# Fire Alarm, I get all the fun ones



## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

I had what I thought was going to be an easy call today. DSC system in a building with only pull stations and horn/strobe units. The one zone said it went open. The zone was called "Pat's Office", but nobody knew who Pat was and the walls have been moved around over time anyhow. A quick look around revealed none of the pull stations pulled in the whole building. This is going to be fun.

The place was empty today, so I figured I might as well start by sorting out what's what, so I pulled every station in the place, one by one (8 of them) to figure out what pull stations were on what zone, and what that zone was called on the keypad screen. That might come in handy one day, and only takes about 10 or 15 minutes to figure out.

It seems that there were 2 pull stations on the "Pat's Office" zone (zone 5). I took one apart, which happened to have the EOL resistor, to ohm out the switch and the resistor. All good there. I go to the other pull station on that zone and find a cable in, cable out, and the switch ohms out good too.

Going back to the FACP, I find that that zone leaves the FACP as a 4-wire cable. Two conductors for the zone I'm working with, and 2 conductors for the bell trouble circuit. Lovely. I get all the fun ones. Now I know I'm hunting a splice somewhere in a 10 or 12 thousand square foot building. Building maintenance guy (who's pretty darned sharp) gives me permission to go home, and volunteers to hunt any and all splices and call me back. Hey, that's just fine with me. I suspect I'll get to visit this again real soon.


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## cmec (Feb 11, 2008)

GO sell them a new adressable system.:thumbup:


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## user4818 (Jan 15, 2009)

A DSC FACP? Or is it a burg/fire combo panel?


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## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

cmec said:


> GO sell them a new adressable system.:thumbup:


Funny thing is, the system is only a few years old. They didn't like the installing contractor, although from the looks of the wiring above the ceiling, he must have been cheap. I'm not sure what compelled them to install pull stations only as the initiating equipment, but this is a pretty common thing to find in PA for older office type buildings that were upfit with a fire alarm system.


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## B4T (Feb 10, 2009)

I have come across the "4 wire" splice a few times. Each time it was behind the first bell. I must of been lucky :thumbup:


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## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

Black4Truck said:


> I have come across the "4 wire" splice a few times. Each time it was behind the first bell. I must of been lucky :thumbup:


Awesome. There's about 25 or 30 notification appliances in this place, guessing from the size of the power supply (Which was Silent Knight brand. What a Frankenstein arrangement). Which one's first? :laughing:


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## user4818 (Jan 15, 2009)

Peter D said:


> A DSC FACP? Or is it a burg/fire combo panel?



Still kinda curious what kind of panel you are dealing with. I wasn't aware that DSC made a true FACP. I thought it was an intergrated type.


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## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

Peter D said:


> A DSC FACP? Or is it a burg/fire combo panel?


Yeah, it was combo panel, just used for fire. 40xx something. Looked like an ADEMCO inside.


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## user4818 (Jan 15, 2009)

MDShunk said:


> Yeah, it was combo panel, just used for fire. 40xx something. Looked like an ADEMCO inside.


Those are "illegal" in my area.


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## B4T (Feb 10, 2009)

MDShunk said:


> Awesome. There's about 25 or 30 notification appliances in this place, guessing from the size of the power supply (Which was Silent Knight brand. What a Frankenstein arrangement). Which one's first? :laughing:


 
I would just pick a bell closest to the FACP.. see it its only 2 wires in and 2 wires out. Seperate wires and put EOL inside of FACP, and test bells. The ones not working are OK.. it at least gives you a place to start backtracking.. IMO


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## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

Peter D said:


> Those are "illegal" in my area.


Illegal here too for a legally required system. I think this was put in "just because".


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## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

What was interesting about the electrical room that the control panel was in was that there was phone equipment on each wall (room about 4 feet wide, long and narrow). They had cross connect wires running across the width of the room at about a 6 foot height. I'd never tolerate that if I owned the building. Many of them had Embarq tags on them. Thanks Embarq. I should have taken a picture of that.


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## leland (Dec 28, 2007)

Black4Truck said:


> I would just pick a bell closest to the FACP.. see it its only 2 wires in and 2 wires out. Seperate wires and put EOL inside of FACP, and test bells.
> 
> 
> The ones not working are OK..
> ...


;'

(sorry had to point this out! if it were me..someone would) All in good fun!


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## B4T (Feb 10, 2009)

leland said:


> ;'
> 
> (sorry had to point this out! if it were me..someone would) All in good fun!


Just what are you pointing out.. please explain it to me.. thanks


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## leland (Dec 28, 2007)

The ones not working are OK..


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## B4T (Feb 10, 2009)

I'm looking for a splice where the 4 wire splits off to feed the smokes.. not testing the bells


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## slowforthecones (Sep 13, 2008)

are you working with just strobes/horns/mps only? Is this a supervised system? did they do the splices to the firewire outside of a box?


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