What to make an area on Elk?

[killervette]

How do you guys setup your areas and zones? I am not sure what an "area" should be. I have it as my whole house now. I doubt that is correct.

 

[123]

There's nothing wrong with that.

If you have out-buildings, like a detached garage or shed, you can make them separate Areas. Having multiple areas would allow you to disarm your Home but leave the shed and garage armed.

 

[bmil]

I have my house as Area 1 and the Attached garage as Area 2. I use a Keyfob button to simultaneously disarm the garage area and open the garage door. This way, even if I loose the Keyfob, someone finding it can only gain access to the garage. They would still have to disarm the rest of the house by using the keypad located just inside the door leading from the garage into the rest of the house.

I have a friend who uses a separate Area for a large gun safe he has in his basement so he can have different users (He and wife, not the kids) than for the House Area (in case the kids found out the safe combination).

 

[killervette]

I have my house as Area 1 and the Attached garage as Area 2. I use a Keyfob button to simultaneously disarm the garage area and open the garage door. This way, even if I loose the Keyfob, someone finding it can only gain access to the garage. They would still have to disarm the rest of the house by using the keypad located just inside the door leading from the garage into the rest of the house.

I have a friend who uses a separate Area for a large gun safe he has in his basement so he can have different users (He and wife, not the kids) than for the House Area (in case the kids found out the safe combination).

What do you use to open the garage door and link into elk?

 

[CORT]

All of the sensors in my unfinished basement are on a separate area, and the basement is always armed unless I am working in it. Plus, the basement is common to the rest of the house. Thus, the house will not arm if the basement is not armed.

 

[bmil]

killervette,

An output on the M1 is wired into my garage door opener button so a 1 second activation of the M1 output simulates pressing the garage door opener button. The garage door has magnetic contacts on it tied into M1 zones (for alarm purposes and to tell if it's open or not).

I also have the Elk wireless receiver which can receive wireless alarm contacts or Keyfobs. One of the 4 keyfob buttons activates an Elk rule that disarms the Garage Area (area 2) and then turns on the output that opens the garage door.

 

[Neurorad]

bmil, are you using an M1XOV or M1XOVR, or one of the control outputs?

If the control, which one?

 

[sic0048]

I have my crawl space and garage attic space under a separate area. That way those areas can always be armed, even if the regular house is disarmed. Or if for some reason I have someone out that needs to access those areas (HVAC tech or termite person, etc) I can disarm them without effecting the rest of the house. I don't even have a separate keypad for those areas. You simply arm/disarm those areas from the main keypad via one of the menu items.

 

[bmil]

Neurorad,

I'm using output 15 off the control board to activate the garage door opener. I have an M1RB that plugs into the output connector on the controller and gives you 8 relays.