Using the “class change” / manual ring terminals

Preamble

Every fire alarm system is supposed to sound the alarms if a smoke-detector, heat detector or call-point is activated.  Sometimes, however, it is desirable to be able to sound the alarms in response to some other stimulus.  One very common situation is found in schools where the fire alarm system is often used to signal the start and end of each teaching session.

The Firepoint-2 fire alarm control panel is equipped with a set of terminals that can be used to cause the alarms to sound "on-demand".  We call these terminals the "class-change" or "manual-ring" terminals and this technical note suggests some ways of using these terminals.

Related information

Uses of the remote evacuate terminals
The interfaces of the Firepoint-2 fire alarm control panel.

Technical background

•	The terminals are physically located on the "controller PCB" that sits in the lid of the Firepoint-2 box.
•	To activate the input it is necessary only to join the two terminals together using a push-button, switch or relay contacts.
•	Please note, you must NOT apply any power to these terminals.  Applying any sort of power (from a battery, other electrical equipment or, worst of all, the mains electricity supply) to either terminal may cause the Firepoint-2 Fire alarm to perform unreliably, dangerously or it may be damaged.
•	Once the input is actiavted the alarms will sound for as long as the input is activated and then for 1 extra second.  This means that if the terminals were connected to a push button and the button were held down for three seconds and then released, the alarms would sound for a total of four seconds.

 

What actually happens during manual ring?

When the alarms are made to sound using the manual ring terminals the system does not treat the event as a fire or evacuation event.  In particular:

• The red fire lamps are NOT illuminated.
• No entry is made in the event log
• The alarms will cease to sound when the input inactive — it is not necessary to use the keyswitch to "silence" and "reset".
• The liquid crystal display will show "manual ring".  If there are other messages to be displayed (such as fault messages) these will display in turn in the usual way.

So, in other words, the system carries on much as usual except that the alarms will be sounding.  If a full alarm is needed from an external device then you must use the remote evacuate terminals instead of the manual-ring terminals.

The "class change" function

To implement a "class-change" facility in a school you simply need to connect the manual-ring terminals either to a push button (such as a doorbell button) in the school office, or to a timer unit that switches volt-free relay contacts at the preset class-change times.  When somebody presses the button, or the relay contacts close, the alarms will begin to sound.  They will continue to sound until the button is released.

Creating a very large system using more than one Firepoint 2 fire alarm control panel.

Because every Firepoint-2 fire alarm system has a fire relay with changeover contacts it is possible to use the fire relay on one Firepoint-2 unit to activate the manual-ring terminals on some other Firepoint-2 unit.  By doing this you can very easily create very large and reliable installations.  This particular use of the manual-ring terminals is discussed in a separate document which you can read if you click here.

Links

The Firepoint 2 fire alarm panel.