Re: External Relay Control on GEM-P816

[yeahprolly@xxxxxxx]

On Mar 20, 6:40 pm, "Jim" <alarmi...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Mar 20, 5:23?pm, yeahpro...@xxxxxxx wrote:
>
> > Does anyone know what system events I can use to control external
> > relays on the GEM-P816? I can't find a list in any of the
> > documentation I found.
>
> As far as I can determine, it isn't compatable with the relay module.
> As I said in an early post, I'm pretty sure that the panel has to have
> relay control to be compatable with the X10 module. Unless there's a
> revision out on the P816 that I'm not aware of, it does not have relay
> control capability. You'll have to upgrade to at least the P1632,
> which only has minimal options. The 9600 is the preferred panel for
> the best choices of relay/X10 control.

Thanks Jim. I have confirmed that I have version 10 of the firmware
which definitely supports the GEM-X10 module, and thus provides
external relay control. I guess nobody really knows exactly how
granular the external relay control is on the GEM-P816 provides since
support for external relay control (or at least GEM-X10 support) is
relatively new for the GEM-P816 (2004). This is probably because most
people doing what I'm trying to accomplish are using higher-end alarm
panels.

In order for me not to have to touch the alarm panel (to avoid dealing
with the alarm monitoring company), I would ideally like to use the
GEM-X10 module to translate as many granular events as possible into
X10 signals (hopefully these events will include at least an open/
close on each individual zone, system armed/disarmed, alarm sounding,
fire alert, etc). I'll then be sending a unique X10 signal for each
event to my Home Controller (PC running X10 compatible software), for
which I can then create any actions (more X10 commands to actually
control things) I want. I should also be able to send an email with
any event received from the GEM-P816. This way, I don't need to touch
the panel to rewire any of the contacts or reprogram like I would if I
upgraded the panel. I believe I will be able to configure up to 64
events to trigger the sending of up to 64 X10 codes (simulating (8) 8-
port external relay modules).

I will advise once I am able to determine if this is all possible. If
anyone has any suggestions or comments as of this point, I would
greatly appreciate it.

Thanks!
Ken