Mircom Flex-Net Phase II Application Manual page 25

FIRE GROUP PRIORITY LEVEL 1
Fire Input
- Manual Stations
- Switches
- Detectors
MNS GROUP PRIORITY LEVEL 2
MNS Input
- Manual Stations
- Switches
- Other
MNS and the fire control and monitoring systems exist together on a single network, but it is
required that they be grouped separately on a software level. The input and output devices for
fire and MNS must be assigned to different zones and these zones must be in different groups.
Since input zones cannot activate outputs directly across a group, the MNS input zones will
not activate fire output signals and fire input zones will not activate MNS output signals.
To assign a group to a node select the node in the configurator using the Job Details tree on
the left. Create a new group or add it to an existing group by using the Network Node Info
window that appears on the right. Once the node has been assigned to a group membership,
common control switches such as system reset and total evacuation should be assigned to the
appropriate groups. This can be accomplished by selecting the node group that the switch has
been assigned to and selecting the appropriate group.
However, sometimes inputs from one group require the use of hardware present in a different
group. For example, the fire group may have inputs that require the use of amplifiers present
in the MNS panel. To communicate to the output zone across a group, virtual zones must be
used.
A virtual zone is a zone that is not correlated to any physical devices but is instead used to
communicate across groups through the use of advanced logic. Virtual zones are local to the
group that contains the outputs they intend to signal. They can monitor inputs across groups
and activate their associated outputs if the required conditions are met. The advanced logic
that drives these virtual zones consists of Boolean equations.
However, there may be situations where conflicts can occur. For example, two inputs may
attempt to activate the same output simultaneously. This is remedied by assigning priority to
either MNS or fire such that one will take precedence over the other. For example, if MNS has
a higher priority and a fire input is activated first then the fire output will remain active until an
MNS input is activated in which case the MNS output will take over and silence the fire output.
Fire output will resume to completion once the MNS output is cleared. Refer to the
supplementary diagram below.
Fire Zone
MNS Virtual Zone
Advanced Logic Equations
Fire Virtual Zone
MNS Zone
Mass Notification System Introduction
Output Hardware
- Speakers
- Horns
- Strobes
Output Hardware
- Speakers
- Horns
- Strobes
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