I got my hands on 2 Foundation Series Panels late last year: 2004FS and 2050FS, both Autocall.
The 2004FS is meh. It looks a lot like a Fire-Lite MS-4. It has 4 zones and 1 NAC, like the 4001 did many years ago.
Two off-putting things I noticed with the 2004FS:
- It’s painfully slow. It can take several seconds to alarm.
- It has a time/date trouble, despite lacking an LCD screen. This is for the DACT, but even if you disable it, the trouble still occurs on startup.
Despite this, it’s ok as a small conventional panel. You can probably replace a 4001 with this: it can handle mechanical horns alright. It also has SmartSync on its single NAC as an option. The panel can be programmed with DIP switches, but it requires a hard reboot each time changes are made. A PC programmer is needed to set the date/time and program the DACT.
The 2050FS is a solid addressable panel. It looks and sounds unlike most Simplex panels. I heard it’s a rebrand of a European panel, and I can believe that. It can handle up to 50 points with 2 NACs. It uses it’s own version of MX protocol. It’s not supposed to be compatible with MX protocol on the 4100ES, though the new ESMX card might be (?).
Performance-wise, it’s about average. Nothing like the ES panels, but not horrible either. As for programming, it’s very flexible and probably one of most modernized in this regard. The 2050FS can be programmed via the keypad, a PC software, or the mobile app. Via the app, the job can be downloaded directly to the panel via an NFC reader. This reader is a bit finicky, but I never had a job download fail on it.
I’d prefer the 2250FS, since it’s the same size as the 2050FS, but has a 250 point capacity and 4 NACs. I’m interested in getting the 2008FS, as it has 8 zones, 2 NACs, and an LCD screen like the 4006/8.
I think these will make a decent competition to the current small-panel market, but we’ll see how they perform.