Questions for smoke detector install

I'm working on getting everything installed and found many answers to most of my questions either in the install formal directions or in other forum topics, but I could use a little help on smoke detectors.  I have some old (yes past 10 years age) smoke detectors, but I want to get an understanding and handle on things before going and buying $130 worth of new ones. Plus, I have 10 yr battery powered smoke detectors in my house (1 on every level plus 1 in every bedroom) that are in lifetime range, so it's not a rush to get things up to spec...this is just going to be an added layer for notification if I'm not home.

So, what I have is System Sensor  model 2412TH detectors. SEE https://www.systemsensor.com/en-us/Documents/2412B_2412THB_2424_2424TH_Manual_I56-0286.pdf

In my original panel FBII XL-2, these were wired into I believe Zone 6.  The wiring from the panel went out on 4 wires to the basement detector which had the dining room detector daisy chained off of the basement.  The other one went straight to the 2nd floor hallway detector, which did not have any daisy chaining.

ALL of them I believe were wired in the same way which was based on terminal numbers:

1 - negative power - BLACK wire
2 - positive power - RED wire
7 - INIT CTK - YELLOW wire
8 - INIT CTK - GREEN wire

Per the linked PDF, 7 & 8 form a N/O circuit.

The "AUX" ports that are available are:
4 - N/C
5 - N/O
6 - Common

So far as I can tell there's no formal EOL relay anywhere in the walls and there wasn't in the old panel.  The were some resistors jumpered in between some of the ports and in line to wires (like other powered contacts in general, just some little light blue ones), but with all other things I've worked with so far on the install (like glass-break and motion etc.) that had them, they were no longer needed.

Do I just need to change SmartThings to think it's N/O instead of N/C and it will be happy/work?  Or do I need to modify the wiring to be using the AUX N/C (#4 terminal) or something else?  In the case of the upstairs, it doesn't daisy chain, so is that different vs. the ones that need to run in series?  I plan on the trigger to be to the sirens (which I found out I had speakers and not actual sirens so I ordered some $8 Honewells based on another question on the boards here), so I am not concerned with 1 detector knowing another (and I don't think they actually make noise).  If it make sense, I may just use the existing wire for floor 1 to fish a new cable run so it no longer daisy chains and then I can isolate the 3 floors to 3 separate zones so I would know where the fire was though if the way the circuit is triggered along a path could be smart enough to know if it was basement or 1st floor, then that wouldn't matter.

Thanks in advance for anyone that's knowledgeable on this that can explain it. I watched a ton of youtube videos and searched, but a lot of what I find didn't apply exactly to what I'm trying to figure out, so I am still confused.  :)

FWIW what I'll probably eventually buy is the DSC FSA-410BST's that are recommended here, but like I said, I want to understand the wiring/resistors and anything else I need before getting to that point, since i have the old ones that do work with power and seem to detect heat/smoke enough from my testing to light up individual "trigger" lights on them.

Update, last night I tried to do some more troubleshooting without success though then I later noticed that my board 2 was "unresponsive" in that the piezo chimes weren't working, so it is possible a combo I tried with the smoke alarms may have actually worked and there's no way I would've known.  What I found was on my Samsung SmartThings app that I was getting errors trying to view the device it would give the IP:port number of the board 2 and say the webpage wasn't reachable when I went into try and look at status (SmartThings, Automation, Konnected (Connect), Expansion board >, Device status IP:port) and there it just gave the Android error of webpage not available with I believe... a time out.


So, when I got to work and was on my computer, I was thinking of ripping and rebuilding the Konnected/SmartThings integration from scratch based on something another person mentioned in another thread and I noticed when I went to my SmartApps in the SmartThings site, that it showed the konnected-io service manager as "unpublished" instead of published like it should be.  I told it to update/publish and then back on my phone (keep in mind I'm at work so the webpage looking for the LAN IP of my board wouldn't be able to load anyway), other things that were previously giving errors (like trying to remove a zone) etc. were once again working.  So, what I'll do is see if the door chime is working when I get home because that's technically currently the only thing on board 2 at the moment since I've removed the smoke detectors for right now so I can try again when I get home.

Also, I went ahead and ordered the DSC FSA-410BST's.  If anyone can explain how best to do the wiring with the way I explained they're connected in my first post, that will still be helpful.  I will have the new ones on Friday.


If my board is working as I hope when I get home... I may again play with the old smoke detectors just because I'm curious anyway.

Just curious if you have had any luck with your install. I have many of the same questions. I have a 4 wire system that needs to be replaced. I want to buy new detectors, but don't understand how they will function when 6 detectors are daisy chained together (which is how it is wired now) will all alarms sound? will I need an EOL Relay? should I run a home run of new wire and use a different Zone on Konnected for each detector. (That will eat up an entire add on board)... Any insights to your install would be helpful. I hope you figured it out!

Running through same questions here. I have (2) System Sensor model 1400s in my home (2 wire, 12VDC hardwired) and I am looking for a solution. I don't have a problem fishing 4 wire into place, but was thinking that if I went with a 'smart' detectors that used Z-wave, I could just make a IFTTT rule that would turn on the siren on the Konnected somehow (and also push alarm alerts in parallel to the detector alerts if need be?) ?


I guess it would be like linking the detectors and the Konnected system though the smart hub instead of dedicated alarm wiring to the Konnected boards from the detectors?


First i need to settle on a hub though :)

Running through same questions here. I have (2) System Sensor model 1400s in my home (2 wire, 12VDC hardwired) and I am looking for a solution. I don't have a problem fishing 4 wire into place, but was thinking that if I went with a 'smart' detectors that used Z-wave, I could just make a IFTTT rule that would turn on the siren on the Konnected somehow (and also push alarm alerts in parallel to the detector alerts if need be?) ?


I guess it would be like linking the detectors and the Konnected system though the smart hub instead of dedicated alarm wiring to the Konnected boards from the detectors?


First i need to settle on a hub though :)

Gregory,


I could be wrong, but I think if you have any zwave compatible and if you choose the Samsung SmartThings hub as  your hub, it should become simpler.  In the SmartThings hub, within Smart Home Monitor, it can see all your "things" that are tied to SmartThings, so if you have wired smokes via connected, they'd be there. If you had a SmartThings window sensor that didn't go through Konnected it would be there, etc. And your sirens, piezos, or any strobe or whatever that may be connected via Konnected is also there. So, if you had a zwave smoke or co2 detector, I think it should act the same as wired where if the NO or NC circuit becomes opened/closed depending on the setup, then it would have that trigger and with those triggers you designate what to alert (push notification, sirens, SMS, or whatever). So, I got my DSC wired smokes currently, but I don't have any additional free/existing wiring from the old system. What I'm planning on doing is buying zwave co2 and potentially zwave smokes for additional ones like my bedroom. I have some 10 year battery ones I got for free, so I still have a detector in my bedroom, but once it's dead or maybe even before, I'll probably add on so that it's part of the notifications. That said, I do have a wired one on the 2nd floor in the hallway outside my bedroom, so it probably is fine from a notification standpoint with it as it is. I definitely want to do co2 soon though.

Brad, sorry I missed the notification on your post before. I did get everything working. I ended up reusing some old EOL resistors from my old FBII install and that seemed to work fine.


For the upstairs fire zone there's just 1 smoke detector in that, so on the smoke  from left to right on the DSC's there's    +    +    -    NO    COM          as the terminals.  The way I wired that one was

RED to the far left + terminal
BLACK to the - terminal
YELLOW (with EOL resistor on it) to the NO terminal
GREEN to the COM terminal. 

For the basement and 1st floor, they run in series. It goes from the konnected board, to the basement smoke, to the 1st floor smoke as the "end of line" detector.

For the basement INCOMING wires I had
RED to far left + terminal
BLACK to - terminal
YELLOW to NO terminal
GREEN to COM terminal

For the OUTGOING wires that go upstairs to the 1st floor detector I had:
RED on the 2nd + terminal
BLACK to the - terminal (shared with the incoming black)
YELLOW to the NO terminal (shared with the incoming yellow)
GREEN to the COM terminal (shared with the incoming green)


For the 1st floor "end of line" smoke after the basement smoke I had:
RED to the first + terminal
BLACK to the - terminal
YELLOW (with EOL resistor on it) to the NO terminal
GREEN to the COM terminal

In SmartThings, I set up the things of basement & 1st fire as 1 zone and 2nd floor fire as another zone (and they're wired as such separately on the konnected boards).  For the thing setup they are setup as NO (normally open) as the normal state.

Then, in SmartThings on the main dashboard when you see Smart Home Monitor I go into the "Everything Ok >"  to get to the status page. If you click on the "gear" button there on the top right, you can get into the configre where you have Security, Smoke, Leaks, and Custom. Go to Smoke and I have mine as "Use every Smoke detector" toggled on. Then, I have text & push notifications set up and then I have "Alert with Sirens" and have my "Sirens" which is 2 siren speakers (1st floor and 2nd floor) and I have it set to alert for 5 minutes (but you can change that to your preference. Now that I haven't had any false alarms, I think I may make that one longer now that I think of it, but that's how it's set.

I can e-mail myself some pics to attach to a post if you're confused by my descriptions, but they're on my phone and I'm typing this (easier) from my computer right now, so just let me know if you need those.

Marianne,  when a fire alarm is triggered, are you able to reset using the smartthings app? I have all my smoke detectors properly connected, but when they do go off, I have to unplug the konnected. I must be doing something incorrectly. 

Marianne, great work.  I realized your project was some time ago but if you still  have pictures from this old work it would help me.  Thanks in advance.