dry contact

Question

has anybody used orion with dry contacts? by this i mean run a serial cable from it to an alarm panel. we need orion to give a dry contact alert to an alarm company does anybody know how to get the connection right between  the panel and orion box

mblackburn · Answer

wluther​

jbaulsir · Answer

We use a NetBotz 200 to monitor the dry contacts on our generators, transfer switchs and Fire Alarm system.  We monitor them with Universal Device Poller and alert with Advanced Alert Manager - it works well

http://www.apc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=346

JB

Netbotz.JPG

colinpryke · Answer

The only 'cunning'way that I could think of achieving this would be to make up a custom serial to RJ45 cable, wired in such a way that (depending on whether your alarm panel is a DTE or DCE) one of the voltage pins (RTS, DSR) is wired to the input pair on the RJ45. When you then connect the RJ45 into a switch managable by Orion the port should go 'connect', and you can therefore ask Orion to monitor the port and set alarms etc for what action to take in the event the port goes down. I have not tried this, have not checked the voltage specs and do not guarantee that this will work or not blow anything up. However it is pretty sound theory if you take the time to check the voltages and pinouts etc....