Does anyone know where I may find a working power supply to replace the one that shot craps in our church panel. It appears they have disappeared off the face of the earth. It is 20V input, 24VDC 8A output for a Harrington model #HS-3400 panel from the late 90’s. Thank you for any
Harrington Signal/Harrington Fire Alarm is now owned by Potter. Not sure where you might be able to get a replacement, though most conventional power supplies should work.
Thank you for your fast reply CarsonFireAlarm!
I’ve thought of replacing it with another brand power supply, but was worried about the issue of changing the UL listing of the panel and the liability resulting from that if the church has a fire. A local fire alarm company here in St. Louis, Tech Electronics, said the original power supply was basically not repairable with the amount of component damage on the board, that they could not guarantee replacing the visible damaged parts and not having other issues with the rest of the board, although that would still be the cheaper option compared to replacing with a new system. I’ve also called Potter’s headquarters here and they were not able to help either, which I wasn’t expecting anyway due to the age. My only hope, I guess, is to find someone with an existing panel or a matching functioning power supply or someone that is able to repair the damage to the existing board. I am willing to send it anywhere to get it repaired, if possible. Unfortunately, I do not know a lot of reputable electronic repair facilities (yet), but still am pursuing that option. I removed the heat sink on the damaged area to get a greater view of the damaged parts, which look pretty extensive in this picture.
I think most (if not all) power supplies made today are UL-listed, thus that shouldn’t be a problem. It’d be a lot quicker & easier than trying to get the existing one repaired anyway. Examples of currently-available power supplies include the Fire-Lite/Notifier FCPS-series & the Potter PSN-series.
Any idea what caused the HS-3400 to kick the bucket?
To me, it appears to be a build up of heat over the years degrading the components, but we also had a couple of power failures the past week, so it might have been a surge that took the weakened components out. I don’t know squat about electronic components though.
Would you possibly have a link you could post to the power supplies you mentioned that might work for the panel? Thanks!
That was a huge heat sink on that one component that I removed, so a lot of heat must have been generated in that location.
Here are some examples of power supplies:
Altronix: Altronix Products
Altronix Products
Edwards: Edwards Signaling - EBPS6A & EBPS10A Remote Booster Power Supplies Expands Power to NACs (edwards-signals.com)
Fire-Lite/Notifier: Power Supplies (firelite.com)
Power Supplies And Chargers | Power Supplies and Batteries | NOTIFIER (honeywell.com)
Gamewell-FCI: Power Supplies (gamewell-fci.com)
Honeywell: Fire Alarm Power Supplies - Honeywell Power Products
Mircom: BPS Power Supplies – Mircom
Potter: Fire Alarm Conventional Power Supplies | Potter Electric (pottersignal.com)
Silent Knight: Power Supplies (silentknight.com)
Wheelock: Power supplies | Wheelock PS-8-LP | Eaton
Potter’s PSN-series has a unique feature that allows notification appliances of differing brands (Wheelock, System Sensor, Gentex, & Potter/Amseco specifically) to be synced together, so if the church has a multitude of different brand alarms I’d recommend that so they can be all synced together (only if they’re one or multiple of the above manufacturers though).
True but changing the power supply to any model or type is not approved.
What are you talking about? I’m fairly certain that any of the above could be used in this instance.
A fire panel is tested and approved at the UL to UL864 tested as a system including the power supply by just changing the power supply in this case 30VDC to any power supply means the FACP is not approved by the UL.
I have tested more than six panels at UL Northbrook the few years the power supply cant just be changed even if a capacitator from the manufacture is changed the UL must approved that change even my request to make a test before the panel can be labeled UL 864 approved.
This is what I am talking about, we are providing life and safety systems we must work from the book, what would happen in a event of a fire and it was found the power supply was not approved for that panel?
Carson, thank you much for sending the links for the power supplies. I apologize for not getting here sooner to do that.
John is correct. If a power supply is integral to a panel, a replacement must be of the exact kind to maintain the UL assembly listing. Although it would work with another supply, if something happened and the insurance company saw an add on supply, regardless of if it was UL listed or not, it would not pass the life safety listing requirements and they would automatically deny any and all claims. Which since this supply apparently does not exist anymore, my only option is to replace the entire system now. Wasn’t what I was hoping, but there are very stringent requirements for this type of life safety equipment.
I don’t think that’s quite what the original poster meant; I think they meant replacing the entire panel, not just the board inside.
No problem, glad I could help. Please wait to do that until we work out this new UL-related discrepancy first.
I don’t know if this is still needed, but, I think I might have an old 3400 laying around. It failed and was replaced, I can’t say for sure, but the power supply might be OK. I will go to the warehouse in a couple days and plug it in.
