power failure question

[DeLicious]

so, we had some pretty big storms in the dallas area today, and i lost power for a while. since it was starting to get hot in my house, i wanted to go out for dinner, but couldn't arm my Elk system. since the power was gone, my wired motion detectors (who get power from the wall) were all turned off, and showing up as Not Ready on the elk keypad, meaning I could not arm my system. furthermore, i couldn't even bypass them. what should i be doing?

 

[WayneW]

Your motion detectors should be wired to the M1 Vaux so they are battery backed up. The zone definition needs to be configured as bypassable.

 

[DeLicious]

what's the Vaux? I never heard of it. and the detector is on an input expander, nowhere near the main board, so i don't know if that affects anything. i'll check RP about it's bypassability (new word!!)

 

[CollinR]

Auxillary voltage, it's there specifically to power motions, smokes and other security related devices specifically so they will work through power failures.

 

[Steve]

True on the Vaux, but I would think you could still force arm it (that must be a setting too). Did you at least pick a restaurant that had power??? :blink:

 

[DeLicious]

ended up waiting for the power to come back on before eating... don't know what is force arm either. still so much to learn...

 

[DeLicious]

anyone have a link to a Vaux? I couldn't find anything that fits the description on either AO or Elk website.

 

[Steve]

It's just a power connection on the M1, lower left corner. There is main, Vaux and Saux. It is fully described in the M1 manual.

 

[DeLicious]

so is that another wire that i have to run from the main board to the motion detector? that was the whole point of using the input expander, so i only had to run the one wire to the expander, and the motion detector would hook up to that.

 

[TakeFlight]

Assuming the input expander is in a closet or similar location (where you can put more gear and have access to AC) you could put a 12V power supply with battery backup in that location to supply the power for the motion sensors. Something like the ELK-P412K.

 

[rfdesq]

The input expander has 12 volts on the board http://www.elkproducts.com/pdf/M1XIN_Input_Expander.pdf.

 

[Steve]

The input expander has 12 volts on the board http://www.elkproducts.com/pdf/M1XIN_Input_Expander.pdf.

But that's part of the data bus connection. Not sure I would feel comfortable tapping into that unless Spanky said it was kosher. I would most likely go with the external supply. Also would consider how many devices there are - with 1, maybe you can fudge it, but with many devices you probably want a supplemental supply anyway.

 

[wuench]

You need 4 wires going to your Motion detector, 2 for detection to the Input Expander, 2 for Aux Power. If you used 22/4 wire you would be covered, but it sounds like you only used 22/2.

I broke the VAux power out into a terminal bus and then a PD9 but you could have wired directly to that. I have a PD9 mounted under each input expander to make wiring cleaner. Click the link in my sig to see some pictures. (I only have 1 motion detector hooked up at this point...

 

[DeLicious]

well, i didn't wire the motion detector myself... it was with the house when i bought it. i have the two detection wires going to the input expander, and it has two wires going to a transformer plugged into the wall. it would be hard to take those two wires and connect them to another power source, but I just have to find out where. if spanky says i can put it on the power for the databus, that would probably fix things.

 

[rfdesq]

But that's part of the data bus connection. Not sure I would feel comfortable tapping into that unless Spanky said it was kosher. I would most likely go with the external supply. Also would consider how many devices there are - with 1, maybe you can fudge it, but with many devices you probably want a supplemental supply anyway.

I should have been more explicit. I run all of my peripheral devices from a separate ELK 4 amp power supply. I run very little current from the M1 itself. So the power to the M1XIN should have plenty of current to supply the motion detectors. I hope Spanky agrees that if the current requirements are met, everything is tied together properly, and protected, 12 volts is 12 volts is 12 volts no matter where you pick it up.