Elk M1G or HAI Omni, planning for necessary mounting space

H

hunter69

Member
I am planning a media room. I plan t have some sort of rack to store equipment and such. I will be purchasing either a Hai Omni or Elk. Along with the rack I have roughed in a ox into the media room wall. So I am wondering how much space I should alot for the Elk or HAI. I see the Elk enclosure is 14" X14". DOes the enclosure need to be mounted between studs. The backer to my box is 1/2" OSB. The box will contain some other equipment but its measurements are 34"W X 40"H.

SO I guess I am making sure that I can properly mount the Elk or HAI without being in between studs? I am also trying to get an idea on how much space should be saved for the controller etc.

Thanks
 
I know the Omni LT would fit and the Omni ProII won't. The mounting plate for the Pro is the full width of a Leviton can. The LT fits in half width.
 
If you are going to be doing security and automation, I suggest at least a 28" can and maybe up to a 60" can.
 
He is referring to using either a 14" x 28" can, or a 14" x 60" can - it obviously has to be able to fit between studs ;)

Not all companies offer the same size cans... I believe the largest can that Leviton offers is 42".
 
I have the HAI can surface mounted between two studs in a laundry room closet in FL. The closet is about 3-4 feet wide. Below the HAI can I mounted a smaller Leviton Can. Initially during contruction I had all of the alarm wiring done and home runned to the closet. I had electric run and I ran the rest of the LV wiring to the closet. Its very tight today but it all fits OK. In the Leviton Can I have the Fios router. Outside and adjacent to the can I have a DD-WRT router. I have attic access to an area above the closet allowing me to add (and I have) more cabling. It doesn't get too warm and its been the same now for a few years. In the MW I would have put the HAI in a larger can as its pretty full now; most likely I would have gone to a 60" can. If I had an Elk I would have started with a 42"/60" can.
 
So right now I am moving the low voltage from its current location to a media closet. I am framing the closet. I pulled out a 14" X 28" Leviton enclosure, can this work with the system? My thought process right now is purchase 2 42" Leviton enclosures. It sounds like the Leviton enclosures will work with HAI or Elk, is my thinking correct?
 
I believe there are folks using 42" Leviton panels for their Elk and HAI panels on the forum.

Personally in the midwest I exceeded the space in one panel within a month of installation. Because of this I have my sound cabling and RG6 cabling outside of the panel and on the wall board adjacent to the panel. I had to "build" another sound "patch" panel with the introduction of the Russound amp and its sitting on a third panel about 8 feet from the main panel. I also used this other wall board for another patch panel for just gb LAN.

In FL I have grown out of the original HAI can and should have used a larger can; so I'm guessing that the size would work for say an HAI panel keeping the LV topology footprint kind of small; but I would entertain a larger can for an Elk panel.

Interesting...I was typing and added a paragraph and just lost it.

Checked my basement panels this morning. I have two wood panels on either side of the fuse panel. Each is the width and height of 3 Leviton 42" cans. I only have one Leviton 42" can in place then utilize the small HAI can and the rest is just mounted on the wooden panel. I ran separate electric for either side of the panels. The 42" Leviton panel is full. Network, Telephone, 1-Wire, Network 24 port switch. The bottom of the can is utilizing the combo Leviton power supply. The middle section is just network. The audio and RG6 are on separate panels. The quad layered RG6 cabling would have been difficult to work with inside of the Leviton can. The 14-16 gage speaker wire would have been a bit easier to work with if it were in the can. I used a lot of Cat5E for the HAI panel and should have utilized 2-4 wire 22 guage fire rated cabling instead of the Plenum rated Cat5E. Makes the HAI panel very full now. Especially with the added daughter zone boards, smoke/CO boards, etc.

The FL HAI can is much cleaner in that I didn't utilize Cat5E but just alarm wire. Much thinner and easier to work with. Made for a very clean and compact installation.

I would recommend a larger can whether you utilize HAI or Elk just because its just an easier installation.
 
Thanks for the response.

SO the 34 X40 is a box framed into the wall the backer is OSB. I decided to keep that. It is the home for my home low voltage( cable, computer network, phone routers switches etc.). For possible HA, I am thinking of starting with the Leviton 14X28 can that I already own with the possibility to expand into a 14X42 Leviton can.

How does that sound?
 
I had the 14x28 in my last house - with the M1G, 2 XSP Serial Expanders, an Input Expander, an 8-Channel Voice Recordable module (Elk124), the Ethernet interface, and the necessary power bricks and the battery and it was getting pretty tight in there.

This time around I put a Channel Vision 50" can above an existing OnQ 20" can - and I pulled my structured wiring and coax out into their own area (along with routers, etc) outside the primary cans. I have plenty of room now for anything I can come up with.
 
So I should be good to go with the 14X28 and a 14X42 cans. So are you guys, that have multiple cans, connecting the two cans using say pvc pipe?
 
depends - stacked, generally yes; side-by-side, you can pass through the stud inside the can or above/below it...

conduit makes life easier; but having open space above the can in the wall gives you a place to stuff wires and make your can look cleaner; at the very least use something to protect the wires through the hole.
 
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