Hello, I am new here. I have been reading a lot of good things about OpenHAB and I decided to give it a try.
I do have one major requirement though. I need integration with the ELK M1 system I have.
I have seen many many postings of people asking if this is available, but so far, I have not seen a single answer.
I’d hate to go through the installation and configuration process to find out I can’t integrate my Insteon PLM and my ELK Security together.
Is ELK binding something that is either available today or in the works?
According to this comment the Serial API is well documented:
they publish a complete RS232 control / reporting command set.
However, I’ve seen nothing about anyone actually integrating it or building a binding for OH 1 or OH 2. Theoretically it should be possible to integrate it using a serial connector and the Serial binding. But it will be a lot of work to make it happen.
Thank you for the reply.
Yes, I had seen that post before. He does not state where this documentation is and I have been looking for at least a year since my primary goal was to get my Insteon to talk to the Elk without having to spring $100 for the already made module.
So far, I have only found a perl interface that I’d hate to reverse engineer. My goal is to communicate with the Elk via IP.
Does anyone happen to have or know where this RS232 control / reporting command set or API can be found?
Elk website does not seem to have it readily available.
If I could get my hands on this, I could give the binding a try for OH 2. It’ll take me a while since OH is all new to me, but I have been a Java Software Engineer for 25 years. It can’t be all that bad
I am not only going to go ahead and answer my own question but also I am going to do something about it.
There does not seem to be a binding for the ELK M1 Security console for openHAB. So, in light of this and after much searching I have finally secured enough documentation to create a suitable serial interface compatible with OH2.
I have spent the last few days reading a lot about OH architecture and interops. I now have a working version of OH2 inside Eclipse and have created the framework for the binding. This weekend, I intend to roll up my sleeves and see if I can send through some very basic commands. The first pass will support TCP as well as COM communication.
Since I am new to OH, I am hoping I can get some support from the more experienced development community if I need it.
Wish me luck as I prepare for the Alpha version of org.openhab.binding.elkm1
That’s really good to hear. One of my winter project is to setup my ELK M1 that’s been sitting in a box now for a little while. This binding will be much appreciated. Although I won’t be able to test right away. I hope to be able to do so before spring comes.
I too have been monitoring the OpenHab space looking for any dev on the ELK platform integration. My current setup consists of Insteon PLM connected to a Universal Device ISY-99i which also acts as the integration point for the ELK system. Now that I am looking at expending with other types of hardware, I find myself limited because of the ISY being EOL and not developed for anymore… So I would like to move all my stuff to the OpenHab stack in order to gain better compatibility across hardware, as well as build my own widgets.
I’m also new to the OpenHab worls but more than willing to land a helping hand! I can test and probably debug in some ways, as well as contribute to the build where needed.
Cheers and looking forward to get this thing going with the community!
Yes, I have nearly the exact same setup at yours. Only I recently decided to bite the bullet and upgrade to the 994i for the same reasons.
Appreciate also the offering of help. I may need it even though I should be able to test most functionalities, a second pair of eyes is always better. Keep in mind the version v1.0 of the binding will only satisfy minor ELK M1 communications. I will keep expanding on the ELK until most if not all is covered. ISY intercommunication may come at a later time.
A quick status on the progress: The framework of the binding for the ELK M1 is done. The code compiles and runs fine. Currently working on messaging back and forth for Arm and Disarm away mode. Once I get the first command working the rest should go quicker.
I’ve only just recently stumbled upon the OpenHAB project and was just looking into starting work on an OH 2.0 ELK binding when I found this thread.
I’m also a Java developer with quite a few years of experience behind me. A couple of years back I wrote a bit of code to communicate with my ELK M1 Gold via the ELK M1XEP module. I only got as far as dealing with the various arm and disarm messages but there is some parsing logic in there that I’d be happy to share if that will help.
I’m just starting to work through getting my environment setup to test bindings. If you’d like some help with the binding you’re working on I’d be happy to contribute.
Ive been waiting a while for someone with the skills set to produce a binding for the elk m1. I assume you’ve found the rs232 protocol. If not just let me know.
I’d offer to help but my coding skills a aweful. Please let me know if I can help in other ways. Otherwise I’ll be hear waiting to test it when your ready.
Will this binding work using tcp/ip (Ethernet module) or are you using direct serial?
I am currently running an M1 (ethernet) <-> MQTT interface that I wrote a while ago, but would like to see what we could achieve with a direct binding.
Yes, development continues. I had to slow down a bit as the real work got very busy in the last few weeks. But I do plan plan to make Alpha by the end of the month.
I’m definitely looking forward to this one, if you need help with any testing feel free to drop me a line.
I’ve done a little work with my NESS EZ8 controller (same serial protocol as ELKM1) using the serial binding. I’ve exposed the zone states to my OH instance and displaying on my sitemap. You can check it out here
