IVB said:
Dumb question: isn't Daisy chain a very stupid thing to do? In the event of a fire all you'd get is an alarm with the "good luck figuring out how to exit, hope you don't go the wrong way and run towards the fire".
I home runned all the cables and they're on their own zone. All were connected directly to saux, hence the wiring mgmt issue.
Introducing multiple 4 wire smokes on a residential panel introduces a whole host of other issues related to the troubles generated on the non-alarm zones on a properly supervised (via power supervision relays) at each of the detectors NOT in alarm, followed by the troubles generated by a reversing relay (if installed) on the non-alarm zones in addition to the troubles introduced upon a subsequent reset cycle and the functionality of a system silence/acknowledge.
If you want to get into specifics, I could bore you with how the panel and zones respond and provide basic numbers....I've provided that in another discussion, but if you want to know, say the word.
IMHO, it's not worth what the perceived ROI and additional hardware necessary to perform this correctly, not to mention what additional programming should be done to negate the system functionality that is changed by running multiple 4 wire zones on a system.
While it's not the answer that many like to hear, a properly wired fire zone/loop is a daisy chain with a supervision relay/EOLR at the last detector, not to mention how the panel gained it's UL listing. Also contained on the installation documents for the applicable detectors.
If location of the detector in alarm is paramount, there are other ways to skin that cat which end up being a far more robust and less troublesome installation. I've been working with a manufacturer and kitbashing the ASCII and serial port to get information from an ACS port on an addressable FACP into the M1. The more difficult items are getting the acknowledge, silence and reset portions working properly, but the end result is going to be a compliant and robust addressable solution on an M1. It's not everyone's cup of tea.
That said, I wish Elk would spend more time addressing their FA portion of the product over their wireless. I'd rather have multiple 2 wire zones or an addressable loop like GE/DMP/Honeywell have offered for years.