Pipe Scan
QUARTAS-2000s aspirating smoke detector consists of four individual aspirators, connecting to its pipe inlet port and one high sensitivity smoke detector. All the air samples from the four pipes are mixed and go to a single exhaust port. The mixed air samples are then drawn into the high sensitivity smoke detector on the way to the exhaust port.
Taking advantage of the four individual aspirators, the QUARTAS-2000s can turn each aspirator on and off in sequence when there is a smoke alarm to “identify” the pipe having the most smoke. We call this process pipe scan.
For example, when there’s smoke goes into the sampling points on pipe 3, the QUARATAS-2000s will detect the smoke and generate alarms when the smoke alarm levels have been reached and appropriate time delay expired. At this time, the QUARTAS-2000s cannot identify which pipe the smoke is from. When the alarm reaches the scan level setting (can be alert, action, fire 1, or fire 2), besides the activation of alarm LED on the display and relay output on the termination board, the pipe scan process will be activated.
The scan process starts to scan pipe 1 (turn on fan 1 and turn off fan 2, 3, 4), collect the smoke level for pipe 1 for a time interval call scan time. When the pipe 1 scan time is completed, it will move to scan pipe 2 (turn on fan 2 and turn off 1, 3, 4) and then scan pipe 3 and scan pipe 4 respectively, finally all the fans will turn on to flush out the possible smoke contained inside the detector and then complete a pipe scan cycle. During the scan process the 6 digits Numerical Display will flash and show the scanned pipe number and its smoke level. After the scan cycle, the smoke data of each pipe is calculated and analyzed, and the pipe with the most smoke will be identified. The outcome of the scan will be shown on the display event log and the alarm relay on the Zone Relay Board will be activated. The scan process example of a pipe 3 fire is shown on the following illustration.
There’s possibility that the scan process is failed due to the result of smoke data calculation, no pipe data is significant enough for the identification. In this case, the scan cycle will start again. If the second scan cycle also failed, the scan will stop and no result will be generated.
o Pipe Scan Function Settings
Item | Menu | Function | Leading No. | Min | Max | Default | Description | Auth |
19 | Pipe Scan | Enable | SE. | OFF | ON | OFF | Enable QUARTAS-2000s Pipe Scan Function | Mfg |
Scan Level | SL. | 0 | 4 | 0 | The alarm level reached to start pipe scan process to identify the pipe with most smoke. 0=Manual Only, 1=Alert, 2=Action, 3=Fire 1, 4=Fire 2 | Adm | ||
Scan Time | St. | 5 | 60 | 20 | The time in seconds for the aspirator operate on each pipe. | Adm |
The pipe scan function is on item 19. The scan function must be enabled by Manufacturer access authorization. Once it’s enabled, the scan will start automatically when appropriate alarm level (scan level) is reached. The scan time for each pipe is adjustable.
o The Activation of Pipe Scan
The pipe scan can be activated automatically or manually. It can be activated automatically when the alarm reaches scan level setting. It can also be activated manually by the control button on the display. Press and hold the “SCAN” button will start the scan process in any time. It can also be activated by a GPI with which setting to 10 (scan). Hence, when this GPI is shorted the pipe scan is activated. When the GPI is activated manually during an alarm condition, the pipe scan result will correspond to the alarm level. For example, when manually start the pipe scan during Action Alarm condition, after a successful scan it will generate Zone # Action Alarm condition (Zone # Alert and Action relays on the zone relay board will be activated). When the GPI is activated manually without an alarm condition, no result will be generated after scan.
Note:
l The scan result is shown on the display event log. User can switch the 6 digits Numerical Display to Aux looking for the event code.
l When the scan starts from an alarm condition, after pipe scan, beside the scan alarm level, the alarm levels lower than scan level will also be triggered. For example, if scan level is Fire 1, then the pipe scan will start when the detector has Fire 1 alarm. After scan, beside the Fire 1 alarm of the identified zone (pipe) is generated, Alert and Action alarms of the identified zone (pipe) will also be generated the same time.
l Scan process will be activated for scan level and the following alarm levels. For example, if the scan level setting is Fire 1, then there would be no scan for Alert and Action Alarms.The scan process will be activated when it has Fire 1 Alarm and Fire 2 Alarm. If the scan level setting is Alert then scan process will be activated when it has Alert, Action, Fire 1 and Fire 2 Alarms. i.e. When the detector has Alert Alarm, it will start a scan process, and then if the smoke is still high and trigger the Action Alarm, it will start another scan process… and so on. Cares should be taken if, for example, Fire 1 relay on the termination board is connected to Fire Alarm Panel. If this is the only means to inform the staff of the alarm conditions, then the time spent on pipe scan should be discussed to see if it’s acceptable.
l If there’s pipe not used and the pipe is disabled on the settings, this pipe will be ignored during pipe scan process.