Elk + Next Alarm results in clicking relay

[MrGibbage]

My Elk M1G has been installed and working great for 10+ years. I recently added the NextAlarm monitoring and followed the installation instructions. Everything seems to be working fine, but there is a relay clicking inside the elk a few times a minute. Sometimes two or three clicks in a couple of second's time, and sometimes it's more like one per minute. Is that normal? It's a good thing I have my Elk in a closet with other computers and fans which pretty much drowns it out, but I'd still like to make it stop if possible.

 

[MrGibbage]

I should add that it doesn't seem that there is anything I can correlate to the clicking. I once thought maybe it was clicking every time there was an "event" in the elk, such as a zone change or PIR sensing motion, but even when I am the only one in the house, sitting a spot where no motion detectors can see me, the relay clicking continues.

 

[RAL]

The clicking is probably the telephone line seizure relay and the M1 isn't seeing what it thinks is a good phone line connection.
 
Do you have a Next Alarm broadband adapter connected to the phone line terminals? 
 
Use a volt meter and measure the voltage between the tip and ring (red and green) terminals on the M1.

 

[pete_c]

Here had a similar issue with my Omni Pro 2 switching from the internal RJ31X to the Leviton RJ31X with a regular phone line.  Thinking it was the polarity of the wires that messed me up.  It would always at random do clicking.
 
In your situation if you are using a Next Alarm Broadband adapter it could be the power supply to the Broadband adapter giving you grief too.
 

 
 

 

[MrGibbage]

I'm getting 0.0v between red and green. I'm guessing that is a problem? I do indeed have the red and green wires from the broadband adapter connected in those.The green light is illuminated on the broadband adapter so I would think it is getting the power it needs.

 

[pete_c]

Yes....
 
48V DC nominal is present if the phone is on hook, off hook is will be more like 6-10V, and if it rings, 20Hz AC ring voltage of about 90V(?) will also be applied.
 
The Red ("ring") should be negative with respect to the Green ("tip") wire.

 

[MrGibbage]

Oh wow. So what do I do? Do I need a new broadband adapter or did I probably install it wrong?

 

[ano]

So the broadband adapter creates these voltages. If the red and green wires from the broadband adapter are not creating these values, that is a problem.  In your first post you say "Everything seems to be fine" but that can't be true without the voltage.  The clicking in the ELK is pretty normal under these circumstances, and you should get a dead phone error. 
 
So disconnect the adapter from the ELK and remeasure the voltage. If you can get 30V+ from it, its not working correctly. (Green is +)

 

[Del91574]

Get rid of the nextalarm adapter and use the XEP for monitoring via TCP/IP.....you're introducing additional complexity and issues by adding that ATA garbage to the M1 when the most robust and elegant solution already exists with the M1.