Zone Trigger (zt) Command

[Jay Basen]

I’m trying to use the zone trigger command as described in the API documentation to trigger an alarm state on a zone using code running on a Crestron smart home processor.  To trigger zone 55 I am sending the following command – “09zt05500AF”.  For testing, I just have zone 55 configured as Type 16 – Non-Alarm.  I was expecting that if I sent the command that I could watch the zone status of zone 55 change from normal to violated.  Am I incorrect in this assumption?  Is there a way to test the command without triggering the alarm system to sound the siren, etc?

Thanks in advance for the help

[Brad Weeks]

The “zone trigger” ASCII command only causes a momentary open state and violated status of the zone. Having a zone definition of “non-alarm” will not cause an alarm. The ‘non-alarm” zone can be used in an automation rule to trigger an event.

 

In order to verify that the “zone trigger” ASCII command actually triggered, an example automation rule like this could be used:

Whenever Zone (non-alarm)  (Zn 55) Becomes Not Secure

Then turn Relay (Out 3) On for 10 seconds.

[Jay Basen]

Thanks so much!

[Jay Basen]

Hi,

Well I tried the suggested test of turning on an output with an automation and it didn’t work.  As a starting point for my debugging, could you please validate that the command 09zt05500AF to trigger zone 55 has the correct checksum.  If my checksum calculation has an error that is certainly going to keep this from working.

Thanks

[Jay Basen]

Never mind.  I used the example in the API documentation to validate that the checksum calculation is correct.  I need to look at other reasons this isn’t working.

Thanks

[Jay Basen]

Hi

I configured Zone 58 to be a water alarm (I also tried several other zone alarm types).  Then I sent the following string to the Elk system to trigger zone 58:

09zt05800AC\x0D\x0A

The keypad did start beeping and the keypad display said there was a water alarm.  However, there is an automation that runs whenever there is a water alarm to trigger an output that is connected to a Watercop motorized valve to turn off water to the home.  This didn’t execute.  In addition, the Crestron Elk M1 Zone Control Module reported that the Zone Status was normal.  It didn’t report that the zone was violated.

It seems that there are significant limitations to the zone trigger command and that the only workable solution is to wire outputs on the M1 system to zone inputs and use the outputs to trigger the zones to an alarm state.

Thoughts?

Thanks again for the help

[Author]

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