upstatemike
Senior Member
I am getting ready to start moving my fire alarm stuff from my FA panels to the M1 and I want to be sure I understand all that I have been reading here on how to set things up on the Elk. I currently have about 20 2-wire smoke detectors on 8 zones and will be moving to around 30 4-wire smoke detectors. I will only be putting 1 or 2 detectors on each zone so I will pretty much need an end-of-line relay for each detector. Here are some of the things I want to understand from the folks who are already using the Fire Alarm features of the M1:
1- I see that ESL and NAPCO make 4-wire detectors with built-in end-of-line relays. Anybody using these? Is this a good way to go?
2- How do you calculate the power needed for smoke detectors? I was thinking of adding standby current for all 30 + current draw of 30 EOL relays + alarm current for maybe 3 detectors tripped at the same time. Is this reasonable?
3- I am planning to use 10 Amseco motorized Bells for my fire audible circuit. These draw 60mA each for a total of 600mA. Should be no problem for the OUT2 bell circuit, right?
4- I was thinking of getting smoke detectors with built-in sounders to supplement the bells but I am leaning away from that idea because I don't see how bell-silence can work with sounders built into the detectors. Is there a way to silence built-in sounders from a keypad without resetting the tripped detector?
5- If I need more power for my smoke detectors and decide to use a separate power supply such as an Elk P412, then I assume the proper wiring strategy is to put a relay on SAUX and run the P412 power output though the contacts of the relay so a smoke reset will interrupt it. Is this how everybody else is doing it?
1- I see that ESL and NAPCO make 4-wire detectors with built-in end-of-line relays. Anybody using these? Is this a good way to go?
2- How do you calculate the power needed for smoke detectors? I was thinking of adding standby current for all 30 + current draw of 30 EOL relays + alarm current for maybe 3 detectors tripped at the same time. Is this reasonable?
3- I am planning to use 10 Amseco motorized Bells for my fire audible circuit. These draw 60mA each for a total of 600mA. Should be no problem for the OUT2 bell circuit, right?
4- I was thinking of getting smoke detectors with built-in sounders to supplement the bells but I am leaning away from that idea because I don't see how bell-silence can work with sounders built into the detectors. Is there a way to silence built-in sounders from a keypad without resetting the tripped detector?
5- If I need more power for my smoke detectors and decide to use a separate power supply such as an Elk P412, then I assume the proper wiring strategy is to put a relay on SAUX and run the P412 power output though the contacts of the relay so a smoke reset will interrupt it. Is this how everybody else is doing it?