Elk with Litejet installation questions

[bknauer]

OK, this is my first post here so go easy on me.

This forum has been a great help. I am building a new house this summer and have pretty much decided on the Elk M1 Gold with Centralite Litejet 48 for the security and lighting. Before I make my final decision, I have a couple questions I haven’t found answered on this board or in the ELK and Centralite documentation and training videos. I am an electrical engineer, so I have a very good understanding of the systems and how they are wired and programmed.

Questions:

1. When wiring the high voltage to the Centralite Litejet, is it better to run a high current, say 50 Amp power line from the main breaker box to the equipment closet and put a circuit breaker box near the Lightjet with the 15 Amp breakers for the dimmer boards there, or run separate homeruns directly from the main breaker box? Both would comply with code, not sure which is best. The breaker box will be at one end of the house and the equipment closet will be centrally located.

2. With the Lightjet key pads, I would also like to control a garbage disposal, fountain pump, water pump and possibly other items that I would prefer not to have on solid state relays due to reliability concerns with motor noise on the line. Is it better to use the Lightjet RS232 line to inform the Elk to turn an output relay on, or use a Lightjet output module to control a relay?

3. What is the lag time for the Lightjet communicating with the Elk and turning an output on? Milliseconds, seconds?

4. Has anyone used the Lightjet key pads and had some keys wired to the Lightjet and some wired to the Elk inputs? Is this even possible to tie the commons of the 2 inputs together without generating a ground loop?

5. When you put bypass switches on the system to provide light switching if there is a problem with the Lightjet or key pads, do you do this with SPDT high voltage switches so that you do not short out the solid state relays, or is there a easier way by using switches on the low voltage side of the solid state switches?

Those are my questions for now. This will be a vacation house up on Lake Erie and I want to take advantage of the automation and security capabilities of these systems,, but, I am not going overboard on home automation. Yet?

 

[mustangcoupe]

Sorry I can't answer your questions I use UPB for lighting and control. But I wanted to welcome you to CT. And dont worry we will go easy on you we were all new once.

 

[bknauer]

Thank you for the welcome!

Still looking for answers. Is this answered somewhere else that I should be looking?

I've looked in several manuals and forums, but haven't seen any info on these items.

 

[86turbodsl]

OK, this is my first post here so go easy on me.

This forum has been a great help. I am building a new house this summer and have pretty much decided on the Elk M1 Gold with Centralite Litejet 48 for the security and lighting. Before I make my final decision, I have a couple questions I haven’t found answered on this board or in the ELK and Centralite documentation and training videos. I am an electrical engineer, so I have a very good understanding of the systems and how they are wired and programmed.

Questions:

1. When wiring the high voltage to the Centralite Litejet, is it better to run a high current, say 50 Amp power line from the main breaker box to the equipment closet and put a circuit breaker box near the Lightjet with the 15 Amp breakers for the dimmer boards there, or run separate homeruns directly from the main breaker box? Both would comply with code, not sure which is best. The breaker box will be at one end of the house and the equipment closet will be centrally located.

2. With the Lightjet key pads, I would also like to control a garbage disposal, fountain pump, water pump and possibly other items that I would prefer not to have on solid state relays due to reliability concerns with motor noise on the line. Is it better to use the Lightjet RS232 line to inform the Elk to turn an output relay on, or use a Lightjet output module to control a relay?

3. What is the lag time for the Lightjet communicating with the Elk and turning an output on? Milliseconds, seconds?

4. Has anyone used the Lightjet key pads and had some keys wired to the Lightjet and some wired to the Elk inputs? Is this even possible to tie the commons of the 2 inputs together without generating a ground loop?

5. When you put bypass switches on the system to provide light switching if there is a problem with the Lightjet or key pads, do you do this with SPDT high voltage switches so that you do not short out the solid state relays, or is there a easier way by using switches on the low voltage side of the solid state switches?

Those are my questions for now. This will be a vacation house up on Lake Erie and I want to take advantage of the automation and security capabilities of these systems,, but, I am not going overboard on home automation. Yet?

Welcome.

I have a Litejet 48 in my house. When I wired it, I pulled a 100A subpanel to right next to the litejet cans. Saved a lot of wire that way. You could certainly do it the other way, at a wiring cost.

If I did it over again, I'd probably put a litejet can on each floor. I had a lot of LOOOONG runs from upstairs to basement. The cans are connected by a cat5 cable, so distance isn't an issue.

Since ELK will comm with Litejet, you have no reason to tie the keys together. Just set a button to control a null light in the centralite, and have it send the corresponding code to the ELK.

I don't know why you'd put bypass switches on a system. It's really very reliable. DO NOT short the outputs of the relays in the cans. You'll blow them in a new york minute. I've already replaced one of mine because a neighbor was helping me put in a ceiling fan and forgot to turn the power off while he was wiring it. The failure mode is you can't turn it off.

As far as motor noise, I have ceiling fans on my system with zero effects. Bigger motors, don't know. You can get up to about 15 amps on a SSR without running into issues, but if you have a big starting load, I'd use a motor starter, and have the lightjet control the input relay.

Hope this helps you.

 

[bknauer]

Thanks for the information it is very helpful.

My house will be a 2 story with a crawl space. I am putting the equipment room on the second floor centrally located so that the wire run lengths are minimized. I thought that running a high current line from the breaker box to the equipment room was a good idea.

Does anybody know what the lag time (communication time) is between the Litejet 48 and the Elk M1g is? I'd like to get this information before I finalize the design of my system.

Anybody know if there is a system set up in Northern Ohio that I could look at?

Thanks.

 

[Kevin L]

I can't give you an exact timing of the response, but subjectively my wife or I don't notice a lag. I actually use HomeSeer for automation, and a daily event involving the LiteJet and Elk M1G is if the alarm is in Away Mode, and it's Nightime, when the Garage Entry Door (the door from the garage into the house) is Violated (opened), turn on the Garage Entry Light at 60%. 2 seconds later, turn on the Kitchen Pendants at 60%. 20 seconds later, turn off the Garage Entry Light.

Works fine, no lag, and the WAF is good.

HTH,

Kevin