Security Alarm System

This invention relates to security alarm systems such as disclosed in our U.S. Pat. No. 3,939,460 issued on Feb. 17, 1976, for a "Security Alarm System".

The above noted copending patent application discloses a security alarm system in which a plurality of burgular and fire alarm conductors from different premises are wired to a multiplexer in a central data transmitter unit. A binary counter is coupled to the multiplexer and a clock pulse circuit is coupled to the binary counter to step the counter through its counting cycle. The counter causes the multiplexer to connect the alarm conductors one at a time in sequence to the input of an alarm detector which detects alarm conditions on the conductors. When an alarm condition is detected, the counter is stopped and the number in the counter at that time is displayed on a visual display in the data transmitter along with a letter signifying whether the alarm is a fire alarm or a burgular alarm. The displayed number, which indicates the premises in which the alarm condition is detected, is also transmitted by the data transmitter to a remote location, e.g. to a police station or fire station. After the alarm condition and number have been displayed and transmitted, the counter is re-activated and resumes stepping the multiplexer through its scanning cycle.

One problem associated with the above described security alarm system is that an alarm condition for any particular alarm conductor is re-transmitted every time the multiplexer scans the corresponding alarm conductor as long as the alarm remains active. For example, if a fire alarm is detected at a certain premises, the fire alarm and number of the premises would be repeatedly transmitted to the fire department on every multiplexer scan until the fire is put out, and perhaps longer, since the fire may short or open the fire alarm conductor and possibly cause the alarm condition to remain until somebody repairs the fire alarm conductor. Such continual re-transmissions of the alarm are unnecessary and undesirable. Accordingly, it is desirable to limit the number of times that any particular alarm is transmitted to the remote location.

Another problem in the prior art security alarm systems is that the person assigned to monitor the data alarm transmitter may not spend all of his or her time at the transmitter and thus might miss one or more of the alarms. For example, the data alarm transmitter may be in an apartment house and the security man for the apartment house may be responsible for monitoring the alarm display and taking the appropriate action. However, such a security man would normally have other duties and might miss an alarm while away from the data transmitter unit. As a result, a small fire which could be easily put out if attended to promptly might engulf the building before the fire fighters arrived. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an alarm memory in the data transmitter unit with which an operator can recall previous alarms that were registered in his absence.

In accordance with this invention, a shift register having the same number of stages as the number of alarm conductors is coupled to the output of the multiplexer, the output of the shift register being coupled back to its input to form a re-circulating serial memory unit. The shift register is clocked in synchonism with the multiplexer. A switchable control circuit is provided to apply the output of the shift register to the input of the alarm detector circuit to recall previous alarms. A second shift register having a number of stages equal to an integral multiple of the number of alarm conductors is coupled to the output of the alarm detector circuit. The second shift register is also clocked in synchronism with the multiplexer. An exclusive OR circuit has one input coupled to the output of the second shift register, another input coupled to the output of the alarm detector circuit, and the output connected to a control circuit which activates the data transmitter, thereby limiting the number of times that any particular alarm is transmitted.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an alarm detector and data transmitter unit utilizing one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a detailed block diagram of the memory input control and memory output control circuits shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a detailed block diagram of an alternate circuit arrangement for limiting the number of alarm transmissions for any specific alarm condition.

Although the disclosure hereof is detailed and exact to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, the physical embodiments herein disclosed merely exemplify the invention which may be embodied in other specific structure. The scope of the invention is defined in the claims appended hereto.

FIG. 1 discloses an alarm detector and data transmitter utilizing one embodiment of the invention. Burglar and fire alarm conductors 10 are wired from 128 different apartments or other premises to an input selector multiplexer 12 which is similar in its construction and operation to the input selector multiplexer disclosed in said copending patent application Ser. No. 463,713. One burglar and one fire alarm detector are wired from each apartment to multiplexer 12, making a total of 256 conductors. Multiplexer 12 steps through a 256 step cycle in which each of the alarm conductors 10 are connected one at a time in sequence to the output terminal 14 of multiplexer 12. Multiplexer 12 is stepped through its cycle by an 8 bit binary counter 16 which is driven by clock pulse circuit 18 through AND gate 20.

The output of multiplexer 12 is applied through OR gate 22 to the input of a one shot multivibrator 24 which acts as an alarm detector circuit. Alarm conductors 10 are normally grounded, which indicates a binary zero, and rise to a positive voltage, which indicates a binary one, when an alarm condition occurs on the corresponding conductor 10. As each alarm conductor 10 is connected in sequence to multiplexer output terminal 14, a binary zero causes no change in the circuit. However, when a binary 1 is encountered on one of the alarm conductors 10, the binary 1 is passed through OR gate 22 and triggers one shot multivibrator 24, whose negative output is applied to AND gate 20 to disable gate 20 as long as one shot multivibrator 24 remains on. Disabling AND gate 20 stops counter 16 at the number corresponding to the alarm conductor carrying the alarm condition.

The parallel output of counter 16 is applied to a visual display 26 which displays the number that the counter is stopped at, indicating the apartment number that originated the alarm. The parallel output of counter 16 is also applied to a parallel to serial converter 28 which aslo receives other inputs (not shown) to be transmitted to the remote location. A START signal is applied to parallel to serial converter 28 at the time that one shot multivibrator 24 is triggered, by circuit means to be described later. The START signal initiates the operation of converter 28 at the time that counter 16 is stopped. The output of parallel to serial converter 28 is applied to a voltage controlled oscillator 30 which transmits the serial data to a remote location, e.g. to the police station and fire station. The output of oscillator 30 is also applied to a divide by 32 counter 34 whose output is applied as transmitter clock pulses to parallel to serial converter 28. A similar divider circuit in the data receiver at the remote location, shown in said copending patent application Ser. No. 463,713 provides receiver clock pulses which are synchronized with the transmitter clock pulses.

After the entire contents of parallel to serial converter 28 has been transmitted, the transmission ceases. Shortly thereafter, one shot multivibrator 24 switches off, enabling AND gate 20 and resuming the clock pulse input to counter 16. Counter 16 then resumes stepping through its cycle, causing multiplexer 12 to resume scanning the alarm conductors 10 until another alarm condition is detected, whereupon counter 16 is stopped again and the transmission process is repeated.

One important feature of this invention is the inclusion of a memory circuit with which an operator can recall previous alarms that occurred in his or her absence. The memory circuit includes a shift register 36 which has as many stages as the number of input conductors 10, in this case 256. Clock circuit 18 is coupled to shift register 36 through AND gate 20 to drive shift register 36 in synchronism with counter 16 and multiplexer 12. The output of multiplexer 12 is applied to the input of shift register 36 through a memory input control 38 and the output of shift register 36 is coupled back to its input through input control 38 to form a recirculating serial memory. A three position switch 40 having a CLEAR position, a STORE position, and a RECALL position is coupled to memory input control 38 and controls its operation.

In the STORE position of switch 40, input information from multiplexer 12 is entered into shift register 36 and is continuously recirculated therethrough. In the RECALL position of switch 40, the information in shift register 36 is applied via memory output control circuit 42 and OR gate 22 to the input of one shot multivibrator 24, where it produces the same result as an input from multiplexer 12. In the CLEAR position of switch 40, the output of memory output control 42 is inhibited, the re-circulation of data through memory input control 38 is inhibited, and all of the binary ones in shift register 36 are replaced with zeros.

The details of memory input control 38 and memory output control 42 are shown in FIG. 2. The CLEAR and RECALL terminals of switch 40 are coupled via resistors 44 and 46 to a positive voltage which represents a binary one. The arm of switch 40 is grounded, the ground condition representing a binary zero.

When switch 40 is in the STORE position, a binary one is applied to input 48 of AND gate 50, and a binary one is applied to input 52 of NAND gate 54. The other input 56 of NAND gate 54 is coupled to the data input from output terminal 14 (FIG. 1) of multiplexer 12. The output 58 of NAND gate 54 is coupled to the second input of AND gate 50. When the output of AND gate 50 is a binary 1, it enables an AND gate 60 which recirculates the output of shift register 36 back to the input thereof through an OR gate 62, which also receives an input from AND gate 64. The binary 1 on the output of AND gate 50 is inverted by an amplifier 68 and applied to one input of AND gate 64, thereby disabling AND gate 64. When the output of AND gate 50 is a binary zero, recirculation of data through AND gate 60 is inhibited and fresh input data is entered through input 65 of AND gate 64.

When switch 40 is in the CLEAR position, a binary zero is applied to input 48 of AND gate 50, producing a binary zero output which disables AND gate 60, thereby inhibiting re-circulation of data through shift register 36 and entering all binary zeros via the re-circulation input 61 of OR gate 62. At the same time, any new inputs which occur during the clearing operation are entered via input 63 of OR gate 62. Switch 40 must be left in the CLEAR position long enough for the entire contents of shift register 36 to be recirculated in order to assure that all of the previously entered data is cleared.

In the RECALL position of switch 40, input 48 of AND gate 50 receives a binary one from resistor 44 and input 58 of AND gate 50 receives a binary one from NAND gate 54. This enables recirculate AND gate 60 and disables AND gate 64. At the same time, AND gate 70 in memory output control 42 receives a binary one on input 72 from resistor 44. The other input 74 of AND gate 70 receives a binary one from inverting amplifier 76, which receives a binary zero input from the grounded arm of switch 40. This produces a binary one output from AND gate 70 and enters a binary one into flip-flop 78, which is clocked in synchronism with shift register 36 by the same clock pulses. On each clock pulse, the binary one input to flip-flop 78 is transferred to the Q output thereof, which is coupled to one input 80 of a NAND gate 82 whose other input is coupled to the output of shift register 36. The recalled data is transferred out of shift register 36 through NAND gate 82 and is applied to alarm detector multivibrator 24 (FIG. 1) to display the recalled alarm number.

In the RECALL position of switch 40, the data output of memory output control 42 is applied in parallel to one input of OR gate 22 and to one input of NAND gate 88, whose other input is coupled to the output of one shot multivibrator 24. The output of NAND gate 88 is used to trigger the START signed for parallel to serial converter 28, whereby the data transmission is inhibited during recall, the recalled data only being displayed on visual display 26.

In addition to the above described novel memory feature, this embodiment also includes a novel status change detector circuit for limiting the number of data transmissions for any particular alarm. The status change detector circuit includes a shift register 90 which has a number of stages equal to an integral multiple of the number of alarm conductors, the multiple being the number of times it is desired to repeat the data transmission, which in this case is 4. However, it should be understood that larger or smaller multiples can be used in other embodiments of the invention depending on the number of data transmissions desired.

The input data appearing on the output terminal 14 of multiplexer 12 is applied to the input of shift register 90, whose output is applied to one input of an exclusive OR circuit 92 whose other input is coupled to terminal 14. Exclusive OR circuit 92 produces an output whenever its two inputs differ, the output being applied to one input of an AND gate 94 whose other input is coupled to the output of NAND gate 88. The binary one output of AND gate 94 constitutes the START signal for parallel to serial converter 28. When an alarm condition (a binary one) is first applied to the output terminal 14 of multiplexer 12, exclusive OR gate 92 develops a binary one output since its two inputs are different, and thus generates a START signal. On the next three input scan cycles, START signals are also generated. But on the fifth scan cycle, both inputs of exclusive OR gate 92 will be the same, since there will be a binary one on the output of shift register 90, thereby developing a binary zero output on exclusive OR gate 92 that disables AND gate 94 and terminates the data transmission operation. Thus, the data transmission is limited to four transmissions for each alarm condition in this embodiment of the invention. When the alarm condition ceases, exclusive OR gate 92 will develop a binary one output on the next four scan cycles as the binary ones enetered in shift register 90 are shifted out, but the START signal will be inhibited by a binary zero applied to the other input of AND gate 94 from the output of NAND gate 88.

FIG. 3 shows another circuit arrangement for limiting the number of data transmissions. This circuit configuration includes three NAND circuits which act as a gated exclusive OR circuit. In this circuit, the output of shift register 90 is inverted by an inverting amplifier 96 and is applied to one input of NAND gate 98 whose other input is coupled to the output of one shot multivibrator 24. The output of one shot multivibrator 24 is also coupled to one input of a NAND gate 100 whose other input is coupled to the data input of shift register 90. The output of one shot multivibrator 24 acts to gate NAND gates 98 and 100 to inhibit the production of a START signal when no data input is present. The outputs of NAND gates 98 and 100 are applied to corresponding inputs of NAND gate 102, whose output signal constitutes the START signal.