House is only 2 years old.

Have not put the smoke detector back on the ceiling. It is silent, but chirping sounds still come from the hole in the ceiling?

WTF is going on?

And I swear it started chirping whenever I laid down in bed or left the room, but not when I was standing in the middle of the bedroom floor or sitting in the bedroom easy chair.

No I am not crazy.

What’s is the fire alarm manufacturer’s market share in your market?

I ask this as I find the differences in markets across the US very interesting. I am in Houston, which Texas as a whole is a Turnkey (non-union) market. My market’s split for major construction projects (IE high-rises, convention centers, hospitals and university’s) is notifier at 20% (used to be over 50%), Siemens and Edwards both around 30-35%, simplex is under 10% (no local engineers spec them unless requested by the end user).

What’s your markets market share like?

Trying to get part numbers for horns and horn strobes compatible with the dmp xr150dnlg panel. Any information would be greatly appreciated

This week's Meme

I'm applying for a construction manager position in a mid size fire alarm company in NC what would be the estimated pay range to look for? 10 years experience in the field, NICET 3, and I have a degree. Thoughts?

Tldr: Where should I be aiming my career at this moment?

At this time, I'm 31 years old, and I have been in fire alarm for 2.5 years. I have my NICET 2 in fire alarm systems. I'm EST 3 and EST4 certified.

Before fire alarm I was a full time student who returned to school studying physics. Didn't finish my bachelor's because of COVID. Got an associates. After a 4 year hiatus, I start back up again this fall to continue/conclude with an electrical engineering degree.

My current situation: got on board with a new company that's going to pay me $32/hr (southeast US), schedule around school, and provides tuition reimbursement, along with the standard benefits. They do more low voltage, not just fire, and it sounds like I'll be a mixture of install, service, and (possibly) inspections.

Obviously I'll be aiming for the NICET 3 when I'm eligible for it. I've just recently stumbled upon ESA's Certified Fire Alarm Designer program, which I know very little about.

What I don't know: career milestones. I've worked for mom and pop shops thus far, and haven't had mentors basically at all. My theoretical knowledge from physics and analytical skills from math almost immediately made me the superior circuit troubleshooter. But the only people around me are guys who've done the same exact thing for 20+ years and are making the same or less than me.

So what is there for me to consider? What might I do? Are programs like this ESA's CFAD worthwhile? Will they take me places? Should I be trying to take this electrical engineering degree and become an FPE afterwards? Or once I have the degree, should I just hop out of life safety all together?

Thanks

I work in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, I currently have my FAL, FEL-A, RME-I licenses ( getting my backflow license mid June ) . I currently make 28 hr. I’m just trying to see if I’m being compensated enough. How much should I be making? if anyone could point me in the right direction!

Had about 12 HS-24WR devices on 1 nac circuit of a PSN-1000 power supply connected to an AFC-100 panel. Some devices didn’t operate when testing, and one would skip every other strobe and didn’t sound the horns. It may be worth noting that this was ran with 14 gauge wire, and transferred to 18 gauge wire. Devices having issues were early in the circuit on 14 gauge before the 18 started. To remedy the issue, I thought I’d take some load off the circuit, so I pulled a new 14 gauge wire to the 4th device in line, took the line going out, and connected this to my new wire, bypassing the first 4 devices. Made this device an end of line and put a resistor in it. Devices gets voltage, send open signals if taken off the base, and resistance is read on the line. When I tested, the first 4 devices (new eol) didn’t work at all. The circuit I had bypassed worked for all but one device. Not sure what I can do to fix this, going back Monday at 6pm when everyone leaves the building to test and troubleshoot. If nothing else, wish me luck.

Okay folks, got a first for me and my service manager….between the two of us we’ve got about 60+ years experience.

Doing a first time inspection on a Simplex 4100 and the batteries are out of date, no problem go to throw some 35’s in to replace the 33’s but something is odd here. The tech sends a picture that CLEARLY shows FOUR 12V 33a/h batteries wide in series! Essentially putting 48v into a 24v system. This system is probably 15’ish years old FWIW.

My question is: are battery chargers smart enough to know when they are getting too much voltage or only when they’re not getting enough?

Would these systems have the capability to bleed off excess voltage too? Seems far fetched but thought I’d ask. Have a pic but may need to scrub any identifiable bits off it before posting.

Darnedest thing we’ve ever seen

My apologies if this is the wrong sub to ask this (if so, let me know and I'll gladly delete this post).

I've caught my aging mother leaving the stove on for an extended period of time and found her watching TV in her room, quite evidently forgotten about it. This has happened multiple times, probably like 5 times or more.

I lectured her about it and asked her to set her own reminders, but it didn't quite go so well. I'm not sure if I can count on her to remember when no else one is around.

Is there some kind of device that can detect that something has been on the stove for too long? Like before a fire happens? And that it blares out a loud alarm?

https://preview.redd.it/g14ato4sw7yc1.png?width=381&format=png&auto=webp&s=560b7e860ac9061e744b2900c8918e83093418ff

Somehow I don't think these devices are compatible with each other...but I could be wrong!

Time to brag! New gear? New crew? On vacation? Personnal troubleshooting techniques? Come'on makes us jealous of you!

When you put a fire alarm bid together - how much markup are you doing on product and labor? We’re in the New Mexico market and seem to be way behind others. Anybody have any feedback would be helpful. Thank you

Um.. help?

jus curious i am new to this

Found in gymnasium rafters. The longer you look, the worse it gets. I think this is a maintenance guy "fix"

Can Edwards siga devices mount to common din rail?

hello there, if you have a question regarding an article in a specific book, please add the reference in you question in this thread. Thanks you!

Maybe not the right sub for this but oh well.

Over the years I find I’ve slipped in to feelings of burn out a few times but I normally get over it in a day or two, it just takes a good day of work where I really feel like I know what I’m doing and the 15+ years experience in this industry really shines through and I feel comfortable and competent again.

But I’m beginning to feel increasingly fed up with feeling like we’re the guys who are expected to just work shit out. I’m incredibly envious of the guys who just get to work on one or two types of system and have reached a level of competence on those systems that justifies a good wage. That’s not the environment I work in though.

I’m expected to basically teach myself fire, intruder, door access, CCTV, fire suppression systems, water leak detection, VESDA, AOV controls and basically any other low voltage fire or security related equipment. Multiple different manufacturer’s kit across all those disciplines.

After 15 years there is a small handful of those things I’m confident in, but I’m increasingly being sent to jobs with stuff that I’m not confident on and just no longer feel the desire to pursue the competence required. Call it laziness if you like, but I look at electricians who work for my company and as a qualified electrician myself I sometimes wish my days looked like theirs.

Some people might like the constant problem solving and learning on the job but I’m not sure I want to continue like this.

has anyone made a custom Fire Alarm control panel using Linux, FreeBSD, or other open source OS?

Can anyone tell me how the CLSS works. I know (or think I know) from my research so for that it can only be used for Honeywell panels (Notifier, FCI, and Fire Lite). Up until now we have been using the Starlink SLE-MAX2-CFB communicators for all of our monitoring and have had great success with them. Can we continue to use these if we start utilizing CLSS or do we need to switch to something else? What (if any) additional equipment is needed to get a Honeywell FACP to communicate to the cloud and how does it get connected? Any insight is appreciated.

Sorry not sure what the flair what should be 😅 Anyway, I’ve just moved into my dorm for master’s and if I was wondering what threshold of cooking this type of fire alarm can tolerate before it goes off. The dorm itself has no kitchen but my neighbors said cooking ramen and frying small stuff shouldn’t be a problem. Dorm admin said it’s okay too but I want to ask and make sure because I’d hate to pop off the alarm accidentally and disturb the neighbors 😊

Anyone have experience with HSI's Versa Test detector testers and poles compared with the more common SDI Solo ones? They seem like a slightly more affordable option. Also does anyone know if their Versa Poles are compatible with the Solo testers?

The Solo poles have a 1-1/8" inside diameter female with a 1/2" hole for the locking button placed 2-3/4" center to top. If anyone has the HSI poles and confirm whether or not this is the same, that would be appreciated!

Doesn't look parallel to me 😕