Practical Practices PP12-07K

Purpose: Programming for the ARIES™ System

Date: January 17, 2008
Prepared by: Bill Garvey
Supervisor – Applications Engineering

This is the second installment in our continuing series of Practical Practices on the event-
output-control (EOC) programming for the ARIES™ System. In our first installment of the
series we discussed and presented examples for the two most-common operating
sequences (counting-zone and crossed-zone) utilized in our clean agent fire suppression
systems. The intent in this installment is to illustrate the underlying logic associated with
these two very-important operating sequences.

The EOC creates the plan of action for the ARIES system. It consists of a series of
statements, most of which involve a decision whether or not to perform an action as the
result of an event that has occurred in the system. The EOC can only be triggered by an
event created by a physical initiating device such as a smoke detector or a monitor module.
A trouble condition will also trigger an execution of the program, as will each second that
elapses during the countdown of the timer associated with the time-delay function. By
performing an action we mean activating outputs such as notification-appliance circuits,
control modules, and release circuits.

The entire set of statements in the EOC program is processed each time the program is
triggered. In general, a specific statement in an EOC program will execute if there is a net
increase in the value of the initiating condition on the left-hand side of the statement,
such as by the occurrence of an initial or subsequent alarm, or if some decision on the left-
hand side of a statement transitions from ‘false’ to ‘true’ as the result of the event that has
just occurred. All events triggered by initiating devices on the left-hand side of a specific
statement have the same level of priority, regardless of whether the devices are alarm-
initiating devices, supervisory initiating devices, or trouble initiating devices. Therefore,
the system designer must carefully structure the EOC program to ensure that the highest-
priority outputs, such as alarm outputs, always override lower-priority outputs such as
supervisory and trouble outputs.

A specific system’s operating sequence is determined by the order in which the EOC
statements are written. This is similar to computer programming, where there is always a
clear order in which decisions must be made, calculations must be performed, and
procedures are to be run. A suppression-system’s EOC statements must be written in the
same order as the sequence of alarm states through which the system will progress,
starting with least serious (i.e., first alarm statement) and ending with the most serious
statement (i.e., extinguishing-system discharge). The last statement to execute in a
particular execution of the EOC program must be the highest-priority statement
corresponding to the event that has just occurred.

Kidde is a registered trademark of Kidde-Fenwal, Inc. © 2008 Kidde-Fenwal, Inc.

ARIES is a trademark of Kidde-Fenwal, Inc.
The underlying logic for a counting-zone system is illustrated in Figure No. 1. Note that the
progression of decisions starts with queries concerning first alarm and ends with the
release action triggered automatically via the time-delay function or manually via manual-
release stations. Actions that occur as the result of a single decision are most-commonly
activated by “OR” or “THRU” conditions created in the decision (i.e., left-hand) side of the
statement. These types of decisions are also synonymous with the word “any”. The
Greater-Than (>) Operator is another example a single-decision statement.

Actions that occur as the result of two or more concurrent decisions are activated by
“AND” conditions on the left-hand side of an EOC statement. Each proposition of an
“AND” statement must transition either from its initial value of zero to a non-zero value
or from ‘false’ to ‘true’ for its associated outputs to be activated.

The Time-Delay (D) Function is an example of a pre-defined procedure that can be added
to the system’s operating sequence as required.

The underlying logic for a crossed-zoned system is shown in Figure No. 2. We will examine
the characteristics of the various EOC operators and functions discussed above in future
installments of this series.

Kidde is a registered trademark of Kidde-Fenwal, Inc. © 2008 Kidde-Fenwal, Inc.

ARIES is a trademark of Kidde-Fenwal, Inc.
 Figure No. 1
Typical Counting-Zone Logic

Perform for initial system event Legend

and repeat for
any subsequent system event
or
while countdown timer active
and time >= 0 Decision

Initial or Perform Action

subsequent Yes Set or increment
automatic alarm variable I1
in zone

No Pre-Defined Time-Delay Function

Variable I1 Yes Set second-alarm

increase from
1 to 2
variable I2 Associated EOC Code
No 1#10=I1
I1>1=I2
I1*NI2=SG1,14
I2=NSG1,SG2,15
Variable I1 Yes Second-alarm Yes Activate first-
11+12=NSG1,14,15
Activate AO 14
set variable I2 alarm NAC D(I2,30,13)+11+12=AR1,SG2,SG3,16
not set

No No

Second-alarm Yes De-activate Activate second-

variable I2 initially Activate AO 15
first-alarm NAC alarm NAC
set

No

Second-alarm Yes No Start and continue No

Countdown
variable I2 initially count-down timer System aborted
timer expired
set and still set time = time -1

No Yes Yes

Activate release
circuit
Halt count-
down timer

Activate second-
alarm NAC

Activate
release NAC Yes
System not
aborted

Activate AO 16 No

Any manual Yes Activate De-activate Activate second- Activate

Activate AO 14 Activate AO 15 Activate AO 16
release station release circuit first-alarm NAC alarm NAC release NAC

No

No
Reset

Yes

Stop

Kidde is a registered trademark of Kidde-Fenwal, Inc. © 2008 Kidde-Fenwal, Inc.

ARIES is a trademark of Kidde-Fenwal, Inc.
 Figure No. 2
Typical Crossed-Zone Logic

Perform for initial system event Legend

and repeat for
any subsequent system event
or
while countdown timer active
and time >= 0 Decision

Initial or Perform Action

subsequent Yes Set or increment
automatic alarm Group-1 variable I1
in Group 1

No Pre-Defined Time-Delay Function

Initial or
subsequent Yes Set or increment
automatic alarm
in Group 2
Group-2 variable I2 Associated EOC Code
No 1#5=I1
6#10=I2
I1*I2=C1
(I1+I2)*NC1=SG1,14
Group-1 variable Yes Group-2 variable Yes Set crossed-zoned C1=NSG1,SG2,15
I1 initially set or I2 initially set or variable C1
incremented incremented 11+12=NSG1,14,15
D(I1*I2,30,13)+11+12=AR1,SG2,SG3,16
No No

Group-1 variable Yes Crossed-zoned Yes Activate first-

I1 initially set or variable C1 Activate AO 14
alarm NAC
incremented not set

No No

Group-2 variable Yes Crossed-zoned Yes Activate first-

I2 initially set or variable C1 Activate AO 14
alarm NAC
incremented not set

No No

Crossed-zoned Yes De-activate Activate second-

variable C1 Activate AO 15
first-alarm NAC alarm NAC
initially set

No

Group-1 Yes Group-2 Yes No Start and continue

variable I1 initially variable I2 initially Countdown No
count-down timer System aborted
set and still set set and still set timer expired
time = time -1

No No Yes Yes

Activate release
circuit
Halt count-
down timer

Activate second-
alarm NAC

Activate
release NAC Yes
System not
aborted

Activate AO 16 No

Any manual Yes Activate De-activate Activate second- Activate

Activate AO 14 Activate AO 15 Activate AO 16
release station release circuit first-alarm NAC alarm NAC release NAC

No

No
Reset

Yes

Stop

Kidde is a registered trademark of Kidde-Fenwal, Inc. © 2008 Kidde-Fenwal, Inc.

ARIES is a trademark of Kidde-Fenwal, Inc.