Can Your Fire System Do This?

Fire detection and alarm systems are increasingly complex and sophisticated, benefiting from cutting-edge digital technology. As a fire alarm engineer working with these systems, it can be hard to keep on top of your electrical skills and the latest regulations/installation standards, let alone the many different features available.

Vladimir Zrnic, Regional Sales Manager for Europe at Advanced explains the diagnostic features of fire panels that can save you time, money, and hassle.

Despite many engineers being highly trained, without the right tools undertaking routine tasks can be challenging and time-consuming. Thankfully, the features of today’s fire panels offer tangible benefits, delivering versatility, ease of use, and time-saving capabilities that were previously unavailable.

 Standard logging versus trace logging

One of the first things to do to troubleshoot a suspected system fault is refer to the fire panel’s log. A high-quality system can quickly flag any system faults – within seconds in some cases. Although useful, standard logging gives only one part of the picture and provides minimal help in cases where the cause of the problem is not straightforward.

Trace logging is a feature of some modern fire panels that offers a more complete log of a fire system’s events covering the standard fire, faults, alarms, and pre-alarms as well as advanced diagnostic reports on corrupt data and device interrupts. This detailed view of a system’s faults can radically reduce the time it takes to establish the true cause of the problem, allowing you to implement a quick, effective remedy.

The process of fault-finding can be significantly more difficult when working with a fire alarm control panel that doesn’t feature a diagnostic logging mode. These panels may register a number of intermittent faults, without offering further traceability to these events. Commonly where a fire panel has a limited ability to trace a fault, issues within a system can go unresolved for long periods of time, placing the safety of occupants within a building or a site at risk.

Some fire systems give you the ability to transfer the panel’s event log to a PC where you can then use software, such as the Service Tool on Advanced’s Axis EN control panels, to drill down into specific events and information. Integrated software allows you to easily identify particular devices that are returning corrupt messages, and even lets you predict when faults are likely to occur. Once a problematic device or area has been identified, you are then able to investigate.

The oscilloscope

In cases where you are working across large sites, identifying disturbances on a loop can prove labour-intensive and time-consuming.

An oscilloscope built into the fire alarm control panel will not only relieve you of having to carry around additional equipment but also provides a graphical representation of the signalling voltages/currents and waveforms on the display. This gives a detailed view of the loop operational conditions which can’t be seen using multi-meters or volt meters.

As the only intelligent addressable fire alarm control panel in the world to offer an onboard oscilloscope, Advanced’s Axis EN panel provides readings from any loop, making it easy to identify forms of noise that may be causing faults. The oscilloscope also lets you easily use trigger addresses from the loop to identify issues and investigate. This is a particularly useful feature on large sites with multiple panel networks, such as high-rise buildings, shopping malls, hotels, or college campuses.

The multi-meter

A high-performance fire panel will provide you with powerful tools that enable you to quickly and efficiently access information in order to make key decisions. A multimeter is an instrument designed to take precise measurements of electric current, voltage, and usually resistance across the system.

In a well-designed system, all devices have the optimum voltage in order to be able to communicate back to the panel. However, if that voltage drops below a certain level, devices can drop off the system or report intermittent faults.

Uniquely, Advanced’s Axis EN fire alarm control panels come with an in-built multi-meter designed to measure all voltages and currents across the fire alarm system. For engineers, a multi-meter within the fire panel makes it easy to identify voltage/current levels in real-time without needing to set up a portable multi-meter or probing circuits, which speeds up the commissioning process.

What is next for diagnostics?

As technology evolves and the fire industry moves increasingly towards cloud communications and data analytics, we will continue to see a trend toward more digital-driven products and remote services. This evolution towards smarter systems will provide an even deeper insight into modern fire systems, ultimately improving safety as well as saving time and money for engineers and end users alike.