Russound Integration?

[Shaun Glazier]

Hello, I was an HAI certified installer and am looking for help converting some of those systems over to ELK. I can find information on most items like the HLC, Omnistats etc. I see mention of Russound compatibility here end there but no details on what options there are or how to do it. Also would love to see options regarding a suitable alternative to the omnitouch 7″ screens for controlling the whole system like HAI did.

[Steven Switzer]

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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