Can anyone comment on the status of parts, general serviceability, etc of FCID systems? I know the system is 25 years old and now parts are normally difficult to get or the panel has been “End of Lifed” by the manufacturer. I can’t seem to find any info online so any help is appreciated! 8)
It sounds like you have an FCI FC-ID system. These are the predecessor to the 7200 and use the Fenwal addressable protocol rather than the modern System Sensor protocol. You are right that you will have a hard time finding replacement parts for that system, they have not been manufactured for at least 20 years. No modern panel is backward compatible with these Fenwal devices either.
Unfortunately, your upgrade path is pretty steep, you’ll have to replace the panel and all the addressable devices (smoke detectors, pull stations, modules) at the same time. It’s something you’ll eventually have to do if any component fails, so best to plan ahead before that happens.
How large of a building are we looking at here?
Thanks for your reply and info. Yes its an FCI FCID panel. I just couldn’t find any “end of life” announcements on it on-line. I really didn’t expect that there would be a replacement panel that could communicate with all the existing field devices… especially since its over 20 years old.
From an upgrade perspective, its not large. Its an elementary school being repurposed. There will be about 50 or so addressable devices. I haven’t confirmed it yet but signals may not be synchronized so the upgrade may be a little more involved.
Thanks again!
Yes, there is sparse documentation available for this panel. I can’t even find a manual through my Gamewell-FCI distributor hub.
You probably will have to replace horn/strobes if your AHJ is requiring them to be upgraded to sync. I’m sure they were installed prior to 1999 when sync first became available.
Interestingly, the Fenwal addressable protocol is not totally extinct. Fenwal has been bought out by UTC and they are now calling their products Kidde, but this panel is still available which uses Fenwal’s SmartOne protocol. I am not sure if this is actually compatible with FCI’s version from the 1990’s. If someone has access to both of these, it may be worth investigating.