ELK M1 Gold - M1XEP False Emails being sent

dean830

Member
Hello,
 
I have a M1 Gold and my M1XEP is for some reason sending false emails intermittently at various times (signalling what would be normally be sent from two NC contacts i have wired to the system). I can see these emails in the sent box from the email account registered to the XEP. 
 
  • One is a Dakora Alert driveway alarm. This trips a doorbell in the house (Dakora) and closes a contact on this device which is connected to a input in my M1. The M1 is then programmed to chirp the siren 3 times and send a email via the XEP. What happens is I get the email > text alert, but for no apparent reason? The Driveway alarm was not tripped, the siren does not chirp, but the email is sent.??
 
  • The second two emails originate from one of two 12V NO relays I have hooked up. One is to my generator panel and one is to my sump pump alarm. Both are supposed to close when tripped, triggering an input, which triggers the XEP to send a email. What is happening that without any change in the relay (generator is not running, sump pump is not alarming) but the XEP sends the email alert. 
Any advise on how to stop these would be appreciated. They are quite annoying since I have alerts from my M1 to override do not disturb settings on my phone. I should try to make some way to record these in the log as well, but am not sure how. This occurred on both this XEP and an older one that was since replaced. 
 
Thanks,
 
Dean 
 
Problems like this are difficult to troubleshoot.  There are some basic things to check for first.
 
Check the AC voltage to the M1 board from the transformer.  It should be about 19 VAC.
 
Check the back up battery voltage.  You should see about 13.8 VDC when running on AC power.  Then unplug the transformer and see what the voltage drops to over a period of time, say 1/2 an hour.   If it drops below 12V, the battery is showing its age. 
 
How old is the battery?  If more than 3 years, consider replacing it.  If more than 5 years, definitely replace it.  A bad battery can cause strange behavior of the M1, especially when it runs its battery load test once a day.
 
While you are at it, check/replace the CR2032 battery on the M1 board under the plastic cover.
 
When you get the false notification for the driveway alert, does it chirp the siren, too?  Or does the siren not chirp,but only the e-mail gets sent?
 
Is your driveway alert hardwired or wireless?
 
It's possible that you have some bad inputs on the M1. Or that the M1 processor is failing.  One thing you could try is moving the 3 zones that are causing trouble to other zones and see if the problem goes away or not.
 
Thanks for the info, I will check those battery fixes. 
 
The false driveway email does not chirp the siren or the driveway alarm itself. Only the email is sent. It is wireless to the receiver, then hard wired via a built in NO contact to the main board via an input. 
 
These problems were previously intermittent, once a month etc, but in the last 24h I have had about 8-10 false emails. 
 
The system is likely 4-5 years old so the batteries are probably a good start to check the dates on them. 
 
PS: all my system was up to date except for the M1 which was 5.3.08. I updated it to 5.3.10 just now. 
 
dean830 said:
Thanks for the info, I will check those battery fixes. 
 
The false driveway email does not chirp the siren or the driveway alarm itself. Only the email is sent. It is wireless to the receiver, then hard wired via a built in NO contact to the main board via an input. 
 
These problems were previously intermittent, once a month etc, but in the last 24h I have had about 8-10 false emails. 
 
The system is likely 4-5 years old so the batteries are probably a good start to check the dates on them. 
 
PS: all my system was up to date except for the M1 which was 5.3.08. I updated it to 5.3.10 just now. 
It's a little strange that it wouldn't chirp but would send the e-mail.  That makes me think it is not executing the rules properly. Or that the M1XEP is going rouge all by itself.   One other thing to check is the voltage that the M1XEP is getting if it is powered by a separate supply,
 
Low voltage to the M1 from the AC transformer or the battery could cause improper execution of rules, so that's still what I'd look at first.
 
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