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This morning I experienced a 'soft' failure on my M1G system.  I have voice announcements turned off between 11:00PM and 8:00AM,  Well this morning (prior to 8:00AM) the disarm message was incorrectly produced.  I have yet to investigate how/why it 'forgot' this setting.  The time displayed on...

Has anyone deployed an LTE network backup solution?  Typically a 'router' device that upon failure of a primary internet link will route traffic via an LTE/4G link?  What router/radio?  What carrier?  What type of data plan?  There looks to be cost effective 'IOT' data plans that provide low...

I've been incrementally rolling out a whole-house-audio system.  Few of the speakers and none of the control keypads are mounted in-wall.  A few speakers are on-wall mounting.   For the most part, the speakers in the zones/rooms were existing and were using a 'poor-mans' WHA system via speaker...

Well it finally happened at our house.  A power outage and related voltage surge and damage. Last Sunday evening, a narrow line of storms passed through the western Pennsylvania area. Some lightning/thunder, but mostly strong winds (50+ MPH gusts). Around 8:30pm my wife was on the phone with a...

Always looking for a value (makes for higher WAF).

Ok, I've had an Elk M1G performing Security functions for a few years.  I'm now going to attempt to sell the concept of lighting control HA to my wife.  We have a few fixtures currently controlled by timers and photocells.  Adding automation to these fixtures and others might 'sell'.   My...

Any recommendations for good quality low-cost indoor and/or outdoor surge protectors for gigabit (CAT5/5e) POE+ (11at) circuits.  Best to have 110 punch-down connections but I could deal with RJ45 connections if the price was right.  I see that Ubiquiti has a low cost device, but it's RJ45 and...

I'm about to deploy a bunch of POE surveillance cameras around the house exterior.   What do folks think about running CAT5 cables under vinyl siding and/or along the siding edge channels?  I DID once run the grounding conductor for an OTA TV antenna along one of the siding 'J' channels, so I...

I would like to install a new smoke/heat sensor (a GE photoelectric smoke, heat - I forget the model #).  It will be located on a suspended ceiling, probably near the doorway between two rooms in the basement.  There is an existing smoke/heat sensor in the basement near the stairs in what we...

Consumer IR links are generally optical, but MANY devices today have 'electrical IR' connectivity.  What specifications and/or standards exist for these electrical interfaces?   I realize that a few different CIR protocols exist.  And that many of these use same carrier frequency.  Google is...

I'm looking to buy or design/build a device to interface one or two speaker annunciators to a mono line level signal.  And provide a 12VDC trigger output to indicate the presence of audio (some form of level threshold and monostable).  I strongly desire that the input(s) be transformer coupled. ...

I'm looking for product suggestions on a rack mount 'switched PDU' for a reasonable price.  Probably a 1U device with 4-8 switched outlets.  A 15A total capacity, but 10A would be OK for a 4 outlet variety.   I've found a few on the web, and some are quite expensive.  And others look like they...

... Both appear to be in the pre-announce state.

I have an Elk M1G panel.  AlarmRelay monitoring.  Currently using POTS copper line for reporting.  Plan to add internet monitoring in addition to telephone line.  (Moving from copper to FiOS service).   What are the current recommendations for a cellular 'modem' alarm reporting device?  Uplink? ...

The forum is titled home theater, but I'm looking at a WHA system. Until now I've been running a poor-mans audio system with a collection of recievers, speaker switches, etc. no in-wall speakers at the moment. About six rooms of wired, free-standing speakers. With some headroom, an eight...

I'm thinking of installing a water meter to be used for HA application (leak detection, usage monitoring, etc.).  My water utility installs Sensus SR-II meters interfaced to their RF AMR/AMI system.   (The best I can tell) The Sensus meters implement a serial protocol where the AMR module polls...

I've been away from the forums for a bit... Holidays, vacation, other projects, job search efforts, etc..... I'm finally getting around to setting up monitoring of my Elk M1G system. I'm most likely going with AlarmRelay after reading the chatter on these forums. Today I was setting up and...

As part of my overall home security updates, I was planning to install several motion detection floodlights around the periphery of the house. I purchased some of the fixtures, but then started to think about a better solution. Does anyone have experience, opinions, positive words, negative...

As I approach the end of the initial phase of the Westec 5000 to Elk M1G upgrade, I'm looking to do something with the Westec OAT functionality. This external keypad is currently outside of our garage overhead door. It was used both for arm/disarm/status of the W5K system as well as control of...

After lots of delays, I'm finally working to move my sensor/detector devices from my old Westec 5000 system over to the new M1G. First, I've discovered that most of the sensors are supervised with double EOLR's. (1.5K/3K) So I'm replacing these with the 2.2K EOLR's that Elk needs. OK, no...