Alarm states and configuration
The Edge Controller can be in one of four alarm states
Disarmed
Default armed state
Alarm state 1
Alarm state 2
When the Edge Controller is disarmed, it is in the disarmed alarm state. In this state, no automated actions will occur other than short alarm periods if the power is disconnected or the doors are opened.
When the Edge Controller is armed, and there are no active alarms happening, it is in the default armed state. In this state, it is ready to elevate to a higher alarm state if something happens (such as a vehicle or person being detected, or a PIR sensor triggering).
Some of the triggers that will set alarm level 1 or alarm level 2 are 'hard coded' and cannot be changed (such as the doors being opened). Other triggers such as PIR or object detections are user configurable.
Configuring alarm actions
The actions that will be taken when an alarm level is triggered can be configured in the below screen.
The default armed state is the default configuration when the Edge Controller is armed but there are no active alarms. It can be used to (for instance) switch the strobe lights on whenever the system is armed as a warning. The feature will be permanently enabled whenever the Edge Controller is armed.
The alarm level 1 and alarm level 2 are the states the Edge Controller will be in during an active alarm. For each feature, you can configure a duration for how long the feature should stay on for.
For instance, you could set the floodlights to be on for 10 minutes and the siren to be on for 10 seconds.
The alarm level will be cancelled and return to the default armed state 60s after the longest duration feature has ended.
For instance, if the floodlights were on for 10 minutes, and the siren was on for 10 seconds, the alarm will be cancelled after 11 minutes and return to the default armed state.
Be careful combining floodlight schedules with arming / disarming schedules. The behaviour can be a bit unexpected because the system disarming may switch off the floodlights.
It is generally safe if the floodlights are switched off by the schedule before the system disarms. If the system disarms before the floodlight schedule switches off, the floodlights may switch off early.
The alarm configuration can be configured on the below screen:
Edge Controller trigger actions
When something happens on the Edge Controller (like a door sensor input triggering), the Edge Controller can take automated actions as part of the active threat detection system.
The decision on what actions are taken depend on various settings. The table below shows all the possible scenarios and what will happen.
Doors opened
Armed
Set Alarm Level 2
Doors opened
Disarmed
Floodlights for 10 minutes
Doors closed
Armed
No action (wait for previous Alarm Level 2 to time out)
Doors closed
Disarmed
Floodlights off after 5s timeout
Tilt / tamper alarm
Armed / disarmed
Set Alarm Level 2
Tilt / tamper normal
Armed / disarmed
No action (wait for previous Alarm Level 2 to time out)
Run switch off
Armed / disarmed
Strobe on for 3 seconds. Prepare recording for shutdown
Run switch on
Armed / disarmed
Strobe off immediately. Initialise recording
Wired PIRs
Disarmed
No action
Wired PIRs
Armed
Follow individual PIR configuration
Wireless PIRs
Disarmed
No action
Wireless PIRs
Armed
Follow individual PIR configuration
Mains power disconnected (power failure alarm disabled)
Armed / disarmed
No action
Mains power connected (power failure alarm disabled)
Armed / disarmed
No action
Mains power disconnected (power failure alarm enabled)
Armed / disarmed
Siren on for 5 seconds Strobe on for 5 seconds Floodlights on for 5 seconds
Mains power connected (power failure alarm enabled)
Armed disarmed
Siren, strobe and floodlihts off only if current alarm state is 'default'.
Object detection trigger actions
Actions can be configured for both vehicle detection and people detection at a camera level. They can be configured on the analytics tab on a camera settings page.
There are four actions that can be selected:
Disabled means nothing will be done with the event. It is functionally equivalent to disabling AI on the camera if both vehicle and people detection is disabled, however, the frames will still be run through the AI processor.
If AI is not required on a camera, it is better to disable the AI pipeline to save processing power and battery life.
Notify Only means the event will be forwarded to the Giraffe Cloud (and notifications may be sent out) but no active thread detection actions will be taken (switching on floodlights etc).
Alarm Level 1/2 means that the corresponding alarm level will be triggered on the Edge Controller.
A full matrix of the possible alarm states are shown in the table below:
Disabled
Armed / disarmed
Do nothing
Notify only
Disarmed
Do nothing
Notify only
Armed
Transmit video event only
Alarm level 1 / alarm level 2
Disarmed
Do nothing
Alarm level 1
Armed
Set alarm level 1. Transmit video event.
Alarm level 2
Armed
Set alarm level 2. Transmit video event.
Power disconnected alarm
The toggle for the power disconnected alarm configures whether the Edge Controller will set off an alarm when the power is removed. This is useful if the Edge Controller is connected to a power supply that is expected to go offline on a regular basis (such as a lamp post supply).
In the future the power disconnected toggle will also be used to configure whether error states are generated and whether notifications are generated when a power disconnection event occurs.
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