Silent Knight New Panels

Silent Knight has updated their panel line up with some new updated features such as the ability to network and more panel flexibility with regard to SLC expansion. We have already seen Fire Lite update their panels, and Notifier will be updating theirs here soon as well. I don’t know what Gamewell has in store, but I know that the Notifier 50 and 100 panels will be just like the Fire Lite versions, and that the Onyx panels will have touchscreen interfaces. Also, we just sent a couple of guys to Fire Lite training and they said that there will be a panel called the ES1000 as well, which I have a feeling will be similar to the SK 6820, which is the updated 5820.

http://www.silentknight.com/Pages/Category.aspx?category=Addressable Control Panels&cat=HFS-SILENTKNIGHT

Patrick

Yeah I saw this today. Looks like Honeywell rebranded all the silent knight stuff. Only thing I dislike with the new SK panels is, the F1-F4 disable buttons is only available on the new 6860 annunciator and not on the actual face itself. Where firelite has them on the main facp. Also the Farenhyt series finally released new panels also.

And with the upcoming new Notifer Fire Warden 50/100 panels, they now will be able to communicate with the onyx devices. So now you can replace an old AFP-100 or 200 with the smaller panel. Before it had to be NFS-320.

It seems like SK developed these new panels in house similar to what they did with the 5600. The biggest giveaway to this is the 6820 being the 6820 instead of the 6820XL. I am glad that these new panels are sticking to the same interface as the old ones. It is just what SK needed, as the 5800 series is over 20 years old now. I am very glad and extremely surprised to see that they are networkable too. SK panels should have always had that.

Only problem I’ve run into is a different can size and different software from 5820 to 6820. Not a drop in replacement…but definitely an upgrade.

[quote=619TBLShooter post_id=81411 time=1534787987 user_id=4722]

Only problem I’ve run into is a different can size and different software from 5820 to 6820. Not a drop in replacement…but definitely an upgrade.

[/quote]

That really sucks as far as different can size is concerned. I recently replaced a Notifier Firewarden 50 with a new 50X panel, and much to my surprise it fit perfectly in the old can without any problems. The door obviously has to be swapped to make it work, but it can be directly swapped from an older panel.

I have downloaded and looked at the new SK software and it almost seems more cumbersome than the previous version. It is too bad because programming on a laptop makes it marginally more easier than front panel programming, really only saving time on device descriptions in my opinion. I am interested in seeing how the networking capabilities work. I will be going to the class, just don’t know when I’ll have the time.

Patrick

Patrick,
Any thoughts on the SK 6820 (if you’ve had a chance to try it) and networking?

You mentioned also that Notifier Onyx was coming out with new panels, and FireLite was coming out with an ES1000 - any idea when we might see these?

The 6000 series NEEDS HFSS to do any kind of mapping, and the networking is ONLY for reporting, just to let you use one panel for reporting. It is not as exciting as it sounds at first, but at least the 6820 still goes in the same cabinet as the 5808, 5208, and the IFP 100.

I have not yet installed any of the new SK stuff or had a chance to get to the class yet so I still have experience with it. We do a lot of work for a school district that solely uses SK 5820 panels so in due time I will probably see a 6820. Notifier just released the NCD touchscreen display which is meant as a network display, but is also able to be the primary display on any onyx panel. Right now they are limited to just display events, ie you can’t program the panel from them. They are supposed to release software updates in the future that give them more capability but Notifier seems like they keep pushing those dates back so there is no telling when those updates will be available. New Notifier panels are a long ways off, and I’m sure whatever date they project will be pushed back further anyway. I still haven’t heard anything else about the Fire Lite panel either.

Patrick

So far I’ve installed four sites with the new 6000 series panels. (1) 6820 and (3) 6808’s and I had to return two of the 6808’s because they failed the initial testing on the first day, and I haven’t even fully tested the other two sites yet. First panel wouldn’t send alarm signals, only restorals, and also had a “download unavailable” issue that wouldn’t clear. Second panel’s NAC circuits would randomly go dead and NAC troubles wouldnt clear even when jumpered. It also wouldn’t send NAC trouble signals. They are already on their 3rd firmware version so every panel has to be upgraded before you program. Also beware of the F1-F4 function keys: the macro functions that you painstakingly program in through the keypad, will be erased everytime you reconnect a laptop. Oh and then there is the issue with the nut on the panel door making contact with the keypad buttons every time you close the door. It’s the first thing I look at when pull a new panel out of the box. “Hey did the fix that nut yet?” “Nope.”

my school’s getting that panel

SK is one of my go to panels, always liked their stuff, usually just works. The 6000 panels mostly continue that trend, but have had some issues with them in the past year, some have been resolved, some still linger. A few annoying changes were I can’t get into programming or download when there is a supv condition (very annoying when working on an install while work is progressing in a building), new program which seems to be a bit more powerful but just different.

I installed a 6820 in a hotel, had some issues to which I got “that shouldn’t be happening” answers from tech support, with no real answer or fix. I found out about 3 weeks before they opened that “we don’t guarantee sync between main panel circuits and ‘intelligent’ power supply circuits” and when I asked when that had started I was told they never did, although I’ve never before run into that problem. I have been back a few times and the issues have continued, case in point, went to change a smoke out to a heat since there was a false alarm issue. I pulled the smoke out and went to panel, uploaded program and changed point to a heat, downloaded and then installed heat, but it came up as “wrong type”. Tech support told me I had to run Jumpstart to find the new device, which make no sense in my mind since I just programmed the panel with a computer telling it that point was a heat.

In another install with a 6808, I have an “intelligent” 5496 NAC panel, both panels have one circuit of System sensor H/S and three circuits of Wheelock H/S (had an issue with size on the Sys sen mounting to siding). When I had “sync strobes active when silenced” only the system sensor would actually silence, had to reset to get the Wheelocks to silence. Went over all programming with a tech support person, everything was correct, basically just wouldn’t work.

I have used several of the 6700 panels for small systems with basically no issues, but they aren’t very involved systems.

They do a lot of firmware upgrades, which may take care of some of the issues in the future–the original .8 firmware wouldn’t even work with the smoke/CO combos. But I finally got a tech to put in a feature request for changing their default of making every module found during autoprogram a pull station to a supv so there aren’t false alarm problems if you’re programming and something doesn’t work quite right.

Overall they are still good panels, just troubling to hear a tech say there really isn’t a solution.