Definition of Subscriber?

[R.H.Campbell]

Yeah, I don't use DSC for new installs unless I have to...but lots of
takeovers of DSC since it IS the most common panel in this area.

Otherwise, Paradox all the way; it either works or it doesn't from day one.
No hassle with flakey wireless, no stray supervisory signals that can't be
traced, no panels doing weird things....

RHC

 

[Bob Worthy]

Seen it but never tried it. Remember I had the office down by the Kon Tiki.
Spent alot of time in and out of Pheonix.

 

[Crash Gordon]

ah we know when we are having ac fails due to storms cause we'lll get the ac
fails in geo clusters...plus we all live here we know waz happenin.



message |
| | > So the cleaning lady and her criminal hubby who have a grudge against
the
| > client, unplug the transformer and the battery, then come back and rob
the
| > place. You'll never know it till the client comes home from vacation.
|
| They wouldn't have to go that far. Just unplug the telephone. A
dishonest
| "cleaning lady" has got to be a nightmare to begin with. A "dishonest
| cleaning lady that knows about alarm systems" is *beyond* nightmare. I
| don't even wanna think about it!!
|
|
| >
| > Anyway, I do want to know, I just want to decide what to do about it and
| > not
| > bother the client with calls unless necessary. (on residential).
|
| Best thing to do is have someone at the station call the local power
| authority and find out if there are any reported outages in the area
because
| you have a client at "such and such" an address whose system just
| transmitted an "AC fail". Let them follow up and get back to you. If
| there's no response in 30 minutes, contact the registered keyholders. A
low
| battery would, of course, be a whole different "ballgame".
|
|
| >
| > I use panels that protect the battery from deep discharge. I've never
| > liked
| > DSC so I only have a handfull of takeovers out there and when they die
| > they
| > will be replaced by something else.
|
|
| DSC's OK. I've had very few "die". And it's cheaper for the customer for
| you to replace the main board than the control and all the keypads.
|
|

 

[Crash Gordon]

Havent messed with Paradox yet, still have the docs they sent me...must be
almost a year now...boy am I lazy.


| Yeah, I don't use DSC for new installs unless I have to...but lots of
| takeovers of DSC since it IS the most common panel in this area.
|
| Otherwise, Paradox all the way; it either works or it doesn't from day
one.
| No hassle with flakey wireless, no stray supervisory signals that can't be
| traced, no panels doing weird things....
|
| RHC
|
| | >
| > I use panels that protect the battery from deep discharge. I've never
| > liked
| > DSC so I only have a handfull of takeovers out there and when they die
| > they
| > will be replaced by something else.
|
|

 

[Crash Gordon]

Yeppers I remember.



| Seen it but never tried it. Remember I had the office down by the Kon
Tiki.
| Spent alot of time in and out of Pheonix.
|
| | > You'd be surprised how quick they fill up during monsoon season,,,and
how
| > many idiots try to cross in their suvs and get washed away.
| >
| >
| > | > | Ever see those dry river beds with bridges over them and those deep
| > revines
| > | cut into the flat lands? You know the ones that the cowboy's horse had
| to
| > | jump over when the indians were chasin them. Those were caused by
water
| > and
| > | lots of it. The rest of the year your chokin on 114 degree dust.
| > |
| > | | > | > Yeppers.
| > | >
| > | >
| > | >
| > | > | > | > | | > | > | > We get TONS of power fails here during monsoon season...calling
on
| > | them
| > | > | all
| > | > | > is nuts.
| > | > | >
| > | > | > I know a local company that will dispatch on AC fail - they had
a
| > | > problem
| > | > | > once and can't seem to get over it.
| > | > | >
| > | > | Monsoons? In AZ??
| > | > | js
| > | > |
| > | > |
| > | >
| > | >
| > |
| > |
| > |
| >
| >
|
|

 

[alarman]

Yes, but realistically, with 10,000 alarms all reporting "AC failure", what
can anyone practically do about it.

But nothing. The central station can do what they want with the signals, I
want to see the report, and know if the failure of one of my alarms is
imminent.
js

 

[alarman]

Good Lord, do we all start our day this way? No wonder we're such a cranky
lot.

Yup. 7 / 365.
js

 

[alarman]

Ever see those dry river beds with bridges over them and those deep revines
cut into the flat lands?

Hell no. I don't go to Arizona, too friggin hot.

js

 

[alarman]

He's talking catastrophic failure here, Jack, lighten up,
you'll find out e v e n t u a l l y hahaha, but ac fail would take a
backseat

I can read.
I see the report in the morning. As I said, I don't care what the CS does
with the AC fail when it comes in.
js

 

[mikey]

But nothing. The central station can do what they want with the signals, I
want to see the report, and know if the failure of one of my alarms is
imminent.
js

He's talking catastrophic failure here, Jack, lighten up,
you'll find out e v e n t u a l l y hahaha, but ac fail would take a
backseat

 

[mikey]

and a mild stutter

I have an event history report fetish also..... )

 

[Mark Leuck]

No, not until they start sending in low battery signals !

BTW, on that same subject, I've noticed that DSC will run the battery down
to practially zero before shutting down ,thereby effectively killing it or
rendering it's useful life much shorter; however, Paradox seems to shut the
panel down automatically if the battery goes much below 10 volts, thereby
saving the battery from harm. I've also noticed, if the battery goes into a
dead short situation, Paradox also shuts the panel down until the battery is
replaced preventing it from bursting and spilling acid everywhere.

I know thats the way the old DSC panels worked but don't think it does on
the 1555/5010 panels

I do strongly disagree about your stance with AC signals, any central
station that can't handle those 10,000 signals is one I want to avoid.

 

[R.H.Campbell]

I don't have any particularily strong feelings one way or the other on this
issue of AC failures. I just can't see the need to transmit thousands of
signals that really don't tell anyone very much of anything. There have been
a few very valid reasons to do so outlined in this thread, and at least one
person replied who personally sees a need to know when his panels may crap
out after a long AC failure. No disagreement there; however, for me, it is
enough to respond to low battery signals, which will come in after any AC
failure duration. Why flood the station with thousands of useless AC
signals, thats all. During the great ice storm of 1998, when power was out
for weeks at a time, I can only imagine the number of AC signals received at
all monitoring stations, and wonder what purpose they served, since the
whole country knew we were in a major state of emergency at the time.

Perhaps I don't know enough about how stations respond to all these "spam
signals". I would agree wholeheartedly with you on your statement about a CS
that couldn't handle this type of mass receipt of signals being one to
avoid. However, I have to question the wisdom of sending this flood of AC
signals to begin with if it serves no useful purpose....

RHC

 

[Mark Leuck]

I don't have any particularily strong feelings one way or the other on this
issue of AC failures. I just can't see the need to transmit thousands of
signals that really don't tell anyone very much of anything. There have been
a few very valid reasons to do so outlined in this thread, and at least one
person replied who personally sees a need to know when his panels may crap
out after a long AC failure. No disagreement there; however, for me, it is
enough to respond to low battery signals, which will come in after any AC
failure duration. Why flood the station with thousands of useless AC
signals, thats all. During the great ice storm of 1998, when power was out
for weeks at a time, I can only imagine the number of AC signals received at
all monitoring stations, and wonder what purpose they served, since the
whole country knew we were in a major state of emergency at the time.

I agree with Jack on this one, in the end it doesn't matter what the central
station does but I want that signal for the same reason I want a recent
closing or exit alarm signal, it gives more information that may come into
play in the future like troubleshooting or even a lawsuit. I guess its a
better safe than sorry thing.

In your scenario I couldn't tell if the customer has a low battery due to AC
loss or just that the battery is bad.

Perhaps I don't know enough about how stations respond to all these "spam
signals". I would agree wholeheartedly with you on your statement about a CS
that couldn't handle this type of mass receipt of signals being one to
avoid. However, I have to question the wisdom of sending this flood of AC
signals to begin with if it serves no useful purpose....

RHC

The real fun is when a hurricane comes sweeping in, I can't tell you how
many trouble signals will come in from places like Puerto Rico, Florida and
of course Louisiana. Thank god for MLR-2000's

 

[Joe Lucia]

The C/S will probably have automated processes to handle the influx of
AC Failures during the storms to filter out the affected areas.
Problem is, almost as many burg and fire alarms come in during that
time as well (okay, hundreds of burg signals), which can not be
ignored, and should be the Greater concern for a Tech then wether or
not to send an AC Failure, possibly during a storm.

Anyway, the C/S should have ways of dealing with those scenarios while
preventing the response times to unaffected areas to be consistently
speedy. The value of receiving the AC Failures in ANY Other case
outweighs the possibility of "flooding" the C/S with AC Failures during
an area-wide outage. If the C/S can't keep up or handle the AC Flood
then they should consider reviewing their software and/or hardware,
because it IS inevitable.

Oh, and you can't tell a Dealer "I don't care if you want to send that
signal or not, we don't want it.", and expect to keep the Dealer for
long.

 

[[email protected]]

well i asked again down here, they generally turn off all AC loss
signals, as well our power goes out every other day anyway. Hurricanes
just kill everything so it is a different situation. Our power goes
out with the first thunder crack, even if it is just a small storm.

I sometimes think, though we have second hand Electric Generators here
from the 1950''s purchased from some other third world country in south
america, they must have glass break detectors installed on them, cause
as soon as you hear thunder, bang goes the electric ... stays off for
hours a time .. it just sucks bigtime! I cant keep count this summer,
it is just too much :-(

Most CS's down here dont have more than 3000 clients max, so it is not
that big a deal, but they still turn them off apparently, due to our
frequent power outages.

If you have 10,000+ clients then certainly you can afford more phones
and receivers to cover these issues anyway right??

 

[mikey]

How does a CS turn off signals coming in? The receivers still have to
process the signal to know whether it's an AC fail or a medical.

 

[Andrew]

We don't use the term "subscriber", to phone the site we use the term
"PREMS" short for premises, and "KH" short for keyholder (contact
list), "GRD" for guard (it is not common practice to dispatch
police/fire in New Zealand).

Example: ACTVS - ph prems, n/r advise KH, n/r dispatch GRD

In this example the operator would phone the site, confirm the identity
by way of either: the account "OK" password, their individual "OK"
password or their PIN number.

If there was no reply to the site or identity couldn't be confirmed, we
would move on an advise a keyholder from the callout list.

If there was no reply to the keyholders, no-one was available, or they
requested we send a guard... then we would.

 

[Joe Lucia]

We (the CS) don't "turn them off", we receive them and handle them as
usual. We just automate the process of logging-off the A/C failures
without operator intervention and without the automatic generation of
review events or service requests during a wide-are-outage. All other
signals still get handled as usual. During Monsoons
(wide-area-outages) the PD won't go unless we contact an RP
(responsible party) to confirm a real emergency (which could be
dangerous, but PD simply can not respond to all alarms during storms).

 

[Crash Gordon]

They let you out of the coding room did they?





| We (the CS) don't "turn them off", we receive them and handle them as
| usual. We just automate the process of logging-off the A/C failures
| without operator intervention and without the automatic generation of
| review events or service requests during a wide-are-outage. All other
| signals still get handled as usual. During Monsoons
| (wide-area-outages) the PD won't go unless we contact an RP
| (responsible party) to confirm a real emergency (which could be
| dangerous, but PD simply can not respond to all alarms during storms).
|