Addressable fire systems

TheCodboy · Jan 22, 2022

Hi all, I'm looking for some help & advice understanding addressable fire systems. I'm helping a small team out pulling in enhanced FP for a fire install. I've done a little bit of addressable fire stuff before, but not much. I'm just looking for info with regards to Interfaces, power supplies for VAD's etc. Obviously I'm trying to pick as much up as I go, but we all know what its like sometimes when everyone is really busy/stressed on site! Any help and info would be much appreciated!

timhoward · Jan 22, 2022

What panel and protocol are you putting in? Advanced?

TheCodboy · Jan 22, 2022

timhoward said:
What panel and protocol are you putting in? Advanced?

Xp95 with an Advanced Panel

TheCodboy · Jan 22, 2022

timhoward said:
What panel and protocol are you putting in? Advanced?

I'm just pulling in cable at the mo but want a better understanding as to what is what.

timhoward · Jan 23, 2022

Designing the systems in an art in itself, and I'm about 5 years out of date now, but basically the loop card will have a max current, and the devices on the loop cannot exceed this. You want a couple of loop isolators on the loop, and some devices have this feature built in.
When fitting sounder bases don't connect the sounder part initially, so you can IR test the loop when it's complete. Manual call points have a little link device for this purpose.
There are IO units which sit on the loop that provide volt free relay outputs and resistor based fault tolerant inputs.

You can autolearn the loop on an Advanced panel without laptop and software, but it's handy to have these.

There's a free tool to calculate loop loadings for XP95 protocol from Apollo here:

Loop Calculator

www.apollo-fire.co.uk

Hope that helps a bit. Advanced is a very forgiving first one to do so I'm sure you'll sort it out!

TheCodboy · Jan 23, 2022

timhoward said:
Designing the systems in an art in itself, and I'm about 5 years out of date now, but basically the loop card will have a max current, and the devices on the loop cannot exceed this. You want a couple of loop isolators on the loop, and some devices have this feature built in.
When fitting sounder bases don't connect the sounder part initially, so you can IR test the loop when it's complete. Manual call points have a little link device for this purpose.
There are IO units which sit on the loop that provide volt free relay outputs and resistor based fault tolerant inputs.

You can autolearn the loop on an Advanced panel without laptop and software, but it's handy to have these.

There's a free tool to calculate loop loadings for XP95 protocol from Apollo here:

Loop Calculator

www.apollo-fire.co.uk

Hope that helps a bit. Advanced is a very forgiving first one to do so I'm sure you'll sort it out!

It's a big job and it's all designed. I'm just pulling cable in to the drawings. I just want to get a better understanding of how it all works. I've got a very basic understanding,but that's about it. I've got an old Advanced Mx panel in the loft and I've just bought some second hand Apollo XP95 kit off eBay (bases,smokes,VADS,I/O,MCP's) so I'm gonna try building a rig. There just doesn't seem to be much information online/YouTube etc like there is for electrical learners etc.