Using input delays

In many applications, particularly alarms, the situation may occur that when an alarm sensor is triggered repeatedly, a message is sent by the ABN each time it is triggered.

For example, if an infrared detector is connected to one of the inputs, that input will send a message each time the intruder moves. This will result in a message being sent every few seconds - which is not only annoying, but also unnecessary and expensive!

To deal with this problem, the ABNs have a feature known as 'input delays'. Normally, an input needs to be activated for about 0.5 second to trigger it. Once it has been triggered, it is immediately ready to be triggered again.

Setting input delays allows the user to set a period of time for which the input will be temporarily disabled after having been triggered. Setting such a delay is easy. If, for example, we do not want input 'K' to respond again for at least 1 minute after it has been triggered, we can send the following message to the ABN:

K4

'K', of course, refers to input 'K', and '4' means 60 seconds (or 1 minute; see the table below for times).

The effect of this is that if input 'K' is triggered, it will send a message, but if it is triggered again, it will not until a period of 1 minute has elapsed, after which it will again send a message if it is triggered.

Once an input delay command as in the example above has been sent, it is stored permanently in the ABN until it is changed again. To remove the input delay from input 'K', send the following message:

K0

The following table shows the delay periods which are available:

Digit	Seconds	Minutes
0	0	-
1	5	-
2	10	-
3	30	-
4	60	1
5	120	2
6	300	5
7	600	10
8	900	15
9	1800	30