My panel won’t report signals to my central station receiver.

This FAQ will explain common issues that can prevent a control panel from sending signals to central station receiver. Note: program locations for fields mentioned will vary from panel to panel. Refer to the appropriate program

Topics…

·        Program your Central Station Receiver and account number

·        Test Procedure

·        Dial delay

·        Exit Error: EA

·        Split Reporting

·        Alarmnet in system

·        Check your wiring

·        Dialer shutdown

·        Dialing extra digits

·        Program report codes

·        Are you using the correct report format?

Program your Central Station Receiver and account number           

·         For the system to report, it must have a phone number and account number and a report code programmed for the event you are trying to report.

Test Procedure

·         Verify programming: Phone/act#/report codes/etc…

·         Activate an alarm and listen to the line with a head-set connected to the incoming phone line terminals of the panel.

Ø       If you don’t have a head-set, connect a standard phone to the incoming phone lines to mimic a head-set; or better yet: get one.

·         When the panel seizes the line you should first hear a momentary dial tone

Ø       If you hear the panel dial without hearing a dial tone first, verify your wiring.

Ø       If you have verified other program entries mentioned in this document and it seizes the line but doesn’t dial anything, test the dialer by programming a download callback number, then exit programming and key in your code + # + 1. The panel should dial this number. If not, you may have a bad dialer, or it may be shutdown: Dialer shutdown

·         You should then hear the panel dial.

Ø       If not, verify that you have a phone number programmed.

Ø       You may also try switching from touch-tone to rotary.

·         You should hear 1 or two rings before the receiver answers.

Ø       If you hear an operator, busy signal, or anything other than a receiver, you are dialing the wrong phone number.

Ø       If you hear extra digits dialing, refer to Dialing extra digits

·         After you hear the acknowledgement tones from the receiver the panel should dump its information.

Ø       If not, verify that you have a report format selected that is supported by the receiver. Are you using the correct report format?

·         After the panel dumps its information, you should hear a kiss-off tone from the receiver after each signal. The panel should then hang up and release the line.

Ø       If not, you may have noise on the line, or the wrong format selected

Dial delay

·         There is an option in programming to delay the dialer for up to 15 seconds for burglary alarms. If the system is disarmed before this period expires, the system will not report at all.

·         Fire alarms will not be delayed.

Exit Error: EA

·         With the Exit Error feature enabled, an entry/exit or interior zone will cause an “exit error alarm” rather than a true alarm.

·         These messages may be interpreted to central station as a “trouble” rather than an alarm.

Split Reporting

·         Split reporting sends some signals to the primary phone number and others to the secondary.

·         If one of these is not correct, some signals may go through while others do not.

Alarmnet in system

·         The control panel has Alarmnet options that can either disable the dialer completely, or set the dialer only as a backup to the radio. Verify that these fields are set correctly.

Check your wiring

·         You must verify that the phone line coming into the building is connected to the terminals on the panel marked “Incoming Phone Line”

·         Connect a head-set to the panel “Incoming Phone Line”. You should still have a dial tone on these terminals even with the house phone terminals disconnected.

·         The panel earth ground terminal is directly next to the phone lines. Be sure that you didn’t wire the phones one-terminal off by mistake.

Dialer shutdown

·         If the panel dialer has been shut down by a download from a computer, it can only be re-enabled by a computer. If this is the case, the panel will still dial the number programmed as a download callback number by keying the installer code +  # + 1 while outside programming.

·         On commercial fire panels, field 3*30 enables the dialers. If set to 00, the dialer is disabled.

Dialing extra digits

·         The control panels have a field for PABX, which is a telephone prefix. If you do not need this, erase this by entering the program field and pressing *

·         Some controls have an option for Call-Waiting-Defeat. This causes the panel to dial a “*70 “ in front of the phone number to disable the call-waiting clicks. These can interrupt communication. If your phone system does not support a “*70” to disable call waiting, you should disable this field.

Program report codes

·         The system must have a report code programmed to enable each report.

·         If you are using a low speed format, the digits that you have programmed will literally be the code that is reported.

·         If you are Using Contact ID format, the report is enabled by a report code with a first digit that is not 00

·         In zone programming, report codes are entered in a hexadecimal format. In other words, each “digit” is 2 key-strokes. You may see a report code screen such as: 01 00 10. In this case, 01 is your first digit (1). 00 is the second digit (0); and 10 is the combination (1 for first, 0 for second)

·         In standard program fields (outside the menu mode), you may key in report codes by a direct entry. For example if you want to program a report code of 52, simply enter a 52 into that program location. Refer the appropriate program form for more information.

Are you using the correct report format?

·         Verify that the format you are sending is supported by the receiver that you want to send to.

·         Make sure that this format is selected in programming.

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