Someone's Drunk

[backinthelab]

I've had this issue for some time now and I'm just getting to the point where it's driving me crazy.  Here's the scenario.

 

I have garage door sensors programmed through the ISY for the ELK to announce "Garage Door Open" whenever, well, the door is opened.  This works perfect throughout the day, with the exception of the first time it's executed, when it then announces "Garage Disarmed Door Open". 

 

The arming/disarming announcements are programmed in the ELK, and I've checked and double-checked the conditions on both ends.  Any ideas of which piece of tech is to blame or what I can do to stop this madness?

[G W]

What is spoken when the garage door is disarmed?

 

Gary Funk

Merry Christmas

[apostolakisl]

I have experienced the same thing.  The first Elk voice announcement after disarming always appends "disarmed" to whatever it was supposed to say.  I expect that you will have the same issue with any voice announcement, not just your garage door program.

 

I have no solution.  I only commiserate with you in the hopes that you will not feel alone.  

[G W]

I suspect that the zone is being disarmed AND opened at the same time. Therefore it's combining both announcements.

 

What happens if you disarm the door and wait 5 seconds before you open it. I'm suggesting you do this to test it one time.

 

I'm Gary Funk and I wrote this message.

[apostolakisl]

I suspect that the zone is being disarmed AND opened at the same time. Therefore it's combining both announcements.

What happens if you disarm the door and wait 5 seconds before you open it. I'm suggesting you do this to test it one time.

 

I'm Gary Funk and I wrote this message.

No.  It doesn't matter how long it has been.  I could disarm the alarm and have a voice announcement 8 hours later and it would still do it.  But just the first one.  It doesn't matter what the voice is saying, it always gets the "disarmed" added to it.  Then it is fine until the next arm/disarm cycle.

[G W]

I don't have that issue but I'll do more testing.

 

Gary Funk

Merry Christmas

[apostolakisl]

I don't have that issue but I'll do more testing.

 

Gary Funk

Merry Christmas

Maybe it is the firmware version.  It didn't always do it.  I don't remember when it started.  But I did keep screwing around with firmware updates until Elk finally got the daylight savings thing to work right.

[G W]

I'm on the latest firmware on their website. I upgraded just over a month ago.

 

Gary Funk

Merry Christmas

[apostolakisl]

I'm on the latest firmware on their website. I upgraded just over a month ago.

 

Gary Funk

Merry Christmas

Yes, I see they came out with one in July.  This looks like a serious one since they had it UL listed.  I last updated mine a couple years ago.  Aside from that voice issue, I have had no problems.  But now that they have a UL listed stamp on it, maybe I'll go ahead and update.

[apostolakisl]

Just remembered now.

 

When I updated to the latest version of Elk firmware out at the time (this was about a year ago), the latest version had a big bug in it.  I totally forget what it was now, but I had to roll back to an older version to fix it.  I communicated my issues to Elk and they confirmed that certain installations had this issue.  Rolling back to an older version fixed it.  Damn I wish I could remember what the issue was.

 

 

EDIT:  Just tracked down my emails to Elk.  This was 9/2105.  The problem was the system was rebooting spontaneously.  I had the issues on 5.3.8 and rolled back to 5.2.10 in November.  No probs since.

[G W]

That's weird. I hope you don't have defective hardware.

 

I'm Gary Funk and I wrote this message.

[apostolakisl]

That's weird. I hope you don't have defective hardware.

 

I'm Gary Funk and I wrote this message.

I don't think defective is the correct word.  I think it more of a particular hardware version/software version compatibility issue.  It could even just be a particular assortment of peripherals.  I am not the only person with this problem.  Elk even put in the release notes for 5.3.8 that they fixed it, but they were mistaken.

[TrojanHorse]

Hmm...

Latest firmware on Elk website is 5.3.10 from July 2016. The release notes from 5.3.10 say they've fixed the reboot problem.

I used to get occasional reboots but not anymore with 5.3.10. I have the Elk send me a message upon restart to monitor this behavior.

 

Edit: I initially misread the release to be 5.3.1

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[G W]

I understand what you mean.

 

 

The Elk is s very powerful and configurable system. When you have an Elk and ISY together you have a system that is very hard to match. I don't know who had the idea to integrate the two but he's on my Christmas Wish List.

 

Gary Funk

Merry Christmas

[apostolakisl]

Hmm...

Latest firmware on Elk website is 5.3.10 from July 2016. The release notes from 5.3.10 say they've fixed the reboot problem.

I used to get occasional reboots but not anymore with 5.3.10. I have the Elk send me a message upon restart to monitor this behavior.

 

Edit: I initially misread the release to be 5.3.1

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I saw that 5.3.10 states they fixed some reboot issues.  But they said that in the 5.3.8 one too.  To the best of my knowledge, I have never had a reboot on 5.2.10.  And I would typically know because a reboot turns all my outputs off, including my water valve.  I would only not know if it happened while no one is home and the system was armed because arming away itself shuts the water off.  But our house is occupied 90% of the time or more.

[backinthelab]

Thanks for the insight, I'm going to check the firmware tomorrow and see if that might be the cause. It's a small issue, I know, but I don't like when things aren't operating as they should!

[giesen]

I also had the reboot issue (along with another issue) and 5.3.10 has been good for me for quite some time.

 

Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk

[apostolakisl]

I updated to 5.3.10 on Friday.  No reboot problems so far.  Got my fingers crossed.

 

As far as the voice adding "is disarmed" to the end of the first voice announcement following a disarm . . . it still does it. 

[apostolakisl]

Reboots are back.  Had one this morning.  So much for UL listing.  Will have to go back to 5.2.10

[Scottmichaelj]

Reboots are back.  Had one this morning.  So much for UL listing.  Will have to go back to 5.2.10

 

I had a client last week who had a power outage for a while and was enough to drain his alarm as well. (I kept telling him to get a UPS but thats another story) The wireless devices would not come back online after power was restored. To fix it you had to remove the battery and put it back in to get the wireless devices back online. The two way wireless system checks every wireless device within 65min so he was getting tons of errors. I swapped out a wireless transmitter for him and did another test powering down the system. Power up was doing the same thing. Couldnt figure it out.

 

Long story short, went to his keypad, factory rest the system, then went into the ElkRP software and loaded back the configuration, retested, all wireless devices came back online within mins and no more issues. So try that. Its a simple thing to try. I hope this helps you.

[apostolakisl]

I had a client last week who had a power outage for a while and was enough to drain his alarm as well. (I kept telling him to get a UPS but thats another story) The wireless devices would not come back online after power was restored. To fix it you had to remove the battery and put it back in to get the wireless devices back online. The two way wireless system checks every wireless device within 65min so he was getting tons of errors. I swapped out a wireless transmitter for him and did another test powering down the system. Power up was doing the same thing. Couldnt figure it out.

 

Long story short, went to his keypad, factory rest the system, then went into the ElkRP software and loaded back the configuration, retested, all wireless devices came back online within mins and no more issues. So try that. Its a simple thing to try. I hope this helps you.

 

When you update to 5.3.10 from 5.2.10 it completely wipes the system.  I had to re-enroll all devices and reload all the programming by necessity.  Also, going in reverse requires those things as well.  Anyway, in short, I started with a clean slate.

[Scottmichaelj]

When you update to 5.3.10 from 5.2.10 it completely wipes the system. I had to re-enroll all devices and reload all the programming by necessity. Also, going in reverse requires those things as well. Anyway, in short, I started with a clean slate.

I updated fw and it still held the old config so Im not your 100% correct that it wipes it clean. Even Elk support recommends doing a reset, re-enroll and then uploading the config file after a fw update to be sure. *Per Brad at Elk tech support. Regardless a suggestion is all, I don't claim to be right.

[apostolakisl]

I updated fw and it still held the old config so Im not your 100% correct that it wipes it clean. Even Elk support recommends doing a reset, re-enroll and then uploading the config file after a fw update to be sure. *Per Brad at Elk tech support. Regardless a suggestion is all, I don't claim to be right.

 

After the update RP2 had every single item listed in the list of things that didn't match upon r- connection and when I randomly checked what the differences were, it said "does not exist on system" or whatever their exact language is.  The release notes said that "certain updates will erase the eeprom".  This is what happened to me both going up to 5.3.10 and back down to 5.2.10.  Perhaps there is something more to a factory reset than erasing the EEPROM?  

 

 

 

 

Warning: Some firmware updates make the control default its EEPROM memory. This will ERASE all customer programming, CANCEL all bypasses, CLEAR enrolled data bus devices, and TURN OFF the chime mode. It is always recommended to use ElkRP to do a “Receive All” prior to updating and save a permanent copy. After the firmware has been updated it may be necessary to do the following

[NHWA]

I use to have a similar problem where it seemed that voice messages from the elk were stored and played later. I would mute the elk at certain times of the day (such as at night) and when messages were played in the morning, it would garble some of the previously muted messages combined with the new messages. I finally solved this by programming something that would turn off my speakers for 2 sec after I muted an announcement and then I never had this problem before. You may be facing something similar.