Elk C1M1 Connection Issues

The Elk M1 alarm panel has two options for network connectivity.

• The M1-XEP. Only local network ethernet connectivity.
• The ELK-C1M1. Both local network ethernet and cellular (via ElkLink) connectivity.

This is an important concern when using dedicated, full time eKeypad stations onsite. We strongly recommend using the M1-XEP module for these scenarios. Using an ELk-C1M1 module can work, but the setup is much more complex. There are a number of stability and reliability risks which need to be fully understood.

Please contact us for more information.

[Technical Details]

The root of the issue is related to how the two module support unencrypted, local network connections. The ELK-C1M1 module is limited to only one connection at a time. This M1-XEP module supports approximately 15-30 simultaneous connections depending on how it is setup.

When configuring the device driver in eKeypad,  it is possible to use the “Elk XEP” driver in eKeypad to connect to an ELK-C1M1 via the unencrypted port. However, only a single device can do so reliably. All other devices must use the “Elk C1M1” driver.