How to Connect Dispersed Fire Alarm Panels into One System with the Muxpad II

"Fragmentation" is your enemy during fire emergencies. You can't respond to an emergency without a single, cohesive picture of what's happening.

And yet, many facilities - whether municipal, educational, or industrial - still rely on isolated fire alarm systems that can't "talk" to one another. This creates dangerous blind spots that no amount of fire drills can fix.

Let's look at one specific real-world challenge - and the practical solution Digitize created with the Muxpad II.

Fire Alarm Panels That Must Communicate Across Distance

It's common for a city's municipal buildings - such as city hall, the police department, multiple public schools, and a recreation center - to have their own independent fire alarm panels. On a university campus, fire alarm systems from different manufacturers may coexist across buildings, creating inconsistencies in communication. In a multi-story medical facility, fire alarm panels installed during various renovation phases often function separately by floor.

In all these cases, the fire alarm control panels (FACPs) are technically operational, but they function in isolation without centralized coordination.

This means that, during an actual fire:

• You might receive no signal at your central station.
• You could get partial or delayed information.
• Your response team might dispatch to the wrong location - or too late.

You Can't Just "Replace Everything"

Facility managers like you are well aware that aging fire panels create integration challenges. But a full rip-and-replace upgrade isn't always realistic:

• Budget constraints: Replacing all panels at once - especially specialty ones in secure or hazardous environments - is costly.
• Downtime risks: Taking an entire fire safety system offline for upgrades introduces unacceptable gaps in protection.
• Code and infrastructure conflicts: Older wiring, outdated communication protocols, and building code compliance issues make retrofits complex.

So what do you do when you're stuck with separate systems - but still need centralized visibility?

Simple Device Integration Eliminates the Need for Replacements

To maximize visibility, use a truly integrated system - without replacing the panels:

• Each panel, no matter its age or brand, can feed alarm data to a single dashboard.
• You have real-time visibility into every fire, trouble, and supervisory signal across all buildings.
• You can route signals securely via RS-485, fiber, or even radio - without needing IT-managed LAN connections.
• You can achieve full NFPA 72 supervision without touching the panels themselves.

This doesn't have to be just a dream wishlist. It's what the Muxpad II was built to do.

The Muxpad II Offers a Smart Bridge for Every Building

The Muxpad II is more than an interface. It's a universal translator for disparate fire alarm panels, specifically:

• Interfacing with legacy or modern panels via dry contact, serial, or printer ports.
• Transmitting signals securely over long distances using supervised RS-485, single or multi-mode fiber, or radio.
• Relaying readable, time-stamped alarm data to a centralized System 3505 Prism LX.

This turns your once-isolated panels into one cohesive fire monitoring network.

Designed for Harsh and Remote Installations

Since the Muxpad II supports battery backup, fiber, and supervised serial protocols, it can be deployed in:

• Substations with no LAN access
• Water treatment plants in rural areas
• Government buildings that restrict cloud-based connectivity

Each unit is designed for durability and field-serviceability, with surge protection and watchdog timers built into the board.

Technical Breakdown: What You're Really Getting

Let's go deeper into what makes the Muxpad II a reliable component in distributed alarm systems:

Feature	What It Delivers
Multiple Comm Formats	RS-232, RS-485, fiber, Ethernet, radio
Supervised Bi-Directional Polling	Ensures continuous health-checks and status verification
Legacy Input Compatibility	Dry contacts, supervised EOL circuits (8 or 32 zone options)
Integration with System 3505 Prism LX	Prism LX consolidates signals from up to 500 Muxpads into one central server
Built-In FORM C Relay	Remote control capability via relay option
Ground Fault Detection	Built-in protectors for wiring issues

By combining supervision, distance, and input flexibility, Muxpad II gives you everything you need to centralize fire alarm signals without touching the panels.

Implement Redundancy for When It Really Matters

When lives are on the line, "maybe it'll send the signal" is never good enough.

Each Muxpad II supports:

• Dual communication paths (fiber + radio, for example)
• Battery backup for remote locations
• Autonomous message retention during outages, ensuring no data is lost even if central communication is interrupted

Don't Just Monitor - Coordinate

Because Muxpad II integrates with the System 3505 Prism LX, you also gain access to:

• Remote annunciators for department-specific dashboards
• Custom logging and export capabilities (for Excel, reports, etc.)
• Optional relay controls for remote response automation

Your system becomes not just a passive monitor, but an active decision-support tool during emergencies.

Let's Build a Safer, Smarter Fire Alarm Network

The Muxpad II is your bridge to unified monitoring - without needing to "start over". The Muxpad II thrives if you're managing a fire network with a mix of legacy and modern panels, a multi-site campus with decentralized systems, or a remote or restricted-access site without LAN infrastructure.

Call Digitize. We'll help you:

• Map your existing infrastructure
• Identify Muxpad-compatible input types
• Choose the best communication paths (RS-485, fiber, radio, etc.)
• Design a fully supervised architecture that meets code

Speak With a Digitize Engineer

If you're ready to stop relying on guesswork, site visits, and fragmented visibility, now's the time to act.

Digitize has helped secure military bases and shipyards, university and hospital campuses, transit agencies and ports, as well as city governments and industrial parks.

We'll do the same for you - with hardware that preserves and leverages your existing investment while giving you full visibility and control.

Contact us today at (800) 523-7232
Or email info@digitize-inc.com

Let's connect your entire system - no matter how "far flung" it is.