Haes Eclipse fire panel fault

[peterinreading]

I've installed and tested a 4-zone Haes Eclipse fire panel. It is wired up as a two-wire "Sav-wire" system where the sounders are wired with their polarity reversed. This is the first panel of the this type I have installed as so far we have always installed Firesence panels which are no longer available as a 2-wire system.

On initial testing everything was OK. Then after a couple of days it started showing an intermittent "general fault" on one of the zones. Using the panel lights to diagnose the fault suggests a short circuit but there isnt a short circuit - all 4 circuits show about 4 k ohm. If you swap the wires for two zones then the intermittent fault moves to the other zone which seems to indicate it is not a fault with a specific zone on the panel, but is a fault on the circuit for that zone.

The zone circuit has 9 sensors, 5 sounders and 3 call points.

Any ideas for how to isolate the fault?

 

[tazz]

The fault is certainly on the zone, which you have correctly proved.
First which make of detection, call points and sounders have you installed.?

 

[peterinreading]

APOLLO 65 sav-wire base
APOLLO 65 sensor
KAC sav-wire call point
Cranford VSO-32E base sounder

The same set-up in all 4 zones - 3 of which are working fine. The only difference is possibly that the faulty zone is the biggest one.

 

[tazz]

You dont actually need sav wire call points, but its not a problem.....
ok Kac are having a few problems at the moment, with the 4 pin green wiring plug on their call points. Suggest linking out call points on faulty zone, to see if fault clears.
Apollo sensors are very reliable....but sav wire pcb boards in sav base, can be loose.....check all pcb srews.
The above are most common faults, if all checks out we are then looking for loose or damage cables.

 

[peterinreading]

Thanks very much tazz. I shall do as you suggest and let you know how I get on.

 

[tazz]

no problem

 

[Royce44]

Ive found that with most zone faults ive cleared on sav wire, its nearly always bad wiring into the base, as the savwire pcb takes up a lot of room.

Worse case you will have to link out a sav wire base one at a time but get this in written agreement with customer.

 

[tazz]

The op has fitted Apollo Sav Wire and series 65 .....not Rafiki Savwire. Very rare not to get a good connection with Apollo bases..

 

[Royce44]

I was on about the s65 mate, rather than put both cables under the same screw terminal, they put one in the spare, then the other where the pcb is terminated so when the head is clicked on it crushes the insulation. Hard to decribe

 

[tazz]

Possible, but would have to really force detector on base....One thing about Apollo, is strong large terminals. Very rare for an intermittent fault on Apollo bases

 

[peterinreading]

Still struggling to isolate the fault. I linked out all the call points and that made no difference. So now sequentially linking out sensors. The problem is that the fault sometimes appears several hours later. Luckily the system will not need to be live for several weeks yet.

 

[tazz]

Ok linking out will still show fault..... to help speed thing up, break the zone circuit half way say device 5, and place the eol resistor in that device, with no out going cables.
if fault still shows break circuit again until cleared.....then move back re connecting devices until fault shows.

 

[peterinreading]

Tidied it down to one of two sensors, but then could not reproduce the fault, and system has been stable for 48 hours. I presume in linking and unlinking I tightened the screws on one of these two bases which cured the problem.

So most likely source of the problem is loose screws in the bases. I can see you should be careful not just with the screws holding the wires but also with the other screws that secure the PCB to the terminals- you should not rely on them all being tight from the factory.

Thanks very much to tazz and royce44 for their help and suggestions.

 

[tazz]

Hope all stays ok....