In-built System IO : Security Armed Level Name

If the system is armed *from* the C-Touch, it would be using the "Arm System" command, and it should be shown in the log.

If the system is armed from the system's own keypad, this is independent of C-Bus, so (probably) the first thing C-Bus knows about it is when it sees the "System Armed" message. I suspect this how the logs presented have been generated.

Unfortunately this is not the way the Security Application is defined, although I can see how it would be a reasonable assumption to make.

The arm levels defined for the "Arm System" (which is a request), and the levels defined for the "System Armed" (which is a notification) are different.

The "Arm System" message defines the requested levels as you describe, but the levels defined for the "System Armed" message are :

$00 = disarmed
$01 = fully armed (typically used for ?away? modes)
$02 = partially armed (typically used for ?home? modes)
(Optional) $03 ? $7F = other arm sub-types, manufacturers discretion
$80 ? $FF = reserved

The reason for this is that different panel manufacturers support partial arming in vastly different ways. What would work for one panel will be wrong for another.

For better or for worse, the value used by PICED etc for the "Name" comes from the arm level in the "Arm System" command. Perhaps this needs to be changed to faithfully report the arm level reported in the "System Armed" command (note however that the Name would correspond to the arm levels defined for the "System Armed" command, not the ones defined in the "Arm System" command as you are expecting...ie you would just get something like "Disarmed", "Armed", "Armed (Partial)", and "Armed (Special)".

Nick

 

Update

With the recent update to PICED 4.8.2 and the corresponding updates to the various C-Touch firmware, we have changed the behaviour of some of the Security-related System IO.

The "Security Armed Level" now faithfully reports the level code which is sent by the panel in the "System Armed" command, where previously it relied on the level from the "Arm System" command.

The "Security Armed Level Name" now reports the names as defined in the Security Application documentation for the "System Armed" command :

0 = Disarmed
1 = Fully Armed
2 = Partially Armed
Other = Armed Custom

Codes 0x03 - 0x7F are defined as manufacturer defined. The comfort panel seems to use some of these.

If you want more information about the mode your panel has armed in, and these new inbuilt names for the armed level don't suit you. You can still "roll your own" names with a little logic code..

If for example you know that your panel is using the code 0x03 in the System Armed message as "Day Mode", then you can create your own string system IO variable to display "Day Mode" when the "Security Armed Level" is equal to 3.

The following should give you the general idea....

Code:

once (GetBoolIBSystemIO("Security Armed State") = true) then
  begin
    temp := (GetIntIBSystemIO("Security Armed Level");
    if (temp = 3) 
      begin
        SetStringSystemIO("Panel Armed Level", 'Day Mode');
      end
    else if (temp = 4) 
      begin
        SetStringSystemIO("Panel Armed Level", 'Night Mode');
      end
    else if (temp = 5) 
      begin
        SetStringSystemIO("Panel Armed Level", 'Confused');
      end
  end;

once (GetBoolIBSystemIO("Security Armed State") = false) then
  SetStringSystemIO("Panel Armed Level", 'Disarmed');

Hope this alleviates some of the confusion and lets you achieve your desired result.

Nick