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security and automation have become an integral part of today's modern home. Helping
pave the way is ELK Products, a company that designs and manufactures electronic
equipment for the professional security and home automation installer/contractor.
Their product line includes indoor and outdoor speakers, sirens, relays, timers,
programmable controls, telephone equipment, amplifiers, recordable units, batteries
and much more. Elk Products has recently taken a bold step with the introduction
of their new M1 Gold Cross Platform Control Systems. The M1 is designed
for home security as well as home automation and does it all in one package.
Installation is simple for the installer or capable do-it-yourselfer and the ELK-RP
software included with the M1 gives users full control of the features and functions
available in the system. The M1 is designed with nonvolatile flash memory, so
that the system firmware can be upgraded anytime a new version is available. The
M1 LCD Keypad can also have its firmware upgraded in the same manner through the
Elk-RP software. The comprehensive 72-page Installation and Programming Manual
covers all technical aspects of the product including detailed interfaces with
the optional M1 products. We found the manual quite helpful during our review
and a must for any installer. Elk Products also offers training and based on our
experience with the system, we would have benefited from a class or two. The learning
curve is not unmanageable for the novice techie, but it does take some time to
read through the manuals if you really want to explore the capabilities of the
system.  We
received the M1 Gold (System 4) package, which includes the main ELK-M1G
Control Unit with terminal blocks, power transformer (ELK-TRG1640), LCD keypad
(ELK-M1KP), 12V 8Ah back-up battery (ELK-1280), interior speaker (ELK-73), RJ31X
TelCo jack and cord (ELK-RJSET), all housed in a 14" x 14" metal enclosure
with lock and keys. The enclosure comes with a detachable door, making it easy
to access the internal control unit wiring during installation and setup. The
all-in-one packages are designed to get the installer or do-it-yourselfer up and
running in a short time and includes all the basic items. Most users will want
to add to the system to increase the capabilities, particularly M1 LCD keypads,
temperature sensors and other input/output expanders. We decided to add
two additional LCD keypads, a 12V siren and a Zone Temperature Sensor (ELK-M1ZTS).
The Zone Sensor is capable of reading temperatures from -50 °F to 140 °F.
Other accessories are also available including zone in and out expanders, two-way
listening devices, relay boards, a data bus wiring hub, a lighting/thermostat
interface and an ethernet port interface. We would have liked to try more of these
products, but our budget would not allow it.
The
M1 Gold offers 16 onboard monitoring zones and can be expanded to 208.
Up to 48 wireless zones are supported with an event log (up to 512) with time/date
stamp history. The M1 has a 500+ word vocabulary allowing the user to create up
to six word phases per announcement such as "The garage is open".
The M1 Gold version also offers advanced lighting options (Preset dim,
extended code, levels, scenes) using the X10 protocol. We installed an X10-PRO
PSC05 two-way powerline interface module to handle the home automation interface
to our X-10 products. This is a valuable feature included in the M1 that gives
users control over X-10 compatible lighting and power products.  The
main user interface to the M1 is the LCD Keypad that gives users a large backlit
LCD display for easy reading. Up to 16 LCD keypads can be connected to a single
M1 Gold (M1G) Cross Platform Control Unit. The design offers full navigation
buttons next to the numeric keypad to access the menu system. Simply press the
ELK key and the menu text will guide you through the options. Some prior knowledge
of the system is required if the manual is not handy. Function buttons (F1 through
F6) can be used to initiate an alarm condition such as Fire, Police or Medical
emergencies or can be programmed for other functions. The backlight goes to full
brightness when a button push is detected making it easy to see in the dark. After
several seconds, the backlight level changes to a level defined by the user in
the ELK-RP software. The Ready light illuminates when all zones are secure
and the system is ready for arming. If the user attempts to arm the system with
a zone violated, the display will indicate the number of zones violated. The Armed
light goes active if the Exit or Stay buttons are pressed. The Exit
button illuminate upon activation and indicates the system is armed with no occupancy.
The Stay button illuminate upon activation and indicates the user is occupying
the premises. The Chime key will go active if a chime or announcement
has been defined for any of the zones, otherwise the light will be off. The Bypass
button only illuminates when a zone is bypassed, otherwise the button is off.
The
LCD keypad measures 6-7/8" wide, 5-1/4" tall and 1-3/8" deep and
mounts to a detachable plate that installs on the wall. Only four wires are required
for power and communications to the M1 unit. Two additional wires can be used
for the supervised zone input and a programmable voltage output. The Glacier White
color is an off white that should work in most homes. The keypad contains a built-in
temperature sensor and can be programmed to display time, area and temperature.
User can interface an optional Plug-in Prox Access reader (26 bit Weigand format)
if so desired.  Interface
Diagram
The M1G unit has a connection diagram on the top of the module
that helps considerably when making connections to the terminal blocks. The upper
left side handles all 16 zones and the lower left are used for the power interfaces
including the 16.5 VAC power input. Each of the 16 zones is designed to have a
2200 ohm end-of-line (EOL) resistor so that the system can be used with both normally
open and normally closed switches for detecting violated zones. Basically an open
or short across any zone can be detected as a violation. Zone 16 can be also be
configured to handle smoke detectors if desired. The right side has interfaces
for a telephone line, an RS232 PC connection and a PLC (Power Line Carrier) module.
The OUT 1 connection is designed to drive a speaker (4 ohms min) and is used for
both voice and siren. The OUT 2 connection can be configured to drive a speaker
(4 ohms min) or output a voltage for a light or siren. If OUT 2 is not used, then
it is recommended that the installer put a 2200 ohm resistor on the terminals
to avoid an error condition with the output. Also included here are the programmable
outputs, siren, speaker and the LCD keypad interface. The PC connected to the
M1G uses a standard one-to-one RS232 cable for communication. Only three wires
in the cable are required for communication.
Optional
M1 Products
The M1 System is designed to be flexible and supports several
add-on products for increased capabilities and expansion. Support products include
additional LCD keypads, input and output zone expanders, ethernet port expanders,
serial port expanders, proximity readers, two-way listening devices and relay
boards. For us, additional LCD keypads were paramount in adding flexibility and
convenience. We also decided to include a remote temperature sensor and some additional
speakers for distributing the voice announcements. The system is also designed
to support 4 wire (any zone) and 2 wire (zone 16) smoke detectors.  Zone
Temperature Interface
We came up with an application that relied upon
the ELK-M1ZTS M1 Zone Temperature Interface. This product is designed to monitor
temperatures remotely using a simple three wire interface to the module. We installed
the temperature sensor in the attic to monitor the heat level. The module uses
a National Semiconductor LM34 precision temperature sensor installed in a RJ45
jack. The main unit includes an embedded microcontroller that communicates the
temperature information to the M1. The three wire interface allows the module
to work from a distance of up to 1000 feet using inexpensive CAT-5 cabling. The
ELK-M1ZTS can use any of the 16 zones available on the M1. We assigned it to zone
15. Placing this sensor in the attic allowed us to control remote attic fans based
on the temperature, time of day, and day of week. By instrumenting various locations
in the house, the user can make decisions based on the temperature data and other
factors.
System
Installation
Installation of the M1-Gold is similar to other security
products with lots of wired interfaces connecting to the main unit. AC power comes
from the 16.5VAC, 45VA (ELK-TRG1640) wall transformer. In the event AC power is
not available on site, the installer can short out two terminals to prevent the
unit from detecting the absence of AC power. The 12V, 8AH lead-acid battery provides
backup power to the unit in the event power to the system is cut off. The main
power switch is located near the input power connection with onboard LEDs for
system status. We made use of some of our existing security system wiring since
the interface of the two systems were similar. The M1 can work with either normally
open or normally closed contact switches. We also connected a separate garage
door switch to help alert us when the door is open. The powerful
“Whenever/And/Then” rules programming allows any user to define the
logic behind any action. We have our system remind us if the garage door is open
after 9pm. The 500+ word vocabulary makes it easy to assemble useful phrases to
address the homeowner. Each
LCD keypad needs to be set up with a unique address so that the M1 controller
can communicate with it. Bus Module Enrollment is required once the keypads
have been wired into the system and programmed with the new addresses. Each keypad
is automatically identified and can then be accessed through the software. Elk
Products recommends using a Data Bus Hub (ELK-M1DBH) when connecting more than
two keypads or expanders on the bus. Proper bus termination is required for reliable
operation over the RS485 interface. We
connected an X-10 PRO two-way powerline interface (Model PSC05) to the PLC port
built on the M1 controller which allowed us to command our extensive X10 devices
already installed in our system. The software made it easy to have conditional
rules to activate the X10 lighting and appliance modules based on sunset/sunrise
times and sensor inputs. ElkRP
Software
The ElkRP software is designed to be a state-of-the-art environment
for maintaining different setups of customers’ accounts. In our case we had a
single account, but it is designed to handle a large number of differently configured
systems, which would be typical for a professional installer. The software also
supports multiple users with different levels of access. The installer can modify
the M1 system while connected to the unit or has the ability to modify the system
off-line and then synchronize it later. We connected the M1G system to our PC
using the RS232 serial cable. A network interface is also available, but we did
not have it on hand for the review. A great feature is the ability to detect configuration
differences between the the M1 system and the PC database. Resolving those differences
is simple and can be done individually or all at once. Conclusion
Elk Products has produced a very powerful home security and automation product
with their M1 Cross Platform Control. Having been familiar with our existing home
security system, the M1 was a fairly easy transition and offered far more capabilities
in a tidy package. Our review review is long overdue, yet we felt that it was
important to understand the many details the system had to offer. Elk Products
also offers M1 training to their dealers who sell the product to cut down on the
learning curve. This would have helped us get better acquainted with the product
in a shorter amount of time, but instead we spend time going through the manuals,
working with the software interface and reading the support website. In time,
we eventually figured out how the system worked. -
Kevin Nakano Special
Thanks to Trudy Hammer for her support. | 
