Press Release

Integration of Electronic Cummins Fire Power Engines with Available Controllers.
Date: August 6, 2005

While Cummins Fire Power is fairly new to the fire pump market, we are an entity within the Cummins family, therefore continuing the Cummins name in the fire pump market. With that stated, reports of issues of compatibility between our engine panels and controllers have circulated back to our office. As a Cummins customer, you can be assured that any issue of compatibility will be researched and the root cause will be determined and appropriate actions taken.

The Cummins Fire Power instrument panel is based on instrument panels used by Cummins in the past. Cummins Fire Power was the first to market with electronic engines, as well as being the first to be tested by UL and FM. We quickly realized that we are on the leading edge of fire pump engine technology. The electronic engine panels are simply our standard mechanical engine panel with an additional connector (to the ECM A/B switch), a pair of toggle switches, 4 lamps, and a relay. The switch box for connecting ECM A or ECM B to the engine contains a simple multi-pole switch for contacts needing discrete switching, and steering diodes for circuits such as power or lamps.

Our selection of terminal use for terminals 1 through 12 follows the industry standard as outlined in FM 1333. Higher numbered terminals are not currently regulated by industry standards. However, our terminals are sinking to ground, which is a controller industry standard. This method of notification to the fire pump controller was selected after conversations between Cummins Fire Power and various fire pump controller manufacturers. Our wire schematic specific to electronic engines are is follows.

The technical information of terminals 13, 14, 15, & 16 on our terminal block is as follows:

Terminals 13 (ECM A) & 14 (ECM B) sinks directly to battery ground through switch contacts rated at 6 amps.

Terminal 15 sinks to ground through a transistor internal to the engine ECM and is rated at 600 mA. It is also protected from short circuits.

Terminal 16 is a dry relay contact that sinks directly to battery ground and is rated at 40 amps and is triggered by the circuit wired to Terminal 15.

Required NFPA-20 connections are the Alternate ECM “ECM B” terminal (location 14) and the ECM/Fuel Failure terminal (location 16). Locations 13 and 15 are optional connections.

Kevin Kunkler of Clarke is currently working on a teleconference between Cummins, Merle Farrington of FM, and representatives of the fire pump controllers to standardize the numbering of the terminals as well as the signal method (Sourcing or Sinking). Cummins Fire Power has already been working with UL, FM and controller manufacturers, and fully supports the standardization of connections. We are prepared to re-label the last 4 locations on our terminal block to the new standard that comes out of these discussions. We suggest calling them ECM A / ECM B / STOP / ECM/Fuel Failure for simplicity sake vs. 401, 402, etc.

Cummins Fire Power is currently working with all the controller vendors to test and verify interaction between controllers and our engines. In the following few weeks, our intent is to fully test our engines with each and every fire pump controller that is commercially available.

For example, our CFP11E engine has been tested to mimic every possible controller /installation /failure possibility here at the factory. This test included cycling a pair of controller contacts between terminals 6 or 8 and 1 and 9 or 10 to simulate a fire pump controller running in Auto mode. This particular engine does not care if you crank first then apply power to terminal 1, or if you apply power first to terminal 1 and then crank, or crank and apply power to terminal 1 simultaneously. While our controls people would really like to have a 1-2 second delay with cranking after applying power to terminal 1, to allow the ECM to initialize and perform a self test, we have determined that it is not required with this engine. Other engine models are currently going through the same test.

The same CFP11E engine has been tested by reducing voltage on Terminal 1, to simulate wiring of inadequate size of wire between controller and engine. We found the engine runs at voltages of 9VDC or greater. While a voltage drop of this magnitude is not desired nor recommended, due to stressing of the electronics, this voltage drop does not appear to limit the engines ability to run. Please consider the current draw required to run an engine when planning the engine to controller wiring. Terminal 1 supplies voltage to the Raw Water solenoid (2-10 amps – mfr dependant), the engine ECM (5 amps), or FSO (2 amps for hold). If in doubt, upsize the wire. 14 Gauge minimum for runs to 20’ total length is recommended. Use a larger size for longer runs.

If further questions arise, feel free to contact me directly

Scott Danforth, PE
Product Engineering Manager