June
1998, Issue 95
Gotchya!
Alarming
the Alarm System
by
Steve Ciarcia & Jeff Bachiochi
GOTCHA
While
solving the problem this way gave me the satisfaction
of not having to buy more useless equipment from an
alarm company, it turns out there was no better alternative.
The
monitoring station and a commercial alarm printer could
only give me a list of successful alarm operation. But,
my major irritation was with people who didn’t
look for a green LED (indicating that the building was
clear) before blindly punching in a code (that the alarm
doesn’t accept) and blowing out the door.
The
ASDL stores every key pressed. It only adds the time/date
stamp when the on/off key is pressed. If the alarm isn’t
set, a quick review of the record should show what code
was being entered, even if unsuccessfully.
All
of our work may have been in vain. We haven’t had
any false alarms, and interestingly, there haven’t
been any mornings with an unset alarm.
Either
everyone has become educated by involvement in publishing
this article, or seeing Jeff and me constantly playing
with the alarm system has made them aware that something
is going on.
Regardless,
they seem to recognize the seriousness of it all. Jeff
and I just have to be careful that we don’t let
on that we really have fun.
