GB2328769A - Control panel - Google Patents

Abstract

A control panel (for an electrical apparatus comprising a plurality of stations receiving and/or transmitting information from/to the panel) comprises visual indication means (4) for presenting a first set of data; and speech generating means (6,7,8) for generating speech outputs for presenting a second set of data. A telephone link (10) may be provided for the remote reception of speech data.

Description

ELECTRICAL APPARATUS This invention relates to electrical apparatus of the type having a plurality of stations for monitoring, detection and/or alarm purposes and which are connected to a central control station or unit. Examples of this include fire alarm systems, building management systems, emergency lighting systems and many other types of systems.

The invention will be described below in relation to a fire alarm system but is equally applicable to other types of systems.

Fire alarm panels traditionally used an array of light emitting indicators to tell the operator what the status of the system is.

It has become common to use a system configuration in which the field devices (eg detectors and sounders) are connected in a loop allowing a significant increase in the number of devices on one pair of wires.

This in turn has meant that a single model of fire alarm panel can be used in a wide variety of installations.

Previous to this, many different models of panels were provided or a panel was made with provision to take add on cards. In both of these situations, the size of the panel display can be quite large in line with the largest systems with which it is to be used. The cost of the panel is affected by the size of the display and a very large display is wasted on a small system.

There has been a recent trend towards the use of alphanumeric displays to provide more information. These are able to give a more user-friendly display, more information and one single display can be used from a relatively small system up to the largest system.

Provision can be made to scroll through detailed information rather than to display it all at once, as is done with arrays of light emitting indicators. The alphanumeric display also allows the user to 'customise' the system by adding his own descriptors, which results in a neater system than one in which hand written labels have to be affixed to the control panel.

A significant disadvantage of the present alphanumeric displays is that they are relatively expensive if they are to operate over a wide range of temperatures and light environments, as is required by legislation and standards. Cheaper technologies are available but these do not offer the visibility of the more expensive ones.

Low volume products also suffer in that 'off the shelf' items tend to be expensive, whereas specialised customised displays have a high set up charge and are not suitable for low volume production.

There are generally different levels of information which must be presented by an alarm, or other, system. The top level relates to indications of whether an alarm or emergency situation has taken place and their whereabouts. These should be unambiguous. A second level of information relates to status or maintenance information. It may relate to whether remote stations are functioning correctly and/or to diagnostic or maintenance information regarding them. On present system, information from these different levels all have to be presented in a single format and this can lead to overcomplication and confusion.

The present invention arose in an attempt to provide an improved electrical apparatus and control panel.

According to the present invention there is provided a control panel for an electrical apparatus comprising a plurality of stations receiving and/or transmitting information to a control panel; wherein the control panel comprises visual indication means for presenting a first set of data; and speech generating means for generating speech outputs for presenting a second set of data.

The first set of data may comprise a first level of data, eg emergency warnings, warnings of fire or other events being detected and so on. The second set of data may comprise a second level of information such as maintenance, status or diagnostic data for example.

Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawing which shows schematically a fire alarm system.

Referring to the figure, a fire alarm system comprises a central control unit or control panel 1 to which are connected a plurality of power/control lines 2 upon each of which are mounted a number of detectors and sounders these may be separated into different zones or parts of a building for example and the control panel 1 monitors and controls their output.

A microprocessor 3 within the control panel controls the panels and operates a visual display 4 comprising an array of light emitting indicators, to inform the operator of the state of the system. Separate elements of display 4 are associated with particular detectors or zones or part of a zone etc and are operated to illuminate when an incident, eg detection of a fire is noted at a particular zone or area. Display 4 is therefore used to show 'top level' information which is immediately viewable.

This is ideal if there really is a fire, but if the system has detected a fault for example, or in the event of a false alarm, it useful to know the precise detector which has given the fire signal, so that the event can be investigated and the problem solved.

In embodiments of the present invention, visual indicators are not provided for showing such detailed information. Instead, the operator may be required, in the embodiment of invention shown, to carry out some manual operation comprising operating a 'give detailed information' control 5 which may be a push button for example. Alternatively, control 5 may comprise a keypad and a PIN or password would have to be entered before the detailed information could be output by the system. Other methods such as key operated locks or other means (even voice actuation, palm print readers, card readers, etc) may be used.

When control 5 has been actuated, an audio output system is actuated. The audio output system comprises a control unit 6, which may form part of central microprocessor 3 or, as shown in the figure, may be separate unit, connected to a memory 7 and a speaker 8.

Memory 7 stores a series of single words which are preferably digitally sampled and stored. Control unit 6 retrieves the relevant words from memory 7 as a string and outputs them to speaker 8 in predefined formats. The message vocabulary would therefore be small and numerical values, addresses, etc can be inserted into standard phrases, for example one message may be as follows "faulty - photoelectric detector - zone - 3 loop - 1 - address - 15 - ground - floor - office - west wing".

Thus, in use of the system a top level of data is indicated in conventional manner by the light emitting array 4 and more detailed lower level information is output by the speech generating means. Speech generating means in themselves are well known.

Different languages may be accommodated using appropriate prerecorded spoken words. The words may be stored at the time of manufacture or may be stored subsequently.

The audible output is not affected by light and is unlikely to be affected by temperature. The most likely problem would be with background noise. However, a simple volume control may be provided to overcome this.

Furthermore, it should be noted that the messages which are to be verbally output, will generally be listened to in non-emergency conditions in which warning bells, etc would not be operated.

Such fire systems are generally required to provide an audible warning indicator and the same speech output may be used to provide such warning tones.

Maintenance costs for alarm systems are continually rising due to the manual nature of the maintenance service. Fire detection systems, however, are essential and have to be kept well maintained and in good working order. The figure shows a modification within dot-dashed lines 9 in which the control panel 1 is coupled to a telephone line 10. A maintenance company designated by 11 is also connected to the telephone line and, by dialling into the control panel 1, receives speech messages from the speech generating means over telephone lines 10. This can be done directly using standard telephone technology and without requiring the additional expense and complexity of modems or digital voice signalling techniques. The speech signals are input directly onto the telephone line 10 in known manner and received at the maintenance site. A tone sensor may be needed to take commands from the remote site but the cost of sending the speech to the remote site is very low compared with a modem.

It will be appreciated that in the speech generating system, any message can be built up from the store of predetermined words, ranging from a single word up to a complex string of words. The information presented verbally may give further information such as precise locations, detailed description, time, date, device types, duration of alarms, time since last routine maintenance and many other items of information.

The system is applicable to building management systems, emergency lighting control systems and other types of systems.

In some embodiments, the operation (manual or otherwise) of a 'give detailed operation' control may not be necessary and the system may be arranged to automatically output speech when desired. However, since a user must clearly be in ear-shot when a message is generated, it is desirable that the speech information be specifically requested at each transmission, unless the control panel is continually monitored. A combination of automatically generated and generated-on-request message may be appropriate.

Claims (9)

1. A control panel for an electrical apparatus comprising a plurality of stations receiving and/or transmitting information to a control panel; wherein the control panel comprises visual indication means for presenting a first set of data; and speech generating means for generating speech outputs for presenting a second set of data.

2. A control panel as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the speech generating means is actuated in response to a specific request.

3. A control panel as claimed in Claim 2, wherein the specific request comprises actuation of a speech generating means input.

4. A control panel as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein the speech generating means comprises a means storing a plurality of spoken words and means for combining the words into a string of words for output.

5. A control panel as claimed in any preceding claims, further comprising an audio link to a remote site for remote reception of speech messages.

6. A control panel as claimed in Claim 5, wherein the link is a telephone line.

7. A control panel as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the first set of data comprises top level information and the second set of data comprises lower level information, such as status, diagnostic or maintenance information.

8. A control panel as claimed in any preceding claim which is a control panel for a fire alarm system, an emergency lighting system or a building management system.

9. A control panel as claimed in any preceding claim and substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, and as illustrated by, the accompanying drawings.