Alarm System Reporting Formats
HossBud
Could anyone of you seasoned veterans post a description of the different
common reporting formats for those of us younger folks who make use of them,
but dont really understand the details of each?
3/1
3/1E
3/1 with Parity
3/1E with Parity
4/1
4/2
BFSK
SIA 110 Baud
Contact ID
SIA 300 Baud
Thanks ahead of time.
Richard Brown - Security Systems Tech
Simplex Time Recorder
Washington DC
Steve Ryckman
In article <199806281914...@ladder01.news.aol.com>,
hos...@aol.com says...
> Could anyone of you seasoned veterans post a description of the different
> common reporting formats for those of us younger folks who make use of them,
> but dont really understand the details of each?
> 3/1
> 3/1E
> 3/1 with Parity
> 3/1E with Parity
> 4/1
> 4/2
The first batch here are all "pulse" formats. Just like the old rotary
phones, these formats use pulses to send their data. The number before
your slash is the length of the account number, the number after the
slash is the length of the zone that can be transmitted. Since they use
"pulses" to send data, only the digits 1-9 and A-F can be transmitted.
Most receivers translate an "A" into a "0" however. Ie: You can't send
"0" pulses as you would send nothing so most consider 10 pulses the same
as 0 pulses but 11 = B, and so on up to 15 = F. This with "parity" just
mean that the value of all characters transmitted is added and mod'd by
15 and that is sent as an extra character. It was a primitive form of
ensuring the data received was correct. If the "parity" didn't add up on
the receiving end then something most likely happened to a pulse or two
during transmission. The "3/1E" you have is probably "Extended"
reporting. There also is a 4/1 extended. In extended reporting two
"rounds" of data are sent for each transmission. This allowed
transmitting two digit zones from dialers that were only capable of one.
Usually the second round involved repeating the first character so the
receiver knew it was an extension of the first. For instance if the
account number was 123 and zone 45 was transmitted you would see the
following two signals: 123-4 and 444-5 which would then translate back
into 123-45 appropriately.
> BFSK
> SIA 110 Baud
> SIA 300 Baud
These are all "FSK" (Frequency Shift Keyed if I remember correctly)
formats. FSK is very similar to regular modem transmissions except there
is not a constant carrier signal. FSK is commonly used for data over
radio for terminals in squad cars, etcetera as well. BFSK was Radionics
original version of it whose goal was to send more characters than just
the 1-9 and A-F. With an FSK format it is possible to send all the ascii
characters baring any limitation on the equipment being used. I believe
(someone correct me if I'm wrong) that BFSK was only 50 baud ? SIA
(Security Industry Association) created a standard set of codes that
would be transmitted for certain types of signals. This came because
some installers might use 31 for burg zone 1 and some might use B1 for
the same signal, while others would use B1 for Opening user 1. It became
very hard (especially for wholesale central stations) to keep track of
who used what codes if they weren't computer automated. SIA DCS says
that burg signals will be "BA" for instance, Openings are "OP", etcetera.
> Contact ID
Contact ID, FBI Superfast, Acron and a couple others use a DTMF format as
well. They are standard DTMF tones like you press a digit on your phone
but much faster and they use the special A-D keys that aren't on the
average phones also. Contact ID is a format created by Ademco which is
similar to SIA, certain codes always mean the same thing.
Today, I would recommend someone trying to figure out which format to
use, to use either a SIA or Contact ID format. Depending on the panels
and receivers supporting them of course, but both these are flexible yet
firm in their format and very fast and solid.
Ok, that's Transmission Protocol's 101 for today, enjoy.
--
--
Steven M. Ryckman, asa Group Host
Email: sryc...@simsware.com
Read the FAQ before posting to alt.security.alarms
http://asa.faq.simsware.com
Barry May
> 3/1
The industry original. This format had four pulsed digits. The first 3 showed
the location, the last digit showed the alarm code. It would look like
245 3 on the machines tape.
Speed was normally 10 pulses per second. To verify the code was transmitted
properly, it had to be received twice by the central station. Handshake tone
was at 1400 Hz.
> 3/1E
More commonly called 3x1 extended allowed for one more alarm identifier digit in
the four digit format. It again had to be received twice for confirmation.
This was done to accommodate panels that outputted more zones. to accommodate
the second alarm code, the first alarm digit would be repeated three times.
This got confusing and would sometimes separate so we would never install a
three same digit account number (like 444). Since the signal came in twice, it
would look like this on the tape:
356 3
356 3
333 5
333 5
This would denote a customer at account 356 had an alarm signal 35.
> 3/1 with Parity
> 3/1E with Parity
Similar to the previous
> 4/1
> 4/2
Similar to 3x1 but with 4 digits for the location code and 1 or 2 digits for the
alarm code. This generally was at 20 or 40 digits per second. Handshake tone
was at 2300 Hz.
> BFSK
No pulse using tones for codes
> SIA 110 Baud
> Contact ID
> SIA 300 Baud
Modem type formats. Contact ID would send complete information (Master Bedroom
front window) as opposed to digits that would have to be looked up.
Barry May
Security Consultant
AES IntelliNet Rep.
ba...@security-zone.com
spamfr...@ihug.co.nz
Thanks Steve
I too was interested in this post.
Brian
On Mon, 29 Jun 1998 04:56:32 GMT, sryc...@simsware.com (Steve
Ryckman) wrote:
>In article <199806281914...@ladder01.news.aol.com>,
>hos...@aol.com says...
>> Could anyone of you seasoned veterans post a description of the different
>> common reporting formats for those of us younger folks who make use of them,
>> but dont really understand the details of each?
>
>> 3/1
>> 3/1E
>> 3/1 with Parity
>> 3/1E with Parity
David Norris
HossBud wrote in message
>Could anyone of you seasoned veterans post a description of the different
>common reporting formats for those of us younger folks who make use of
them,
>but dont really understand the details of each?
one of the best resources I've seen is in the FBI CP-220 receiver manual.
David
e-mail: dlno...@rmi.com
MARK VICKERY
4+2 is a four digit account code + 2 didgit report code sent like 1234 12
contact id is this example burg zone 1 area 1 18E13001C001
restore is like this 18R13001C001
BYPASS 18E57001C001
UNBYPASS 18R57001C001
AND SO ON
CONATCT ID ID BROKEN DOWN INTO 3 MAIN PARTS
18E IS A NEW EVENT
130 IS THE EVENT QUALIFIER
01C001 AREA (PARTITION 1) ZONE 001
THE E OR R MAYBE REPLACED BY A 1 OR 3 DEPENDING ON YOUR RECEIVER.
A FULL CONATCT ID SIGNALS CONTAINS THE ACCOUNT CODE AS WELL
1234 18E13001C001