Re: Fire Alarm Rant

["Jim Rojas" <jrojas@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Been there so many times.

I was called by an electrician with a fire alarm license to fix an older
fire alarm system that used large slide in zone cards. I never worked on
this system before, or even heard of it. The previous company also wanted to
replace the entire system because the parts were no longer available.

So I called the manufacturer, and they confirmed that the parts were no
longer available. They switched me over to tech support. The tech support
guy was also their engineer. He was nice enough to instructed me on how to
fix the problem onsite. It turned out that all that was needed is a voltage
regulator to be replaced. So I went to our local Rat Shack and picked up a
couple of dozen voltage regulators.

I charged them 4K for the board repairs, and the 5 hour service call. Plus I
also repaired & tested all the other dead boards laying inside the panel.
They were more than happy to write me that check...That was at least 8 years
ago. To this day, the system has been working fine.

Jim Rojas



"FIRETEK" <firetech(change-the-ch-to-k)@telus.net> wrote in message
news:BRSQg.32300$cz3.21041@xxxxxxxxxxx
> We recently took over a building that had been "serviced" by a company
> kind
> enough to leave a record of work orders inside the main control unit
> (Mirtone 790) located in the parkade electrical room.  The property
> manager
> gave them 30 days to fix the "trouble" on the system and then decided to
> call us in when there was no response.
>
> Here's what we found:
>
> 1.  The "parkade sprinkler zone" lamps were gone (there are two lamp
> modules
> for every zone and both were gone leaving two empty socket connectors).
> These were obviously removed by the brain-dead technician so he could
> "source" replacements.  The common trouble lamp had been "on" for so long
> (since August 2005) that it had burned out as well.  The common "alarm"
> lamp
> was also burned out.  So we fixed 'em all and the "lamp trouble" LED
> turned
> off (probably for the first time since August 2005).
>
> 2.  The two 12 volt 12 AH gell cell stand by batteries were split wide
> open
> at both ends (sort of explains the "battery trouble" light.  Duhhhhh!  The
> brain-dead tech didn't carry replacements but made a note on a service
> order
> dated in May 2006 that "two 12v12AH batts required".  Go figure!!!
>
> When I submitted my report (and invoice) and advised that the system was
> now
> "trouble free", the property manager said:
>
> "Oh?  The other company said that we'd have to REPLACE the fire alarm
> system
> because they couldn't get parts for the old one any more.  Gee...  Maybe
> you
> should look at a couple of other buildings we have."
>
> There's a reason for the big smile on my face these days.  :)
>
> Regards,
> Frank
>
>