Elk Question For Spanky

[BDHall]

Spanky,

I have an Elk M1G in my home that I have been very pleased with. My installation is perhaps a little odd in that I have several of the ELK-M1XIN Zone Expanders and ELK-M1XOV Output Expanders installed that I use mainly for hardwired control of lighting and ceiling fans in my home. This is still a work in progress but my goal is to have pretty much all of my overhead lighting, ceiling fans, exterior lighting, sprinkler system, etc. controlled by the M1G in a hardwired manner. I plan to get back on this project very soon since the fall and winter will make working in the attic more tolorable. I decided on the hardwired approach because I thought it would be reliable and hopefully more future proof, as I hope to be in this home for a long time, if the Lord willing perhaps for the rest of my life.

I have a pretty good investment in this system and will soon be adding additional Zone and Output Expanders. I know that I probably should not ask about future products but I have been concerned about the future maintainability of my system and hoping that I have made a good choice in that respect. I was wondering about the next generation of the Elk and how it would affect an existing RS-485 Data Bus and the I/O that is already in place. I guess my real question is this. If the method of communication to I/O, Keypads, etc. changes to ethernet (or whatever), would a customer be able to install the next generation controller and continue to use their existing equipment, and then gradually convert to the ethernet (or whatever) I/O so the existing investment would not have to be abandoned ? I will likely be interested in upgrading my control, but in my case it would be very expensive if I had to completely start over.

Any insight or opinions you could offer would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Brian

 

[sharby]

Brian,

The basic answer to your concerns is YES, you can. I highly recommend using PowerHome to interact with your M1G investment. All of my non-critical rules and devices are connected through Powerhome and allow me to have reliable and savvy automation. I cannot speak for the engineers at ELK, but I can say that the "bus" architecture will most likely stay the same in the future. It's all about the future modules, keypads, and devices that can interact with the ELK. Right now, I'm able to reliably have my old Stargate system communicate with the ELK. That is something that I never thought would be possible until now. Hope this helps you out.

-=*Sharby*=-