› M1 Support Forum › Russound Integration? › Reply To: Russound Integration?
Hey Shaun,
I too was only using HAI/Leviton. Even though I am not a “certified installer’ I have installed numerous HAI systems over the years. My personal HAI system in my house just took a dump and I decided to start from scratch. I had a very large HAI system with 6 LCD keypads (two of the original 4″ and four of the 5.7″) as well as one 7”. To be honest, I preferred the 5″ over any of the others. I especially found the 7″ screen very buggy. I had Rousound integration along with HAI thermostats and z-wave devices.
I did a lot of research and decided on Elk M1. It definitely has a learning curve but I actually like it more than the HAI. One thing I would recommend is adding a Homeseer system to your Elk. I got the HomeTroller Pi. It is a great addition to the Elk and has a Z-Wave controller built-in. You can get a module in the Homeseer to communicate with the Elk. I bought three really nice Honeywell thermostats on Amazon that have a really nice always-on color display (that you can customize). These thermostats are WIFI and again, there is a plug-in for the Homeseer. Once it is all added, you can program the thermostats just like in the HAI.
I have two Russound Cam6 systems that are linked together. Between the Elk and Homeseer, this can be controlled too.
The only area I wish would be improved is the touch screens. While they are much more responsive than the HAI screens, they are just too small. Even just 50% larger would be a huge improvement. Also, I would like to see the ability to customize colors on certain buttons (like the Fkeys changing let’s say to a red one for instant police or blue for fire). But, you can make certain keys flash. I have programmed two F keys for audio. One is all audio on (turns on all 12 Russound stations) and one for all audio off. This is really handy. A cool thing is I can make the F Keys flash so they are really easy to see (my eyes are getting bad).
All-in-all, I am not only very pleased with the Elk, but I am also glad my system failed as I am liking this system much better.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions on how to set it up or any other items of interest.
Steve
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