How It Works - Technical Details

During installation, a user easily configures the bank of switches on the back of PeaceMaker to select the ideal siren silencing preset for his/her application and type of alarm system.  For example, some users may want to select a “quiet house/car” preset, where PeaceMaker silences the siren at the first hint of extended or repeated siren soundings.  Others may want to select a “noisy house/car” preset, where silencing does not occur until the siren has sounded for longer periods of time or many times.  Preset tables are provided in the Detailed Setup Instructions.

PeaceMaker's bank of switches are configured at the factory for the "typical home" user who owns a home alarm system that automatically resets and rearms itself after sounding its siren for 5 minutes.  Several examples are described below of PeaceMaker used with such a system.  These examples demonstrate PeaceMaker's effectiveness in permitting the siren to trigger during legitimate alarms, while preventing extended or repeated siren soundings.

A Typical Home Alarm - Operating Properly

When a burglar enters the home and triggers the alarm, the siren sounds for 5 minutes until the alarm system resets itself and silences the siren.  The burglar, hearing the siren, realizes that he has been detected and must assume that neighbors have called the police and/or a central monitoring service has been alerted.  He already knows that he must leave quickly; so any additional siren sounding only contributes to noise pollution.  This is why almost all alarm systems reset themselves.  PeaceMaker will not disrupt the siren sounding in this case.

If the burglar is brazen and continues to rob the house for longer than 5 minutes even though the siren has sounded, the alarm may be immediately re-triggered by the crook.  The siren will again sound for 5 minutes, resulting in a total of 10 minutes of siren noise.  PeaceMaker will not disrupt the siren sounding in this case.
 

If the burglar returns to the house an hour after the siren has scared him away, the alarm system will again be triggered and the siren will sound.  PeaceMaker will not disrupt the siren sounding in this case.

In all three cases described above, PeaceMaker will allow the siren to warn neighbors of the break-in and scare away the crook.  PeaceMaker is designed to allow properly operating alarm systems to sound their sirens.

A Typical Home Alarm – Generating False Alarms

If the typical home alarm never resets itself after 5 minutes then something is very wrong with the system.  A siren may be "stuck on" because of component aging or failure.  A malfunction may also be caused by environmental conditions such as moisture, lightening, or heat.  In the “typical home” setup, PeaceMaker detects this Type 1 extended siren sounding with no interruption and silences the siren at the 5 minute, 30 second mark.

PeaceMaker permits continual re-triggerings.  But if the home alarm re-triggers continually for greater than 10 minutes, PeaceMaker determines that a Type 2 repeated siren sounding has occurred.  At the 10-minute mark, the siren is silenced.  This type of endless re-trigginering is common, and is typically caused by a malfunctioning sensor.  If it were an actual break-in, there would have been enough siren noise to notify neighbors of the crime.

PeaceMaker permits intermittent re-triggerings.  But if the home alarm triggers for a 3rd time in an 8-hour time window, PeaceMaker determines that a Type 3 repeated siren sounding has occurred.  PeaceMaker permits the next 2 triggerings to sound the siren for 30 seconds before silencing the siren.  The siren is not immediately silenced, to deal with the unlikely event that a brazen thief has repeatedly returned to the crime scene.  After these 2 abbreviated soundings, any subsequent triggerings within the 8-hour time window are immediately silenced.  If actual repeated break-ins were occurring and the crook was not scared away or caught after these 4 siren soundings, then your alarm system is going to be ineffective with or without PeaceMaker!  Overly sensitive sensors or pets moving within the house commonly cause this type of intermittent false alarm re-triggering.

For Type 1, 2, and 3 detection, PeaceMaker has built in intelligence to avoid conditions that would result in prematurely silencing of the siren.  For example, Type 2 retriggerings must occur within 1 minute of the alarm system resetting and re-arming itself.  Type 3 siren soundings must be separated by a minimum of 1 minute or they will be considered to be a continuation of the current sounding, and not a new triggering.  This prevents a series of quick siren soundings in succession from satisfying Type 3 siren silencing for the next 8-hour time window.  Finally, siren-on pulses shorter than 20 seconds are ignored and not considered to be a new triggering of the alarm.  This allows PeaceMaker to operate properly with an alarm system that chirps its siren during arming and disarming.

PeaceMaker stops silencing the siren if the condition responsible for the silencing (Type 1, 2, or 3) no longer holds true.  In this manner, PeaceMaker automatically resets itself and allows future legitimate alarm triggers to properly sound the alarm system’s siren.

Remember, too, that the time and trigger values required for siren silencing described in this example are for a "typical home”.  The user easily selects values for his/her specific application during PeaceMaker setup using the bank of switches on the back of PeaceMaker.