As mentioned elsewhere these are end-of-line resistors. They are also installed in the panel for unused terminals, otherwise the panel would see open loops and put on the trouble signal.
I would absolutely love to be discovering old systems in some large institutional facility and making them work again. Over my lifetime, I have enjoyed some similar missions. My first such venture was when I was 15 years old and went to work at an old theater. I was able to make all the screen masking, curtains, and stage lights power up as well as bring parts of the old sound system back to life. There were multiple generations of power for the projector lamps from a DC motor-generator to Tungar tubes, selenium and finally silicon rectifiers. We transitioned from carbon arc lamps to Xenon while I worked there. Some of my other adventures included the telecommunications systems of an old paper mill and an entire fairgrounds. Hopefully, I will find another such challenge before my tour of duty on Earth is over.
The resistors in the panel are so the panel can identify if a circuit has been broken or not while not energized. For example, the resistor on a notification appliance circuit would go at the very end of the line. The panel checks the circuit for resistance close to that of the resistor to “prove” that the whole line is there and intact. If there were to be a break in the line somewhere, there suddenly would be no resistance to monitor for therefore causing a trouble condition. Resistors always go at the end of line, so this is why fire alarm wiring should NEVER be T tapped. These are always on Class B notification circuits and conventional initiating circuits. Addressable systems do not require resistors on the signaling line loop.
cant wait to see you restore some of the systems such as the fire and elevator. shame the main pannel is missing and so destroyed! would have loved to see that oldie.
When the panel is beeping you can press the red button on the bottom it will acknowledge the beeping or you can connect a 12 volt 7 amp battery to the battery plug ins press the button quickly hold for about half to a full second the top button resets the system so if it’s in alarm and you reset the pull station then you go to the panel the top button aka the reset will turn the alarm off I own one of these panels very fun!
2:47 Those are EOL Resistors to make sure that the cable coming from the panel is not broken or damaged and that there's a closed loop with the devices attached. If the cable is damaged or a device is missing, the panel doesn't see that EOLR, it gives a system trouble indicating that there's a open circuit or loop on the zones or NAC circuits.
@@usbcd360 I didn’t think of the dehumidification part. That explains a lot. I always thought it seemed weird how quickly buildings degrade inside, even on parts that normally don’t get maintained and that 100% clears it up. Thanks!
love your channel dude, this is exactly what i want to do (explore abandon buildings and look at all the fire alarm and mech stuff thats in the building)
Since that light is red that would be pretty spooky looking in the dark. Do they still make fire alarms with red lights? I presume that red light is not as good as white because color blind people can't see it as well.
@ most of the time modern fire alarm devices have clear strobes, but there are applications where a fire alarm devices can come with a red, blue, green, or amber lenses to indicate different types of hazards. Usually they are on exterior walls of buildings for fire departments to quickly indicate the type/severity of the fire alarm condition.
5:22 that is vintage its is a simplex space age also at 1:31 there is another one 4:00 that is a vintage honeywell S464A 3:45 that is a gentex commander 1 series horn strobe. there from the 2000s 6:44 ac only incandescent exit sign. I think it is by Shure lites so none of this should be thrown away because it is vintage.
The resittors are there because if you are not using all of the zones or nacs ext. there will be trobles on the panel so if a zone or nac is not being used resistors will be put in on the un used terminals. and at the end of a circit of a nac or a zone on the last device there will also be a end of line resistor betwen the + and - to complete the whole circit.
Looks like the old fire alarm devices are SpaceAge AV-32 from the 70s while the new ones are Gentex Commander 1's from the 90s. It even looks like the new devices were retrofitted on top of the old ones. What did you plan on doing with this old system are you going to try to get it in working order?
There’s about possibly $15,000 in fire alarm work that they replace the main fire alarm panel,horn-strobes,smoke detectors, pull stations and the fire alarm dialer. Depending on who’s the alarm company for the building. Or go with a new alarm company.
6:06 wait ohio? this might be closer to me than i thought, if its in the middle of ohio near the border to indiana i could walk there. any chance you'd let me in on some of the fun?
Thorn Autocall ?? Federal signal product. Looks to be a old conventional panel, even better. dialer is a firelite type UDACT, needs pots lines to communicate to central station. Best to install a cellular UL dialer for central station. You can still buy conventional fire panels, Stick with Fire Lite, its non proprietary.. (toilet room detector is a rate of rise and fixed temp heat detector) #18 smoke is a ion smoke detector, looks like a system sensor product.
Well.. let's see.. If I think about it logically as a Hobbyist in Electronics, I would almost want to think the resistors would be there in the dialer to only give a specific amount of voltage and current to specific circuits, almost as if to either bypass certain things, or it could be set up so that at different points certain voltage drops are necessary in order for specific zones to show that they are there on the main board, even though they are not active zones "Dummy loads" Although without seeing a detailed Schematic diagram it is really hard to say. Kind of fun to speculate though. TLDR version of what I said though is still "Your guess is as good as mine" lol 😆🤣
Get a new system in there, maybe potter or EST, not honeywell garbage for sure tho. Oh Or Autocall! 90 percent sure that dialer cant be plugged in. so thts not up to current code. Guess it varies on local AHJs
In the boiler room those are not smoke detectors. Those are heat detectors and look like rate-of-rise/fixes temperature detectors. The person doing the video is obviously not a fire alarm tech as he didn’t know what end of line resisters were and couldn’t tell the difference between smoke detectors and heat detectors. Nothing against the maker of this video but a fire alarm tech would have known the difference.
The resistors in the panel are so the panel can identify if a circuit has been broken or not while not energized. For example, the resistor on a notification appliance circuit would go at the very end of the line. The panel checks the circuit for resistance close to that of the resistor to “prove” that the whole line is there and intact. If there were to be a break in the line somewhere, there suddenly would be no resistance to monitor for therefore causing a trouble condition. Resistors always go at the end of line, so this is why fire alarm wiring should NEVER be T tapped. These are always on Class B notification circuits and conventional initiating circuits. Addressable systems do not require resistors on the signaling line loop.
As mentioned elsewhere these are end-of-line resistors. They are also installed in the panel for unused terminals, otherwise the panel would see open loops and put on the trouble signal.
Akoto
I would absolutely love to be discovering old systems in some large institutional facility and making them work again. Over my lifetime, I have enjoyed some similar missions. My first such venture was when I was 15 years old and went to work at an old theater. I was able to make all the screen masking, curtains, and stage lights power up as well as bring parts of the old sound system back to life. There were multiple generations of power for the projector lamps from a DC motor-generator to Tungar tubes, selenium and finally silicon rectifiers. We transitioned from carbon arc lamps to Xenon while I worked there. Some of my other adventures included the telecommunications systems of an old paper mill and an entire fairgrounds. Hopefully, I will find another such challenge before my tour of duty on Earth is over.
The resistors in the panel are so the panel can identify if a circuit has been broken or not while not energized. For example, the resistor on a notification appliance circuit would go at the very end of the line. The panel checks the circuit for resistance close to that of the resistor to “prove” that the whole line is there and intact. If there were to be a break in the line somewhere, there suddenly would be no resistance to monitor for therefore causing a trouble condition.
Resistors always go at the end of line, so this is why fire alarm wiring should NEVER be T tapped.
These are always on Class B notification circuits and conventional initiating circuits. Addressable systems do not require resistors on the signaling line loop.
When will u upload more fire alarm video? U been gone for 9 or 8 years lol
@ it will never be like it was, but I’d love to feature my existing system when I get the time
cant wait to see you restore some of the systems such as the fire and elevator. shame the main pannel is missing and so destroyed! would have loved to see that oldie.
When the panel is beeping you can press the red button on the bottom it will acknowledge the beeping or you can connect a 12 volt 7 amp battery to the battery plug ins press the button quickly hold for about half to a full second the top button resets the system so if it’s in alarm and you reset the pull station then you go to the panel the top button aka the reset will turn the alarm off I own one of these panels very fun!
2:47 Those are EOL Resistors to make sure that the cable coming from the panel is not broken or damaged and that there's a closed loop with the devices attached. If the cable is damaged or a device is missing, the panel doesn't see that EOLR, it gives a system trouble indicating that there's a open circuit or loop on the zones or NAC circuits.
I worked building maintenence in a nursing home/55+condo complex (built 2012) for about 5 years. So this is an awesome series of videos in my eyes.
Strange how quickly drop ceilings… drop when left unmaintained. Maybe step one for restoration should be a huge vacuuming of the floors?
When a building isn't dehumidified, lots of things degrade rapidly. Especially if there are roof leaks.
@@usbcd360 I didn’t think of the dehumidification part. That explains a lot. I always thought it seemed weird how quickly buildings degrade inside, even on parts that normally don’t get maintained and that 100% clears it up. Thanks!
Then they would be stable ceilings
love your channel dude, this is exactly what i want to do (explore abandon buildings and look at all the fire alarm and mech stuff thats in the building)
Breakers on the exit light. It uses two separate circuits for obvious reasons.
The things in the old boiler room that you called a smoke detector they’re not smoke detectors. They’re heat detectors.
Most “smoke detectors” nowadays are heat detectors.
The resistors were put in to where a circuit was removed.
Instead of reprogramming the zones
It is a hack way to get it to work with a missing zone
5:35. That is a Spaceage branded device. These are from I believe the 80’s era
Since that light is red that would be pretty spooky looking in the dark. Do they still make fire alarms with red lights? I presume that red light is not as good as white because color blind people can't see it as well.
@ most of the time modern fire alarm devices have clear strobes, but there are applications where a fire alarm devices can come with a red, blue, green, or amber lenses to indicate different types of hazards. Usually they are on exterior walls of buildings for fire departments to quickly indicate the type/severity of the fire alarm condition.
At 6:18 theese are actually Edwards Heat detectors. Not smoke detectors.
The resistors are for end of line for the panel
5:28 is an old 1979 simplex buzzer strobe unit that the buzzer died and a new one was installed over if instead of replacing it with WHOLE new unit
Is there any morgue or surgical rooms in there
the 2 devices at 6:00 are both heat detectors, not smoke detectors.
What was the brand on the big red fire alarm panel near the front entrance? That would have been the main controller for the building.
5:22 that is vintage its is a simplex space age also at 1:31 there is another one
4:00 that is a vintage honeywell S464A
3:45 that is a gentex commander 1 series horn strobe. there from the 2000s
6:44 ac only incandescent exit sign. I think it is by Shure lites
so none of this should be thrown away because it is vintage.
6:07 That is a heat detector, the lid on that specific one pops off if it gets too hot, causing the metal contacts to go bye bye and open it's circuit
5:34 The strobe you see is a space age device, and I'm assuming the empty backbox contains a system sensor MA/SS (the screws give it away)
Whats your plans for this place
I wonder how much of the data network is left. I also wonder if the place has ever been upgraded to cat6 or if there is some Cat5e or Cat3 left behind
With it being closed in 05 I doubt there is any cat6
The resittors are there because if you are not using all of the zones or nacs ext. there will be trobles on the panel so if a zone or nac is not being used resistors will be put in on the un used terminals. and at the end of a circit of a nac or a zone on the last device there will also be a end of line resistor betwen the + and - to complete the whole circit.
Looks like the old fire alarm devices are SpaceAge AV-32 from the 70s while the new ones are Gentex Commander 1's from the 90s. It even looks like the new devices were retrofitted on top of the old ones. What did you plan on doing with this old system are you going to try to get it in working order?
Those these drop ceilings and how many of those troffers actually work!
There’s about possibly $15,000 in fire alarm work that they replace the main fire alarm panel,horn-strobes,smoke detectors, pull stations and the fire alarm dialer. Depending on who’s the alarm company for the building. Or go with a new alarm company.
Enjoying the videos!
More electrical?
Can it run Doom?
6:06 wait ohio? this might be closer to me than i thought, if its in the middle of ohio near the border to indiana i could walk there. any chance you'd let me in on some of the fun?
what about the generator? is it still there?
Thorn Autocall ?? Federal signal product. Looks to be a old conventional panel, even better. dialer is a firelite type UDACT, needs pots lines to communicate to central station. Best to install a cellular UL dialer for central station. You can still buy conventional fire panels, Stick with Fire Lite, its non proprietary.. (toilet room detector is a rate of rise and fixed temp heat detector) #18 smoke is a ion smoke detector, looks like a system sensor product.
Well.. let's see.. If I think about it logically as a Hobbyist in Electronics, I would almost want to think the resistors would be there in the dialer to only give a specific amount of voltage and current to specific circuits, almost as if to either bypass certain things, or it could be set up so that at different points certain voltage drops are necessary in order for specific zones to show that they are there on the main board, even though they are not active zones "Dummy loads" Although without seeing a detailed Schematic diagram it is really hard to say. Kind of fun to speculate though. TLDR version of what I said though is still "Your guess is as good as mine" lol 😆🤣
You don't still have the old fire panel, I watch your newer video showing the new panel, just wondered if you still had the old one left?
3:57 .*Gentex commander 3 Horn Strobe
You might have a bit of trouble finding the breaker of that exit sign it has battery back up.
3:50 horn strobe
strobe unit is less then 10 years old
6:07 heat detector
I’ll take the whole fire system if u get rid of it
Honeywell DeltaNet
Get a new system in there, maybe potter or EST, not honeywell garbage for sure tho. Oh Or Autocall!
90 percent sure that dialer cant be plugged in. so thts not up to current code. Guess it varies on local AHJs
Good lord no, not EST (please god no, no......nooooooooooooooo)
@@starlite528 ?
remove it and send it to the uk im very good at them
Just for fun I wanna mention I have a vintage Exit sign😁
In the boiler room those are not smoke detectors. Those are heat detectors and look like rate-of-rise/fixes temperature detectors. The person doing the video is obviously not a fire alarm tech as he didn’t know what end of line resisters were and couldn’t tell the difference between smoke detectors and heat detectors. Nothing against the maker of this video but a fire alarm tech would have known the difference.
The resistors in the panel are so the panel can identify if a circuit has been broken or not while not energized. For example, the resistor on a notification appliance circuit would go at the very end of the line. The panel checks the circuit for resistance close to that of the resistor to “prove” that the whole line is there and intact. If there were to be a break in the line somewhere, there suddenly would be no resistance to monitor for therefore causing a trouble condition.
Resistors always go at the end of line, so this is why fire alarm wiring should NEVER be T tapped.
These are always on Class B notification circuits and conventional initiating circuits. Addressable systems do not require resistors on the signaling line loop.
5:35. That is a Spaceage branded device. These are from I believe the 80’s era