Best way to trigger a "Panic" on Elk M1 via EISY?

[AllDigital]

I have a scenario where I want my EISY to trigger a "panic" (24h burglary) event on my M1, so the monitoring company gets notified. It has been a long time since I set up my M1, but I am pretty certain I do not have any function keys programmed for panic on the keypads. I have two keypads, an M1KP and an M1KPNAV touchscreen. If I program one of the F keys on the keypads will I be able to trigger them through the PG3 Elk "devices" on the EISY?  I can see that the F keys show up, but are the actions associated with them the same as pressing them IRL?

The other option I considered was setting up a 24h burg zone, but I am out of zones on my M1.

Thanks for any ideas or feedback.

 

[kzboray]

@AllDigital You can setup a duress user. I often use 5150 as the code. In this example it's user 32 which is set as duress in Area RC and User RC. That gets the alarm company on board and while I haven't tried it. I bet you can activate that code or user from the Elk NS.

I don't have access to an ELK NS atm to try, but this is how I'd set it up.

Edited October 12, 2023 by kzboray

[DennisC]

9 hours ago, AllDigital said:

I have a scenario where I want my EISY to trigger a "panic" (24h burglary) event on my M1, so the monitoring company gets notified. It has been a long time since I set up my M1, but I am pretty certain I do not have any function keys programmed for panic on the keypads. I have two keypads, an M1KP and an M1KPNAV touchscreen. If I program one of the F keys on the keypads will I be able to trigger them through the PG3 Elk "devices" on the EISY?  I can see that the F keys show up, but are the actions associated with them the same as pressing them IRL?

The other option I considered was setting up a 24h burg zone, but I am out of zones on my M1.

Thanks for any ideas or feedback.

 

You can program a function key on the M1 as a burglar alarm, police alarm, fire alarm, medical alarm, etc. Elk has these and some additional ones available via the drop down list in ElkRP2 - Keyboard - Definable Keys. Note, you can designate either a single press or a double press of the F key to reduce the potential for an accidental press of the button.

 Back in eisy, you can create a program with any trigger in the "If" section to designate the same "F" key press on the selected keypad.

If you are using UD Mobile, you can even have a tile that when pressed, will run your program and activate the defined alarm (and change color to maybe bright red?).

On the M1KPNAV, you can name the F key you use with the name of the alarm (Police, Panic, Fire, ect).

Also, as @kzboraysuggests, you can create a duress user code that can be entered on a keypad that would also trigger the designated alarm. This is can be convenient  for holdup/forced entry situation.

Does that answer your question?

[AllDigital]

Thanks @DennisC and @kzboray. These were both helpful, but not exactly what I need. 

In my situation I have a keypad by my garage door and one in my master. It turns out they both have function keys already programmed and I have tested that they work. Let's call "F2" the police/burglary button. In another bedroom I have two physical push buttons that go to a Zooz relay that triggers EISY programs. One turns on every light in the house and the other is intended to be a "Panic" button. So, from a program I need to be able to trigger the Elk alarm police/burglar event from a THEN statement.

On the EISY side I can see under Actions > Your Devices > both keypads. On the garage keypad (M1KPNAV) I get options for Query, Chime, Star, F1, F2, F3..F6.  So I figured if I "actioned" the Garage Keypad F2 in a then statement it should activate the police alarm, but it does not.  On my master bedroom keypad, which I tested F keys yesterday with the monitoring company, on the EISY side I only see query and chime options (it is a M1KP Elk keypad) 

I already take actions if the Elk alarm is triggered with other programs, but I don't have a way to actually command a police alarm. 

Thank you for any thoughts or ideas.

[DennisC]

7 hours ago, AllDigital said:

Thanks @DennisC and @kzboray. These were both helpful, but not exactly what I need. 

In my situation I have a keypad by my garage door and one in my master. It turns out they both have function keys already programmed and I have tested that they work. Let's call "F2" the police/burglary button. In another bedroom I have two physical push buttons that go to a Zooz relay that triggers EISY programs. One turns on every light in the house and the other is intended to be a "Panic" button. So, from a program I need to be able to trigger the Elk alarm police/burglar event from a THEN statement.

On the EISY side I can see under Actions > Your Devices > both keypads. On the garage keypad (M1KPNAV) I get options for Query, Chime, Star, F1, F2, F3..F6.  So I figured if I "actioned" the Garage Keypad F2 in a then statement it should activate the police alarm, but it does not.  On my master bedroom keypad, which I tested F keys yesterday with the monitoring company, on the EISY side I only see query and chime options (it is a M1KP Elk keypad) 

I already take actions if the Elk alarm is triggered with other programs, but I don't have a way to actually command a police alarm. 

Thank you for any thoughts or ideas.

Thank you for the additional context.

You can create a program triggered by your Zooz button that triggers the Elk F2 button. Like this:

Test F Key - [ID 0067][Parent 00B1]

If
   - No Conditions - (To add one, press 'Schedule' or 'Condition')
 
Then
        Set 'Area 1 / Keypad 01 MB' F2
 
Else
   - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')
 

I just manually tested this and it works. Note that you would need to add your Zooz button in the If statement to trigger the key press. You can observe this in the admin console under the Keypad device.

 

Alternately, you could have a program that closes an Elk virtual output when the Zooz button is pressed. Then in ElkRP2, write an automation rule that upon the output closing, it dials the police. It could also chirp the siren on/off. Note, I have not tried this, but did confirm the rules are available to accomplish this.

[AllDigital]

7 hours ago, DennisC said:

Then
        Set 'Area 1 / Keypad 01 MB' F2
 

I tried this with my Garage keypad, since it is the only one with F keys showing up in the EISY/Elk and it did not trigger the alarm. I'd like to try it with my other keypad, but the F keys don't show up in EISY even though I confirmed they are programmed and working. Any obvious reason triggering a keypad F2 wouldn't work from a program? Everything else communicates well between the Elk and the EISY. Also, do you know any way I can force the node server to pick up the F keys on my master bedroom keypad? 

I am leaving on a business trip for a while, but when I get back I can do more troubleshooting with the node server logs. Troubleshooting this is tricky, since the alarm is "hot", lots of people in the house, etc. I need to coord with the monitoring company and the family

 

[DennisC]

16 hours ago, AllDigital said:

Any obvious reason triggering a keypad F2 wouldn't work from a program?

I tested the operation by creating the program I posted above. In the admin console go to the keypad device page and select query.

The reading for F key press should be none.

Next, go back to the program you created above, right click and select "run then".

Go back to the keypad and the display for F key should now show value of the F key in your program.

For initial testing, use an F key you are not currently using, not your key that calls police.

16 hours ago, AllDigital said:

Also, do you know any way I can force the node server to pick up the F keys on my master bedroom keypad? 

First thing I would try is restarting the node server while watching the log with at least a setting of Info or debug from PG3. Check the log for any errors.

Following this, I would power cycle eisy.

If that still doesn't work, try the Discover button in PG3 for the Elk node server.

If it still doesn't appear, you will need to send the log to the developer.

Just to confirm, do those keypads all show up in ElkRP2?

Edited October 15, 2023 by DennisC
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