren yet, but I have considered using a relay to switch the output to it between OUT1 and OUT2. In this way I can make announcements to visitors, etc. But this would add a fourth speaker to OUT1 and controlling a variable number of loads makes it even more complicated to control the volume using relays.

It would be so easy if we had rules to control the output volume!!!

 

[rcharris]

You will need to hardwire resistors to work as attenuators using relays to controlthe volume

I might consider using one of those impedance-matching speaker volume controls like this. The relay could switch it into the circuit, or bypass it. The volume knob would make it easy to tune the system volume on set-up.

 

[elcano]

You will need to hardwire resistors to work as attenuators using relays to controlthe volume

I might consider using one of those impedance-matching speaker volume controls like this. The relay could switch it into the circuit, or bypass it. The volume knob would make it easy to tune the system volume on set-up.

Yeap. That's a much better attenuator since it keeps a constant impedance at the amplifier output and is easier to reach the desired volume too.