Being able to accurately and quickly diagnose and resolve fire alarm fault conditions is crucial for meeting customer expectations and keeping the fire alarm life safety system operational.

Numerous fault conditions can occur on a fire alarm system. They tend to fall into these categories:

• Open circuits
• Short circuits
• Ground faults
• Reverse polarity

Many techs are not very skilled at troubleshooting with a multimeter. In this course, students will come to understand the elementary physical forces that create electricity and allow current to flow. Students will also be introduced to relays.

We have built two essential training aids for use in this course. The first is a Troubleshooting Station, consisting of 80 devices across 4 supervised series-parallel circuits, analogous to a fire alarm IDC or NAC, an intrusion-detection zone, or a REX circuit. With the Troubleshooting Station, we can generate 140 googol (14 x 10¹⁰⁰) fault configurations.

The second training aid is a Relay Training Board, which consists of a cascading ladder of relays driving different LED outputs based on the switch inputs.

In this course, students will learn how to read basic one-line DC electrical diagrams to determine how a relay is configured. Students will learn how to determine which type of fault they are facing, which circuit it is on, and where it is at. Going further, students will even learn how to do this in the field when they don't know how the wire is run or which devices are on which circuit.

This is a live instructor-led course and incorporates animations, live interactive demos, and extensive hands-on practice diagnosing numerous different types of fire alarm trouble conditions. Beyond merely learning the basics of troubleshooting, students will also learn how to apply the scientific method, use concepts like "divide and conquer," and other tips and tricks.

This class covers an extensive selection of fault conditions. Practice scenarios are tailored to the audience and could cover any of the following faults, which can be generated through our Troubleshooting Station:

• Single open circuit with and without knowing the circuit layout
• Single short circuit with and without knowing the circuit layout
• Single ground fault with and without knowing the circuit layout
• Single reverse polarity with and without knowing the circuit layout
• Multiple open circuits
• Multiple short circuits
• Multiple ground faults on the same conductor (positive or negative)
• Multiple ground faults on different conductors (generating both a short and a ground fault)
• Simultaneous open and short circuits
• Single open circuit on a T-Tapped branch
• Single short circuit on a T-Tapped branch
• Single ground fault on a T-Tapped branch
• Single reverse polarity on a T-tapped branch
• Intermittent ground fault
• Ground fault through water

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Course length: 16 hours
(16 CPD points)

Price: $1000 per student

Enroll

 

 

 

We realize that it can be difficult to pull technicians out of the field for two days. If you are pressed for time, we also offer a compact version of this course that just covers the Foundations.

 

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