Converting programs from the ISY994 (with ELK)

[srjacob]

I have an ISY994 with the ELK support.  I have about 30 programs for the ISY994 that deal with the Elk.  How difficult is it to convert these programs to the Eisy with the Elk plug-in?  Likewise, how difficult is it to convert the Elk rules to work with the Eisy?

[apostolakisl]

Not sure what you are currently doing that has 30 programs that "deal with Elk", when it sounds like you do not currently have the Elk module.

The Elk module lets ISY pretty much use Elk as a fancy I/O board.  You can use all the input status' (the zones) in programs and you can control all the outputs from programs.  You can also of course use all the armed states, alarm states, to trigger programs and can control the armed status of Elk directly from ISY programs.  

However, having ISY trigger Elk rules to run is not so easy.  You can not trigger a rule directly from ISY.  I have used "phantom" Elk outputs as triggers.  If I want ISY to run a rule programmed into Elk, I have to do so by turning one of these phantom outputs on (an output that doesn't have an actual relay board, like output 100 or something) for 1 second and then rule triggers on that output turning on.

If I hadn't already written boat loads of rules in my Elk, I probably would have just used ISY programs to do everything the rules are doing.  But since I already had a bunch of Elk rules, I did the work around.  Also, having Elk rules means I can execute them from Elk keypads using tasks, bypassing any dependence on ISY.