I would like to know if there is an APP for the Iphone which allows you to silence the Fire Alarm Panel, Put it into Test Mode, Drill and even Acknowledge if there is a Fire and view any Supervisory Alarms and Alarm Logs? If a pul station has been activated or a smoke detector is there a way for the App to send out an Alert with an Alarm Sound telling you what has been activated?
If no App exists I would love to work to create one as I feel that this would better manage the system so you don’t have to run to reset the system. So as long as a Supervisor is logged in to the App and they are required to re enter their Supervisory Password at least once every 24 hours I can see the false alarms being reduced as the App could ask if A Fire Exists press OK and it will contact the Alarm Company via your Cellphone so you can report the fire. If you put the alarm into Test Mode the App will remind you to put it back into normal Monitored Mode.
For the features that you want, there is really no such thing for JUST a fire system.
Honeywell has AlarmNet for their security and fire combo systems.
However to completely remote control a panel like a 4001 or something simple (whether its an external serial radio or network based) it would be a bad idea. A digital panel would require reverse engineering how the whole thing works.
ccs46:
Besides how would you be able to pull info about devices in alarm or logs from a digital system.
I don’t think anyone is going to get an Arduino so they can modify a live system just for these features. I really doubt Apple is going to approve this app for the App Store and I REALLY doubt Simplex would like the idea of someone reverse engineering their protocols and showing it back to them.
Of course Google will approve anything for the Play Store.
I don’t get the point of you doing any of this since it involves soldering and having a bunch of relays for the 4001’s PCB and there is no digital interface so you’ll be limited by the feature set anyways.
I’m pretty sure Andrew would think you’re nuts.
Also to answer the op’s original question, there are dialers that you can get like the 411UD, UDACT and many others. It all depends on the service you choose to use and how they do the reporting (by email/phone call/sms, etc…).
That video was taken when it was a prototype. There is work that needs to be done to that but the system is working really well.
Let’s leave that for Andrew to decide, shall we? I think it’s really promising that people are experimenting with this kind of stuff. Only way you can learn!
Now as far as getting it on the App Store or selling it to Simplex, no. However, I remember there being an iPhone simulator built into the iOS SDK for testing purposes. You could absolutely create a working proof-of-concept or even port it to a jailbroken iPhone.
The whole point that bringing to this Destin is “Why!”.
Running it on a jailbroken iPhone will be hard to do since Apple has been patching the holes up in iOS. It would just be easier just to make a web app and use PHP so it can handle raw TCP sockets to the ethernet shield or whatever on the Arduino, or run a long USB cable to the server and have PHP talk to it by way of serial.
99% of the time that would take a looooong cable. Also this is starting to sound like something a Safety mod should be all over with the whipping stick…
A USB cable would be so inefficient, so I wouldn’t go into that… Anyways, why don’t companies just continue to stick annunciators at building entrances, it’s key operated and doesn’t require a company to re-engineer the entire workings of the panel. And if the building owner wants more annunciators, they will add more to the system. And they are already computer programs for panels that visualize fires and some have panel controls within the system…
Signal Alert, the point of the “app” or whatever he wants is for hobby use. Not a professional system, which is why I would discourage anyone from doing such a stunt because they may hurt them self or may not understand what they are doing and could be too late to back out of doing modifications to a panel.
All we can do is warn users of potentially dangerous ideas. The iPhone app + Arduino sounds safe enough, minus the part about modifying panels which I didn’t see until now. Since ccs46’s dad is a fire alarm tech, I’ll leave that up to his discretion. My personal recommendation though is that you find a different way to make a proof-of-concept that doesn’t involve ruining a 4001.
