I install, test, and inspect a lot of fire alarm systems, mostly notifier, and have been thinking of a way to wirelessly control one of these panels using the rs485 annunciator port on the panel. After working in N.D. the last few months and constantly adding onto strip malls and having to run back and forth for Marshal Inspections it got old fast. I was originally thinking about using a raspberry pie with a usb to rs485 cable, then connecting to it remotely with my cell phone while tethering to pie to my tablet, but I think the data will burn out the data plan way too fast. I've been thinking that hospitals and hotels won't be too much of an issue because they usually have wifi set up.
Last night as I was checking my facebook I got an ad about spark io's new electron with 2g/3g
After reading it a bit I was thinking about maybe using it if I can get it to talk with the panel via rs485.
If all I need is to send commands to the eletron that will acknowledge, silence, & reset the panel as well as send panel events back then 3g should be all I need, not sure how much 2g can do.
Right now when I perform large inspections I'll connect my laptop to the sr232 printer port and use terra term to capture panel events, then use logmein on my phone to watch what comes in.
I doupt anyone will comment on this but if anyone can give me some advice I will appreciate it
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