So, it has been a while since I had posted to this thread, and I had received some questions regarding my install, so here is goes.
I have a total of 108 zones on my Elk M1G, which include wired door and window contacts, motion sensors, glass break sensors, water sensors, heat sensors, CO2 sensors, a gas sensor, and a smoke detector (only had to wire one to notify the Elk). I wired the 3 garage doors, 2 fireplaces, and automated water valve to relays on the M1RB. I also have some elk thermometers wired in. I have the Ethernet expander both for remote access, and for CQC access. I have 3 serial expanders, but am only using one of them. Hooked up to the serial expander is the protocol adapter for the 3 Aprilaire thermostats. I control those through the Elk, and have access to them through CQC. Hooked up to the bus expansion boards are all of the zone expanders, 2 KP2 keypads, and 1 KPAS keypad.
All of the zones are wired into 66 blocks in Can 1, then wired to the zone expander boards or other locations on the Elk in Can 2 using 25-pair telco cables. All of the wires that are punched down to the 66 blocks are stranded wire, which works great, as long as you pay attention to your punchdowns. I actually punched down the wires, then pushed it in further using a tiny flat blade screwdriver, then punched it down one more time to trim off any excess. It took a bit longer than wiring directly to the Elk, but I think it looks cleaner, and allows for easy changes in the future.
For powered contacts (motions, water sensors, etc.) I used terminal blocks, connected to an Elk PD9, after carefully calculating the power requirements. The PD9 is fed from a 1A power supply in Can 3 (the power can).
In Can 1, I also have a Leviton phone board, and a couple Channel Vision splitters and an CV amplifier for my cable signal. I also have the Aprilaire protocol adapter stored in that can.
Can 3 contains all of my power and batteries for the other cans. I currently am powering the Elk M1, Elk M1XEP, the Elk P624 (which supplies the PD9 in Can 1), the Aprilaire protocol adapter, and the Channel Vision cable amp. I also have an Elk P412 in the can, which I will be firing up soon to replace the P624. I'll need a little over 1A to run the automated water valve.
I have a fourth can too, that has Cat5e wires from every light switch box bundled up in it. I was originally going to use ALC lighting, and am still wored for it, but decided to go with UPB instead. From an automation standpoint, I just felt that there was a lot more support for UPB, plus my wire really did not like the ALC switches. So far, I have been very happy with UPB (15 switches so far).
On the rack, I have my dedicated Sage server on the left, and my HA server on the right; both running XP Pro. The HA server runs CQC, the AverMedia NVR software, the NComputing software for the touchscreen, and serves my network storage. Above that are all of my patch panels. I punched down network (blue), intercom (yellow), audio control (orange), cameras (black), and serial ports (green) to RJ45 jacks. I punched down my composite video runs to the Leviton Cat5e-to-video jacks. I punched down all of my distributed audio speaker runs to bananna jacks. I also ran speaker cable for my HT speakers, in case I ever wanted to move my HT equipment to the closet. Above the patch panels is my gigabit switch. Above that is my Cable router (phone and Internet), and network router. I then have a rack mounted surge strip, which is plugged into a UPS behind the rack. On the next shelf up are the two squeezebox receivers which are controlled through CQC (well, one is now, and the second will be soon), the serial server, and behind those are the two Compoint hubs for the intercom and doorbells. Above that is the CAV and then the CAM, and then one more rack mounted surge strip that is plugged into the wall (no battery backup). I have a keyboard, mouse, and LCD monitor in the shelves to the right of the rack, and use a 2-port KVM to switch between the 2 servers.
I still have a lot of items on my to-do list, such as getting the heat and smoke sensors hooked up, getting the water sesnors hooked up, getting the internal Elk speakers hooked up, and a lot of programming in CQC. I still need to install a rollup door contact on my storage door, and create a seperate zone for that, and have 2 contacts that need to get fixed. I also have two new 2TB drives to replace the two 1TB drives in my Sage server that I need to get in. It seems like anytime I check something off my list, I add two more things.
Anyway, pics of each of the cans and the rack are in the album Wire Termination Progress in my Showcase. Please feel free to post any questions on my setup, and I will get an answer to you.
http://www.cocoontech.com/forums/index.php...r&user=2974
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