I just purchased an FF345 audio detector (date code in early 2014 – 'tis some old inventory) to use with my Honeywell Vista 20P panel and 6160RF keypad. I’ve ‘paired’ the FF345 to the keypad and panel just fine, and the system alarms when the tamper switch (fire zone trouble) and test buttons (fire zone activated) are used. So, that’s good. However, I’m having problems confirming that the audio detection works. I have several First Alert Interconnected wireless smoke detectors (SA511CN) and CO-smoke combo detectors (SCO501CN, similar or the same as SCO500B and others). When I hold down the test button on a smoke detector, the FF345 blinks 3 concurrent with the first three test beeps, and the FF345 LED flashes 3 times correctly with the second three test beeps. However, even if I take out the FF345’s battery and put it back in and run the test again, I never get an indication (security system doesn’t detect it, the red LED doesn’t light on the FF345, etc.) that the audio detector detected the test sufficiently to send an alarm signal to the keypad.
The particular smoke and combo smoke-CO detectors that I have in my house have voice alerts. After two sets of three beeps (3 beeps - pause - 3 beeps), the detectors state “Warning, EVACUATE! SMOKE IN [location]. EVACUATE!”, before going back to the three-beep sequence. The 3 beeps, pause, 3 beeps, pause, voice alert sequence then apparently repeats in the case of a real smoke detection, though it stops if it’s just doing a test (or does the 4 beeps - pause - 4 beeps for CO detection if I do the test on a combo smoke-CO detector).
Is the FF345 incompatible with my detectors? Does it need to “hear” a longer sequence of three beeps to consider the sound an alarm and transmit to the keypad? Do I need to do a real smoke test to get the detectors to sound for longer (e.g., is the test sequence too short for the FF345 so determine that an alarm is going off)?
I just purchased an FF345 audio detector (date code in early 2014
I’m not seeing any related orders or subscription with Surety. Wherever that FF345 was purchased though I would immediately return it if it was implied in any way as new or unused.
It is old enough that it may not support CO detection beep patterns at all, as the original models did not.
Is the FF345 incompatible with my detectors?
It is possible this is an issue. If your smoke detectors verbally announce in the middle of the temporal beep pattern or they do not follow the standard pattern and cadence then it would not work.
Jason – I appreciate the quick reply. I did not purchase the FF345 directly from Surety – I purchased it from a third party. I see about getting the newer version of the FF345 (I wish the model number had changed when the newer versions were released). I don’t think the First Alert alarms with voice alerts are particularly uncommon, so I just didn’t know if Surety or others had any experiences (good or bad) with getting the FF345 to work with the alarms/detectors. Thanks again!
I can’t comment on the exact models you have, but as long as they are UL217 compliant I believe they should trigger it. The FF345 needs to be within 6 inches of one of them, oriented properly per the manual.
Here is a user who confirms that a similar setup with the Nest Protect smoke detectors (with voice announcements) does work with the FF345:
Just to provide a conclusion to this thread… I ended up ordering a new FF345 direct from Surety. I received the much-newer (round design, smoke+CO detector) detector yesterday and got it set up this afternoon. It appears to be working as it should on my Vista 20P panel with 6160RF keypad using the wireless-but-interconnected “First Alert with Voice alerts” smoke and combo detectors that I have throughout my house. I have the fire zone setup as supervised RF and a zone for CO that’s setup as unsupervised RF. Thumbs up