Apollo Soteria Optical/Heat Multisensor Fire Detector with Isolator, White SA5100-700APO

What this multisensor does

This Apollo head combines an optical smoke sensor with two heat sensors in one low profile detector. The panel chooses how the two are used, so the same head can suit different rooms.

It suits installers and engineers building or extending an addressable loop, and the people specifying areas where an optical-only head may be a poor fit.

How it works

• PureLight: this is Apollo's name for the optical sensing. It uses a high-intensity infra-red LED, and a photo-diode and amplifier integrated into a single chip.
• Alarm decision: the separate smoke and heat signals are combined in the detector's microprocessor, in the way the chosen mode sets.
• Isolator: this protects the loop in a short or partial short-circuit by disconnecting the part where it occurred. When the fault is rectified, the circuit automatically reconnects it.
• CoreProtocol: a protocol is the digital language a panel and its devices share. CoreProtocol allows more advanced control while keeping backwards compatibility with XP95 and Discovery.

Where to use it

It is rated IP44 and works from –40°C to 70°C, and wind has no effect up to 10 m/s. Match the mode to the room's normal conditions, and let the system designer settle which head goes where.

What the figures mean in practice

• Lower dB/m: this number measures how much smoke dims the light before alarm, and a lower figure is more sensitive. So Mode 1, at 0.10 dB/m, reacts to less smoke than Mode 4, at 0.25 dB/m.
• Mode 5: the detector ignores smoke altogether and has a fixed temperature alarm threshold at 57°C, in addition to rate-of-rise characteristics.
• Time to alarm: each mode has a minimum time to alarm, 20 seconds in most and 30 seconds in Mode 2.
• Analogue value: 23 +4/–0 is the clean-air reading the panel sees outside Mode 5, and 55 is the alarm level.

Installing it

• Polarity: L1 and L2 are polarity sensitive, so the loop must go the right way round. Follow the terminal marks.
• Addressing: on an XPERT 8 Intelligent Mounting Base, a universal card is supplied with the base. The address location stays with the base, not the head.
• Cleaning: clean the outside with a soft damp cloth, and send it back to Apollo for full cleaning and recalibration.
• Base: as a rule, detector heads are sold without a base, so allow a compatible mounting base for each position.

Planning your system

On an XP95 panel with its own drift compensation, that feature must be disabled when it communicates with Soteria devices. Check the panel's protocol and features first.

All detectors and other devices between any two isolators must be in the same fire zone, up to an EDL of 20. Apollo offers its LoopCalc programme to check the loop loading of a design.

FasTest only works where a fire control panel incorporates the feature, so confirm that before you rely on it for commissioning time.

Standards explained

• CPR: the Construction Products Regulation, the European framework for declaring how construction products perform.
• EN 54-5 and EN 54-7: the European standards for heat detectors and for smoke detectors. Here they apply to vibration, impact and shock.