Alarm system

A leak detection system for detecting and locating leak and fault conditions in monitored regions shown on a display and for displaying information, said system comprising:

• a leak monitoring subsystem for each monitored region and including a leak detection cables containing at least one leak and fault condition responsive sensor section;
• said leak monitoring subsystems each including means for detecting the existence of a leak or fault condition in said leak detection cable and means for locating the leak or fault condition at a linear distance along the length of said leak detection cable;
• said leak monitoring subsystems each further including means for providing a leak or fault message including a numerical representation of said linear distance;
• a leak signal processing subsystem;
• a communication link between said leak monitoring subsystems and said leak signal processing subsystem;
• said communication link including means for communicating a leak or fault message from each of said leak monitoring subsystem to said leak signal processing subsystem;
• and
• said leak signal processing subsystem including a graphical display device and means for repeating said leak or fault message upon said graphical display device;
• said leak detection system being characterized by:
• said leak signal processing subsystem including stored representations of the monitored regions in form capable of being displayed on said graphical display device;
• means responsive to receipt of a leak or fault message from one of said leak monitoring subsystems for selecting the stored representation of the corresponding monitored region;
• means for displaying said selected stored representation on said graphical display device;
• means for converting the representation of said linear distance into the physical location of the leak or fault condition in said stored representation;
• and
• means for superimposing a leak or fault location indicator at said physical location upon said stored representation displayed on said graphical display device.

A method for detecting and locating leak or fault conditions in monitored regions shown on a display and for displaying leak or fault information, said method comprising:

• detecting the existence of a leak or fault condition in a leak detection cable of a leak monitoring system;
• locating the leak or fault at a linear distance along the length of the leak detection cable;
• providing a leak or fault message including a numerical representation of the linear distance;
• communication the leak or fault message from the leak monitoring subsystem to a leak signal processing subsystem including a graphical display device;
• selecting a stored representation of the corresponding monitored region corresponding wherein the leak or fault condition was detected;
• displaying the selected stored representation on the graphical display device;
• converting the representation of the linear distance into the physical location of the leak or fault condition in the selected stored representation;
• and
• superimposing a leak or fault location marker at the physical location upon the stored representation displayed on the graphical display device.

A method for the graphical display of leak or fault conditions detected by linear sensors in a plurality of monitored regions comprising:

• making a drawing of each monitored region;
• preparing a list of drawing entities in each drawing;
• including the linear sensors in each list as segmented lines;
• supplementing each list with dimensional and identifying information relating to each segmented line;
• generating a leak or fault message including a sensor identifier and the linear position of a detected leak or fault along the sensor length when leak or fault is detected in a monitored region;
• displaying the listed drawing entities in a graphical representation of the monitored region when a leak or fault message is generated;
• converting the linear position of the detected leak or fault condition to a physical location on the segmented line representing the identified sensor;
• and
• adding an leak or fault condition marker to the graphical representation at the physical location of the leak or fault condition.