srjacob Posted June 16 Posted June 16 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 Posted June 17 Posted June 17 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.
srjacob Posted June 17 Author Posted June 17 First off, I do have the Elk module, which is how i got the Elk programs on the ISY to run. Second, the ElkM1G controls an electronic gate via an Elk M1KAM module. Programs on the ISY control outputs on the Elk, and rules on the Elk control the ISY. I use the Elk not only for an alarm system, but to control lighting via the ISY. The Elk does relay I/O really well, and the ISY does lighting (via Insteon) really well. I have simply combined the two. I also use virtual outputs on the Elk rules as program flags due to the limitation of the Elk rules. I would normally not be thinking of converting to the EISY with the Elk plug-in, but my ISY IS getting old.
Solution DennisC Posted June 18 Solution Posted June 18 Short answer is the Plugin can do everything you are currently doing with the Elk module. You will need to update the programed address to change from the module to the Plugin. So there will be some manual work involved. While I do something similar, I do most of my programing in ISY/eisy because it is easier. There are only a few things that need input from Elk that is not already available via the Plugin and for those I use outputs. If you use outputs in the Elk, there would be no changes needed on the Elk when upgrading to eisy. The Elk just turns the output on/off and eisy will run the program based on the change in output state.
apostolakisl Posted June 18 Posted June 18 @srjacob OK, misunderstood what you were asking. I had the native Elk module originally and converted to the Elk node server a couple years ago. The Elk node server does everything the module did plus a bit more. You will have some work to do, however. The nodes don't just convert over. If memory serves, I copied all the programs to clipboard and saved them all in a word document so I had them all written out to use as references when re-doing them.
srjacob Posted July 13 Author Posted July 13 I just got an eisy and installed the Elk plugin. The documentation on using the Elk plugin isn't very good, and I can't figure out how to point the plugin to the Elk system. Also, there is no documentation on how to use the Elk zones and outputs in eisy programs. If someone can give me a clue on these things, I would appreciate it. Also, if someone could point me to the Elk plugin documentation, that would be great. Steve
apostolakisl Posted July 13 Posted July 13 17 hours ago, srjacob said: I just got an eisy and installed the Elk plugin. The documentation on using the Elk plugin isn't very good, and I can't figure out how to point the plugin to the Elk system. Also, there is no documentation on how to use the Elk zones and outputs in eisy programs. If someone can give me a clue on these things, I would appreciate it. Also, if someone could point me to the Elk plugin documentation, that would be great. Steve I assume you have the elk xep unit and it is connected to your LAN. It has instructions on the config page. Here is my setup. Once you do that, it all shows up on the ISY admin console and you just plug the nodes into programs as you see fit.
srjacob Posted July 13 Author Posted July 13 I have the M1G with the M1XEP interface. The Elk module worked perfectly on my ISY994. I did that, but the configuration in the admin console under plugins (plugin 1-the Elk) doesn't indicate these values, and doesn't seem to change the values once I come out and come back in to the plugin. Where, exactly, does the Elk plugin parameters show up in the admin console? How do I know the plugin was configured correctly.?
paulbates Posted July 13 Posted July 13 I know that when I set up new plugins that frequently I have to cycle the plugin and the admin console
DennisC Posted July 13 Posted July 13 (edited) 9 minutes ago, srjacob said: Where, exactly, does the Elk plugin parameters show up in the admin console? How do I know the plugin was configured correctly.? Did you read my reply in your other post? All configuration is done in Polyglot, PH3x, not admin console. After changes in PH3x you need to close and then reopen admin console. Edited July 13 by DennisC
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