Discussion and troubleshooting Salwico Consilium Fire alarm system

This post is specifically designed to discuss the Salwico Consilium Fire Alarm System. If you have any problems with this system, please leave a comment below, and I'll try to help. For more information on the system, I recommend reading the article: "Salwico Consilium Fire Alarm System. Troubleshooting".

Comments in that article are closed because there were so many of them, and that's why this separate article was created.

Here is a summary of the article “Fire alarm system Salwico Consilium. Troubleshooting”.

Fire Alarm System Salwico Consilium – Troubleshooting Experience

The article presents practical field troubleshooting on a 10+ year old Salwico Consilium fire alarm system, focusing on how to systematically diagnose faults in chargers, batteries, loop wiring, SCIs, addressable devices, and loop modules.

1. Charger/Battery Faults — Error 158 “BATTERY CABLE / FUSE FAULT”

Observed Symptoms

• Persistent Error 158 pointing to CHARGERM 90.
• Battery fault did not appear, even though the charger fault was active.
• Physically, equipment was running in +30–40 °C environment.

Key Technical Points

• Salwico chargers are designed to work up to +55 °C, but aging components reduce thermal tolerance.
• High temperature increases:
• charger internal resistance,
• battery internal resistance,
• fuse/terminal heating,
• false detection of cable/fuse faults.

Diagnostics Performed

• Retightened and replaced battery cables.
• Measured voltage – batteries stable.
• Replaced the charger (DIP switches set correctly).
• Charger swap produced a new BATTERY FAULT, indicating the battery condition is borderline and affected by temperature.

Root Cause

• Thermal stress: The charger and batteries overheated, causing intermittent voltage anomalies and false current-sense readings.

Resolution

• Temporary: Install a fan inside the panel for cooling.
• Long-term: Replace:
• CHARGERM unit,
• Both batteries (old, degraded, sensitive to heat),
• Improve ventilation.

2. Loop Fault — Error 142 “CABLE BREAK NEGATIVE” on Loop 1

Observed Fault

• Loop 1 shows break on the negative conductor.
• System shows fault quickly after reset, indicating hard break or high resistance on the line.

Technical Diagnostics Method

The article uses the official Salwico loop troubleshooting method:

 1. Isolate the loop by removing loop input/output at the module.

 2. Bypass SCIs using manual jumpers (SCIs open when they sense overcurrent or wiring faults).

 3. Measure resistances:

• (+) to (+)
• (–) to (–)
• cross resistance if needed.

These checks allow locating the faulty segment.

Root Cause Identified

• Not a cable fault.
• Two manual call points had severely oxidized contacts, causing:
• Intermittent breaks,
• High resistance on the negative side,
• Loop instability.

Final Solution

• Cleaned call-point contacts.
• Tightened and cleaned all intermediate terminal blocks.
• After cleaning, loop resistance returned to normal and error cleared.

3. Loop MX Module Replacement Test

Steps Taken

• Suspicion that Loop Module 1 had internal damage.
• Replaced with spare Loop MX Module No. 4.
• Configured DIP switches to match original address.

System Behavior

• After power cycle:
• System booted slowly.
• Loop initially failed to detect devices.
• After several minutes, devices slowly repopulated.

Conclusion

• The module itself was not faulty.
• Delayed device detection was a consequence of loop instability and previous cabling/contact issues, not the module.

4. Detector Contamination — Error 130 “DIRTY SENSOR”

Technical Mechanism

Salwico detectors have internal contamination measurement that monitors:

• Optical chamber transparency,
• Drift of sensor gain,
• Scattering coefficient changes.

Why the error appears

• Smoke, dust, engine-room contaminants,
• Lack of filter cleaning,
• Age of sensors (sensitivity drift).

Recommended Maintenance

1. Clean detector chamber.
2. If cleaning fails → replace detector.
3. Use Salwico address programmer to set the correct address for replacement units.

5. General Troubleshooting Recommendations

Critical Technical Steps

• Always inspect power quality and charger output.
• Check panel temperature — thermal issues are common in bridge installations.
• Use SCIs to segment loops and find high-resistance zones.
• Perform resistance measurements in both polarities.
• Look for oxidized terminals — very common on older vessels.
• When replacing modules:
• Set correct DIP address,
• Ensure proper seating in the backplane,
• Reboot and wait for full polling cycle.

Common failure points in old Salwico systems

• Manual call points with corroded contacts,
• Loose or oxidized terminals,
• Aged CHARGERM units,
• Batteries with high internal resistance,
• Overheating due to poor ventilation,
• Contaminated optical smoke detectors.

6. Support and Documentation

Suggestions:

• Using official Salwico manuals for each subsystem.
• Joining “Marine Engineering Manuals” Telegram channel for additional configuration files and guides.
• Asking for help in comments—article is intended as a practical reference.

If you have any issues with this fire alarm system, I recommend discussing it in the comments section of this article. I'll try to help! See you there!