The FF345: Finding the Date Code

[METALLIC SOUND EFFECT] Hi, DIYers, this is Michael from Alarm Grid. And today, I'm going to be showing you how to find the date code on an Encore Firefighter FF345. The Encore Firefighter FF345-- really, we just call it the FF345-- it's a listening module for a smoke detector or a carbon monoxide sensor, or a combination smoke and carbon monoxide sensor. What this module does is it actively listens for the temporal 3 sound of an activated smoke detector, or the temporal 4 sound of an activated carbon monoxide sensor. So it's T3 for smoke detection and T4 for carbon monoxide detection. And then once this sensor hears that sound, it transmits a 345 megahertz signal to a compatible alarm system. Systems that accept the 345 megahertz frequency include the Honeywell Lyric, the LYNX Touch Panels from Honeywell, the 2GIG panels, and the 345 megahertz Qolsys IQ Panel 2+. Those are just some examples. So as you can see, this is around FF345. That means it's a second generation model. There was an earlier rectangular model that only supported fire detection for temporal 3. It wouldn't detect the temporal 4 sound for CO detection. So the way to know-- if yours is round, then it can do both CO and smoke. But if it's the rectangular one, then it can only do smoke detection. So the reason you're checking the date code on the FF345 is there was actually an issue with this product that affected batches from January 2020, and it's believed to go all the way up to August 2020. I'll get into some of the specifics on that in a little bit. But what happened with this issue is this sensor was unenable to enroll with the Honeywell panels. It would still work with the 2GIG panels, but you couldn't enroll it with the Honeywell panels and you couldn't use it. So a lot of people who had a Honeywell Lyric, for instance, they couldn't enroll this sensor to take over their existing smoke detectors and CO detectors and they couldn't enroll it, and that was an issue. So a lot of people will want to find out if they have a product that's affected by this issue. So the way you do this is check the date code. So just to give you a summary-- the units that are affected. Like I said, if you see 01/2020, then that's definitely affected. It won't enroll with a Honeywell system. And we also believe it won't enroll with Qolsys IQ Panel 2+ 345 megahertz, but that hasn't been confirmed for sure. The ones prior to 01/2020, they all work as normal. So if you have one older than 2020 from 2019 or before, then it's fine. And like I said, 02/2020 through 08/2020, February through August, are also believed to be affected. But it needs to be tested. So if you see that batch number, then keep that in mind. But units 09/2020 and onward, September 2020 and onward with those batch numbers, they will enroll with the Honeywell systems, but there might be a slight abnormality. In that case, if you clear a fire alarm or a CO alarm caused by the sensor, then you might get a sensor trouble condition, an E380 sensor trouble condition, E380. That's the reporting code. But you'll see a sensor trouble condition on the panel. It's the same issue that would occur if you have a cover tamper or a loss of RF supervision. So it will often clear on its own. Just wait for it to clear. In some cases, you will have to do an additional disarm to get it to clear, so that would be a third disarm, a triple disarm. But it doesn't really affect performance, so it's still fine. But those will-- like I said, they will enroll with the Honeywell systems. It's just you will have that-- you might have that E380 sensor trouble condition. So to find the date code, what you have to do is you have to open up the sensor. Now, it's important-- you need to remove the screws. You've got one right there and then one right here. So take a Phillips head screwdriver and just take out those screws, which I'm going to do that now. We have our screwdriver in here, and we're just going to go and put that in and we're just going to take it out. They are small screws, so I'm probably going to use the magnet feature on here to see if-- no, that's not quite-- let's see if we can get it out this time. There we go. Got the first one. And we'll just set that down there. And then we'll get the other one. Let's see if I got it. There we go. Got the second one right there with our handy dandy magnet. So-- and then once you have the screws removed, it's actually pretty easy. You can just press in this tab right here. So I'm just going to press it in like so. Let's see. And then we can just pop it open like that. So make sure you remove the screws first. We tried to remove it without the screws, and you can see ours is a little bit banged up because I was forcefully trying to take it off when we were doing some testing earlier. So do make sure that you remove the screws. And this side does not have the date code. So what you actually want to do is you want to look at the front cover right here. So we can see our batch right there, 05/2017. So this was May of 2017, so this is well before the issue. So this one will enroll with the Honeywell systems and the 2GIG systems and the 345 megahertz Qolsys IQ Panel 2+ with no problem. So like I said, if yours is before 01/2020, January 2020, then you won't have the issues. 01/2020 is definitely affected. 02/2020 through 08/2020 are believed to be affected. And then 09/2020 and onward, they will enroll, but you're likely to have that sensor trouble condition, the E380 reporting code trouble condition, which you can clear with a triple disarm or sometimes it'll just go away on its own. So that's how you find the date code on an FF345, the listening module. And I'm just going to close this back up here and put that in, and then we can just-- I'll do the screws after the camera-- after we're done shooting. But you see those screws are right there. We'll just screw them back in. But that's how you close it. But that's how you find the date code on the FF345. If you have any questions about the FF345 or about alarm monitoring services, send an email to support@alarmgrid.com. If you found this video helpful, make sure to give it a thumbs up below to like the video, and remember to subscribe to our channel for updates on future videos. We hope you enjoyed the video. Thank you.