I apologize for not using a more descriptive title, but it seems like I have a few problems going on at once here.
I got my Elk all wired up. Pretty basic. Using an M1EXP, One Zone expander, a DBH and 3 KP2s and then the main speaker (OUT1) , and 3 little speakers (OUT2) on the KP2 back boxes.
I installed a terminator on the Zone expander, and connected it to the control using the screw terminals.
I installed the terminating plug on the 4th jack of the DBH (and none on the keypads) and connected it to the control using the included 4 conductor wire with plugs on both ends (J2).
Added power and fired it up, and headed to the Keypads. Now here's where the questions start.
First of all, it says to enroll the keypads from Keypad Address 1. How do I know which that is? Is it the one that is attached to the first port of the DBH? When I looked at my keypads, two looked like I expected they would, and one said "Lost Comm" (that didn't sound good). Furthermore, when I went to the other keypads, they weren't exactly responsive. I'd press a button and get a beep, but nothing happens. Or I'd press 'Elk' and maybe a menu pops up, maybe not, and if it did, I'd try to hit 'right' or 'down' to scroll through, and it would just kick back to the main screen. Sprinkle more intermittent beeping and buzzing throughout all of this. To me this sounds like a termination issue.
(Also, are ALL keypads supposed to respond the the button presses on any one of them. It looked like one was responding in step with another keypad I was using (they are within sight of one another), but they weren't perfectly replicating one another).
Some of the troubleshooting I've done so far:
a)Before installation, I verified the in wall wiring, the patch panel, and the Cat5 jumpers using a simple cable tester. All looked good. Nonetheless, I pulled out the keypad with 'lost comm', cut the wires, terminated with an RJ45 (actually used beanies to splice to an also-cut short Cat5 jumper). I tested the whole chain as one, right at the keypad location, and the other end on the Cat5 jumper just before entering the DBH, and all 8 pins looked good.
b)Messing around with the order things are plugged into the DBH seeemed to help with the 'lost comm' issue. Removing one of the Keypads tends to help. I then put that keypad back in, but at the #3 jack on the DBH, and it still appeared to cure my 'lost comm' issue. (running theory, is now that there's a bad connection on the 'backhaul' leg of this keypad. That caused problems on the bus before, but largely eliminated them since. Problems with this theory: If the backhaul has a problem, then the bus isn't properly terminated, so we should still see problems. Also, although the 'lost comm' problem seemed to go away when removing this keypad from the bus, the keypads themselves seemed unresponsive.
Also, what's the deal with Keypad addresses? How do I 'set' them? There's no hardware dip switches or anything are there? The way the manual says it, it sounds like you go to 'Keypad 1' (I assumed this would be the only one that was responsive) and basically hit 'enroll' and that lights up the others that are on the bus at the time.
I ran out of time to do more diagnoses last night, and I'm at work now, so I can't run out and test things. Any thoughts or inputs would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
I got my Elk all wired up. Pretty basic. Using an M1EXP, One Zone expander, a DBH and 3 KP2s and then the main speaker (OUT1) , and 3 little speakers (OUT2) on the KP2 back boxes.
I installed a terminator on the Zone expander, and connected it to the control using the screw terminals.
I installed the terminating plug on the 4th jack of the DBH (and none on the keypads) and connected it to the control using the included 4 conductor wire with plugs on both ends (J2).
Added power and fired it up, and headed to the Keypads. Now here's where the questions start.
First of all, it says to enroll the keypads from Keypad Address 1. How do I know which that is? Is it the one that is attached to the first port of the DBH? When I looked at my keypads, two looked like I expected they would, and one said "Lost Comm" (that didn't sound good). Furthermore, when I went to the other keypads, they weren't exactly responsive. I'd press a button and get a beep, but nothing happens. Or I'd press 'Elk' and maybe a menu pops up, maybe not, and if it did, I'd try to hit 'right' or 'down' to scroll through, and it would just kick back to the main screen. Sprinkle more intermittent beeping and buzzing throughout all of this. To me this sounds like a termination issue.
(Also, are ALL keypads supposed to respond the the button presses on any one of them. It looked like one was responding in step with another keypad I was using (they are within sight of one another), but they weren't perfectly replicating one another).
Some of the troubleshooting I've done so far:
a)Before installation, I verified the in wall wiring, the patch panel, and the Cat5 jumpers using a simple cable tester. All looked good. Nonetheless, I pulled out the keypad with 'lost comm', cut the wires, terminated with an RJ45 (actually used beanies to splice to an also-cut short Cat5 jumper). I tested the whole chain as one, right at the keypad location, and the other end on the Cat5 jumper just before entering the DBH, and all 8 pins looked good.
b)Messing around with the order things are plugged into the DBH seeemed to help with the 'lost comm' issue. Removing one of the Keypads tends to help. I then put that keypad back in, but at the #3 jack on the DBH, and it still appeared to cure my 'lost comm' issue. (running theory, is now that there's a bad connection on the 'backhaul' leg of this keypad. That caused problems on the bus before, but largely eliminated them since. Problems with this theory: If the backhaul has a problem, then the bus isn't properly terminated, so we should still see problems. Also, although the 'lost comm' problem seemed to go away when removing this keypad from the bus, the keypads themselves seemed unresponsive.
Also, what's the deal with Keypad addresses? How do I 'set' them? There's no hardware dip switches or anything are there? The way the manual says it, it sounds like you go to 'Keypad 1' (I assumed this would be the only one that was responsive) and basically hit 'enroll' and that lights up the others that are on the bus at the time.
I ran out of time to do more diagnoses last night, and I'm at work now, so I can't run out and test things. Any thoughts or inputs would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
