M1XOVR Lights

[Mike]

I was wondering if there was documentation on the blinking orange light for the M1XOVR. I installed one recently (nothing connected yet) and hooked it to the M1G via data bus hub.

It seems to occasionally come up with 'OUT EXPANSION NO COMM' or something similar on the keypad. The lights on it were blinking twice. I disconnected it, and reattached the cables for the 4-wire connection and reset. It seems to work ok (and the lights blink three times now), but that was how it appeared originally when I installed it.

I'm thinking I should just create a new cable (perhaps a bad stretch of cat5), but I was curious if the blinking was documented like it is with other modules.

 

[Mike]

I'm guessing there might be a relation: I looked in the log and the output expander has been having problems as there are tons of messages 1141 and 1161 pairs (EXPANSION MODULE TROUBLE, EXPANSION MODULE RESTORE). After a period of time (sometimes minutes sometimes 30 minutes or so) it goes through that cycle (but is restored on the same time stamp).

I removed it for now, as I had the smoke detectors false alarm (which have been installed for weeks without issue, and were tested). Why would it be related? No clue, but since it is having some sort of issue and then another symptom appears I'm assuming it might be related (although it may just be a coincidence as nothing should affect the fire detection).

If anyone has any similar experiences it would be helpful. I'm wondering if the M1XOVR might actually be defective in some way.

When I last looked, the M1XOVR seemed to be blinking once (again leading back to my original question on if that can be used to diagnose anything).

 

[Spanky]

Make sure you have gone through the enrollment procedure using menu 1 of installer programming. i.e., ELK, 9,1 >

Check the data bus error screen on the keypad using menu 8,4 to see if data bus errors are counting up. If so, there may be a wiring problem or the data bus is not terminated properly. When everything is working correctly, you should have a single blink of the status LED on the module.

 

[Mike]

Spanky, thanks a lot!

I had enrolled the unit, but hadn't checked on data bus errors. I also hadn't originally checked the logs as I wasn't connecting anything yet (the unit was to tie in the sprinklers). Had I checked the logs I would have had an earlier indication (I thought all was well when it was having periodic problems since install apparently).

It was my (incorrect) assumption that it was initially working properly that was making me not jump right to the cable.

I replaced the cable and everything looks good so far. I'm betting there must be a problem at some point in the cable (since it seemed to be working then not, then working). Everything working as expected now and logs are clean.

If there were data bus errors (which there were due to the bad cable I used), could that have caused the false alarm on the smokes (or was it simply a coincidence)?

It did point out to me that I would have liked to know which one falsed (since the reversing relay is in, all of them go off), so I may eventually go back and look at hooking the remote annunciator outputs in some fashion (researching to make sure this works of course) to drive an input on the elk, so that the offending zone is noted before triggering the output that triggers the reversing relay. Probably a lot of work for information that will be useful a few times. Oh well, something to consider when I finish all my other projects.

Thanks for the input. My lawn will thank you in a few months.

 

[Spanky]

Great to hear you got the data bus problem worked out. RS-485 data buss' can be a royal pain if not connected and terminated properly.

A good test on the data bus is to power down the system and measure the resistance across Data A and Data B on the RS-485 data bus. A properly terminated bus will measure about 65 ohms + or - 10 ohms.

Around 35 ohms means you have too many terminating resistors.

120 ohms means you only have one terminating resistor.

Greater than 1000 ohms means you have no terminating resistors.


An improperly terminated bus will show all kinds of weird operational problems. If you disconnect one module the problem will move to another module.

Watching data bus errors accumulate on the LCD screen menu 8,4 will show you the health of the data bus. No accumulation or less than 1 error per minute is good. If the errors are counting up as you watch the LCD screen, you have a data bus problem.

The data bus error accumulation count will be from the time you powered up the M1 Control. To reset the error count, power off the M1 and then back on.