Patent Publication Number: US-6700485-B2

Title: Alarm notifying device

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to an alarm notifying device, and to a notifying device for monitoring and recording operating conditions of a water supply/delivery system for water supply and drainage, an industrial manufacturing facility, a sales data collecting facility, etc., displaying and recording a failure in each facility and its abnormal condition, detecting an alarm signal and thereby notifying an alarm to a person or the like in charge of facility maintenance, who is kept out of a monitoring room. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     It has heretofore been known that an alarm notifying device for monitoring and notifying operating conditions or the like of each facility has been installed. Further, the transmission of an alarm in the form of an electronic mail has been proposed. In a device for notifying an alarm by use of a conventional electronic mail, the name of the alarm and the time of the generated alarm have merely been transmitted as an electronic mail. Therefore, when an alarm mail is received outside a monitoring room, time and efforts required to inquire about a way or method of coping with a contact address of a person in charge of maintenance and an alarm have been spent, and thereby mobility (that information is available whenever and wherever) of an electronic mail could not be utilized effectively so as to cope with an urgent alarm. There might be cases in which when a mail indicative of only the contents of an alarm was received, a person in charge of maintenance, who maintained a plurality of facilities at a time, could not determine from the received warning mail from which facility it was issued. There might also be cases where when a plurality of alarms occurred simultaneously, all the contents of alarms could not be acquired from the restriction of the capacity of reception of a cellular telephone. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention has been made to solve the conventional problems. Therefore, the present invention aims to provide an alarm notifying device wherein a person in charge of maintenance having received a warning mail on the road is capable of providing instructions for recovering a facility, and a maintenance server taking charge of maintenance of a plurality of facilities is able to carry out subsequent treatments from information about the received warning mail. 
     The present invention provides an alarm notifying device comprising means for inputting an alarm signal of a facility to be monitored, means for connecting to a mail server for delivering an electronic mail by way of a communication line, a memory for storing a guidance text corresponding to the contents of an alarm, and a CPU having the function of transmitting an electronic mail about an alarm, wherein the CPU has the function of adding the contents of an alarm and a guidance text corresponding to the alarm contents to an electronic mail. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a diagram for describing an alarm notifying device according to an embodiment; 
     FIG. 2 is a diagram for describing a mail transmitting function with a guidance text, which is employed in the embodiment; and 
     FIG. 3 is a diagram for describing one example of the contents of a mail with a guidance text, which is employed in the embodiment. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described. 
     An embodiment illustrating an alarm notifying device of the present invention will be explained using FIGS. 1 through 3. FIG. 1 is a diagram for describing the alarm notifying device of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram for describing a mail transmitting function with a guidance text, which is employed in the embodiment. FIG. 3 is a diagram for describing one example of the contents of a mail with a guidance text, which is employed in the embodiment. 
     An embodiment  1  will be described. As shown in FIG. 1, an alarm notifying device  1  according to the present embodiment is installed in a monitoring room of a facility to be monitored such as a manhole pump or the like together with a sequencer  2  or the like. Further, the alarm notifying device  1  is connected to the sequencer  2  for taking in or capturing a signal indicative of the operation of each of manhole pumps  3  or the like corresponding to facilities to be monitored, a signal indicative of a failure therein, etc. The alarm notifying device  1  transmits a message  4  of a mail with a guidance to a cellular phone  61 , a telephone  62 , a facsimile  63 , etc. via a communication line  5  or the like. A person  71  in charge of service or the like, who has received it, is called out to the facilities  3  by a vehicle  72  or the like in response to the message  4  of the main with the guidance. Thus, when the person  71  or the like receives a warning message, the person  71  goes into action right away in preparation for the corresponding facility and is capable of making repairs or the like on trouble or the like. 
     The alarm notifying device  1  according to the embodiment  1  comprises, for example, a personal computer or the like and includes means for inputting an alarm signal of a facility to be monitored, means for making a connection to a mail server for delivering an electronic mail via the communication line  5 , a memory for storing a guidance text corresponding to the contents of an alarm, and a CPU having the function of transmitting an electronic mail about an alarm. The CPU of the alarm notifying device  1  has the function of adding the contents of the alarm and the guidance text corresponding to the contents thereof to the electronic mail. Further, the alarm notifying device  1  is provided with a memory for storing therein a telephone number added to the guidance text, and a method text corresponding to the alarm. 
     The mail transmitting function with the guidance text, of the alarm notifying device  1  according to the embodiment  1  will be explained using FIG.  2 . The sequencer  2 , which has taken in or captured a failure signal sent via a telemeter  12  from the corresponding facility  3  to be monitored, outputs an alarm signal to the alarm notifying device  1  installed in a central monitoring room together with a mini graphics panel  11  or the like. The alarm notifying device  1  having received the alarm signal therein sends a guidance-added mail  4  for predetermined client devices or units  6   a  and  6   b  to a mail server  8  via a dial up router  13  and a communication line  5  or the like. A mail receiver obtains access to the mail server  8  to confirm the presence or absence of the self-addressed mail sent from the corresponding client device  6 , whereby the mail receiver is able to receive the mail  4  with the guidance text sent from the alarm notifying device  1 . Since the guidance text is attached to the received mail  4 , the mail receiver is capable of obtaining the contents of a faulty facility and its failure, a telephone number of a person in charge of maintenance, a text indicative of a way or method of coping with the failure, etc. Thus the mail receiver is capable of executing adapting subsequent to the reception of an alarm without impairing mobility of the mail. 
     Incidentally, in the embodiment 1, the alarm notifying device is provided with the memory for storing the guidance text corresponding to the contents of the alarm, the telephone number and the text indicative of the method or way of coping with the alarm. Further, the CPU has the function of adding the contents of the alarm and the guidance text corresponding to the contents of the alarm, etc. to the electronic mail. However, the alarm notifying device may be provided with a memory for storing facility information for specifying a facility to be monitored or a memory for storing the number of alarms which have occurred in facilities to be monitored. Further, the CPU may be configured so as to have the function of adding the corresponding facility information and the number of occurrences of the alarms to the title of an electronic mail about the alarms. 
     One example of a guidance text employed in the present embodiment is shown in FIG.  3 . As guidance texts, may be mentioned, an alarm-issued facility, the number of occurrences of alarms, the number of recoveries of alarms, the contents of each alarm, the contents of alarm recovery, a telephone number of a maintenance contact address, a method of coping with each alarm, etc. 
     According to the present invention, an alarm notifying device can be obtained wherein a person in charge of maintenance having received a warning mail on the road is capable of providing instructions for recovering a facility, and a maintenance server taking charge of maintenance of a plurality of facilities is able to carry out subsequent treatments from information about the received warning mail.