Understanding the CHeKT Alarm Signals
It is important to understand Alarm Library priorities before creating customer site accounts and registering Video Control Panels (VCPs), formerly known as Bridges. When your central station alarm receiver is configured with CHeKT, alarm settings are applied in the following order of priority:
- Alarm code settings configured on each camera (highest priority)
- Site Alarm Library settings
- Dealer Account Alarm Library settings
You should begin by configuring the Dealer Alarm Library to align with your company’s default policy. The global XML Integration settings for the dealer Alarm Library can be found in the Integration section of your dealer account settings.
Dealer Level Alarm Library Settings
To access the Dealer Alarm Library for XML Integration, select the gear "Settings" icon from the side navigation bar and then the "Alarm Library for XML Integration" under Integration Menu
The Alarm Library for XML Integration is divided into three sections. Before registering a Bridge and setting up an account, it is important to understand how these alarm codes function and how their settings are applied.
VCP (Bridge) Alarm Input Codes
These are the alarm codes that can be sent by a VCP when a configured zone is triggered. The CHeKT VCP supports nine zone types.
Learn more about the zone types in our CHeKT Bridge Zone Types Setup Guide article
Within the Alarm Library configuration, you can configure each zone type with the following options:
- Enable/Disable XML Signal: When enabled, an XML signal will be sent to your automation system whenever a zone on a VCP is triggered. If your alarm panel is also sending signals, your automation software will receive two alarm signals during an alarm event: one from the alarm panel and one from the CHeKT VCP.
- Event Code Dropdown: Allows you to change the Contact ID alarm code that the VCP sends when the zone is triggered.
If the Event Code is changed, ensure that your automation software is configured with the same signal definition to prevent invalid alarm errors.
CHeKT Defined Alarm Codes
These are the alarm codes sent by the VCP or the CHeKT Portal when one of the defined events occurs. The alarm codes are all enabled by default.
The full list of CHeKT alarm in our CHeKT Contact ID Library Support Article.
It is very important that these codes are added to your automation software to avoid invalid alarms at your central station.
Within the CHeKT Defined Alarm Codes section, you can configure each code to:
- Enable/Disable XML Event: When enabled, an XML signal will be sent to your automation system when the specified event occurs.
The alarm codes in the CHeKT Defined list cannot be changed.
Update Accounts
This option allows you to apply any new changes made to the Dealer Alarm Library to existing customer accounts.
Each site account, maintains its own Alarm Library. Changes made to the Dealer Alarm Library are not automatically applied to existing customer accounts, allowing customer-specific overrides to remain intact. When a new customer site account is created, its initial Alarm Library is generated from the current Dealer Alarm Library settings. You can use this option to reset all customer/site Alarm Libraries back to the Dealer Alarm Library defaults.
If a customer requires settings that differ from your company’s standard configuration, those changes can be made within the site account Alarm Library. This account-level Alarm Library is also referred to as the Site Default Library.
Additionally, signal types can be modified at the individual zone level on each VCP when necessary. When a camera is assigned to a VCP, the default zone type is set to Instant Zone, and XML signal behavior follows the account or Site Default Library settings.
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