FieldServer Driver

FS-8700-95

Notifier NFS3030

Description

The NFS3030 Serial driver allows the FieldServer to record data from Notifier Onyx Series NFS3030 Fire Panels over RS-232.

The FieldServer acts as a Passive Client receiving messages and recording the status of a Notifier 3030 Fire Alarm Panel.  There is no active polling by this driver - communications are one-way through the panel's printer port.  This driver is not capable of emulating a Notifier NFS3030 panel and the very limited Server functionality has only been implemented to facilitate FieldServer’s Quality Assurance program.

The main purpose of this driver is to record the status of Fire Alarm System detectors and Modules in Data Arrays - one Data Array per loop.  It is limited by the information that the Notifier NFS3030 unit sends in the form of text messages through its RS-232 printer port.  The accuracy and timeliness of the data is therefore limited to the frequency of update messages that the Notifier Fire Panel issues.

The types of Notifier messages supported by this driver are summarized later in this manual.  Also, a detailed table in the manual shows each type of NFS3030 message the FieldServer recognizes and the effect that it has on the status of points in the Data Array.  The device status to the Data Array mapping is also provided in the manual.

The panel must output messages in English.

Max Nodes Supported

Formal Driver Type

Serial

Passive Client

Compatibility Matrix

Connection Information

Devices tested:

Connection configurations

Connection Notes

The printer port must be enabled on the unit and set to 80 columns with NO supervision.

Communications functions - Supported functions at a glance:

Data Types Supported

This driver was designed to be connected to the Notifier Onyx NFS-3030 printer port, and listen for incoming messages.  The panel's default setting for the printer port is off.  To utilize this driver, the printer port must be enabled to 80-columns, unsupervised, before this driver can be used.

The primary purpose of this driver is to record the status of devices connected to the NFS-3030 system by interpreting the text messages sent to the printer port.  Not all messages will be interpreted, as many messages do not directly pertain to device status, or are currently supported.  The following subset of event messages is recognized:

A detailed mapping of message interaction System Trouble messages provided by Notifier at the time this driver was written is tabulated in the NFS 3030 Driver Manual.  Any changes or additions by Notifier will not be reflected in this driver unless specifically revised.

Zone Status:

Information about zone status that is incorporated with point status messages will not be recorded by this driver.  A device can belong to multiple zones; however, only the primary zone is listed in printer output.  This limits, severely, the accuracy of zone data based on event generated messages, and therefore will not be recorded.

However, zone DISABLED messages will be recorded by the driver as there is no ambiguity in their status.

Panel Status:  Data Array Mapping:

The status of NFS 3030 devices will be recorded into a series of data arrays within the FieldServer, and are available for reading by any other connected device.  The data from each loop will be recorded into a separate data array, and a single system array will record system troubles and disabled zones.  The structure of the data arrays is provided below.

Most of these arrays will only contain binary information to represent an active or inactive state.  However, there could be multiple troubles associated with a single device.  For each trouble message, the data array register corresponding to a particular device will be incremented as a counter and decremented when a trouble is cleared.

Driver Limitations & Exclusions

· General zone disabling will be recorded, but zone information related to corresponding alarm, trouble, pre-alarm, security alarm, supervisory, and on/off will not be recorded

· Synchronization between the NFS 3030 panel and the FieldServer can only occur while the panel is in SYSTEM NORMAL mode.  At this time the FieldServer can be reset.

· Read point status data will not be recorded as this information is not available at the printer port

· The printer port must be enabled on the unit and set to 80 columns with NO supervision

· All data related to non-event driven printer reports will not be recorded by the FieldServer

· This driver was written specifically for the following Notifier 3030 firmware versions.  Any changes or additions by Notifier will not be reflected in this driver unless specifically revised.

Boot:    001.001.001      Dec 03 2002     App:     001.005.001      Feb 28 2003

· Information about zone status incorporated with point status messages will not be recorded.

· There can only be one panel connected to any given FieldServer port.

· Data accuracy is dependant on data presented to the printer port by the Notifier NFS3030.

· The driver cannot send any messages (including Ack, Reset and Silence) to the 3030 Panel.