I just finished installing my new Elk M1 Gold system. it has the two-way wireless unit, the ethernet adapter and a zone expander. I have a couple of questions:
I understand at first startup, i can use a keypad to enroll the zones, etc. but i also believe i can do this with the Elk RP2 software. I've got that downloaded. I'd like to know if i need to do anything first with the keypad to get going or can I just power it up and then go right to the Elk RP2?
also: i have some 4 old "sirens" and i'm not sure how to connect them to the "bell" / "voice/siren" connections. my previous sirens were connected to an "Elk-110 voice siren" (despite the fact that my old system was a GE system).
1) am I correct that the "bell" connections on the main M1 board just sends power to it's "siren" and this siren itself will have it's own system that generates the actual sound of a siren?
2) am I also correct that the "voice" connections can send either a voice or a siren, but all they really need is a speaker because the sound is created, so to speak, inside the M1 board and it just needs to be connected to a speaker?
3) if I have three "sirens" that were previously connected to this "Elk-110 voice siren" board, can i just connect all three of these in parallel to the "voice/siren" connection on the M1 board and expect them to work? I am concerned that they may be too much resistance to work.
I appreciate any help,
Someguy
When you initially connect a keypad and power up the M1 for the first time, the keypad with address 1 will automatically enroll with the M1. Keypads ship from the factory configured with a default address of address 1.
What you don't want to do is connect multiple keypads before you set their addresses. The M1 won't be happy if more than one keypad has the same address.
You can configure your system through the keypad, including zones, but it is an awfully painful way to do things. Connect your first keypad, configure the serial port via the keypad, and then use RP2 connected through the serial port and do the reset of the configuration from your PC.
If you previously had an Elk 110 board, are you sure you had sirens connected to it and not speakers? The 110 produces siren sounds, but does so through speakers. So I'm wondering if it is those speakers that you want to connect to the M1 or if you have 4 true sirens.
1) Setting Global Option 26 (G26) to YES causes OUT2 to produce a 12VDC voltage, limited to 1 Amp. You'll need to check the current draw on your sirens to make sure they won't draw more than 1A in total. It is assumed that the siren has its own built-in driver to produce the sound, such as the Elk-45 siren.
2) If you configure Global Option 26 to NO, OUT2 will produce siren sounds for use with a speaker. If you want to connect multiple speakers, you may need to connect them is a series/parallel combination to keep the total impedance from going below 4 ohms.
Voice announcements go only to OUT1, in addition to siren sounds. OUT1 is usually used for inside the house and only speakers can be connected to it. OUT2 is used for outside, where you probably don't want voice announcements.
3) If your sirens are really speakers, then yes, you need to worry about the total impedance. Use a combination of series and parallel connections to keep the impedance in the range of 4 to 32 ohms.
If you don't already have everything installed and wired up, I strongly suggest doing a bench test first. Put the M1 on your workbench (or even the kitchen table) and wire up a keypad and power it up and see if it works.
Next, connect a PC to the serial port and fire up RP2.
Once you get that working, connect your wireless zone expander and enroll it. No need to configure zones just yet. It needs to be configured as the first zone expander (address 2 on the DB).
Now, connect the wired zone expander. It's best to configure this at a high address, such as DB address 12. That will leave a gap of unused zones between wireless and wired, allowing you to grow the system up of down into the unused area later. It prevents a lot of painful reconfiguration later if you add more expanders.
Note that data bus addresses are in different classes based on the device type. Each type has it's own range. So keypads are in one class, while expanders are in their own class and keypad address 2 does not conflict with input expander address 2.
Once you have the expanders as part of the system, it's time to add the M1XEP. This is the most complex device to add. The instructions are pretty detailed on the steps, but it helps to have some networking knowledge about things such as network addresses, subnets, static addresses, dynamic addresses and DHCP.
I found that the Elk M1XEP Diagnostic Utility is helpful to figure out what's going on with the M1XEP.
If you can't do a bench test, I would advise you to at least try the same sequence of steps with things mounted in place. If you connect everything up at once and it doesn't work, it's not easy to figure out what is wrong without disconnecting everything and taking it one step at a time.
One thing to pay attention to is the data bus termination jumpers. There should always be exactly 2. It's important to get them in the right places based on how you have the bus wired up.
Also, check your total current draw for the system. The total current draw for all your devices needs to be less than 1A. Sirens connected to OUT2 don't count. Keypads, zone expanders and the M1XEP do count. If you are over 1A (or just very close to it), you will need an aux power supply.
