Discuss fire alarm fault and breathe......... in the Security Alarms, Door Entry and CCTV (Public) area at ElectriciansForums.net

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had to connect up twinflex fire alarm for commission company coming this week. all zones showed clear with no faults , but then got no eol on zone 1. so checked for volatge and connect up eol device as went along, thought happydays. but then it started beeping again saying s/c on zone 1..

anyone want to tell me how they would go about testing this, as my testing methods are poo, or have any good links to good reading.

when i connect 2 certain earths/screen it shorts out. crap day out of my comfort zone
 
Ok first things first, have you used a Fike Twinflex panel with the correct Fike devices? Twinflex is a beast in its self and as such you need to use the correct devices with the correct panel
Secondly, you say you connected the EOL as you went along? What do you mean? do you mean you installed device 1 on zone with EOL, fine. Moved to device two with EOL, fine and so on?
Have you checked all bases are fine and wired correctly? Haven't crossed a pos and neg in one base?

Edit: Also, have you swapped zones around in the panel to prove the fault is with the panel or field wiring? and also, if it is a Fike system, there are no EOLs. The EOL is built into every device and i think you indicate the last device by switching a DIL switch on the back. Sorry, its been so long since I've worked on anything Fike. Most people in the fire industry avoid it like the plague as its crap and known as an electricians wholesalers special! (awaits flaming lol)
 
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If you are connecting the earth and it shorting out you must have a damaged cable probley at one of the devices as the insulation on the cable can easily be damaged , do a continuity test between earth and the blue and earth and the brown to test for the short
 
Firstly, unless the panel is marked twinflex pro, it cannot be used. Old CB200 etc do not meet En BS standards, and have been removed from manufacture.
Back to the fault, every detector call point has a set of dil switches, switch 1 makes the device the eol. And should only be switch on if the device is the last unit on the circuit. As with any electrical installation, all cables should be checked a meggered for fault before any detection is fitted. So would suggest checking cables first......After altering dil switches or moving devices, the system needs a hard reset to configure, this reset switch is on the top of the main circuit board.
 
what i did was test for my 24v then add a head with eol dip switch on to check ok. i used my continuity/voltage tester but its not picking up the short on the cable between 2 devices, but when i connect earth/screen it shorts, but didnt show this fault to start with



i
 
yeah is a twinflex pro pannel . im thinking joiner and screw maybe. there is chip boards on the bases could they be faulty???
 
Ok detectors and call points will flash every five seconds (check with manual for led status as I cant remember off the top of my head) If any device is not poling, remove a check cable from last device to this one
 
ive read manual few times, megger out tomorrow as voltage/continuity and multimeter showed nothing
 
Sounds like a cable fault, hopefully you`ll trace it......And then never want to fit these crappy panels again...lol
 
isit possible to have earth fault on the mains and shows on panel, z00 earth fault, and yeah they very temperamental devices /panels/nad cable needs re constructed so more robust
 
so maybe that fault i think i have on cable could be flashing up as two faults on panel i.e no eol on zone 1 as theres a short and earth fault
 
Thats a strange one.....on a conventional it would show the zone number in fault. Not sure what the new twinflex pro should show on zone earth fault.
 
im going to take lenth of cable tomorrow and hook it up , and if it sorts it il tell builder cable needs replaced and ceiling needs smashed , he not be happy
 
Remove all devices on the zone and check the cable first.....you don`t wont to smash the ceiling only to find a simple detector fault...as he really will be be happy then
 

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