How do I sort out my phone line for the M1?

[sanders2222]

I am getting ready to fire up my new ELK M1 panel for the first time. This panel replaces a 30 year old security system that was mostly broken. Most my contact sources from the old panel are wired in and my M1XEP is connected. Thanks to you CocoonTechies for help with my M1XEP and doorbell issues in other posts.

But now I realize I haven't addressed the phone line connection. Does ELK need this to communicate if I have an internet connection? My thought was to use the internet and ISY to control whatever I may need from the ELK and vice versa.

But if I need a phone line connection, how do I determine what wires are R1, T1, RING and TIP? I have a Channelvision phone distribition panel that now connects to phones in the house with Cat5e cables and RJ-45 jacks. It's my understanding the phoneline only uses the 4 center wires of the Cat5e cable. Is there a standard that defines what this wires are? If not, How can I test to find out which is what?

 

[apostolakisl]

The Elk doesn't require a phone to be connected to operate.

You probably want your system monitored, so, you can do that using IP a standard phone (POTS), or cellular. I highly suggest using a phone or cellular. IP connections are more expensive and frought with all kinds of problems in a residential setting.

Voip is not recommended for alarm monitoring. I have seen others post that they are doing it just fine. Personally, I think you should put cellular on your system as it is highly reliable, highly tamper proof, and fairly cheap.

If you are using a regular home phone and you only have one line, the center two wires are the ones you want. They are usually the blues on rj45. Tip and ring refers to the style plug where the tip is postive polarity (ground actually, positive relative to the negative of the shaft) and the shaft (ring) a little furthe back is negative. The Elk and pretty much any phone out there correct the situation internally if you wire it backwards.

 

[tmbrown97]

Here's a page with a lot of detail about proper installation of an RJ31X jack:
http://www.hometech.com/kb/questions.php?questionid=78

Normally Line 1 uses the blue pair, Line 2 uses the green pair (t568B; orange in t568a); then work outward. In an RJ31X wire, Line 1 goes from the CO to the alarm panel on the center pair, then returns on the outermost pair (pins 1,8).

That Channel Vision telephone distribution panel you have actually has a built-in RJ31X jack, it's just horribly labeled. That's what the jack marked "Service" is for; you connect that directly to the Elk using the right cable and flip that switch in the middle to enable it... IIRC a standard ethernet cable would work - a normal 4-conductor phone cable would not... because one pair is in the center, and the return pair is in the two outermost wires in an 8P8C conductor.

 

[Sandpiper]

Ring and tip is the pair (typically blue) from the demarc box. T1 and R1 feeds the rest of the phone lines in the house. To find the line from the demarc box, I use a toner on the brown, orange, or green pair from the demarc box.

 

[apostolakisl]

The most direct way to do this is to take the wires directly from the telco (usually red/green) and wire to ring/tip. Then r1/t1 exit the elk and go to the home phone network. R1/T1 aren't used if you have Elk on its own private line. Elk has to be the first "telephone" on the system and it has to be able to cut the lines to the rest of the phones or it won't be able to seize the line. In other words, if someone else is on a phone using the same line as Elk, Elk won't be able to call out unless it is able to forcably disconnect them.

I am not familiar with the Channel vision, but a sure fire way for it to work is to run the phone line first into Elk and then out of Elk to the channel vision for home distribution. This assumes that you only have one line for both Elk and the house. If the channel vision unit is located somewhere else in the house, then you will need to figure a way to use some of the other pairs on you cat5 to route the phone line first to Elk.

 

[wuench]

According to the instructions it looks like the port marked "Service" is an RJ31-x. So you just need to connect this to the M1.
http://www.hometech....df/cv-c0436.pdf

 

[tmbrown97]

Let's not overcomplicate this and confuse anyone - he has exactly what he needs right in the picture he posted... he has a phone distribution module with a built-in RJ31X jack designed exactly for this, as I pointed out in Post #3! Plug that into the elk and flip the switch to activate it, and you're done!.

 

[apostolakisl]

This one tells you exactly what to do. Take a cat5 with rj45 at one end. Plug the blues into tip/ring and the brown/greenwhite into t1/r1 on your elk. Plug the rj45 into "service". Flip the switch to enable alarm interupt on the channel vision.

http://www.homecontrols.com/homecontrols/pdf/cvc0432_instr.pdf

It loops the line out and back so the alarm panel can cut service to the rest of the house during an alarm.

 

[sanders2222]

Take a cat5 with rj45 at one end. Plug the blues into tip/ring and the brown/greenwhite into t1/r1 on your elk. Plug the rj45 into "service". Flip the switch to enable alarm interupt on the channel vision

Thanks Lou. My picture was worth a thousand words! I wondered what that Service jack was for. Problem solved!

 

[tmbrown97]

Good addition - I thought for some reason the Elk had an RJ45 for the line - guess I should've just looked at it real quick!

 

[sanders2222]

Take a cat5 with rj45 at one end. Plug the blues into tip/ring and the brown/greenwhite into t1/r1 on your elk. Plug the rj45 into "service".

It seems sometimes these plugs are wired differently onto the cables. In looking at the rj45 I cut off, it appears the blues are the center, flanked by green. Brown wires are on one side, and orange on the other.

So, just so I understand it correctly, blues are tip/ring and brown/orange-white would be my t1/r1 connections.

 

[apostolakisl]

It seems sometimes these plugs are wired differently onto the cables. In looking at the rj45 I cut off, it appears the blues are the center, flanked by green. Brown wires are on one side, and orange on the other.

So, just so I understand it correctly, blues are tip/ring and brown/orange-white would be my t1/r1 connections.

There are two different color schemes for crimping the rj45, they swap the oranges and greens. It makes no difference which scheme you use as long you make the adjustment at both ends.

In short, whatever is at pin 1 and 8 are your t1/r1 and whatever are the middle 2 (pin 4, 5) are tip/ring.

 

[Del91574]

There are two different color schemes for crimping the rj45, they swap the oranges and greens. It makes no difference which scheme you use as long you make the adjustment at both ends.
In short, whatever is at pin 1 and 8 are your t1/r1 and whatever are the middle 2 (pin 4, 5) are tip/ring.

Lou, that's incorrect for telco, on both 568 schemes and USOC.

Pair 1 is pins 4+5 and pair 2 is 6+3

 

[apostolakisl]

Lou, that's incorrect for telco, on both 568 schemes and USOC.

Pair 1 is pins 4+5 and pair 2 is 6+3

It is correct for his channel vision phone panel.

 

[Del91574]

A RJ31X or 38X uses USOC and not any of the 568 pinouts, which is what I believe you're alluding to.