ECN Electrical Forum - Discussion Forums for Electricians, Inspectors and Related Professionals
ECN Shout Chat
ShoutChat
Recent Posts
Increasing demand factors in residential
by gfretwell - 03/28/24 12:43 AM
Portable generator question
by Steve Miller - 03/19/24 08:50 PM
Do we need grounding?
by NORCAL - 03/19/24 05:11 PM
240V only in a home and NEC?
by dsk - 03/19/24 06:33 AM
Cordless Tools: The Obvious Question
by renosteinke - 03/14/24 08:05 PM
New in the Gallery:
This is a new one
This is a new one
by timmp, September 24
Few pics I found
Few pics I found
by timmp, August 15
Who's Online Now
1 members (gfretwell), 32 guests, and 14 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Rate Thread
#102406 02/04/06 03:23 PM
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 12
C
Member
I'm doing a small fire alarm job, and the technician from Grinnell told me that the colour coding used does not matter, as long as the signal gets back to the panel. This doesn't sound right...I am using 5 conductor armoured FAS cable (LVT with red jacket) With the following colouring scheme inside it. red/black/blue/brown/green.

Obviously I have established that green is ground LOL But what colours constitute a pair? Is it Red/Black to device and Brown/Blue return to panel or EOL?

HELP lol
-Stefan.

#102407 02/04/06 04:03 PM
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 231
R
Member
As far as I know it doesn't matter what colours are used. I would always keep RED/Black as a pair and BLUE/BROWN as the other.

As long as you keep the same colour coding for the entire system it will be okay. If your return is Red/Black keep all returns as red/black.

For a B Class system I always use the RED/Black as the signal circuit and the other pair as the initiating.

LVT is not FAS cable. FAS has 300Volt insulation while LVT has 30Volt.

#102408 02/04/06 05:17 PM
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 558
R
Member
I did some witring on an addressable system at a retirement home and used black / red as my loop, ( all was 3-conductor "FAS" cable) the only exception was where a single 5-conductor cable was used as a drop to a pullstation or smoke detector, the red / black pair was connected and deemed "FROM PANEL" and the blue / brown was connected deemed " TO PANEL" with the red/brown being Positive and the blue / black being the negitive conductors..
Not that it matters much but in this way with everything being uniform like that I could break the loop at any point while troubleshooting and know what pair was coming from the panel and what was going back to the panel..

A.D

#102409 02/04/06 06:51 PM
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 12
C
Member
The other question I had was...In some places it was almost impossible to fish both cables to each device, so since I was using 5 wire FAS i ran three cables into one box and branched off one to the device that was hard to fish to. As long as I wire this as a loop is this still OK?
Also I do know the difference between FAS and LVT i just used it as a comparison since they are similar in construction (minus the armour). Sorry bout the confusion! Thanks for all your help!
-Stefan

#102410 02/04/06 07:42 PM
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 231
R
Member
Yes you are right. You can do that as long as it is a continuous loop. I am sure that you already know that you are not allowed to T-Tap for non-addressable systems so as long as the loop is maintained and the system can supervise the entire circuit you are good to go.

#102411 02/05/06 02:39 PM
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 20
Y
Member
There is no set colour coding for FAS cable, I have had this discusion many times. It is generaly accepted that red-black is one pair with red being positive and black negative, the second pair is brown - blue with brown being positive and blue negative. Over the years cable manufacturers have changed the colours a few times, they always put red-black-blue and the fourth colour has been yellow, green,brown or tan.It would make sense to actually put this coding into section 32 of the CEC. When I install fire alarms I always make the red black pair the supply pair and the blue brown as a return. warning though there is on cable manufacturer that makes a FAS cable where the brown is almost black and if you are not carefull it is easy to cross the pair.


Link Copied to Clipboard
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5