Re: Non-Comfort Alarms

[Kevin Hawkins <tivo@xxxxxxx>]

Title: Re: [ukha_d] Non-Comfort Alarms

        I had a similar issue. I have a Galaxy Panel which is 'maintained' ie I can't get my hands on all the bits I would like to (Eudora has just highlighted this text in red as being possibly offensive !). It has to be this way for Redcare.

        I added the printer interface which operates just as you said, ie no use. I then added the communications interface to get around this but this didn't provide the feature set I wanted as I haven't been able to reverse engineer the protocol yet. So three options one of which may be viable on your system.

        1) In the zone definitions on my panel it is possible t set up a custom zone (circuit) that has a reporting flag attached. If this flag is set then the activations ARE listed on the printer interface and also recorded in the log - even if the alarm is not set. The downside is that the log rapidly fills up if a PIR is used. The maintainers are unhappy about this as they can potentially lose key events in the case of diagnostics.

        2) If it is your own installed panel you could actually drop some electronics on the output of each PIR as it is wired into the panel. ie monitor the zone separately. You need to be very careful here though not to upset the zone sensing and not to impact the security of the system. Better is perhaps to take each PIR through an intermediate relay and use a second set of contacts to give the activated outputs. If your panel uses two wire zones with terminating and shunt resistors though you will lose your tamper alarms this way. If 4 wire (separate tamper circuit) then it should be very possible.

        3) Most panels have programmable outputs that can operate under certain conditions. eg for Light switching, part set indicators, heating off etc. These can usually be set up t 'follow' a zone eg a PIR. This again works when the panel is set or not set. This is my preferred method and is how I am interfaced to HomeVision. Usually you can add more of these output modules to a system to expand the number available, sometimes this is expensive however.

        The digital communicators are linked to a panel by these same outputs and the outputs are programmed to send reportable events to the monitoring station. For a dialup system usually alarm, sometimes with extra area info , I think sometimes abort and unset can follow t advise the monitoring company that a user error may be involved. (You then have t phone them to cancel the callout). If you are using Redcare (permanent connection) then set and unset events are also relayed, hence the monitoring station knows if you are at home or not and can take different appropriate actions eg Redcare line fail whilst set is different to whilst unset. Night set alarm conditions are not normally relayed to the monitoring station.

        The point is though that you need the outputs (as in 2) to do this and you do not relay the zone activation information to the monitoring station except sometimes in an alarm condition (using some formats).

        Clear as mud ?  - Kevin

> Has anyone got any experience of
> interfacing with Alarm Systems other
> than comfort ones? I have a Scantronic 9800+ (which I installed
> myself
> before catching the HA bug) It's got a serial printer connection
> but
> unfortunately appears only t  log alarm events i.e. PIR activation
> when alarm is set. I'd hoped t  log all PIR events and write
> something
> t  process them. That way I can use my existing equipment. There
> are
> "digital communicators" available for this alarm . Are these
> what
> relay details t  monitoring companies. If so, does anyone know if
> these can be set to relay all PIR activations.
>
> Sorry for being so vague.
>
> Regards
>
> Mark Pollock
>
>
>
>
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> http://www.automatedhome.co.uk
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