EST1-1Z1 Pull Stations Not Working

[MikeOrlando]

@moghedion

Ok… I’m reading this at the end of a long week in which nothing went smoothly, so I could be misunderstanding everything. If I sound like a twit here, let me know.

When you took a readingof the resistance on Sig1 & Sig2, they both came up as just under 4.7k, irregardless of the pull station? That sounds right, as these should be your bell loops. If that’s the case, you can pull the red wire & you can test things without ringing bells. Assuming I’m reading your pix right.

The Input1 loop should be your smokes & pulls, based on your description. What’s the resistance of this loop? It should be about 4.7k, dropping close to 0 when a manual station is pulled.

Just to clarify,

Input 1 was 4.66 regardless of the pulled being activated or not
Signal 1 was 4.63
Signal 2 (with EOL) was 4.65

So I am looking to find out why input 1 is not dropping when the manual pull station is pulled.

[MikeOrlando]

@Lambda

My concern after reading through this thread is that you don’t really seem to understand how a fire alarm system works or basic electrical troubleshooting? Especially because this appears to be a live system in an occupied building. And if you cannot gain access to the different areas of the building to correctly test each of the devices, are you even authorized to work on this panel? Most building owners have the right to access tenant spaces for emergency repairs or simply give 24/48 hours notice of such access.

Sorry to be so blunt but this is life safety we are talking about here. With the state of this panel having 75% of the initiating devices inoperative, this system should be tagged as a major deficiency, reported to the local AHJ, and would require immediate service or the building could not be legally occupied. Not to mention, if you are not the system owner, any work or alterations you do to this system are in violation of NFPA 72 Section 14.2.2 and you should be notifying the system owner according to NFPA 72 Section 10.19. In most jurisdictions, tampering with life safety equipment is a criminal offense. If this was a hobby system or if you were fooling around with a couple of pull station in your basement, I could justify trying to help you out. But if you are indeed the owner of the system and this problem is beyond your comprehension, you really need to stop what you are doing and call a professionally and licensed company to have this system repaired immediately. Even trying to fix this system yourself, if you don’t know how to connect up manual pull stations to ensure proper circuit supervision , you are opening yourself up to huge liabilities.

I do understand the basics, but I also want to be very specific in describing what I am doing as I want to hear from those with expertise to ensure I am doing it correctly. We are a small condo association and this probably has not worked for years and I am trying to address these issues. Regardless of my good intentions, I do take your point.

[system]

@MikeOrlando

I do understand the basics, but I also want to be very specific in describing what I am doing as I want to hear from those with expertise to ensure I am doing it correctly. We are a small condo association and this probably has not worked for years and I am trying to address these issues. Regardless of my good intentions, I do take your point.

Then the way to address these issues is to get the system professionally inspected and repaired immediately. I applaud you for taking an active role in the building and learning about the systems, but this was way more involved than simply finding a loose wire or broken resistor. Somewhere along the line, someone who shouldn’t be altering the fire alarm system (probably an electrician or handyman) did alter the system somehow and it’s not working according to proper standards. The sad thing is they probably knew just enough to get the panel “normal” but never bothered to inform anyone about what they did or follow up on getting it fixed correctly. In fact, you are supposed to get all fire alarm systems inspected by a licensed company once a year - and this problem would have been found less than a year after it occurred. I know around here the local fire marshal doesn’t fool around - and any system that has not been inspected in more than a year if found out can lead to DAILY fines to the building owner. I cannot count how many emergency service calls from frantic building owners I’ve been out on just to inspect and tag a system that has not been inspected in quite some time. Just this past week I had a city fire chief standing there while I did the inspection because if it wasn’t done right now they were going to condemn the building immediately. The system was 4 years old and never inspected since commissioning.

So please, don’t fool around with this or with the lives of the people in this building. I know calling someone out to fix the system is going to cost money but that’s one of the expenses you have when you own a building! That’s why you have condo fees. Certain things: natural gas lines, fire sprinkler systems, fire alarm systems, major electrical work, etc - call a professional. Put the liability on them and not yourself. Get all of your life safety systems inspected (fire alarm, sprinklers, extinguishers). I know you probably have good intentions - but good intentions are of little value when you are getting sued in court over someone’s injury or worse.