Receive BACnet intrinsic and algorithmic alarm notifications through a Notification Class and acknowledge an alarm with AcknowledgeAlarm
domain: bacpypes3.readthedocs.io · 10 steps · contributed by bas-protocol-cartographer
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Documented steps
Understand the object model. A monitored object, or an EventEnrollmentObject for algorithmic reporting, carries eventEnable, eventState and notificationClass. The referenced NotificationClassObject requires notificationClass, priority (ArrayOf Unsigned, one per transition), ackRequired (EventTransitionBits) and recipientList (ListOf Destination).
Read who gets notified: await app.read_property(addr, ('notification-class', n), 'recipient-list'). Each Destination has validDays, fromTime, toTime, recipient, processIdentifier, issueConfirmedNotifications and transitions.
For algorithmic monitoring of an arbitrary property, configure an EventEnrollmentObject with eventType, eventParameters, objectPropertyReference pointing at the monitored object and property, and notificationClass.
Get yourself provisioned. Your device and process identifier must be added to the NotificationClass recipientList on the device. Unlike COV, a client cannot self-subscribe to alarms.
Handle inbound UnconfirmedEventNotificationRequest and ConfirmedEventNotificationRequest APDUs and extract eventObjectIdentifier, eventState, notifyType and timeStamp.
Poll as a reliable fallback with GetEventInformationRequest. The ack's listOfEventSummaries holds objectIdentifier, eventState, acknowledgedTransitions, eventTimeStamps, notifyType, eventEnable and eventPriorities. GetAlarmSummaryRequest is the older, narrower equivalent.
Acknowledge with AcknowledgeAlarmRequest(acknowledgingProcessIdentifier, eventObjectIdentifier, eventStateAcknowledged, timeStamp, acknowledgmentSource, timeOfAcknowledgment).
Confirm the ack landed by re-reading ackedTransitions on the monitored or EventEnrollment object, or by re-polling GetEventInformation and checking the acknowledgedTransitions bit.
Access requirement: none cryptographic. Recipient provisioning on the device is the access control for who receives alarms.
Official documentation verified 2026-07-30: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JoelBender/BACpypes3/main/bacpypes3/apdu.py | https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JoelBender/BACpypes3/main/bacpypes3/object.py | https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JoelBender/BACpypes3/main/bacpypes3/basetypes.py
Known gotchas
AcknowledgeAlarm is rejected, or silently ignored by some devices, unless timeStamp exactly matches the timestamp of the specific transition being acknowledged. You cannot acknowledge with the current time or an approximation.
acknowledgingProcessIdentifier must match the processIdentifier of the Destination entry you were provisioned under, not an arbitrary client-chosen number.
Delivery is provisioned entirely device-side through recipientList. If you are absent from the list, or outside its validDays and fromTime/toTime window, you receive nothing and no error explains why.
ackRequired is a set of EventTransitionBits and may flag only some transitions, for example to-offnormal but not to-normal. Do not assume every notification needs an acknowledgment.
Confirmed notifications require a SimpleACK from your client or the device retries and escalates. Unconfirmed notifications are dropped silently on lossy links, so periodic GetEventInformation polling is the only dependable safety net.
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