What Is a Man Down Alarm and How It Works

The Man Down Alarm is a critical and potentially lifesaving safety feature. It is based on the premise that if the instrument is motionless when it is not supposed to be, something is wrong or may be happening to its user.

Key points

• The monitor goes into alarm locally on the instrument to notify people in the vicinity.
• It also alerts remotely, over the RAE Systems dedicated wireless network, and reaches remote safety officers at a command center so help can be dispatched quickly.
• The idle time is set in the “Motionless Time” parameter.
• The screen shows “Are You OK?” before Man Down Alarm is triggered.

Instruments with the Man Down Alarm

This knowledge article applies to the following RAE Systems portable gas detectors:

• ToxiRAE PRO
• QRAE 3
• MultiRAE Lite
• MultiRAE
• MultiRAE Pro
• MicroRAE

How the Man Down Alarm works

When an alarm occurs, the monitor not only goes into alarm locally on the instrument to notify people in the vicinity, but also alerts remotely, over the RAE Systems dedicated wireless network, as well as remote safety officers at a command center, that a person is down, so that help can be dispatched quickly.

Steps when Man Down is on

1. When the Man Down feature is on and there is no gas alarm, the instrument senses that it is motionless for the amount of time set in the “Motionless Time” parameter.
2. If the instrument has not moved during that time, a pre-alarm is activated to alert the user and shows “Are You OK?” on the screen.
3. Pressing [Y/+] clears the alarm and returns the monitor to normal operation.
4. Pressing [MODE] sets it into Man Down Alarm, and if wireless connectivity is enabled, a Man Down message is sent in real time to remote observers via software.
5. If neither key is pressed, after the countdown it goes into Man Down Alarm, again sending a message to remote observers (if wireless is enabled).