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Fix Alarms to Cell Phones via SMS

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This utility is used as an Additional Fix Alarm destination. The Alarm2SMS.EXE will read the standard fix alarm ques and filter alarms.  Then reformat them in a compact format suitable for reading on a handset.

Features & Requirements

• Will function with FIX version 6.x & 7 and iFix/Dynamics on Win 95,98,NT,2000
• Communicates with a local handset via a serial port, or Infra Red Virtual Serial port (Win 95 only).  Any Handset or dedicated GSM Modem that supports the ETSI GSM 07.05 Text Mode will work.
• The Alarm Pre filter  removes the following events

•  FIX System message
• COMMS alarm messages (pull the modbus cable & you get 1000's of ?????)
• Alarm stat = OK (opposite of CFN) this I added to this new version.  Please note that COS(the default) alarms still report both HI & LOW changes.

• Allows Upto 32 alarm destinations, each destination has a phone number, a list of the Fix Plant areas active for this destination & a priority for this destination.  Only alarms matching the criteria will be sent to the handset.
• Alarm Buffering, where each destination has a configurable delay time.  This allows the sending of more than 1 alarm in an SMS which greatly reduces the number of messages sent.

Recomendations for usage

We recomend that when using this utility you configure your system to generate the minimum alarms required by the application.  It is advisable to setup your alarms as follows

• Make all AI & DI & MDI blocks in your system Priority = Medium then select the most critical ones & make them Priority = High.
• Divide your application up into plant areas, bearing in mind that for the purpose of SMS a plant area is that which is the responsibility of a particular technician.
• a SMS is limited to 160 characters, if you wish to fit 3 alarms in an SMS keep the sum of tagnames & tag descriptions to < 36 characters.
• I recomend the following Handset setup: Nokia 6210 or 7110 with copper serial cable.  Or a dedicated GSM Modem.

Installation

1. Simply copy the files Alarm2SMS.EXE & ALM2SMS.BAT to the \FIX32 or \Dynamics directory.
2. Open the Fix System Config Utility (SCU) & goto configure "Tasks"
3. Add "WUSERQ1.EXE" this Intellution supplied program provides a software alarm buffer Alarm2SMS requires.
4. for FIX32 Add ALM2SMS.BAT to the task list
5. for iFix add "alarm2SMS.EXE COM1=9600,n,8,1 SERVICE=+27829129 FILE=DEST.CSV"
6. edit ALM2SMS.BAT to modify the configuration

Configuration

Alarm2SMS.EXE is a 32bit console application where its configuration is set using commandline parameters normally from a batchfile or a DOS Box command line.

Usage : Alarm2SMS COMx=[baud,parity,bits,stopbits] SERVICE=+nnn [DEST=+xxx,y,z,d,f,g;] OR "FILE=csv.CSV"

IMPORTANT : there must be no spaces except between parameters

COM sets the serial port, you can omit the parameters for an IR link;

SEVICE is the SMS service centre number, for most phones you can omit this;
if the Number is programmed into the SIM card, for Nokia handsets always set this parameter;

DEST is the alarm destination where;
xxx - is destination mobile number;
y - is a list of plant areas active for this destination eg ABC;
z - is the alarm priority (H,M,L) active for this destination eg. M will receive Medium & High Priority Alarms. L will receive all;
d - is the delay (s) before send, allowing >1 alarms per SMS to reduce SMS's You may have upto 32 DEST parameters
f - If set to 'F' full alarm messages else description field only
g - A Fix Tag that can be used to Enable or disable the sending of alarms

csv - a CSV text file containing the destination handset parameters (upto 30)

example

COM2=9600,n,8,1 SERVICE=+27829129 DEST=+27832535172,AD,H,30,F DEST=+27826535172,BC,H,30,F
this sends all High priority alarms in Plant areas A&D to +27832535172 and all High priority alarms in Plant areas B&C to +27826535172

or

COM2=9600,n,8,1 SERVICE=+27829129 FILE=ALM2SMS.CSV

CSV File Format

Name,Number,Alarm Areas,Priority,Delay time,Full or Short,Enable Tag
Jon,+27824596208,B,H,5,F,ALM2SMS:SMS_ENABLE.F_CV

• the first line must contain the column headings, it is not used - so you can change / translate the headings
• the first column, the name must exist but is not used by the program.
• If you edit the file in excel, make sure it does not remove the "+" or leading zeros from the number
• you can have upto 30 destination lines
  
  

Screen Format

The SMS2Alarm Utility provides 2 message formats:

The "FULL" format is configured if the last parameter of the "DEST" setting is an ",F".
<D/HH:MM>;<Tagname>;<Alarm state>;<Value>;<Description><New line>

The Abreviated format is configured if the last parameter is omitted or NOT ",F"
<D/HH:MM>;<Description><New line>

Which ever format you use, the number of  alarms per SMS is limited by the 160 character limit of SMS.

Manual Messages From Operator View to a Technician

To do this simply make a text entry box addressing the "A_DESC" field of a DI block that is in manual mode.  The operator types a messge (to use more than 40 chars use more DI blocks). Create an associated "Send" button with a script that momentarily forces the DI block into alarm.  Another option may be to provide several buttons that send predefined messages like "Call Control room now".

Future Wish List

This will depend on how popular this application is, your comments are welcome

Some people may feel that the Console mode program is Low tech & not very pretty.

Some handsets only support PDU mode transfers, eg Ericsson SH888 We may add this in furure

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