ELK M1 Gold battery wire replacement?

Kogashuko

New Member
So I found a guy on ebay who sold a unit he had wired up for a demo. It included a lot of stuff for the $375 to include a touch keypad, normal keypad, ethernet controller, battery, speaker, keypad expander, cellular module, and zwave module. Usually, I would think this was a hell of a deal however when the package arrived I noticed a note from the post office stating it was damaged as well as a black hole in the side of it. I opened the box to find that the shipper had apparently just pulled the wire from the bottom of the m1, wrapped the battery with it, and stuffed it in the box. Shortly after the exposed wires shorted and the battery caught fire. Luckilly the only thing damaged was the battery, wire, and a package of two doorbell switches and magnet sensors. All in all I was only out probably $20 is parts and the battery was from 2012 so it really needed replacing anyway. I contacted the seller to tell him how boneheaded it was and if he had burnt down his house or worse the post office it could have been bad. 
 
I almost immediately noticed the kit did not come with a AC adapter which again is no big deal since I would rather spend $10 for that than over $200 for the accessories. I ordered a new one and it came in this week. Today I go to wire the unit up and find that I can not find out where the battery plugs in. There was simply the picture on the board but nothing else. After doing further research I see the picture online of the M1 with battery leads running out of the bottom of the board from under the back shield. 
 
Here is my question, how hard is it to install new leads? Is it possible to pull the cover off and just hookup the 12v leads from my old alarm system? Or am I stuck running a UPS to keep my alarm running after an outage? 
 
Thanks. And BTW since I have gotten ZERO response from the seller not a "Sorry" "I didnt know" "one of my retards packaged it" or "F*** you" I left this dude negative feedback. Heck he could have burn my house down. That is not cool. 
 
The plastic cover snaps off of the plastic base.  The battery leads connect to a screw terminal block on the lower left edge of the circuit board, just to the right of the power switch.  It is clearly marked "Battery" along with Red and Black notations for each wire.
 
I certainly would leave negative feedback, especially since he didn't respond to your complaint. 
 
Shipping the battery like that is just gross negligence.  It could have started a fire not just at your house, but anywhere in transit.  Suppose it had been in the cargo hold of a plane somewhere along the way and caught fire.
 
That was my thinking. If he had said he was sorry it would have been all good. Again the actual cost of a battery isnt a big deal but the cost of some building burnt down would be unimaginable especially if someone was injured. 
 
Wired up for a demo? It sounds like he stole the system. considering how he packaged it for shipping I can't believe that he knows anything about wiring.
 
He posted a picture on ebay and it was mounted to a sheet of plywood with a bunch of different configuration options hooked up along with two different types of keypads. I get the feeling he is no longer in the business and just doesnt care or one of his minions did the removal from the plywood and box up for him. Either way I just signed up for an account on Elk's website to get the software. I would imagine if it was stolen they will let me know. Definitely looks demo to me thought with only short runs of cat 5 attached to all the components. I guess I could pull the SIM from the cellco adapter and call AT&T to verify. Nice part is it is a 3g/4g cellular adapter which will not stop working at the end of the year and AT&T only charges something like $5 for connected devices that arnt data intensive. I will however have to run the cell adapter to the attic since HSPA+ has bad reception in the room where the alarm is. I think HSPA+ runs on a PCS license here and not on 700 or 850 like their LTE and GPRS licenses. 
 
Elk doesn't blacklist serials....they genuinely don't have the time or care except to track for warranty.
 
Same holds true with cellular communicators. I have never seen a service provider blacklist a SIM or unit itself. Kill service for non-payment, or not release it to general service if another alarm company has the unit contracted (usually special rates negotiated for the large providers or resellers).
 
I was joking about stealing it, I just meant to infer that he didn't seem to know anything about what he was selling based on how he packaged it.
 
Mike.
 
LOL it did cross my mind though. 
 
I just popped open the 3G cell communicator and found a sierra wireless chip where the sim card is suppose to go. Unless I want it to just dial 911 with a recorded message it isnt usable. I have no intent on paying verizon wireless $30 a month to use thing thing on the off occasion, once every 5 years, that our data connection fails. Especially, when one of the two times that has happened since 2010 the cell tower went out too bc my verizon work phone was out of service. 
 
I got my login today and I worked on the old panel for about an hour last night. It was a mess. I went through and labled all of the drops. Luckily, the original ADT installers in aug 00 run a separate run for each front window. However, they put all of the EOL resistors in the panel. The power supply specs are also very similar to the elk's I think with the exception of like a half a volt and less vac rating slightly. Either way I have to run a new wire for that because the old one just uses all four 22guage connectors instead of two 18guage wires for the panel. Since I am not as familiar with lower voltage AC I dont feel comfortable using paired up 22g wire and will likely just use some 14g romex and plug it into the protected power strip next to the panel. Even if someone did find it and pull the wire it would still send an alert to me before the battery dies. The wires going to the old battery also look like they are 22guage. 
 
Either way the S/N checks out so thats all good. 
 
Don't overthink EOLR's and what they actually accomplish on a series circuit, especially with multiple home run cables. Law of diminishing returns and many people start to think the magical EOLR's perform miracles when they truly do not.
 
Don't use romex for LV power. Also don't use a power strip for powering your alarm.
 
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