[EAS] RWT trigger detection...more info

[Mike McCarthy]

Hi Harold,

Thank you for your candid reply.  And I recognize the reality of R&D needed.  This is most certainly not an "afternoon's" project.

In my scenario, I'm looking for as simple as possible standardized DTMF sequence to accomplish two things. 1) Trigger the RWT and 2) Forward message waiting. I would not seek to add programming capability to the system. Of course, others might and that's certainly an option to entertain.  But that's not my instant goal. As I said before...simple. Let's not over complicate if not needed or desired.

In the most basic of schemes, the DTMF coding and input source would be hard predetermined, much like the NOAA 1050 tone is only looked at on input 3. The mechanical function of the DTMF would simply parallel the rear panel remote RWT and forward message closures (if programmed). Nothing more.  Again, keeping it simple to understand and implement.

I suppose it would be prudent to have a check in the ENDEC and a check box enabling DTMF command activation the firmware.  But on the initial run, leave all other flex out of the box except to maybe select from a few pre-programmed DTMF selections.  All of which would include a symbol and letter.  Like #3A or D*9.  This would insure the box is not accidentally triggered by a phone number.

Killing a message would be a nice feature to have of course.  But I suspect that most operators would not be set-up to react properly using DTMF's to control the box in that manner. Further, on a network platform, it would be very bad to send multiple DTMF sequences over all the stations to kill an errant message on one. But I suppose it should be looked at so accidental things don't take over the station...though the EAN scenario still looms.

It looks like our first run will be with a hardware product...this week.  However, I'd feel a lot better if the function could be incorporated into the box directly at some point for the rest of our stations.

Cheers......

Mike

On 7/8/2012 2:20 PM, Harold Price wrote:
>The Sage ENDEC uses a DSP chip and firmware to encode/decode
>tones.  We're looking into how much effort it would take to add DTMF
>detection into the existing DSP code, and what impact it would have