Restore Exception and Unrestored Alarms

A restore normally never reaches an operator. It arrives, it satisfies the alarm it belongs to, and it goes to the Alarm Log. The queue stays quiet. This guide covers the two cases where that is not enough: a restore that an operator should handle as an alarm in its own right, and an alarm whose restore never arrives. Restore Required, the Restore and Cancel field groups and the manual zone status change are described in the Zones guide. Attaching timers is described in the Dispatch guide.

Requirements

1. The Exc box needs the extended zone fields. The Exc check box, Restore Delay and Cancel Zone are part of the extended zone fields (option ba123). If the option is off, the Zone Details window does not show them.
2. A separate restore plan needs SIA reporting. SIA sends an alarm and its restore as different codes, so each can land on its own zone. Contact ID sends both under the same event code, so they resolve to the same zone and the restore cannot carry a separate plan, whatever is configured.
3. Unrestored alarms need a timer policy. Agree the timer lengths for each type of signal, and create an event extension for each length, before operators start using them (section 4).
4. Keeping forced restorals with supervisors needs an action profile change. Action 559/30 (F8 Change Status) must be absent from every action profile an operator holds (section 4).

1. Sending restores to the Alarm Queue

Silence is the default. With Exc clear, a restore on the zone is logged and pairs off against the open alarm. Nobody is told. That is the right behaviour for the ordinary case. A door contact that opens and closes all day would otherwise flood the queue.

Exc forces the restore into the queue. The Exc check box sits in the Restore column group of the Zone Details window, beside Restore Required and the Restore Zone fields. With it selected, every restore on the zone becomes a queue entry an operator must handle. The Cancel group has its own Exc box, which does the same for cancels.

Exc applies to the zone, not to one incident. Once Exc is on, every restore on that zone reaches an operator. That includes restores nobody was waiting for and restores on alarms resolved hours earlier. Use it only on zones where the return to normal needs its own procedure, such as fire, holdup, a supervised safe or environmental plant. Do not set it on entry/exit doors or motion detectors.

Shared and template zones. Selecting Exc on a shared (%) zone or a template zone applies it to every CID and every served installation that uses that zone.

To set Exc on a zone:

1. Open the installation in #559 and choose the Zones tab.
2. Open the zone with Get One Zone [ALT+F1], then Change Record.
3. In the Restore group, select Exc.
4. Save [ENTER].

Example: a customer asks for confirmation that their fire panel has reset. Set Exc on the fire zone so the reset reaches an operator. Leave it clear on the entry/exit door.

2. Giving a restore its own action plan

A plan belongs to a zone, not to a signal. SBN reads the action plan from the zone the incoming signal lands on. No setting lets one zone use one plan for alarms and another for restores. A restore gets its own plan only when it lands on a zone of its own.

SIA sends the alarm and the restore as different codes. A fire alarm arrives as FA and its restore as FR, a burglary as BA and BR, a tamper as TA and TR. Each code can be its own zone, with its own Zone Type, Text, Priority, Group and Action Plan. Give the FR zone the plan the operator should follow when the panel resets.

The pair still has to be tied together. The alarm zone's Restore Zone field names the zone whose restore satisfies it. Point the FA zone at the FR zone. Otherwise Restore Required on FA is never met and the operator cannot clear the alarm.

Choose the restore zone's type with care. The FIR, TRB and AC zone types carry a Restore Required default, and selecting one ticks Restore Required on the new zone. Changing the type afterwards does not clear the box, which leaves a restore zone that itself demands a restore. SUP is the usual choice for a restore zone.

The Group decides whether the restore stands alone. If the restore zone has the same Group as the alarm zone, the restore joins the open incident as another line. If it has a different group, or none, the restore arrives as a separate Alarm Queue entry with its own priority. The first keeps one incident with the full history, including the reset. The second puts the restore in front of whichever operator is free.

To set up an alarm and restore pair:

1. Create the restore zone first: New Record [F3], with its own Code, Zone Type, Text, Priority, Group and Action Plan.
2. On the restore zone, select Exc so it reaches the queue (section 1).
3. Open the alarm zone, choose Change Record, and set the Restore Zone to the restore zone.
4. Confirm Restore Required is selected on the alarm zone.
5. Save [ENTER] on both.

Create the restore zone before editing the alarm zone. Otherwise the Restore Zone field points at a zone that does not exist yet.

Example: a commercial customer wants holdup restores to go to a supervisor rather than the general queue. Create an HR restore zone with Exc selected, its own plan and a group the supervisor handles, and point the holdup zone's Restore Zone at it. The arrangement breaks if someone later clears Exc on the restore zone or removes the Restore Zone link from the holdup zone.

3. How an alarm and its restore flow

The alarm behaves as it always did. It reaches the queue, an operator takes it and works its action plan. With Restore Required, the operator cannot clear it until the restore has arrived.

The operator holds the wait. While the alarm is open and the restore has not arrived, the operator attaches a timer to it from Dispatch. When the timer expires, the alarm comes back to the operator as TIME OUT (section 4). The wait is held on the alarm by a person, not by the zone configuration.

The restore arrives as its own alarm. Because the restore zone has Exc selected, the restore reaches the queue. Because it is a separate zone, it brings its own text, priority and plan. The operator works that plan and closes it, and the original alarm can then be cleared.

If restores reach the wrong operators, check the restore zone's Exc box, the alarm zone's Restore Zone, and the restore zone's Group, in that order.

4. Handling alarms that do not restore

The operator watches for the missing restore. Nothing in the zone configuration follows up an alarm that has been treated but whose zone has not returned to normal. The operator starts the watch by attaching a timer to the alarm. This is different from Restore Delay (see the Zones guide), which holds an untreated alarm out of the queue.

Set the timer length by signal type. Follow your station's timer policy. A typical policy:

Event extensions supply the timer length. An event extension can carry a default Duration in days, hours and minutes. When the operator picks the extension in the Attach Timer dialog, the length fills in. Create one extension per line of the timer policy, for example INTR at 5 minutes, YXTRB at 24 hours and 3DAY at 3 days. The chosen extension is recorded on the timer entry in the Alarm Log, which shows which policy the operator applied.

To set up a timer extension:

1. Open Event Extensions (#1751) and create a record.
2. Enter the Abbr and Description, for example INTR and Intrusion - 5 minutes.
3. Enter the Duration as days, hours and minutes.
4. Select the timer events the extension is used with: TIMER (event 33), and TIMER2 (event 99) or CONTACT TIMER (event 28) if your station uses them.
5. Save the record.

Keep these limits in mind:

1. The operator still opens Attach Timer and picks the extension. SBN does not choose it from the alarm's zone or signal type.
2. The length fills in only while the days, hours and minutes fields are all empty. If the operator changes to another extension afterwards, the length is not updated.
3. SBN does not enforce a maximum. The 3-day limit is a station rule that operators and supervisors must follow.

A timer only brings the alarm back. When the timer expires, SBN logs TIME OUT (timer 1) or TIMER2 OUT (timer 2) and returns the alarm to the operator in the Alarm Queue. SBN does not check whether the zone has restored. The operator makes that check: if a restore has been received for the zone, the wait is over; if not, the alarm is unrestored and the station's procedure applies.

Restore Required stops the operator from clearing. With Restore Required on the zone, Dispatch refuses to clear the alarm until the zone has restored and shows Zone not restored to normal. No Dispatch permission overrides that. The alarm stays open until a restore arrives or the zone status is changed by hand.

The supervisor decides what happens next. The operator does not resolve an unrestored alarm alone. They call the supervisor, who chooses one of three outcomes:

1. Keep the signal on hold. The signal stays open and the wait continues.
2. Force the restoral. The zone is restored by hand in the Zone Status Change window, opened with Change Status [F8] on the installation's Zones tab in #559 (see the Zones guide). This ends the wait but does not fix a faulty detector.
3. Go on site to the defective zone. Someone attends and fixes the zone that failed to restore.

For a detector the customer has already reported as faulty, a site visit is usually the right outcome. For a door that may genuinely be open, keep the signal on hold and send someone on site.

Keep the decision with supervisors. The Change Status [F8] button is controlled by action 559/30 (F8 Change Status, under Zones). If a user's action profiles do not include 559/30, the button is hidden and the user cannot change zone status. Remove 559/30 from operator profiles and give it to supervisor profiles only, so that a forced restoral can only be carried out by a supervisor (see the Action Profiles guide). Action profiles are cumulative, so 559/30 must be absent from every profile an operator holds.

Operator procedure:

1. Take the burglary alarm and work its action plan.
2. Attach a timer to the alarm from Dispatch and pick the event extension your timer policy sets for the signal. Check the length that fills in before saving.
3. When the alarm comes back as TIME OUT, check whether a restore has been received for the zone. If it has, the wait is over.
4. If no restore has been received, call the supervisor. Give the installation, the zone, when the alarm arrived and what you have done.
5. Carry out the supervisor's decision: keep it on hold, force the restoral, or send someone on site.

5. Quick reference

SIA pairs: FA / FR fire · BA / BR burglary · TA / TR tamper · HA / HR holdup · WA / WR water · GA / GR gas.

Unrestored alarms:

Remember: a plan belongs to a zone, so a restore that needs its own plan needs its own zone. A timer brings the alarm back as TIME OUT; whether the zone has restored is for the operator to check.