User Guide

FS-8700-132 Gamewell FCI-E3 Driver Manual Page 3 of 20
FieldServer Technologies 1991 Tarob Court Milpitas, California 95035 USA Web: www.fieldserver.com
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1. Gamewell FCI-E3 Series Serial Driver Description
The Gamewell FCI-E3 Series System Control Units are manufactured by Fire Control Instruments. An E3
Panel with an enabled serial port can transmit data to a FieldServer which can, in turn, make the data
available to other devices including those which communicate using different protocols (e.g. BACnet)
This passive Client driver does not poll for data, nor does it send data or commands to the E3. Messages
received from the E3 are analyzed and are then either discarded or used to update the FieldServer’s
internal Data Arrays. The action depends on which types of events, the type of device generating the
event and device address the FieldServer has been configured to process. Once stored in the
FieldServer the data is available to be read or written using other protocols such as BACnet.
No automatic panel data synchronization technique exists. The data in the FieldServer and the panel
status have to be synchronized manually. This typically requires a panel reset.
Since the driver cannot send data or commands to the E3 it cannot be used to acknowledge, silence or
reset alarms and other events.
The driver can process messages from networked panels. The driver connects to the main panel.
Subsidiary panels are configured to send event data to the main panel which then sends messages to the
FieldServer. Node information is sent in the line preceding the event and the driver uses this to
determine the panel at which the event originated and to store data appropriately.
The driver provides both Client and Server emulation. The Server side of the driver is intended to support
FieldServer’s Quality Assurance program and is not intended to provide complete emulation of an E3 and
is thus not fully documented. Should you require the Server side functionality to be documented and
enhanced, please contact FieldServer’s sales group.
Max Nodes Supported
FieldServer
Mode
Nodes Comments
Client 1
1 Node per serial port. If there is more than one alarm panel they can be
networked and configured to send event data to the primary panel. The driver
can process messages which identify the node of origin.
Server N/A Server side is not supported. See description.