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Got a curious problem but not sure how to find out what is going on. I finally got my monitored alarm system to output its PIR (in every room) states into inputs in Idratek. Although it is generally working OK, some rooms appear to be "occupied" for hours and hours when there clearly isn't anyone there. I seem to have got it isolated down to the PIRs - some of them (intermittently) appear to have anywhere between 2 and 5 hours between "movement sense" and "movement off". Could this be because the change in state of the inputs has somehow not been captured by cortex? Any ideas on how to debug this? Thanks.
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Which alarm?
I have a Honeywell Galaxy alarm where you can perform a 'soak test' that logs all the values of the zones over a maximum of 14 days.
See if your alarm has a similar option - I suspect if it's a monitored one it will but you'll need the company to come out and enable it.
That'll isolate the problem to either the sensors and alarm or Cortex and the interfacing electronics.
Once you know that then you can go further to isolate a single components. -
Thanks. Shall try that. My alarm is a Risc one - shall check with the alarm installer.Comment
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I think I might have solved the problem - I inverted the PIR inputs on the DIOs, and it seems to be working now....Comment
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that sounds odd - do you mean physically, on the terminal block ?
I thought PIR outs were volt-free relay contacts ... (?)
hmm, we're busy wiring-up ...Comment
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No, not on the terminal block - under the "behaviour" tab. The PIRs are not wired directly - they go through the alarm system first, and there is an output zone programmed on the alarm wired to one of the inputs on the DIO. It is strange, but seems to be working OK (so far).Comment
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ah, thanks ... presumably that means Cortex now responds in the opposite way to the open and closed states of the input ... (?)
on alarms we've looked at, such outputs have always been volt-free relay outputs ... wonder if sometimes they use an open-collector output, instead ? We're busy wiring up & this includes interfacing with a number of machines around the house (heating, ventilation, washing, etc) - one of which has outputs on a terminal strip which are a mix of relay contacts & open-collector transistor outputs, leading to us worrying about voltage level differences between terminals which become commoned, which might cause stray currents to flow between things when we connect them to a digital input on an Idratek module ...and so to (apart from safety issues) less clear signals going to Cortex ?Comment
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