Hey everyone, I just bought this panel and I’m having some second guesses on it. I need to know if it is a fire alarm panel, or a sprinkler system panel, or both. Can someone please help me out and tell me a bit of information about it? I’m sorry to inconvenience you.
The actual panel- http://www.ebay.com/itm/Viking-Par-3-Deluge-Preaction-Control-Panel-Fire-Sprinkler-System-/200952235250?pt=BI_Security_Fire_Protection&hash=item2ec9afc4f2
~ThatFireAlarmGuy
No inconvenience! That’s what this forum is here for! 
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Now to answer your question…
What you’ve bought here is a fire suppression/releasing control panel. This acts very differently to a fire alarm panel.
First the zones…
Zone 1 is a Manual Release zone. When this goes, it overrides the delay timer, unless the output circuits are in Mode 4 (See Below).
Zone 2 is a Fire Detection zone. When this goes, a timer starts counting down. After the time expires, the system releases.
Zone 3 is a Waterflow zone. When this goes, it means that somewhere a suppression agent is being released, whether it is water from sprinklers or a manual system dump triggered by a valve.
Zone 4 is a supervisory zone. Depending on how it is set up it could activate the releasing relays.
Next the output circuits…
These will behave depending on how you set your DIP Switches, but here’s four possibilities:
NAC1 and Releasing Circuit 1 activates if Zone 1 OR Zone 2 is activated. NAC2 activates when Zone 3 goes into alarm. Releasing Circuit 2 activates if Zone 4 gets a supervisory condition.
NAC1 activates if Zone 1 OR Zone 2 is activated. NAC2 activates if Zone 3 goes into alarm. Releasing Circuit #1 activates if Zone 1 AND Zone 2 go into alarm. Releasing Circuit #2 activates if Zone 4 gets a supervisory condition.
NAC1 activates if Zone 1, Zone 2 OR Zone 3 is activated. NAC2 activates if Zone 4 gets a supervisory condition. Both releasing circuits activate if Zone 1 OR Zone 2 go into alarm.
NAC1 activates of Zone 1, Zone 2, OR Zone 3 is activated. NAC2 activates if Zone 4 gets a supervisory condition. Releasing Circuit 1 activates if Zone 1 goes into alarm, Releasing Circuit 2 activates if Zone 2 goes into alarm.
Lastly, there is a delay timer that can be set between instant, 10 minutes, and 15 minutes.
If you set it up correctly you can use it as a fire alarm panel, just note that you are limited to two zones and one NAC, depending on how you plan to use it. These things aren’t actually meant to be used as fire alarms due to the fact that they are agent release panels.
If it weren’t so late at night I’d give you details of how to set one of these up to work like a fire alarm, but my tired brain can’t remember how I did it a few years ago for a demonstration “fire alarm” setup.
BTW, here is the manual.
Sources: Manual, and used them before.
Thank you very much! Im glad to know i didnt waste my money on a useless panel, and i really appriciate all the help you’ve written down. I was also wondering if you knew any places i can go to to learn how to set it up as a fire alarm panel, im realatively new to panels, but not to alarms, and im a bit confused om were to place certain wires.
Check out a website called Fire Alarms Online – it is run by one of our members (FireAlarmsOnline) who is a very knowledgeable fire systems engineer in California.
Also, check out this person’s YouTube channel – he’s got a lot of neat animations that teach basics of how fire alarm systems work.
Thank you for those links, they helped me a lot! However, I still have one question, does the panel have a plugin to the wall? if so, do I need an ac to dc adapter for a wall plugin?
Sorry for all the questions, this is just very new to me!
with the PAR 3, if i have a power light and the system trouble light on, does that mean the panel is bad?
sorry i cant start a topic yet im still new
Not necessarily. The panel will need End of Line resistors on the four input and the two output circuits or the terminals jumpered for Class A wiring. You will also need to connect the standby batteries.