UNIVERSAL R1 FIRMWARE:

Door firmware:
- supports relay 3 and 4 optionally triggered by exit request or reader
Exit request and door inputs for Door firmware:
- Silicon key, presco, radio - IN2, 4, 6, 8 are RQE for doors 1, 2, 3, 4; IN5 is door input for door 1 (in 2-door mode), IN7 is door input for door 2 (in 2-door mode).
- all others have no exit request in 4-door mode; in 2-door mode IN5 is door input for door 1, IN7 is door input for door 2, IN6 is RQE for door 1, IN8 is RQE for door 2.

• Public holidays - There are several enhancements to the way holidays are handled with R2 firmware including:

  • Holiday periods - the firmware supports up to 20 'holiday periods'. Each holiday period has a start date and an end date. Thus it is much easier to set up a holiday like Christmas or Easter where a period of time is required for the holidays, and many more actual holidays are supported in this way

  • Holiday start and end times - as well as a start and end date for each period, the holidays can also have a start and end time. Thus it is easy to set up a system so that at 1.00pm on Christmas Eve the holiday period starts, without having to adjust individual timezones.

  • Holiday types - there are up to 9 different holiday types supported. Each holiday period has an associated type, and each timezone can be selected as to whether that type of holiday applies to it. This makes it easy to set up the system so that different parts of the system have different holidays.

• Timezones- timezones can be set up either 'forward' or 'backward' and this reduces the need for complicated extended timezones. For example, a timezone can start at 9.00am and end at 5.00pm - this is an example of a 'forward' timezone. A 'backward' timezone would start at 5.00pm and end at 9.00am, meaning that a door controlled by this timezone would be unlocked at night. Previously this had to be done with two extended timezones.

• Programmable exit request inputs - with previous versions of firmware exit request inputs were 'hard-coded' to be a particular input number. With Universal R2 firmware exit request inputs are completely programmable, and can be on-board inputs, expansion inputs or PIG inputs. Thus it is easy to set up say a 4-reader controller with one or more of the readers having exit request capabilities. Also it is easy to set up an input more than once as an exit request so that a single input can trigger multiple doors.

• Programmable door status inputs - similarly with Universal R2 firmware door status inputs are also programmable. Again they can be on-board, expansion or PIG inputs.

• Programmable alarm relays - with previous versions of firmware alarm relays for door open too long/forced entry were 'hard-coded' to be particular relays. With Universal R2 firmware each door can have programmable forced entry and DOTL relays - for example all DOTL alarms can be linked to one relay and all forced entry alarms to another relay, or all alarms can be linked to a single relay.

• Programmable LED outputs- LED outputs are now programmable for doors and alarm areas, rather than being 'hard-coded'.

• Intelligent PIGs - the firmware supports PIGs for exit request and door status inputs. The system automatically scans for PIGs on any available ports and thus pig buses can be expanded or reduced depending on the requirements. It is possible for example to have a system with no readers and 14 pig buses. The pig buses also are selectable as to whether they have pig boosters or not fitted.

• Boosters for silicon keys - the firmware can be selected so that silicon key readers can have boosters fitted, just like PIG buses.

• Controller status - Universal R2 controller status is automatically downloaded to the PC when the controller comes online. On the controller screen in PC3 the firmware revision, controller type, door type, user capacity and history capacity is automatically displayed. Universal R2 firmware does not support Hardware/Status commands.

• Registration reader - with Universal R2 firmware any reader can be used as the registration reader for cards, and for PIGs any PIG bus can be used for registration of PIGs. When a user is to be registered, the registration controller and reader are scanned for a credential which is then stored in the user screen. When a PIG is to be registered the system sends a command to the controller so that it scans all of the valid PIG buses for a pig, reads the number in and stores it in the database.

• Door firmware - short pulse time- with door firmware Universal R2 it is possible to set the trigger time to a number of '100ms pulses' rather than seconds. Thus it is possible to generate a very short pulse or alternatively an accurately timed pulse.

• Door firmware - antipassback 'inside' - with door firmware Universal R2 it is possible to define a door as Entry, Exit, Don't care or 'Internal' giving an extra scope for enforcing antipassback on internal doors. In conjunction with PC3 software the system keeps track of the antipassback status of all users and gives the ability to 'forgive' all users from a menu selection, as well as display where each person is. Global antipassback is also possible with this version meaning that the entire system keeps track of the location of each person (requires PC3 to be operating).

• Door firmware - antipassback relay - with door firmware Universal R2 it is possible to define a relay which activates on an antipassback violation and to set a trigger time for this relay.

• Alarm firmware - programmable no of readers - with alarm (i.e. PIG) firmware Universal R2 the number of readers is programmable 0-4. This means that it is possible to have a 4-reader PIG controller with different readers operating different alarm areas. Moreover because the system supports programmable exit request and door status inputs it is possible to have exit request and door monitoring on a PIG controller - even a 4-reader system.

• Alarm firmware - relay outputs - with alarm firmware universal R2 there are many programmable relays associated with each alarm area. Up to three 'alarm' relays can be programmed, each with the ability to pulse, latch or follow the alarm area status. Alarm relays can also be set to pulse on arm and disarm. In addition it is possible to program armed relays, disarmed relays, unsealed relays and buzzer relays.

• Alarm firmware - rearm options - it is possible to program an auto-arm time so that after hours the system will automatically try to arm after a period of time. In addition, this time delay can be optionally reset by either valid user reads on the associated doors or even by movement within the area, so that the alarm can be set to automatically turn on after a certain period of inactivity.

• Alarm - only firmware - a special version of the firmware for alarms only has been created. This firmware will support up to 254 inputs grouped in 254 areas. All alarm firmware now supports expansion inputs, on-board inputs and PIG inputs (both PIG-1 and PIG-2 inputs). All alarm firmware also now supports expansion relay outputs, either 4-way or 16-way. Naturally when expansion inputs or outputs are used this reduces the reader capacity of the system.

UNIVERSAL R3 FIRMWARE:

Revison 3 Firmware incorporate the arming/disarming options in access levels and the extended holiday stuff - multiple holidays, timezone start and end dates and times etc. 400 users supported only, 200 transactions or so.

In the past a major limitation of the CS Technologies access/alarm system has been the number of relays available for control of devices. Because the system was originally designed as a four-door controller up to four relays fitted to the controller itself could be triggered, but adding additional relays was a problem.

 There are of course 4-way and 16-way relay expansion boards available but these share inputs with readers and so it is difficult to mix readers and expansion boards without knowing which inputs are available. But the fundamental issue still remained, that the firmware was not designed to allow operation of extra relays in all circumstances.

 This has all changed now. It is possible to use any relay anywhere in the program, and in particular as well as 4- and 16-way expansion boards the firmware now also supports the use of PIGs for triggering and operation of relays (as well as high security monitoring of inputs). This makes the system extremely flexible and powerful, and allows utilisation of the full range of relay options, particularly relating to alarm area operation. (read more here)

 PC3 revision 91 or greater must be used for this firmware.