Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!think!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!UUNET.UU.NET!roy%phri
From: roy%phri@UUNET.UU.NET (Roy Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: looking for alarm dialer
Message-ID: <3122@phri.UUCP>
Date: 26 Jan 88 19:28:15 GMT
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: Public Health Research Institute, NYC, NY
Lines: 37
Approved: telecom@xx.lcs.mit.edu


	I'm trying to set up a remote alarm system which will place a phone
call when an alarm goes off.  I can activate the dialer with a NO or NC
contact.  What I need is something which can be programmed with a recorded
message and a list of telephone numbers to try in order until it gets
through, and then it should play the message to the person at the other
end.  I need something which can differentiate between a human voice and an
answering machine; it doesn't do me much good to leave an alarm message on
somebody's message tape.  An ideal situation would be something which can
recognize touch-tone input; the recording could end with "to acknowledge
this message, punch in your ack code now".  Unless it heard the proper
code, it would keep dialing.  This would not only protect against answering
machines, but accidental wrong numbers and a spouse or child incapable of
acting on the alarm taking the call.

	It should also run on battery backup power.  The application is to
protect a number of deep-freeze boxes in a lab.  Each freezer has a
built-in alarm but it doesn't help to ring a bell if nobody is there to
hear it at night.  One of the likely causes of freezer failure is a power
outage, which is why I need battery backup.  This dialer will be on a
power-fail phone circuit, which means that if our PBX looses power, the
line will be automatically switched directly onto one of the outgoing
trunks.  To make life even more complicated, I suspect that the trunks are
ground start instead of loop start, so the dialer needs ground start
capability.  Actually, this latter requirement may not really be
needed; a power failure of wide enough extent to take out both the PBX and
freezers will be known about pretty quickly by other means.  I'm not sure
how the box would know when to use loop start and when to use ground start;
perhaps try loop and if it doesn't hear dialtone after some time, try
ground?

	Does anybody know of a device which can do all this?  For under
$200?  Am I asking too much?
-- 
Roy Smith, {allegra,cmcl2,philabs}!phri!roy
System Administrator, Public Health Research Institute
455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016