Adding 110v smokes into HA

[redondo_se]

Speaking of the GE350CX... does it still activate it's relay when the power is out? I installed a Kidde SM120X and was a bit dissapointed, but not completely surprised, that the relay didnt activate when the power was out. Likewise, when the power was out, the SM120X could not trigger the other alarms. Since the GE350X has it's own battery (unlike the SM120X) I'd think it could.

OK, I was all ready to buy the GE detectors, but now I've been reading that you should have a combination of ionization and photoelectric detectors. I've been searching, but I can't find a GE ionization detector that will work with the 350 series. Is there one that I'm missing? How about another brand that meets all these requirements:

120V
Interconnect 7 (8 if I add one more) detectors
Relay to connect to my elk that functions both with and without AC power
Combination of photoelectric and ionization detectors

It looks like none of the BRK, Kidde, or Firex relays work without AC. I guess Gentex does, but I don't see any ionization detectors from them.

Also, I'd like to work at least one CO detector into the mix, but it doesn't look like GE has an integrated smoke/CO detector. I'm leaning towards using all 350s with one 350CX for the relay, and then having a seperate GE 240 CO detector hooked up to my ELK.

I didn't do my homework on smokes ahead of time. My electrician installed Kidde detectors and a SM120X, but I didn't know the SM120X didn't work without AC power.

Thanks,
Sean.

After many hours of searching, I couldn't find anything that met all my requirements. I'm pretty sure it doesn't exist. I settled on using 6 Kidde PI2000 and 2 Kidde KN-COSM-IB. The PI2000s give me photo and ionization in most of my rooms. The KN-COSM-IBs give me ionization and CO detection. Then I got a new SM120X and a C0120X that I'm going to connect to my Elk.

In all my searching some people claimed that you can get false alarms on these relays when the power turns off and on. I'll set them up first as information only, i.e. I won't set off the alarm if they're triggered and see how it goes.

Edit: I forgot to mention that I had to replace all my original detectors and SM120X because the interconnect circuits on all of them got fried when I was messing around with them at first. The electrician had installed the SM120X in the junction box. I turned off power at the breaker and removed the detector to check out the relay. What I didn't realize at first was that I had pulled one of the wires loose from the quick connect. After I realized, I tried to put the wire back in place, but I guess it wasn't secure. When I put everything back and turned the power back on, the loose wire must have caused problems and fried the circuits. My lesson learned: be very careful with those wires when you're hooking things up!

Since the Kidde relays don't work without AC power, I decided to also hook up 4 wire smokes. Luckily, I was able to "steal" a wire from the locations where my combo motion sensor/glass break detectors are located on my upper floors. The locations aren't near windows anyway so I won't be using the glass break portion, only the motion. I'm using DSC 410-BSTs, which give me photoelctric, thermal, and will work on the battery backup of the Elk panel.

MavRic,
I think all the units just put 120V on the interconnect wire.
One thing to look into might be the Kidde SM120X. It is a relay that hooks up the 120v interconnect. I just ordered one on ebay for $20 shipped. I figured in my case this was a better deal as I have a 120V smoke a few feet from my alarm panel that I can easily tie into

I'm 99% sure that the Kidde alarms put 9V DC on the interconnect. I'm also pretty sure that all the other 120V detectors do the same, but they warn against connecting different brands on the same interconnect. An interesting point is that Kidde has 2 different relays (smoke and CO) that function independently on the same interconnect, so there must be something unique about the signal used for each.

 

[dBeau]

In all my searching some people claimed that you can get false alarms on these relays when the power turns off and on. I'll set them up first as information only, i.e. I won't set off the alarm if they're triggered and see how it goes.

My whole reason for using the SM120X to tie my smokes into the Elk was so that the Elk could then tell me that the smokes went off while I wasnt in the house. The smokes make enough noise on their own to let me know when I am home. I set up the zone as a "11 = Fire Verified", which causes the Elk to wait a bit after being tripped before getting all excited about there being a fire. This also lets me hit the self test button on a smoke without triggering the alarm.

 

[akachurowski]

I bought a SM120X and have it wired to the 120V smokes. How should I hook it up to the Elk? Should I hook it up to zone 16 and configure it as a 2 wire smoke using the NC contact and EOL? Would it be better to use one of the other zones and set it up as a 4 wire? I don't plan on using any other 2 wire detectors in my system, and will eventually add more 4 wire smokes.