Alarm Log

The Alarm Log is the installation's memory: every signal, incident and operator action, kept per installation on the Alarm Log tab of Service/Data Entry (#559). Where the Alarm Queue shows what is still open, the log shows everything that ever happened — and it is writable in exactly two controlled ways: comments, and the supervisor's patch. Service tickets generated for the installation appear here too.

How the module progresses

1. Read the log — lines, colours, and moving through pages.
2. Choose the view that answers the question.
3. Find one thing — a zone, a moment, an event's details.
4. Write a comment into the log.
5. Patch an incident — the supervisor override.

1. Read the log

Task: read any log line's who-what-when, and move through a long history without losing your place.

One line per event. Day, date and time open each line — shown in the customer's or the operator's time zone (the Data Entry Master Toggle Operator/Premises Time switches). The zone, the event, and the operator's actions follow; an M marks rows whose date/time were entered manually. A flashing line is an incident someone is handling in Dispatch at this moment.

Colour is the event's status:

Moving through pages. Fwd / Back page through, Top / Bottom jump to the ends, [CTRL+HOME] returns to the top of the current page. Refresh Interval [ALT+F11] sets auto-refresh from 0 to 300 seconds — after Bottom, the refresh does not carry you back to where you were.

Worked example (Branch TRAIN): open the Alarm Log on an installation with alarm history and read one incident's lines bottom-up: signal in red, actions in green, and the times in both time zones via the toggle.

Guided practice: page to the oldest entry with two keystrokes, come back to the newest, and explain what the M column would tell you about a row.

Independent practice: point at any olive line and any green line and state, without zooming, why neither of them ever appeared in the Alarm Queue's new-alarm colour.

2. Choose the view that answers the question

Task: pick the right log view for a question, and drill from a one-line incident to its full story.

The Alarm Log Type field names the view you are in. The views:

In Compressed view it is the incident number that flashes for live incidents, not the event.

Worked example (Branch TRAIN): on that installation, go Compressed and read an incident as one line — then drill into it with Incident view and narrate the actions in order: taken, acknowledged, called, resolved.

Guided practice: open the PLATEAU master (TRA-00006) in Shared view and use the Alarm ID column to say which family member each event belongs to — the sub-zone redirect from the Zones module, seen from the log's side.

Independent practice: three questions, one view each, justified in a sentence: "did we call the fire brigade on that incident?" · "what exactly did the operator do at 03:12?" · "what happened across the whole campus family last night?"

3. Find one thing — a zone, a moment, an event's details

Task: cut a long log down to the zone or moment you care about, and zoom one event to its full details.

One zone: pick the zone in the Zone field and choose Get One Zone [F5] — the log shows only that zone's incidents (the view reads Zone).

One moment: complete Scroll to a Specific Time and choose the window/scroll function [SHIFT+F9] — the log lands on the incidents at and before that date and time. An invalid date stops the refresh timer with an error; clear or correct it and press any log button to restart. While a specific time is set, every auto-refresh returns to that moment.

One event: Zoom opens the Event Details window with everything the line abbreviates.

Worked example (Branch TRAIN): on the same installation, isolate the fire zone's history with Get One Zone, then scroll to this morning and zoom the first alarm of the day.

Guided practice: with the time-scroll still set, watch one auto-refresh and explain where the log went — then clear it and say what changed.

Independent practice: reconstruct "what happened on zone 001 around lunchtime yesterday" in the fewest moves, and name the trap the refresh timer sets for you while you are parked on a past moment.

4. Write a comment into the log

Task: attach a comment to the right incident — or deliberately to none — and flag the important ones.

Log Comments [F8] opens the comment dialog on the highlighted incident. The attachment rule: with exactly one open incident, the comment attaches to it; with none or several open, the incident number stays blank — a stand-alone log comment. Completing the dialog's own Date and Time marks the row M for manual. The Important check box makes it a high-priority comment — its event abbreviation shows blue in the log.

Steps:

1. Highlight the incident.
2. Log Comments [F8]; write the comment.
3. Set Date/Time only when recording something that happened earlier.
4. Save [ENTER] — verify where the incident number landed.

Worked example (Branch TRAIN): on an installation with an open incident, add the comment "customer called — false alarm, cleaning crew", and verify it attached to the incident.

Guided practice: add a stand-alone comment (no incident open) recording a maintenance visit from an hour ago with manual date/time — then find its M flag and explain why the incident number is blank.

Independent practice: the night shift must see "premises flooded — do not dispatch, call the manager first" the moment they open this log. Write it so it stands out, and defend every choice you made in the dialog.

5. Patch an incident — the supervisor override

Task: override an incident's resolution or flag it off the customer's report, leaving the audit trail a patch is supposed to leave.

Patch Alarm Log [F9] is the supervisor's correction tool. On a line with a resolution code, it asks: change the resolution? Yes offers the resolution menu — pick the correct code, confirm with the function key, record an event extension and comment. No (or a line without a resolution) offers the other half: set the supervisor flag. Either way the incident ends with an X in Supervisor Override — and an overridden incident does not print on the incident report sent to the customer.

Worked example (Branch TRAIN): on a resolved incident, patch the resolution to the correct code, add the extension and a one-line reason, and find the Supervisor Override X.

Guided practice: patch a second incident choosing No at the first prompt — supervisor flag only — and state what changed and what did not.

Independent practice: an operator resolved a genuine break-in as a false alarm, and the customer's monthly report goes out tomorrow. Walk the full patch — code, extension, comment — and say exactly what the customer will and will not see, and why the log still tells the truth internally.

6. Quick reference

Colours: red new · green operator action · yellow in-test signal · dark red alarm in test · olive log-only/trouble · blue high-priority comment abbreviation · white cursor line.

One-liners: Composite is the default view; Basic = queue-entering incidents only · Incident view is reached through Compressed · Shared follows the Master CID family (Alarm ID names the member); Member Shared follows the member number · agency X columns in Compressed record actual calls from Dispatch · one open incident = comment auto-attaches · patched incidents carry Supervisor Override X and drop off the customer's incident report · flashing = being handled in Dispatch right now.