I worried I’m out of luck (because I don’t know if I can use slot 3 of my iq4 hub), but am looking for a solution for interconnecting an existing hardwired/interconnected smoke alarm system with my iq4 hub w/ powerg.
I’ve seen the “firefighter” listener, but that doesn’t operate on powerg frequencies.
It appears that “slot 3” is available in my iq4 hub, so perhaps I could get a 319.5 MHz daughtercard for that and connect it with the firefighter 319.5 listener?
This is a situation that many find themselves in. In my opinion it’s a failure in how the security industry has handled smoke detection and regulation. There should be a simple solution but there isn’t.
You’ve already suggested the 2 options available:
You can get a 319.5 MHz daughter card and use a FireFighter listener. JCI will almost certainly never make a PowerG audio listener like this so don’t wait for it.
You can use a relay module compatible with your smoke detectors and wire them to a PG9945 as a smoke/heat sensor. Note that those relay modules don’t have a battery backup so they don’t work if the power goes out. But we can’t recommend this approach because it goes against fire code even though it is clearly better/safer than not having monitored smoke detectors as all. It would also cause you insurance problems if you actually had a fire even though it may say your life. It’s technically possible but not something we can recommend. Which is sad.
The 3rd option, and the one the industry wants you to pick, is to double up your existing smoke detectors with additional smoke detectors that work with the alarm system.