Weird Alarm Stuff

[GG]

Hi

Got two, small but linked questions. I work at a commercial property and
recently we went in to start and work and unset the alarm on entry. On entry
it was making the usual entry tone with an additional tone mixed in. After
unsetting the panel said something about an error occurring an hour after
the alarm was set, may have been comm., but something about the message made
me think it was a communication error. We had to enter the usercode again
and press enter, which instead of bringing up the menu just cleared the
error. Is it possible to get errors that don't set off the alarms? The
engineer said it 'probably wasn't set properly' which seems unlikely...as it
either sets or doesn't!

The second and possibly linked is a nearby shop, that shares the same
central station had a line failure the night before, which resulted in
someone from our shop being called out as well, confused me! Surely the line
just failing wouldn't set the alarm off because the alarm wouldn't notice,
not without using it, or is it some local loop that a group of shops share a
connection to the exchange?

Thanx
GG

 

[Matt Duncan]

Hi

Got two, small but linked questions. I work at a commercial property and
recently we went in to start and work and unset the alarm on entry. On entry
it was making the usual entry tone with an additional tone mixed in. After
unsetting the panel said something about an error occurring an hour after
the alarm was set, may have been comm., but something about the message made
me think it was a communication error. We had to enter the usercode again
and press enter, which instead of bringing up the menu just cleared the
error. Is it possible to get errors that don't set off the alarms? The
engineer said it 'probably wasn't set properly' which seems unlikely...as it
either sets or doesn't!

The second and possibly linked is a nearby shop, that shares the same
central station had a line failure the night before, which resulted in
someone from our shop being called out as well, confused me! Surely the line
just failing wouldn't set the alarm off because the alarm wouldn't notice,
not without using it, or is it some local loop that a group of shops share a
connection to the exchange?

Thanx
GG

GG,
I'm not quite sure what type of alarm system you have, but most
recognized brands have the ability to monitor presence, or lack there
of, of phone line voltage. Additionaly, panels can be programmed to
"go into alarm" in the event of phone failure. This is not a
recommended practice do to the up and down nature of phone lines. We
only program our equipment like that for governement and military
applications, and even then there is so much redundancy on phone lines
it never goes into alarm. Panels also have the ability to report phone
line failure to a Central Station if you have an additional line. If
you do, call the Central station and ask them for an activity report
for that 24hr period, it may help you understand what happened. The
types of panels we sell, install and monitor also react differently to
alarms depending on the status of the phone line. Your best bet would
be to call your security provider and ask them. If they don't help, I
would be happy to research the problem for you. Also, if you don't
have two phone lines to your panel I highly recommend it. If at all
possible, get a cellular communications kit. This will insure
communications in the event of "land line" failure. Keep in mind, an
attempt is made to cut phone lines and "disable" the security about
10% of the time...

Matt Duncan
V.P.
Sonitrol of Southern Oregon Inc.