System Overview
The FMC-60 is a 16 direct (4-20mA) plus 64 addressable channel gas monitoring system
which displays gas concentration and constantly checks for alarm conditions.
Each channel consists of a remote gas sensor located at the point where gas is to be
measured. The direct sensor types are individually wired back to the FMC-60 whereas
the addressable sensors can be connected to a shared CAN bus network minimizing
cable requirements.
Each channel when connected becomes active and is recognised by the system and a
fault would occur if it became disconnected. This allows a system to be activated on an
individual sensor basis as commissioning takes place.
The gas types and alarm levels for Direct channels are set at the FMC-60 panel but
addressable types transmit this information to the panel. However, alarm levels for
addressable sensors can be altered at the FMC-60 panel or at the sensor itself.
Alarms can be individually set to be latched (requires reset button to clear) or unlatched
(self clearing)
The panel can be powered from mains or 24V dc input with battery backup terminals.
An output 24V 250mA terminal is available to power user devices.
The battery input and mains voltage is monitored and will create a fault if the voltage is
too low but the user has the option to disable these faults .
The FMC-60 panel controls most actions and with a dimmable backlit LCD display is
capable of indicating the state of gas measurements or fault conditions. Likewise,
dimmable LEDs internal and external give additional status information.
Many parameters including a text description of the location of a sensor are
programmable via user and engineers menus and retained when power is off.
These parameters are reloaded at the next power up so that the system will perform as it
did previously.
The FMC-60 panel also has two RS485 Modbus channels and can send data when
requested to do so to a Modbus master controller thus allowing independent system
management facilities. Engineering menus allow for diagnostic monitoring of the Modbus
transmit and receive buffers.
A remote repeater can also be connected which allows the LCD, LEDs and buttons to be
located elsewhere on a CAN bus as well as remaining functional on the main panel.
Two 4-20 outputs are available from the FMC-60 panel and these can be assigned to
follow any of the 16 direct or 64 addressable sensor inputs.
A real time clock keeps track of time and this time value is displayed on the LCD and
appended to any panel events such as alarm or fault etc.
These events are retained in a 99 event memory which can be viewed on the LCD or
sent to a PC via the RS232 channel.
Likewise this RS232 channel can accept setup parameters from a PC and if needed can
send the FMC-60 parameters to the PC as a simple text files which can be edited.
Text is sent out via the RS232 channel as an additional data logging facility. Events and
gas level changes are the main types of data presented which the user can capture using
HyperTerminal (or similar) on a PC. Additionally, using RS232 and windows
software the system can be interrogated and displayed in a graphic form on a PC.
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