ELK M1 not communicating to M1XEP anymore

[TriLife]

Greetings;
 
Something weird happened while I was overseas. I stopped being able to access the M1 remotely.
 
When I came back home, I noticed that the ELK wasn't communicating with my ISY994 anymore either.
 
ELK communicates via IP (M1XEP), not POTS.
 
 
Normal behavior:
 
- all dry contact sensors work
- all keyboards work
- POWER LED is on
- STATUS LED is blinking once per second
- RP2 seems to communicate with the M1XEP (flashing LEDs on the board, regular dialog on network connect until it reaches out to the M1 Control)
 
 
Some seemingly odd behaviour:
 
- The TELCO SEIZED light is on all the time and flashes off every 16 Seconds, with an audible relay click
- No interaction with ISY994
- On attempted communication with RP2, after "Connecting, verifying sytem identity" I get "Communication error: System did not respond. Connection may have been terminated." and then
" System returned invalid information".
 
I suspect that the RS232 is somehow damaged, which could be on either the M1XEP or the M1 Gold side. Any idea how to Isolate this? No, I don't have spare M1 or M1XEP in stock.
 
The thing is only one year old, under warranty still, powered with whole house and local surge protection and hardened ethernet switch.  But I live in Colombia and I'm afraid ELK is going to ask me to return the defective unit back to the US, which is impossible/prohibitive...
 
Cheers.
 
 
 
 
 

 

[RAL]

If you are certain that your phone line is ok and the connection to the M1 is good, then the problem with the line seizure sounds like the M1 might have been damaged.  Measure the voltage across the phone line terminals to see if you read around 48VDC.
 
You can try and narrow down the problem by disconnecting the M1XEP and connecting the M1 serial port directly to your PC using RS232.  You would probably need a USB to RS232 converter unless your PC is old enough to still have one.  If that works, then you know that at least that part of the M1 is ok.
 
Another thing to check is to use the Find function in RP2 (under M1XEP Setup) and check the MAC address.  Does it match what the label on the M1XEP says it should be?   There is/was a problem with the M1XEP where it would randomly change it's MAC address, causing the connection to be lost. 

 

[TriLife]

If you are certain that your phone line is ok and the connection to the M1 is good, then the problem with the line seizure sounds like the M1 might have been damaged.  Measure the voltage across the phone line terminals to see if you read around 48VDC.
 
You can try and narrow down the problem by disconnecting the M1XEP and connecting the M1 serial port directly to your PC using RS232.  You would probably need a USB to RS232 converter unless your PC is old enough to still have one.  If that works, then you know that at least that part of the M1 is ok.
 
Another thing to check is to use the Find function in RP2 (under M1XEP Setup) and check the MAC address.  Does it match what the label on the M1XEP says it should be?   There is/was a problem with the M1XEP where it would randomly change it's MAC address, causing the connection to be lost. 

Hi RAL;
 
- I don't have a phone line connected to the unit at all. The M1XEP is handling communications.
 
- The FIND MAC ID and the label match. (and yes, I did have that funny ID problem in the past on a different system)
 
- I don't have a USB-232 dongle, only a USB-485 dongle. will need to research if they are compatible...

- just discovered an interesting additional piece: I disconnected the RS232 cable between M1 and M1XEP. Lo and behold the TELCO SEIZED flashing stopped!
 
Cheers

 

[RAL]

Not sure why the M1XEP connection would have anything to do with the telephone line seizure issue.  All I can think of is that telephone reporting is enabled and that the M1 is trying to report a problem it has with the XEP.  I don't know what that would be, though.
 
RS485 is not compatible with RS232.  You need a real RS232 adapter. 
 
Since your keypads seem to  work, you could use them to view the events in the M1 log (keypad menu item 4) and see if there is anything there that might provide further clues about what is wrong. 

 

[TriLife]

Thanks RAL.



I'll have to dig into how to disable telephone reporting. From the keypad to boot! I'm guessing that is a default setting, which I would not have changed.

Maybe the ELK is trying to report by telephone that the RS232 isn't working anymore?

I did look at the event log on my touch keypad. Nothing fancy.

About to order a USB RS232 adapter (FTDI). It'll take about V10;days to get to Colombia.