Hello everyone, I need your help. We have three Honeywell methane gas detection sensors each connected to XNX transmitter and they are connected to Honeywell 301C Gas Detection Panel. This gas detection system tied up to the Siemens fire alarm panel(I will get model and serial numbers later but it looks like a Cerberus PRO, large color screen, 4 buttons on top, 4 on the bottom, 4 buttons on the right and 4 indicators on the left side of the screen).
The problem is this: every day roughly at the same time system goes in alarm. All 3 garage doors automatically roll up, exhaust fans start up, loud siren goes off and fire trucks(we are a government facility) come to the garage. You can imagine it.
Sensors and XNX transmitters were checked, Honeywell panel was checked with no alarms. The only suspicious thing is a small icon on the Honeywell 301C - I checked the manual and this icon means that the is something wrong with a network.
My question is: is there a chance that network issue can trigger an alarm(not just a fault or warning, but Class A alarm?). Our electronics/fire alarm panel technicians never worked with these gas detection panels, and there are literally no qualified contractors in the area to work on these gas detection systems(we had to wait 2 months until first available technician to calibrate methane sensors).
Thank you in advance for your input.
If the gas detection system is not reporting any alarms but the fire alarm system is, my first thing to check would be the wires between the 301C and the Siemens monitor module. These wires are marked with a red arrow in the graphic below. If they get shorted - even for a second - it will cause an alarm on the fire alarm system, but nothing will show on the gas detection system.
If the below graphic doesn’t accurately represent your setup, please correct me.
This is exactly how it is wired! However this white siemens monitor module is in the same panel with 301c and these wires are probably 2-3 feet and have no damage whatsoever, I checked them and checked connections to make sure they are tight.
Then my guess would be that either the monitor module or the 301C’s relay has gone bad. The relay is part of the main board, and can’t be replaced separately.
If the system was recently installed, it might still be under warranty.
My guess would be that the problem is in the 301C because I’ve heard that Honeywell Life Safety has been having quite a few quality control problems lately.
Mike,
A couple of things you can look into. The gas sensor has an event log. You may be able to review the history and see if the device has tripped and when. The controller can also be programmed with a delay, so an intermittent environmental spike won’t cause an alarm. Also, the controller can be programmed to latch on alarm. That way you will know it is the definite cause of the alarm. It would need to be reset prior to resetting the fire panel.