Owner's Manual

Sentinel also provides a method of completing the ET transmissions to the field units without waiting for the preset time. From
the Special Operations menu, select Send today’s ET & Rain to all units. ET values and Rain values from the source
specified in Software Configuration will be read and immediately sent to all units in the current system. This is exactly the
same as scheduling ET transmissions in AutoComm, except the transmission begins immediately instead of being scheduled
for later a time.
Clicking the Send ET button on the tool bar is a shortcut to the same immediate process.
This command allows automatic transmission of all program changes to any number of field units. Anytime a field unit
program is altered in the Auto Programming screen (Chapter 5), a box is checked on that screen and a flag is set in the
database. When Send Program Changes is
selected from the menu, or Send is clicked on the
tool bar, a list of all clusters of programs that have
been changed (but not sent) are displayed as shown. If
you wish to send programs that were not flagged, click
the Yes or No next to the unit to toggle or change the
current status. You can toggle individual clusters of
programs or all clusters for a unit. Programs in clusters
marked Yes will be transmitted to the field unit when the
Send button is clicked. To display all units, click the “/”
next to Unit Code. All 16 schedules re also automatically
sent to each selected unit.
While you can set AutoComm to poll alarms periodically even
when the system is unattended, you also have the ability to check
the alarms immediately with the click of the mouse. Selecting
Alarms Now from the Sentinel Group Operations menu or clicking on
the Alarms icon in the tool bar will trigger the same actions as scheduling
a Poll Alarms event in AutoComm. After choosing the command, AutoComm will start the
process immediately. Alarms states are checked in each field unit in the current system. As each
unit is polled, the Communication In Progress window is displayed and the results are listed
as shown below. Results are entered in the log file (calarms.log) as the next unit is polled.
Upon completion, the results are displayed in the Alarms window which contains a color-coded
box for each field unit polled. If the communication process failed, this box is white. If any alarm
was received from the unit, the box is red. If the unit is shutdown for a rain day, the box is
yellow. If the communication succeeded and verified that no alarms were set, the box is green.
This same window is displayed when alarms are polled automatically with AutoComm.
You can open the alarm log, calarms.log, by clicking the View Alarm Log command from the
Sentinel File menu. This will launch the Windows Notepad program. If editing a log file, make
sure to save it in the original text format. If the file is converted to a Word format, Sentinel will
not be able to recognize the file.
Sample data from an Alarm Log file is shown below:
8/20/99 4:21:13 PM ==> Polling Alarms from 3 units.
8/20/99 4:21:25 PM ==> ! Alarm # 197 power failure in unit # 148
8/20/99 4:21:25 PM ==> Unit 148 Successful
8/20/99 4:21:37 PM ==> ! Alarm # 197 power failure in unit # 555
8/20/99 4:21:37 PM ==> Unit 555 Successful
8/20/99 4:21:49 PM ==> Unit 145 Successful
8/20/99 4:21:49 PM ==> - Alarms checked in 3 units, of 3 attempted
No alarms were detected in the third unit, 145.
Chapter 12 : Polling Alarms
Send Program Changes
Send ET
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Toro Sentinel Central Software User’s Guide