The PCB receiver cards MCDI-TLR,
TLR+ and exprecium
A full alarm receiver that fits in a PC computer. It has all
the features of standard stand alone receivers. All PCB receivers
cards have:
•
Two (2) dial up telephone lines entry per card.
• One (1) printer connector port for direct printing,
independent of computer.
• A 6v battery connector as fail safe assurance measure.
• A memory buffer for stand alone operation while computer
is out of service.
• Recognize automatically most transmission protocols
on the market.
• Multiple alarm cards at a time can be installed in the
same computer.
• For
exprecium model, a relay (open or close 5V) to trigger an external
device
Host
computer for PCB card
ISA PCB card fits in IBM or IBM PC compatible computers of type
AT, 386, 486, and up. A standard chassis is an absolute requirement.
The card will not fit in an XT chassis nor in a portable computer.
exprecium
requires a standard PCI slot and plug and play bios.
The
card is self sufficient and does not require any resource from
the computer other than COM port, IRQ and electrical power.
During
normal operation the card takes its power form the computer
and charges its support battery, if one is present.
Operation
with many alarms being dialed in at the same time.
The operation of a Central station equipped with the MCDI receiver
is in no way different than if it were equipped otherwise. The
Central station needs as many phone lines as required by the
density of the traffic. The time it takes to receive an alarm
call depends on the transmission speed and protocol used by
the panel at the other end. The receiver is very fast and in
fact is always waiting for data to come in. So
the phone line arrangement is a different problem to solve.
The ratio of customer per telephone line depends on the characteristics
of the customer base. It is different in industry than in
commerce or in residential. We often hear of a ratio of a
thousand customers by telephone line but this has to be reviewed
in face of the operation data.
A
practical way of organizing a telephone configuration is to
have lines in cascade, each ending on a different receiver
port or a different receiver altogether for a good backup
balance. This means that a phone call meeting with a line
busy signal will automatically be routed to the other line
and so on. In this way bottlenecks are prevented.
Central
station power failure
If the electrical power supplied by the electric utility breaks
down, the UPS or whatever setup there is, will take over and
feed the Central Station. If the computer fails, for whatever
cause, then, the 6v battery helps the receiver card MCDI-TLR,
TLR+ or exprecium to keep on receiving alarms until the computer
comes back on line. During normal operation, the card takes
its power from the computer and charges the battery. When the
computer fails, the card takes its power from the battery and
keeps on receiving alarms. The buffer on the card can holds
up to 256 events on a TLR, 800 events on a TLR+ and 1800 events
on an exprecium. The card keeps printing during computer outage
time. When the computer comes back on, the buffer is emptied
to the computer. If more than 256 (with model TLR_ events are
received in the buffer during fail time, the card writes over
the oldest one with all events exceeding 256. The written records
are available however to reconstruct data. These written records
have been printed by the backup printer hooked up directly to
the MCDI-TLR receiver card and also supported by a battery.
A printer that fits this need is the Star DP8340 but there are
others on the market.
Computer
failure.
The design of the power backup for the Central Station might
provide for a UPS equipped with alternative fuel generators
but one has to provide for a failure of the computer or the
receiver. The
action to take when a computer fails depends very much on
the design of the backup configuration for the Central Station..
Are we provided with a UPS, are we provided with a backup
computer, are the computers on a network, do we have a backup
receiver, is the backup receiver in the computer or on the
backup computer, do we have a backup printer attached to the
MCDI-TLR receiver. In each case a specific scenario can be
plotted. |
