General Purpose Inputs & Outputs (GPIO)
Both the Master & Expansion controller come equipped with 4 Inputs and 2 Outputs that can be used to create custom behaviours in the VOLO system.
Inputs​
There are 4 General Purpose Inputs, found along the top edge of the controller. The input pins are designed to be in one of two states:
- Low - connected to 0V
- High - floating (not connected)
When transitioning between these two states, the controller will generate an event along the lines of GPI0 1 Active
or GPIO 1 Inactive
.
These event descriptions can be customised at a Customer, Site or Controller level to allow you to provide a clear record of what happened and when.
For example - you could toggle an input on one of your controllers to record when the intruder alarm goes off - not only will this provide you with a timestamped event log of when this occurred, but you can also configure email alerts based on this specific alarm type to inform the relevant stakeholders.
caution
Please note that Input 4 is required for the VOLO fire alarm integration feature. If you do not require the fire alarm integration, then this input can be used as normal.
Outputs​
The VOLO controllers also come equipped with 2 General Purpose Outputs. The output pins are designed to be in one of two states, much like the inputs:
- Low - pulled down to 0V
- High - floating
Triggers & Actions IO​
The Triggers & Actions IO feature in Volo allows you to configure custom actions based on one of a set of pre-defined inputs or triggers occurring.
Triggers​
At this time, the triggers are limited to a change of state in one of the inputs (open to closed, closed to open, or toggle).
Actions​
A trigger can result in up to 3 actions, which can be any of the following:
- Unlock door 1
- Unlock door 2
- Unlock both doors
- Set an output high
- Set an output low
- Toggle an output
Each action can optionally be delayed by a number of seconds after the trigger occurs.
For example, a trigger could occur (e.g. input 1 goes high) and you could have the first action to set output 1 high with no delay and the second action could be to set output low after 10 seconds. This could be used to create a temporary 'pulse' input into another system.