johnnynine
Active Member
It all started with my 1st post Need help deciding on HA solution back in January 2006.
Over that past couple weeks I have slowly installed CQC without much time to tinker with it but it was installed none the less.
After my final Elk M1 shopping list at Confused on needed Elk M1G accessories I received my Elk M1 with accessories yesterday and I bench tested it today. It went fairly smoothly. The only slow downs were the cat5 crimping and wiring, realizing I needed a resistor over output 2 since it is supervised (whatever that means), and not knowing why I needed JP3 shorted when using the data bus hub.
I even was able to get the following accessories up and running:
M1DBH data bus hub to make life easier.
M1XEP connected with the ElkRP and CQC software.
M1XOVR relays with some rules for irrigation.
And of course the KP1 keypad, speaker, battery and transformer.
Ive got a couple generic triggers and actions running on cqc just for testing. I have Rippers' elk template showing if the system is armed or ready, and I can arm and disarm the system. However I'm not sure if there is anyway to really use the numeric keypad included in the template - ideally I'd like to be able to disarm the system by clicking the numbers in the user's passcode. (I also had to change the Ready and Armed images from command buttons to boolean images).
I added some irrigation rules from the Elk Site Sprinkler Page and used a custom settings value for the running duration based on Spanky's recomendation at Rain8 vs Elk-M1, Irrigation (not sure why they are not called programming variables). The rules and tasks seem to be working. I'm also not sure why I must set an unused output to on and later check it as opposed to setting a custom settings value when setting some state to check determine if the sprinklers have been disabled for that day. As for the rules, being able to group them would make things emensily more organized as I can see it getting quite confusing. Notes on each rule would also be nice so I would remember why I used output 208 as a variable substitute for example.
I have not settled on a lighting protocol due to Insteon switches not always acknowledging paddle presses (and you can forget about the instant on double click feature). Some of the newer ZWave switches are nice but too pricey for me. I'm hoping some afordable zwave switches come out that support state change notifications without polling.
I'm not real sure where I will be taking things from here. I'll probably review my original 1st post on what I want out of the system and see what I can do in the mean time while my house is being completed.
Thanks everyone for your help during each step.
Over that past couple weeks I have slowly installed CQC without much time to tinker with it but it was installed none the less.
After my final Elk M1 shopping list at Confused on needed Elk M1G accessories I received my Elk M1 with accessories yesterday and I bench tested it today. It went fairly smoothly. The only slow downs were the cat5 crimping and wiring, realizing I needed a resistor over output 2 since it is supervised (whatever that means), and not knowing why I needed JP3 shorted when using the data bus hub.
I even was able to get the following accessories up and running:
M1DBH data bus hub to make life easier.
M1XEP connected with the ElkRP and CQC software.
M1XOVR relays with some rules for irrigation.
And of course the KP1 keypad, speaker, battery and transformer.
Ive got a couple generic triggers and actions running on cqc just for testing. I have Rippers' elk template showing if the system is armed or ready, and I can arm and disarm the system. However I'm not sure if there is anyway to really use the numeric keypad included in the template - ideally I'd like to be able to disarm the system by clicking the numbers in the user's passcode. (I also had to change the Ready and Armed images from command buttons to boolean images).
I added some irrigation rules from the Elk Site Sprinkler Page and used a custom settings value for the running duration based on Spanky's recomendation at Rain8 vs Elk-M1, Irrigation (not sure why they are not called programming variables). The rules and tasks seem to be working. I'm also not sure why I must set an unused output to on and later check it as opposed to setting a custom settings value when setting some state to check determine if the sprinklers have been disabled for that day. As for the rules, being able to group them would make things emensily more organized as I can see it getting quite confusing. Notes on each rule would also be nice so I would remember why I used output 208 as a variable substitute for example.
I have not settled on a lighting protocol due to Insteon switches not always acknowledging paddle presses (and you can forget about the instant on double click feature). Some of the newer ZWave switches are nice but too pricey for me. I'm hoping some afordable zwave switches come out that support state change notifications without polling.
I'm not real sure where I will be taking things from here. I'll probably review my original 1st post on what I want out of the system and see what I can do in the mean time while my house is being completed.
Thanks everyone for your help during each step.
