Switch a Site output from an alarm rule

An alarm rule can switch an output at its alarm's Site on its own, for example a buzzer when a camera sees someone at night. Set up and test the output first, as in Wire and test Axis inputs and outputs.

Add an output action to a rule

Each output a rule switches is one output action. A rule switches up to eight outputs at its alarm's Site and keeps up to 16 output actions, turned-off ones included. The portal needs System alarm rules, Alarm automation and Site I/O control under Enabled features, and the person who saves an output action needs both Configure Site control devices and Cloud arming policies and Operate Site outputs.

1. Open Settings > Alarm rules and open a rule, such as one for Motion or Line crossing: see Alarms and incidents. The rule must be enabled.
2. In the rule's Outputs section, open Add output (optional) on a new rule, or select Add output on a saved one.
3. Find the Site with Search Sites, then choose the Site, the Device and the Output. Only outputs in use in Cloud that have reported recently, with no unresolved command, and speakers with clips are offered. For a speaker, choose the Clip it plays.
4. Set Switch it to ON or OFF. For a light or buzzer, enter Switch OFF automatically after (seconds), from 1 to 3600; left empty, the output stays on until someone switches it off.
5. With an automatic stop, choose Who ends the pulse: Timed by the device, up to 65 seconds, which ends the pulse even if the connection drops and is the safer choice for doors and gates, or Timed by Cloud. If the output is already on when the alarm fires, Cloud times it. An output set to pulse on the device always gives its own pulse.
6. Leave Also for health and system alarms cleared unless camera health, recording, arming-group and I/O module alarms should switch it too.
7. Save the new rule, or select Save output action on a saved one.

Saving an output action switches nothing. From now on, each alarm from that rule switches the output.

Which alarms switch it

Rules with any trigger can switch an output, except a manual trigger and a panel rule that also lists cameras. A panel area's Arming control lost alarm never switches one. A manual test alarm does not, nor does an alarm from a disarmed or bypassed source, and an alarm held by an entry delay switches it only once it is raised. A wiring fault on an input never switches an output.

On a rule triggered by an I/O input, when the output is on an I/O module whose inputs raise alarms, the portal warns about a loop: an alarm from those inputs does not switch the output again within about 30 seconds of the last switch, plus its pulse. Check that the output cannot set off the rule's own input.

When an output action stops

An output action shows Stopped, with the reason, when the rule's cameras or wait change or the rule is switched off; when the output, its device or a speaker's clips change; when its arming group is retired or moved; or when the person who saved it changes their password or sign-in, or can no longer control outputs. Before you save such a change to a rule, the portal asks Stop output actions?. Its alarms do not switch the output until an administrator who may control outputs selects Turn on again; switch a rule that was switched off back on first.

Change or turn off an output action

Output actions are listed under Outputs switched by rules on the Alarm rules page, each marked Enabled or Disabled, and Stopped when it no longer switches its output. Select Edit output action to change its output, state or automatic stop. Turn off output action stops the rule from switching the output, but does not switch the output back: switch it off from Site controls if it is still on.