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FIRE SERVICE AND GENERAL FIRE SAFETY TOPICS => Technical Advice => Topic started by: JonnyG on July 24, 2008, 08:42:56 PM
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Will be attending this site tomorrow.
From what I remember, it is a 5 looper.
Basically, they have been having extremely erratic fire alarms from completely different locations over the last 2 days. A fellow engineer was on site today and checked every detector for the cause, No led activation from the device? Anyone any idea what this could be??
Overloaded loop? One device bringing the rest of the loop down??
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Will be attending this site tomorrow.
From what I remember, it is a 5 looper.
Basically, they have been having extremely erratic fire alarms from completely different locations over the last 2 days. A fellow engineer was on site today and checked every detector for the cause, No led activation from the device? Anyone any idea what this could be??
Overloaded loop? One device bringing the rest of the loop down??
I do not think loop over loaded will set alarm off from different locations:
What did event log shows?
Has the system had any conventional sounders linked through sounder controller?
Also check the settings of the loop powered sounders they may have been set by mistake, to sound in fault condition instead of fire condition, I used to see such problems...
The worst of the worst scenario is to re-commission the system from the beginning and see what is going wrong.
Alarm going off with no zone LED illuminated could be through an evacuation button or input class change.
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Maybe should have explained better. The panel shows a device in fire condition. Lets say L1 A13. But when he checked that device, There was no led lit on the device.
Yesterday in total he had 6 fire conditions from different locations with no cause and no led lit.
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Johnny ,
The led gets the bit instruction from the panel to turn on , so in that case either you are at the wrong head or the led has failed.
I would view each device that is suspect and press key 2 which will turn on the led to confirm you are at the right device , or use a test set , Apollo hochiki , don't know what you are working on ?
It sounds more like corruption to me so access panel in commission mode , enter setup bring up the log section press change key and alter to diagnostic mode , put panel back to normal and leave it half an hour , when you view the log it will then give you indication with any devices that are playing up. However don't forget to put the log back to normal status from diagnostics.
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I have a site with ZX5e's and if I disconnect one of the loops (by removing the plug) I get sporadic fires up from devices on other loops.This happens on different panels and they were all installed in 2007.
Bundle of (IMO) junk these days.
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Have seen this happen myself Buzzard (it isnt an airport your referring too?!), wouldnt blame the panel though. From my experience it is always problems in the field (dodgy cabling) or lack of continuity/poor bonding of the shield wire.
Good advice from Galeon
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Have seen this happen myself Buzzard (it isnt an airport your referring too?!), wouldnt blame the panel though. From my experience it is always problems in the field (dodgy cabling) or lack of continuity/poor bonding of the shield wire.
Good advice from Galeon
Yes old wiring with new panel could set such weired things, I used to see as well alarm goes off with any sort of fault condition, programming issue in a loop powered sounders !!!
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Johnny ,
The led gets the bit instruction from the panel to turn on , so in that case either you are at the wrong head or the led has failed.
I would view each device that is suspect and press key 2 which will turn on the led to confirm you are at the right device , or use a test set , Apollo hochiki , don't know what you are working on ?
It sounds more like corruption to me so access panel in commission mode , enter setup bring up the log section press change key and alter to diagnostic mode , put panel back to normal and leave it half an hour , when you view the log it will then give you indication with any devices that are playing up. However don't forget to put the log back to normal status from diagnostics.
Thanks for the advice, but we were definitely going to the correct detectors. Problem is now sorted.
It seems that a motherboard problem can cause this (according to morley tech) Also a faulty board can cause, non-existent open circuits, and non-existent earth faults.
Anyone else experiencing the same problems with morley panels?? This is the third panel to go down in a month. All panels were installed circa 1999.
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i have lost all faith in Morley and will never use them again for new projects
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i have lost all faith in Morley and will never use them again for new projects
Come on Grame! because of just a faulty card? they still reliable mate! If you have just purchased a brand new panel from Morley, you still have got warranty of replacement do you? Faulty card can happen to any make mate!
Why not seeing the problem the other way round, I used to see engineers fitting loop cards while the system is powered up, when they fail to operate they wash hand straight away claiming it is a faulty card…
I think it is not that easy to blame some trade marks because of some minor deficiencies
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benz
not got anyhting to do with this topic but with my past and present experiences with product and after sales.
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benz
not got anyhting to do with this topic but with my past and present experiences with product and after sales.
Alright, sorry for miss-interpreting then... but the only thing I do agree with, regardless of the product itself, is that Morley technical support is so ....., I have never got them straight forward, they are most of the time either in annual leave, meeting or lunch time... etc …
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We had similar problem many years ago, and in number of occasions, it was with HAES panel, the panel displays i.e. ‘zone 1’ in fire condition, and alarm was going off for no substantial reasons, even ‘zone 1’ circuit was physically disconnected, the Tech support of HAES company that days agreed to replace the PCB card straight forward.
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benz
not got anyhting to do with this topic but with my past and present experiences with product and after sales.
Alright, sorry for miss-interpreting then... …
no worries.
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i have lost all faith in Morley and will never use them again for new projects
Come on Grame! because of just a faulty card? they still reliable mate! If you have just purchased a brand new panel from Morley, you still have got warranty of replacement do you? Faulty card can happen to any make mate!
Why not seeing the problem the other way round, I used to see engineers fitting loop cards while the system is powered up, when they fail to operate they wash hand straight away claiming it is a faulty card…
I think it is not that easy to blame some trade marks because of some minor deficiencies
I'd have to agree with Grahame on this one - given the choice I wouldn't touch them with a 12 foot barge pole now as there are way too many software issues of late and panel problems.
They USED to be a very reliable option and were our preferred panel for open protocol but not anymore.
For tech support you'd be better ringing ADVANCED and talking to one of the ex-Morley guys there (only joking but about as much use as phoning MORLEY)!
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i have lost all faith in Morley and will never use them again for new projects
Come on Grame! because of just a faulty card? they still reliable mate! If you have just purchased a brand new panel from Morley, you still have got warranty of replacement do you? Faulty card can happen to any make mate!
Why not seeing the problem the other way round, I used to see engineers fitting loop cards while the system is powered up, when they fail to operate they wash hand straight away claiming it is a faulty card…
I think it is not that easy to blame some trade marks because of some minor deficiencies
I'd have to agree with Grahame on this one - given the choice I wouldn't touch them with a 12 foot barge pole now as there are way too many software issues of late and panel problems.
They USED to be a very reliable option and were our preferred panel for open protocol but not anymore.
For tech support you'd be better ringing ADVANCED and talking to one of the ex-Morley guys there (only joking but about as much use as phoning MORLEY)!
The software versions issue of Morley is true, if your colleague has already used some version in some stage, then you get to deal with the same system with a latter version, as a result your colleague could no longer get access to the system, with his version, this happened to us on several occasions..., and the things went on completely diverted to blame the lack of communications between colleagues ... while the real problem wasn't that.
Other issues of old Morley systems they may cause earth fault generated internally in the PCB and not from the external wiring. We had such problems some times.
The networking issue is even too tedious…, networking old and new Morley systems may not work properly all Morley panels have to be upgraded to the same chip version and so on…
With all of that we still have many sites with Morley systems and every thing goes perfectely, while I still agree there is no 100% perfect make.
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I used to be quite a morley fan, easily programmed and installed.
But my recent experience has put me well off, 4 sites and counting. Strangely all panels were installed before 2000.
I'm glad we no longer use morley, onto Ampac.
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Fire panels are no different to cars , all time bombs waiting to go wrong.
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Fire panels are no different to cars , all time bombs waiting to go wrong.
Think I'd prefer my car not to start than the fire alarm system not operating correctly.
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Buz ,
Depends where you are off to
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I always thought the old morley with the big led display was the best .
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Buz ,
Depends where you are off to
True - missus offering lift to pub at 10 o'clock and it's raining is a good example.
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I always thought the old morley with the big led display was the best .
That'll be when the guys now at ADVANCED were at Morley!
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Yet again Morley issue, double address in some system installed in 2004, when sorting out one double address another comes up with different address, But what causing them? no idea
Have looked around only ladies in offices they would not bother about removing and refitting the heads half way like usually smokers do, what could be the problem then? NO single idea, when such problems happened around 5pm, there is no much that can be done. :(
I think I am going to join the club who says Morley is over,
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Try and see if the panel is set for a calibration time , if it is turn if off and see if that clears your problem.
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Try and see if the panel is set for a calibration time , if it is turn if off and see if that clears your problem.
How that can happen on its own, with no one touch the system? I think calibration can be done manually by some one... I haven't got a clue mate.
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Benz ,
See if it has be set previously , (not referring to the staff doing this) , and it might be worth having a loop card , I would either stick a test set on or if you are Apollo a cheap single loop panel in a flight case is what I tend to use on site to suss the loop out, that way you can rule the actual loop out.
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Benz ,
See if it has be set previously , (not referring to the staff doing this) , and it might be worth having a loop card , I would either stick a test set on or if you are Apollo a cheap single loop panel in a flight case is what I tend to use on site to suss the loop out, that way you can rule the actual loop out.
Galeon; The system was sitting lovely with no problems at all and suddenly double addresses came out, each time I clear one and reset the system I see the system sitting healthy, then half hour latter on, another double address comes up with a different address, this is not a brand new install it was perfectly for four years...
I think swapping loops may sort it out, at least to see if the problem still persist in the same loop or it jumps to the swapped one...
Thanks for the idea of the loop card. I wouldn't think about around 5pm ... particularly when I had another urgent call out to some customer of 1st priority.