Hooking up Elk - M1XIN Expander

[2blackbelt]

I'm finally hooking up my M1G and had some questions i was fuzzy about. I'm to the point of hooking up the M1XIN (3) to my M1G. The three will be connected to the M1DBH with the RJ45 plug. When I run my PIR, GRI liquid detection sensors, glass break sensors, door sensor, all have four (4) wires. The connections are Red to +12V, Black to -Ground, Green to relay contact, White to relay contact. Do the Green and White go to the zones and do you have a EOL on them? Hows the best way for the +12V and -Ground to all be connected? Terminal Strips or Wire Nut them all together? I would like for all to be individually zoned. I looked through all the pics you guys have posted of your cans but cannot tell how they are terminated. Your help is appreciated and I will probably have some additional questions before i'm done.

 

[Steve]

Don't confuse the data bus and the zone connections. The XIN itself attaches to the data bus and your end devices like the PIRs, etc connect to the XIN Zone inputs. The data bus has 4 wires Red/Black +/- 12V and Green/White Data A/Data B. You connect the 4 wires of the XIN to 6 wires on the DBH following the connection diagram on Page 2 of the DBH manual. The Data A and Data B on the XIN connect to 2 wires on the DBH respectively. That is for make the chain from device to device. That part should be pretty straightforward.

Now your device connect to zone inputs on the XIN. A regular contact only has 2 wires, the zone common (neg) and zone primary (pos). If you have devices like a PIR or Glass Break, they have the same 2 zone connections plus they have additional 2 wires for power, + and -. Usually for a PIR type device you will use a 22/4 wire. They come in different color codes but usually you will have a red/black and a green and white or yellow. The red/black will be used for +/- power and the other colors will be used for the zone, say green and white. The freen and white don't matter what they hook to on the XIN, but I like to be consistent anyway and put white to -/common and green to zone/pos. Now the power aspect can be trickier depending on a few factors. Are the XIN's in the same location as the controller, or a remote area? Typicall the red/black from the contact will go to the VAux on the controller for +/- power. You just need to make sure you stay under the power capability of the control (I try to stay < 1.25A) and you have to consider alarm condition so figure in a siren if one is connected to the control. As far as how to connect the PIR power wires, well, that is very subjective. Some people use 'b' connectors, some terminal strips, some power distribution blocks like the Elk PD-9, etc, etc. It really depends on how fancy and neat you want it, there is no one right answer. If your XINs are remote, you will also need to run a separate wire for VAux power, or you will need an additional power source at the remote locations.

Hopefully that gives you some thoughts and doesn't confuse you more. Feel free to ask more specific questions as you need.

Here is an example you asked for. It is an install I did for my sister a while back. It's not the best, but it works. You can clearly see the wires coming from the PIRs and GBs with the zone (green/white) going to XIN and power (red/black) going to European terminal strips which tie into VAux.

 

[2blackbelt]

Don't confuse the data bus and the zone connections. The XIN itself attaches to the data bus and your end devices like the PIRs, etc connect to the XIN Zone inputs. The data bus has 4 wires Red/Black +/- 12V and Green/White Data A/Data B. You connect the 4 wires of the XIN to 6 wires on the DBH following the connection diagram on Page 2 of the DBH manual. The Data A and Data B on the XIN connect to 2 wires on the DBH respectively. That is for make the chain from device to device. That part should be pretty straightforward.

Now your device connect to zone inputs on the XIN. A regular contact only has 2 wires, the zone common (neg) and zone primary (pos). If you have devices like a PIR or Glass Break, they have the same 2 zone connections plus they have additional 2 wires for power, + and -. Usually for a PIR type device you will use a 22/4 wire. They come in different color codes but usually you will have a red/black and a green and white or yellow. The red/black will be used for +/- power and the other colors will be used for the zone, say green and white. The freen and white don't matter what they hook to on the XIN, but I like to be consistent anyway and put white to -/common and green to zone/pos. Now the power aspect can be trickier depending on a few factors. Are the XIN's in the same location as the controller, or a remote area? Typicall the red/black from the contact will go to the VAux on the controller for +/- power. You just need to make sure you stay under the power capability of the control (I try to stay < 1.25A) and you have to consider alarm condition so figure in a siren if one is connected to the control. As far as how to connect the PIR power wires, well, that is very subjective. Some people use 'b' connectors, some terminal strips, some power distribution blocks like the Elk PD-9, etc, etc. It really depends on how fancy and neat you want it, there is no one right answer. If your XINs are remote, you will also need to run a separate wire for VAux power, or you will need an additional power source at the remote locations.

Hopefully that gives you some thoughts and doesn't confuse you more. Feel free to ask more specific questions as you need.

Here is an example you asked for. It is an install I did for my sister a while back. It's not the best, but it works. You can clearly see the wires coming from the PIRs and GBs with the zone (green/white) going to XIN and power (red/black) going to European terminal strips which tie into VAux.

Thanks for the reply. What about EOL on the devices? Everything is together in the can so there isnt a long run. It seems like the terminal strips take up a lot of room. Also I have a seperate elk 4 amp power supply that I will be hooking into it. I have 15 Homerunned 4 wire smokes which i terminated on strips with a RSS MOD. Also have 5 glass break sensors, 7 door sensors, 17 PIR, 9 water sensors, 3 garage door, 3 keypads and other misc. stuff. I've had a learning curve but its slowly coming together.

 

[Steve]

EOL on the Elk is optional. If you put them in they go in series at the device. A ton of info here on EOLs if you search a bit. If you don't use them, M1 configured as NC zone, if you do use them the zone is configed as EOL. You can use the 4A Elk supply just fine. Just connect it all to that instead of VAux. The terminal strips dont really take up much room, not more than anything else but like I said, that's pure preference, but I would put it on some kind of block and not just nut them all together.

 

[signal15]

The EOL resistor is there for a couple of reasons:

- It can indicate that there is a problem with the cable run. If the circuit is closed and it doesn't measure out at 2200 ohms, then there's a problem.
- Along the same lines, it prevents someone from trying to bypass a sensor by gaining access to the wires going to the input and sticking a pin through them and then cutting them upstream from the splice. Even if they knew they needed a 2200 ohm resistor, this wouldn't work. Because they would have to splice it in before the cut, and adding another 2200 ohm resistor in there is going to make it read incorrectly before they can cut the line.

This is why you want it as close to the sensor as possible, because then it's more difficult to gain access upstream of the resistor, and the chances of the line having a problem (rubbing on a heating duct and shorting, etc) is more likely to happen where the wire is run through the walls/ceilings/etc.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that when using the resistor it's in series on an NC contact, and in parallel on an NO contact. And, thinking about this now, I just realized that an NO contact with the resistor in parallel as close to the contact as possible would actually be MORE difficult to tamper with.

NC would give 3 possible states:
- Completely open - 0 ohms
- Completely closed - infinite ohms
- Normal closed - 2200 ohms

NO would give 4 possible states:
- Completely open - 0 ohms
- Completely closed - infinite ohms
- Normal closed - 0 ohms
- Normal open - 2200 ohms

 

[Photon]

Wiring the sensors as NC rather than EOL provides better noise immunity. Also fewer potential failure points, as each resistor gets two connections that can fail. For my residence I have little concern that the bad guy will have access to my wiring and will short out one or more contacts while the system is disarmed so he can come back later. In some cases even shorting the NC contacts is non-productive, because I have rules to identify improper conditions such as a door being open but with the deadbolt engaged.

 

[signal15]

Wiring the sensors as NC rather than EOL provides better noise immunity. Also fewer potential failure points, as each resistor gets two connections that can fail. For my residence I have little concern that the bad guy will have access to my wiring and will short out one or more contacts while the system is disarmed so he can come back later. In some cases even shorting the NC contacts is non-productive, because I have rules to identify improper conditions such as a door being open but with the deadbolt engaged.

I solder all of my EOL resistor connections and shrink tube them.

 

[Spanky]

If you are not going to use the EOL Resistors, do not hang them off the terminal strip. Program the zone to normally closed(NC). Transient suppression is greatly improved with NC loops.

 

[2blackbelt]

If you are not going to use the EOL Resistors, do not hang them off the terminal strip. Program the zone to normally closed(NC). Transient suppression is greatly improved with NC loops.

Can you elaborate on what you mean by "do not hang them off the terminal strip"? I have my dumb dumb cap on today.

 

[sic0048]

In other words, do not install the EOL resistors at the alarm panel. The are desiged to be installed at the End Of Line at the last alarm sensor. But you would be amazed at the number of professionals that install them at the alarm panel. The are completely worthless if installed at the alarm panel and actually give a false sense of security because a user thinks their lines are being monitored with an EOL but in fact they are not being monitored (because any line located after the EOL is not monitored - if the EOL is at the alarm panel the entire line is not monitored). It would be better to leave them out completely and just use normal NC/NO options.

 

[Steve]

I would actually like to know more about comments like "Wiring the sensors as NC rather than EOL provides better noise immunity" and " Transient suppression is greatly improved with NC loops". I was always under the assumption that the only thing the EOL did for you was basically monitor for cable issues like shorting. How important are things like noise immunity and transient suppression on a simple window contact? And are we talking an infinitesimal improvement which for all intents and purposes doesn't mean anything in real life scenarios?

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

I would actually like to know more about comments like "Wiring the sensors as NC rather than EOL provides better noise immunity

Don't quote me on these 'exact' voltage numbers as they may be off, but will suffice for the point of this discussion.

If you wire with a NC (normally closed), this zone will stay at grounded (at zero volts) in its 'secured' state. During this state the zone is very immune to noise as any noise generated on the zone's lines will sink to ground. The zone is of course not grounded when it is not secured, but this is just for a small amount of time and the zone is already violated (thus noise couldn't cause a false alarm anyway). From this discussion you can easily see how a NC zone is more noise immune than a NO (normally open) one.

Transient suppression is greatly improved with NC loops". I was always under the assumption that the only thing the EOL did for you was basically monitor for cable issues like shorting.

A security input zone has a nominal voltage input range of 0-13 volts DC. If you wire with an EOL you actually create a "safe" range of 4-8 volts, and it's above a ground level, thus the zone will only need to see a surge of a few volts to show as violated (push it over the high safe zone range.

How important are things like noise immunity and transient suppression on a simple window contact? And are we talking an infinitesimal improvement which for all intents and purposes doesn't mean anything in real life scenarios?

Well it all depends on the home's environment. Are noise generating devices present? Are spikes in the general AC common? Are there some type of noise producing sources in the surrounding area?