The bench test 1: Exploring the Galaxy

Most installers will be familiar with Honeywell’s Galaxy series of control panels. They’re well-known and respected – and it doesn’t hurt to have the Honeywell name attached in terms of client recognition, either.

The Galaxy 48C is a sixteen zone control panel that is EN50131 compliant up to Grade 3, class 2. It is part of a family of Honeywell equipment that comprises two larger control panels, with peripheral devices including remote setting keypads, proximity readers, zone expanders, intelligent power supplies and network modules.

The C variant includes the integral digital communicator to signal to ARCs,and for upload/downloading purposes via the Public Service Telephone Network (PSTN).

As well as 'dial in' remote linking to the system via the on-board modem, the system architecture also offers remote control of the system using a PC, either locally connected via RS 232 link, or remotely through the separately available Ethernet module to connect to LANs and WANs, using the standard internet protocol, TCP/IP. The remote control software, Honeywell Gold, is available to registered Honeywell users.

The control panel comes with a manufacturer's guarantee of two years and carries the European CE mark for electrical conformality including all EMC standards.

Setup and operation

The main control cabinet is a steel construction with a detachable front cover that slides up approximately 20mm to allow complete removal. In common with other grade 3 controls, it is a large, weighty box with no visible indications from the outside. The cabinet is roomy inside with lots of rear entry holes for circuit wiring, a separate aperture for the mains supply cable, and another for the PSTN cables.

The bottom of the cabinet accommodates the 17.0Ahr standby rechargeable battery, with further room to locate either a second 17Ahr battery, or two (eight zone) zone expansion cards into prepunched holes.

One design fault became immediately apparent upon inspection: the cabinet, when mounted in place, sits flat on the wall, leaving no space underneath to pass circuit cables from the side of the box into the rear entry holes.

Installers will have to pass all wiring either through the rear of the mounting material, or fit spacers to the rear of the box, or cut a chase in the wall behind the cabinet.

Note to Honeywell: in a modern grade 3 system comprising sixteen zones plus sounders, keypads and communications, there could be in excess of 25 cables entering this cabinet, and installers need all the help they can get to make the control location as neat as possible. Moving on…

The other supplied equipment, a keypad with integral proximity reader and a boxed expansion module, were each housed in cream coloured ABS plastic. Although aesthetically uninspiring, the keypad design is simple and inoffensive, and unlikely to upset clients.

The keypad, supplied as a surface mount type, has the usual cover flap to conceal the keys leaving only the backlit green 32 character LCD display on view. A proximity variant is available, the Mk. 7 Galaxy Keyprox, to allow keyfob unsetting in accordance with DD243. Keyfobs can be purchased at a trade price of around £2.90 + VAT each.

Honeywell has covered every installation eventuality, by providing network modules in numerous forms, including a radio receiver zone expander, an integral PSU/zone expander, output expanders and various network interfaces.

They are called RIOs (for remote input/output device) and are configured into the system locally by selecting an address using a rotary switch on the PCB. The keypads are similarly addressed with a small screwdriver.

In order to be compliant with EN 50131 grade 3, each of the detection circuits uses a two wire, end of line resistance type. The EOL value is 1K ohm, and the alarm contact shunt resistance value is also 1K ohm. Anti-masking is of course supported, by using a separate 12K ohm resistor.

A further resistor is required to terminate each keypad across the data line, rated at 680 ohms. A pack of suitable resistors is provided with the control panel and installers should be familiar with these types of configuration.

Unusually, though, the data connections to keypads and RIO modules use an RS485 protocol and have strict requirements that must be followed.

The cable itself should be a shielded, twisted pair type, such as Belden 8723 or equivalent, with the shield earthed inside the control panel on the post provided.

Multiple keypads must also be configured in a 'daisy-chain' arrangement, rather than parallel or star type wiring. Both these measures are required to minimise the influence of electrical interference and the consequent data corruption and random system faults that follow.

Installers should be mindful of this unusual requirement to interconnect the control data equipment when planning to upgrade an existing system.

Honeywell's Galaxy 3-48C may not be the most exciting control panel on the market, but it definitely offers good bang for your buck...

By and large, most existing alarm cabling will be neither shielded nor in a twisted pair configuration. This will, of course, necessitate the running of new cables.

The main circuit board provides all the terminals for inputs and outputs, though unusually there is no dedicated SAB output, rather a programmable relay changeover, together with a speaker output and four programmable outputs.

These latter types are (by default) negative applied transistorised outputs, able to source up to a useful 400mA each.

A single closed circuit AT air is provided for an internal speaker – but any other anti-tamper protection must take the form of a detection circuit using an EOL resistor.

Installers need to make an allowance for this, though with sixteen on-board circuits that may not be a problem.

Instructions and support

There is no dedicated telephone number for technical support in the supplied literature, but we were put through via the Honeywell main switchboard in Motherwell, Scotland that was answered, unusually for this day and age, by a real person.

The support engineer answered our questions (some serious, some daft) readily and graciously. He clearly knew the product inside-out and it was a pleasure to get straight through to someone immediately.

The technical literature comes with the control panel in the form of three generic books for the 3 series range: an installation manual, a programming manual and a user manual.

These are all fairly hefty reading – for instance, the programming manual is over 190 (!) pages of uninspiring print, though in fairness, the requirements of grade 3 control software, from any manufacturer, are so vast that it more or less forces installers either to attend a Honeywell product training session, or set aside a day to wade through everything.

Certainly not the most exciting way to spend a weekend, but it is now impossible for an installer to fit a new system, then expect to quickly skip through the manual to understand the programming parameters at the end of the installation. Those days are long gone.

The user manual is similarly foreboding to the uninitiated. We start with a line drawing of a keypad on page one, followed by 33 pages of jargon that is not for the faint hearted. Again, Honeywell is not to blame for the requirements of EN50131, but so much information must be made available to the user that the net result is a glazing of the eyes by all but the geekiest of clients.

Probably the best way forward is to follow the lead of other manufacturers – issue a separate (very) brief 'quick start' guide for users giving instructions on how to set, unset and part set. Ultimately, that is all that most customers will be doing most of the time, and that kind of information would fit on a single page.

What the manufacturer says...

As one of Honeywell's key Intruder product offerings, the Galaxy 3 Series range of alarm panels are suited to both commercial and industrial applications. The range comprises three control panels - the Galaxy 3-48, Galaxy 3-144 and the Galaxy 3-520.

Designed with the installer in mind, the Galaxy 3 Series provides installers with valuable benefits for their business such as multiple communications options and remote service support, in addition to easy installation, use and maintenance.

Importantly, backwards compatibility with previous Galaxy alarm systems is assured, which in turn allows an easy upgrade path for existing installations. In addition the panels can be programmed using the installer-friendly Galaxy programming interface, which facilitates quick and efficient implementation.

Some of the features available to installers in the range include 16 onboard programmable zones with eight programmable outputs, RS232 serial port and optional integrated PSTN dialler/modem.

Integral to the popularity of the Galaxy 3 Series is a fully integrated intelligent power supply, which offers diagnostics information suitable for grade 3 installations.

Helping to support the control panels are the following two PC support applications: the Galaxy Remote Servicing Suite and the Galaxy User Management Suite.

This flexible range of alarm panels is also fully compliant with the requirements of PD6662:2004/prEN50131-1:2004 grade 3 Environmental Class II, in addition to DD243:2004.