Creating and Configuring ESPA Paging System

Scenario: You want to configure the ESPA Paging System device.

 

Reference: For background information, see the reference section.

 

Workflow diagram:

 

 

Prerequisites:

  • ESPA Paging System Device is installed and configured.
  • System Manager is in Engineering mode.
  • System Browser is in Management View.

 

Steps:

1 – Create and Start a ESPA Paging System Driver
  1. Depending on where you add the ESPA Paging System driver, select one of the following:
  • Project > Management System > Servers > Main Server > Drivers
  • Project > Management System > FEPs > [FEP Station] > Drivers
  • Object Configurator tab displays in the Primary pane.
  1. In the Object Configurator tab, click New and select New ESPA Paging System Driver.
  • In the New object dialog box, the Child type field is set to ESPA Paging System Driver, the name and description are also pre-defined.
  1. Click OK.
  • The ESPA Paging System driver displays in the System Browser and is selected by default.
  1. In the Operation tab, navigate to the Driver Status property and click Start.
  • The ESPA Paging System Driver is created and started.

 

2 – Configure a ESPA Paging System Driver
  1. In the System Browser, select the ESPA Paging System driver and click the Driver Editor tab.
  1. (Optional) In the Driver Settings expander, modify the description.
  1. In the Configuration Properties expander, proceed as follows.
  • In the Device Request Timeout field, enter 10000 (value in milliseconds).
  • In the the Check Status Rate field, enter 30000 (value in milliseconds).
  1. In the Notification Integration expander, proceed as follows.
  • Set the Batch Size field value as 50 (default is 100). Batch size specifies the size in which the request is processed by the driver. The batch size displays the number of devices to which Notification interacts in one instant. For example, if there are 100 devices on which a message has to be displayed and a batch size of 10 is entered, Notification will send the message to batches of 10 devices each.
  • Enter a value into the Expected delivery time field (default is 10 seconds).
    NOTE: Notification does not guarantee the message delivery will be completed within the time entered in the Expected delivery Time field. This value is solely used to compute delivery statistics indicating whether message delivery to the ESPA Paging System server was on-time or late.
  • On-Time or Late displays are based on the time it takes for Notification to deliver the message to the ESPA 4.4.4 server and not the time taken to deliver the message to the actual recipient.
  1. Click Save .
  • The parameters are configured for the ESPA Paging System driver.

 

3 – Create ESPA Paging System Field Network
  1. Select Project > Field Networks.
  • The Object Configurator tab displays.
  1. Click New object and select New ESPA Paging System Field Network.
  • The Create New Object dialog box displays with the Child type field pre-set to ESPA Paging System Field Network.
  1. Enter a name and description.
  1. Click OK.
  • The ESPA Paging System field network node displays in the field network hierarchy and is selected by default.
  • The ESPA Paging System driver is automatically associated to the field network. In the Network Editor tab, under the Network Settings expander, you can see that the values are preselected, and the driver is already assigned.

 

4 – Create ESPA Paging System Device
  1. Navigate to Project > Field Networks > ESPA 444 Interface Field Network.
  1. Click the Network Editor tab.
  1. Click Create .
  1. In the New object dialog box, enter a name and description.
  1. Click OK.
  1. In the Device Editor tab that displays, enter a description for the device in the Device Settings expander.
  1. In the Configuration Properties expander, enter values as stated below (For more information refer ESPA Paging System section in Notification Supported HW/SW Device Configurations Guide):
  • Enter the COM port address of the device in the Serial Port Number field. You should enter a valid COM port address string of the device.
  • From the Device Mode drop-down list, select Operational so that the driver processes the messaging command and the device configuration change command, and performs status checks for the device. You can also select the following:
    - Disabled: In this mode, the driver does not process the messaging command, or the device configuration change command, and can perform status checks for the device. The device remains in a disconnected state.
    - Administrative: In this mode, the driver processes the device configuration change command and performs status checks for the device. The device will be in a Disconnected/Connected state based on the connection state.
  • Enter the ID assigned to the device in the Device Id field.
  • Select the Baud Rate the device is using serially from the drop-down list.
  • Select the Parity, the device is using from the drop-down list.
  • Select the number of Stop Bits, the device serial protocol is using from the drop-down list.
  • Select the number of Data Bits, the device is using to communicate serially.
    NOTE: The value range is 5 to 8 bits.
  • Enter the number of attempts, a message should be sent by the ESPA managed device to the corresponding recipients in the No. of Transmissions field.
  • Enter the default value of the number of transmissions of the ESPA managed device in the Default No. of Transmissions field.
  • Select the default values of call types for the ESPA managed device from the Default Call Type field. The details of each call type are mentioned below:
    1 - Reset (cancel) call
    2 - Speech call
    3 - Standard call
  • Enter the default value of priority for the ESPA managed device in the Default Priority field.
  • Map the message priority with the ESPA 4.4.4 priority values in the ESPA 4.4.4 Priority Values field.
    NOTE: For every message priority select ESPA 4.4.4 priority values. For example, a notification priority High can be associated with ESPA 4.4.4 priority value Alarm (Emergency).
  • Contains the default value of beep coding records for the ESPA managed device in the Default Beep Coding field.
  • Maps the message type with the beep coding values from the Beep Coding Values field.
    NOTE: For example, a message type of Life Safety Alert can be associated with Beep coding value 5.
  1. In the Test Pager Connection expander, you can send a test text message.
  • Enter the pager number and message in their respective fields.
  • Click Send to send the test message.
  • The sending result displays in the expander after the message is sent.
  1. In the Routing Configuration expander, enter values as detailed in Routing Configuration Expander.
  1. Click Save .
  • The user device type is automatically configured. In the Recipient Editor tab, under the User Device Types expander, you can see that the ESPA 444 Driver is set as the handling driver and modality is set as Pager.

 

5 – Configure Recipient User Devices
  • You have added one or more users as Recipients into Notification that use a Pager as a recipient device.
  1. In the Recipient User Devices dialog box, from Type drop-down list, select Work Pager for these recipient users.
  1. In the Address field, enter the pager number.
  • The Preferred delivery sequence field is automatically populated with Pager.
  1. Click OK.
  1. Set up message template and incident template with these users as recipients.
  1. Initiate incidents.

Once the incident is initiated, the recipient user in the message template receives pager message with the content as described in the corresponding message template. The initiate incident is performed using Command and Reaction.