The schedule tab contains all of a client's alarm scheduling information. This includes the default schedule which defines the expected times the alarm system will be ordinarily set and unset along with a holiday schedule which defines any known variations to the default schedule.
Note: the terms set/close and unset/open are used interchangeably in this document.
Schedule Tab
Patriot has powerful features for handling open and close time management, special open and close times, and public holidays. Schedule Monitoring determines if an alarm is set (closed) or unset (open) when it should not be then raises an alarm to warn the operator. This system is named Auto Status Monitoring, and full documentation can be found here. As an alternative to Auto Status Monitoring the Unset List tool can be used to perform a simplified form of Schedule Monitoring.
There are two sides to Open and Close Time Management. Firstly we want to know if the site is opened out of hours (e.g. a user of the alarm system returns to open the premises out of normal opening hours) and secondly we want to know if a site is late to close (e.g. someone has forgotten to close (set) the system at the end of a working day).
The system must be told the normal open and close times for a given site before it can begin to advise if the client system is open out of hours or late to close. Daily open/close times can be entered for all regular opening and closings. This cannot be done when you first insert a client it must be when you are changing the client’s details. Each time slot begins with an opening and ends with a closing time. A Copy From button is provided to copy open /close times from another client. Use this if the open/close times are similar, but not the same as an existing client. Then modify them once copied. If they are the same use the alternate look up, see below.
Default Open and Close times for a site are set in the Schedule area of the Schedule Tab
Entering an Open/Close time schedule.
To enter a new
Open/Close time - click the add button. This will create a new list entry.
Enter the Open and Close day by clicking the selector buttons
Enter Open and Close times using the numeric entry boxes. All times must be entered in 24 hr clock format.
Enter Open and Close Tolerance values in minutes. This tolerance represents the amount of time a site can be opened/closed before the scheduled time. The Opening Tolerance is only required if you are monitoring for both Unset Out Of Hours and Late To Open, and is the amount of time before the scheduled Opening that a opening signal can be received without alarming. The Closing Tolerance is only required if you are monitoring for both Late To Close and Close During Hours, and is the amount of time before the scheduled Closing that an closing signal can be received without alarming.
Click the
Save button to save the new time slot
When entering or changing a time slot, before the entry is saved, the system will make sure it doesn’t overlap an existing time slot. A warning message will be displayed if this is the case. As it is illogical to allow two time slots to overlap, the system won’t allow this to happen.There are no limitations on the number of time slots that may be entered, and a single time slot may also span over into the next day or days.
Edit a time slot simply by clicking on the list item, changing the required fields and clicking save.
Some areas are expected to be always set. An example of this would be a fire alarm area which is only ever unset for maintenance. For such areas a '24 Hour Schedule' can be used.
To enter a 24 hour schedule:
Entering a 24 hour schedule.
In cases where open/close times among clients are the same, using the template feature is probably the best option. Because the same data is shared it means updates can be made for a number of clients in one place and disk space is saved. To do this:
Check the Use Template box
Click on the Selector at the end of the Use Template field to display the Templates popup. Template Client details are displayed in a scrolling list. Click a client whose open/close times suit your own requirements.
Open/close templates
Default tolerance is set to 0 and is not used, set tolerance for each day or entry for flexibility
Using the schedule tolerance.
A tolerance for open and close's can be entered for each schedule entry. This tolerance will be added before the schedule open or close time. So from the example above on Sunday there is a tolerance on the open of 15 minutes which means the site can be open at 7:45, opening before this time will cause an open out of hours alert and opening after 8:00 will casue a Late To Open.The same applies for the close. This has a tolerance of 20 minutes which means the site is able to close at 16:40 closing before this time will cause a closed during hours alert and after 17:00 will cause a Late To Close
The scheduled tolerance is only used for Late To Close and Late To Open. For a more detailed description of how tolerance's work see the Auto Status Monitoring document here.
There may be the odd occasion when a client opens or closes at a different time to normal. Such occasions could occur over a holiday period or at a particular time that is significant to the clients business or personal affairs.
For example, the client is a retailer and for the week building up to Christmas they will stay open until 10 pm each night instead of their usual closing time of 5 pm. To avoid an unset out of hours alarm (signal type 65007) being activated a special open/close time must be set to keep the site open until 10 pm.
Because we do not want to make permanent changes to the normal open/close times for the client, we must be able to temporarily override them. A temporary set of open/close times can be set in Holiday Schedule area. Once set these open/close times will override the standard open/close times for the duration specified. Once the duration is up the open/close times will default back to the standard times previously set under Schedule.
Before a new Holiday Schedule Open/Close time can be set, a Holiday Schedule group must first be set up. A Holiday Schedule group can have a number of open/close pairs within it.
Holiday Schedule
In cases where Holiday Schedule times among clients are the same, using the Use Template feature is probably the best option. This is mainly because the same data is shared meaning updates can be made for a number of clients in one place, saving operator time and disk space. To do this:
When entering a new Holiday Schedule group it must be specified whether the group is to begin with a closing time (which means no access is permitted until the next opening time) or to begin with an opening (which gives free access until the next closing).
A New Group must be added before a New Open/Close time can be added. The dates set for this group will enable standard open/close times to be overridden for this time frame. Once the group has been set up additional Open/Close times can then be entered within the group.
Holidays where access is to be curtailed during the holiday period will normally begin with a Closing (No Access). When entering the initial close time, this should be set to the final expected close time before the holiday begins. For example, if a site is normally open Mon-Fri, 8am - 8pm, but Friday is a holiday, then set the initial close time to be Thursday at 8pm. If the site is open late or closing early on the day before the holiday, update the close time as required.
A case where a holiday special might begin with an opening is a factory that normally operates regular working hours (which would be covered by the standard open close times). If the factory calls in to advise that they will be working round the clock for the next three weeks, they will not wish to be troubled with calls about out of hours monitoring from the central station during this period. In this case you would begin a new holiday group with an opening that would allow access for the desired period.
To enter a new group:
Click the
New Group button to bring up the Update Holiday/Special Opening &
Closings window.
New Holiday Schedule Group
Note: Different clients can have the same Tag Name, which does not have to store the same dates. If the Advance one-year option is chosen (Maintenance > Clients > Special Holidays) only the year will change not the individual dates. However if the days are updated using the Advance Days option, all dates within the group will have their dates advanced by the number of days specified.
Delete Group button deletes the whole group of the current selected record.
The New Open/Close
button allows opening and closing pairs to be entered within a Holiday
Group.
Note:If the Group Closing time is highlighted when the New Open/Close button is pressed the new open/close will begin with an opening time. If the Opening time of the group is highlighted when the New Open/Close button is pressed the new open/close will begin with a closing time.
No Tag Name is required. All open and close times within a group share the same tag name. The first record of a Holiday Schedule group is highlighted by an icon. In Holiday Schedule area the open/close times are shown within the group times, they are Opening at 0900 hours 26/12 and Closing at 1500 hours on the 26/12.
Highlight the record you wish to alter and then click
the Edit button. This will bring up the popup to change open/close records.
Make any necessary changes then click Save to save the changes.
Delete All Groups button deletes all Holiday Schedule groups setup for this
client.
Click the Copy From button to display the Copy Holiday Schedules
form. Select the client whose file you want to copy in Copy From Client
selector. Click Save button to copy Holiday Schedules.
Note: You can only use the copy command if no entries exist for the client you wish to copy to.