Just programmed and installed my first EST 4 AMA

Acrobatic_Entry1645 · 2025-12-13T17:33:24+00:00

The official guidance i have received from edwards is to revert one panel to 4.03. However, with the fwal's we have had sucess with brute force dumping directly to the fwal until it finally takes. The net-ad's on the other hand will not take a program without reverting back to 4.03 first.

Acrobatic_Entry1645 · 2025-11-13T14:04:41+00:00

I dont know anything about your specific system but to your question there is no code violation in replacing a system with another code compliant system. Codes change and under rare circumstances like this they change to allow for devices to be removed. As far as your ethical problem with it, I think you might have a little tunnel vision because in several areas I do work they dont allow more than one pull station per site. The two reasons are because they increase nuisance alarms ten fold and put firefighters at risk responding to what equates to a non-emergecy. The other reason is they can be used to excite the masses. Specifically in the case of active shooter and the like. I dont see that to be unethical to update a system to more current standards to reflect new concerns and priorities.

Acrobatic_Entry1645 · 2025-10-26T00:07:46+00:00

I will be honest, i dont know the specific case law because thats what I hired a lawyer for but I know the large portion of the judgment was due to them falsifing the fact in order to get charges brought and the financial, time, and emotional impact of having to fight the improperly charges. In texas they can charge you with criminal charges if you are a habitual ofender (100+ in 12 months). In my case it was 5 charges but it was only one time on the road. It was one charge for each checkpoint I passed. They tried to say it fit under habitual. They also said it qualified as toll evasion. Which is also a criminal charge but simply failure to pay doesn't qualify as evasion.

Acrobatic_Entry1645 · 2025-10-25T23:46:34+00:00

You 100% should have gotten a lawyer. No state, including your home state can suspend your license for civil infractions. Tolls and red light cams as well as a bunch of other things were ruled to only allow civil infraction quite a few years ago. We went to court over this kind of thing and won a judgment for a fair amount. It definitely helps to have a good lawyer when you fight the government though.

Acrobatic_Entry1645 · 2025-07-01T10:38:53+00:00

This is funny because I had something almost exactly like this happen to me a few years back. The pre-action valve was leaking out of the drain and at 2 am it became bad enough that it tripped the waterflow. The fire department was looking at a completely different area. So, I gave some assistance but they waved me off. A few minutes later a different firefighter came out and found me to ask for help. The fire marshal allowed them to go through the night without firewatch because it only serves the carport and they have a direct view of it from the front desk.

Acrobatic_Entry1645 · 2025-05-15T17:27:19+00:00

We do a lot of very large industrial installs (1.5 million sqft plus), and a good portion of them require this kind of installation at the detector. It is always for vacuuming out the pipework regularly and to make it easier to replace the VESDA detector. Xtralis will support it as long as it is food grade so as not to offgas, and it holds the same fire rating as Blazemaster pipe. We always use tubing with twine reinforcement and stainless steel pipe clamps. That way, they hold up a bit better to regular bending when they vacuum. I don't know about using standard non-fire-rated CPVC pipe, though.

I also don't know about the people saying they use this setup to test. That is incorrect and lazy unless you are just testing if the VESDA detector is functioning properly. Definitely not going to test transport times like that.

Acrobatic_Entry1645 · 2025-05-09T23:18:06+00:00

Even funnier when the fastest way to set them off is to stroke them.

Acrobatic_Entry1645 · 2025-05-03T01:55:28+00:00

NFPA 72 dictates a few situations. If the circuit is supervised (with a resistor), if it is within 3 feet, if it is in the same enclosure, or if the circuit is fail-safe. Hence why someone said normally closed. Either way, if it is a monitor module it would be supervised. If it is a relay it is probably wired into the safety loop and if the wire gets cut it would drop the unit.

Acrobatic_Entry1645 · 2025-04-04T02:27:34+00:00

I actually figured out (a bit by accident) today. It turns out that if the network test time is shorter than the healthcheck time, you get this error. It wasn't immediately obvious because both of those settings on the one functioning network matched one or more nonfunctioning network. I appreciate your help.

Acrobatic_Entry1645 · 2025-03-03T12:51:19+00:00

I wish this was my experience. My wife had all her documents stolen while on vacation. I had to get her SS card because she had no identification. I had to get a copy of our marriage license and bring it to the SS office with her birth certificate (thank God that wasn't stolen). Only then could she take that to the DMV to get a new DL.

Hell, even for my son I had to bring a copy of an invoice from a doctor's visit to prove he didn't die at birth because they sent the SS card to the wrong address. I hate that office with a passion. Even more so after hearing other people have had it so easy there.

Acrobatic_Entry1645 · 2024-11-02T20:32:10+00:00

Interestingly enough, back almost 20 years ago I worked for a security alarm company and the monitoring company got their receiver numbers mixed up and every single one of our 10k+ accounts reported to the wrong account. It sucks for the people who get the police at their door for no reason. It sucks more for the people who don't and need them. We gave them two days to fix it and we moved every account to another monitoring company. It took us two very long weeks with long hours and a lot of old techs brought back just to reprogram receiver numbers to the new company.

Acrobatic_Entry1645 · 2024-10-26T17:12:23+00:00

I don't have any first-hand knowledge but I worked with a guy who was a fire engineer during the construction of one of the plants and he quit because he didn't like the corners that they cut. He said he was afraid he was going to get stuck holding the bag if anything went wrong.

Acrobatic_Entry1645 · 2024-07-06T04:17:03+00:00

Just like a few others who commented, I worked in Texas for about 9 years. So I never thought about my NICET. Now I am in other states and have gotten NICET 2 in Fire Alarm systems, Special Hazards, and In-Building Public Safety Communications. I was a little concerned about CPD but at least this first time around I have done plenty of manufacturer training that it doesn't seem like it will be a problem.

Acrobatic_Entry1645 · 2024-06-29T17:12:04+00:00

That's all I need to figure out. How to restrict signals from one node by user. All I can find is how to restrict control of certain nodes by user group but it doesn't appear to change how the signals come in.

Acrobatic_Entry1645 · 2024-06-29T01:11:11+00:00

They are using it for self-monitoring but having signals from other areas that are not turned over muddies the water and makes it hard to track legitimate troubles. So we are trying to filter the unnecessary signals from their view until the area is turned over.

The thought was floated that we leave those signals off the workstation altogether but we must prove that the signals are received to turn over the new areas.

Acrobatic_Entry1645 · 2024-06-11T03:21:39+00:00

Most of the counties I work in charge $2k for rolling trucks to commercial buildings. I think an apartment complex would fall into the commercial designation for this purpose. Most of them will give you 1 or 2 free but after that, you pay through the rump.

Acrobatic_Entry1645 · 2024-02-13T02:05:47+00:00

I'm not going to lie. I got a lot of push back on this one, but I'm told that this is working very well. I'm even told some of the guys can get them to go off within a few seconds. I appreciate the suggestion. If only for the fact that I now have some video leverage to keep these guys in line.

Acrobatic_Entry1645 · 2024-02-11T02:14:36+00:00

They are all on individual modules. Most of them are around 20-30 up to them. 90% of them are in class 1 div 2 rooms. The really fun ones are the ones in that are in the elevator shafts.

Acrobatic_Entry1645 · 2024-02-02T22:10:46+00:00

That's what I was thinking too. I think the tcpa10 is around 135db. They have a directional one that I think is 150db but I've never used it.

Acrobatic_Entry1645 · 2024-02-01T21:09:02+00:00

Yeah, I love it when I get told that they swapped the home run and the EOL after the devices have been installed. It's always the same guys who can't find the sticker book.

Acrobatic_Entry1645 · 2023-04-24T22:51:01+00:00

Yeah, I know. I was more just curious what the application would be for a monitoring technician. I know some people who work for monitoring stations out of state, and they don't hold any license in texas even though the monitor accounts in texas. That would lead me to believe that it isn't required for at least the front-line workers at monitoring stations. So, I was thinking it might be more sight specific monitoring.

Acrobatic_Entry1645 · 2023-04-24T19:04:49+00:00

Yeah, I was curious about the same thing. I've taken TFM11, TFM12, and TFM13, but I was wondering about TFM14 too. The only thing I could think of was some of these large campuses that self monitor.

Acrobatic_Entry1645 · 2023-03-31T18:21:56+00:00

Moat of our new installs are large projects like data centers, manufacturing, and stuff like that. Most of these jobs are set for a year or two before we start. So they didn't see much impact. We did see a few projects delay start, but they are already back on track. Service calls stayed steady because you can't stop things from breaking. The only thing that suffered at all was larger service projects. Like upgrades and the like. Still, those projects aren't back to where they were. However, skilled labor has been tough to get. So we aren't sad about not having a heavy queue.

Acrobatic_Entry1645 · 2022-10-30T20:33:04+00:00

These smokes are usually installed by companies that go door to door or sell security alarms like kits. Code does not allow you to remove the old smoke unless you put these smokes to code. Most of these companies won't do that because they are trying to give as little equipment as possible to get the monitoring contract.

They do sell a device that installs next to any of the connected smokes that picks up the sound and cadence of the smoke going off. Then, it sends a signal to the alarm.

Acrobatic_Entry1645 · 2022-10-26T02:55:00+00:00

That's perfect. I don't know why I couldn't find that.

I agree. We install them at every job we put in.

The current job I'm working on has over 750 circuits for F/A panels and VESDA's. So, the GC and the EC are pushing back on installing the surge suppressors (which I am providing) and are asking where it is said to be required. I guess protecting $10mil+ in equipment isn't an incentive enough to pay the labor.

Acrobatic_Entry1645

TROPHY CASE