Jeff's post kind of confuses me. The ELAN sensors need power to function. If I just cut off the minijack and attach it to the URC voltage sensor, what's going to power the ELAN sensor? Not to mention this requires buying two sensors for one device.
Everything I've read and heard about the ELAN sensors is that they are compatible with URC, not Xantech. The MSC-400 does provide 5v power to the sensors. While they may look the same, ELAN uses 5v as well, not 12v like Xantech. I cannot find the specs for the sensors themselves (if anybody can, please post them here) but I found the specs for one of the systems that interface with the sensors (
[Link: elanhomesystems.com]). If you open the Cutsheet PDF or click the Tech Specs link at the bottom and scroll down to the sensor input section, you'll see that the power is 5v.
As I understand it, even though the URC sensors have 4 contacts, only 3 are used for a sensor. Since two types of sensors connect to the same input, one contact is data for video and another is data for voltage. It's the same thing they did with IR/RS232 ports 7-12. Since the IR blasters use TS jacks and not TRS jacks, you have to buy ones with special rubber sleeves that prevent them from touching the contacts that are only for RS232.
I've been told that the ELAN and URC sensors essentially communicate the same way. So all I need to know is what contacts on the minijack correspond to what. If I can find that out, then I can just cut off the ELAN minijack and attach my own 4 contact minijack (
[Link: shop.vetcosurplus.com]) and then I'm all set. Since I don't have any use for the URC voltage sensor, I'd rather not buy one just to cut it open to test the contacts.
Last edited by zytrex
on September 23, 2007 23:38.
