q: Elk / Caddx Wireless control

[shenandoah75]

I was looking at Hunter's website and they make this remote that ties into their timers that allows you to walk the zone, service, etc without going back to the panel each time you need to turn a zone on/off or move to a new one.

I was thinking about adding a caddx receiver to the elk to basically do the same thing as i will be controlling srpinklers with the relay expansion boards. I might also replace my garage doors' (two doors) remotes with this too so i can turn on lights, etc too...

All my security devices (contact/motion) is/will be hardwired at least as planned and i do not plan on using to disarm at the moment - something makes me crinch at that (maybe prior posts i've read)...



Anyway, anyone doing this?

With a limited set of keys/softkeys on a pad, i'm a bit purplexed. For the ones i devote to the garage, no issues, one button each for the doors and maybe two other to turn on exterior/some interior lights.

But for a remote i use for sprinkler maintanence, i've got ten zones... I guess i could use two remotes but would rather not? What would you do for the elk rules? assuming i would map the keys to automation task1-32 via events 2001-2032?... downside is i would need to spend 10 tasks 1 for each zone just for the sprinkler piece?

opinions?

thx
-brad

 

[shenandoah75]

or maybe i could build a more complex rule with counters to track all zones' status (1/0) and just have keys mapping to:

sprinklers on
sprinklers off
zone up
zone down

using only four tasks instead of 10?

 

[mustangcoupe]

Well what about one button/rule for sprinklers on/off (use a status counter 0/1) and one button for switch zone (agian use a counter for the zone number 1,2,3.......). I havent gotten into rules yet but this may work.

 

[gregoryx]

I'm using an Elk expander to control eight zones. I have each zone set up to have adjustable durations, two possible start times per day and "all on" and "bypass" options all usable from the keypad. It's simple enough that my wife can use it and it has been 100% reliable. Yes, it took some lines of code.

More to your point: I'm also using the W800RF with the Elk. I have tied buttons in a PalmPad to sprinkler zone start / stop. Easy enough. Remotes are cheap as can be. Works well. Unfortunately, the Elk doesn't understand DIMUP/DIMDOWN or I could use those to change the duration of a zone if I wanted to.

Theoretically some of the "encrypted" RF stuff is supposed to work with the W800RF but it didn't sound like any of the keypads did that. I wouldn't arm/disarm with the PalmPads, but I use them for sprinklers and lights. No neighbors toying with me so far.

Just another way to consider the wireless aspect... B)

I couldn't tell if you were concerned about how the code would work, but if so just lemme know and I can paste it.

 

[Steve]

I KISS. I just use a cordless phone and walk around turning outputs on and off. Maybe not quite as convenient as a dedicated remote, but free and easy. Also, there was a post around about using your browser on a cell phone. You could probably do that and have custom menus.

You could probably also use the Caddx fob and 1 button. You would have to build rules if buttons was pressed x times in y seconds then do stuff. I haven't tried that yet with Caddx but it worked with UPB switch paddles.