Zeta Alarm Systems
PC3K
User’s Manual
Revision 1.0
Part # 3000-0002
Page 45 of 46
21. FAQ (Frequently-Asked Questions)
Q: I’m having trouble communicating with the panel … what’s wrong?
A: Some things to check:
•
Is the panel in “PC Communications” mode?
•
Is PC3K in the “Panel Communications” dialog?
•
Do you have a PCI connected between the panel and PC?
•
Is the PCI connector properly plugged in to J2 on the CP3? (It should cover all pins, and the ribbon
cable should be flowing downwards.)
•
Is the PCI connected to the serial port on your PC matching your selection in the Options dialog? (i.e.
if you selected COM1 in the Options dialog, are you connected to COM1?)
•
Is your communications port disabled? Sometimes a mouse or modem will disable your standard
communication ports? Refer to your computer, mouse, and modem manuals for info.
Q: I'd like to read data from an existing installation and save it to disk for archiving ... How do I do
that?
A: Follow the steps:
1. Connect a PCI between the panel and PC.
2. Put the panel in "PC Communications" mode (go to programming mode, and then select item 8).
3. Go to the Panel Communications dialog in PC3K.
4. Wait for the "Offline" indicator to change to "Online".
5. Click the "Read From Panel" button in the "Point Data" frame, and wait for the transfer to be 100%
complete.
6. Click the "Read From Panel" button in the "Group Data" frame, and wait for the transfer to be 100%
complete.
7. Click the "Read From Panel" button in the "System Data" frame, and wait for the transfer to be 100%
complete.
8. Click "OK", then click "Save As" on the main window toolbar (or select "Save As..." from the "File"
menu), and select the desired filename.
9. As an extra bit on insurance, create an ASCII data file. Go to the Import/Export dialog, select a
filename, and click the "Export" button.
10. Save the two data files (e.g. PANEL001.DAT and PANEL001.TXT) to disk, and store the disk in a
safe place. If you ever need to reload the data into the panel, or modify the programming, simply
restore the files to the PC3K directory, and load either into PC3K, then modify it and/or transfer its
data to the panel.
Q: Why the two types of data files? What's the difference?
A: PC3K supports two types of data files: binary and ASCII.
Binary files are PC3K's native file format. They encode panel data in a binary (machine-readable) format,
which allows the program to read and write the files very quickly. The downside is that they're rather rigid
in their format. New versions of PC3K may not be able to read binary data files created by older versions
of the program. Binary data files use the .DAT file extension.
ASCII data files store data in a textual, human-readable format. This makes them much more flexible than
binary files, and also provides the opportunity for manual editing, using nearly any standard text editor.
ASCII data files can be read by any version of PC3K and are thus the preferred format for long-term
storage, or for translation between different versions of PC3K. The downside (and the reason that they're
