The device list is what the battery calculation, the voltage-drop table, and the device matrix are built from. Each device sits on a circuit, and each circuit belongs to a panel — get that right and the calculations follow.
Circuits come from the panel
Open the Circuits tab on a project. If the project has a Panel Make and Panel Model set (see Projects) and no circuits exist yet, FireDeck creates that panel's circuits for you the first time you open the tab — NAC circuits, SLC loops, IDC zones, and any I/O or Flexput terminals the panel has.
To add one by hand, click Add Circuit and fill in:
- Circuit Label — for example
NAC-1. - Class and Wire Gauge.
- Wire Length (ft) — optional, but the voltage-drop calculation needs it.
- Supply Voltage (V) and Min Device Voltage (V) — 24 and 16 by default.
- Max Current (A) — the circuit's budget.
The table lists label, class, gauge, length, supply volts, and minimum device volts, with pencil and trash icons to edit or delete. On projects with more than one panel, circuits are grouped under each panel's heading; panels themselves are managed on the Panels tab.
Conventional vs. addressable
FireDeck decides what a device is from its alarm current, not its name.
Alarm current of 0 mA means conventional. The device connects to an IDC zone and works on any panel, from any manufacturer — two-wire and four-wire smokes, conventional pull stations, waterflow and tamper switches.
Alarm current above 0 mA means addressable. The device talks on the panel's proprietary SLC bus and is protocol-locked to that manufacturer's family:
- Fire-Lite and Notifier share FlashScan, so their addressable devices interchange.
- Silent Knight and Farenhyt share the same Hochiki-based protocol.
- Potter uses PAD; Edwards uses Signature.
Notification appliances (horns, strobes, horn/strobes, speakers), communicators, and power supplies are universal — they never trigger a compatibility warning. Notification appliances also draw zero standby current by type, because NAC circuits are de-energized until alarm.
If you pick an addressable device from the wrong family, the Add Device dialog shows a Compatibility warning and asks Add incompatible device? before it will let you continue with Add anyway.
Add a device
- Open the Devices tab and click Add Device — or use Add device at the bottom of a specific circuit section, which pre-selects that circuit.
- Search by manufacturer or model. Each result shows the device type plus its alarm and standby current in milliamps. Entries from your own library carry a Private badge.
- Pick the device. FireDeck selects a circuit for you based on what the device is — detectors to an SLC loop or IDC zone, appliances to a NAC circuit, annunciators to the panel's secondary bus. Change it with the Circuit dropdown.
- Set Quantity, and where they apply, Zone, Loop, and Address. Adding a quantity above one auto-increments the address.
- Set the appliance settings described below.
- Choose the Panel the device belongs to, then click Add Device.
To place a run of identical devices, use Add multiple in a circuit section: give it a Count and a Start Address and it creates that many entries with sequential addresses.
Candela, dB, and sound settings
Horns, strobes, and speakers expose extra fields, and the values there set the device's alarm current for you.
- Candela — for strobes and horn/strobes. Devices with presets show a dropdown of the actual candela taps; picking one applies that tap's alarm current.
- dB Level — for horns and speakers with published dB options.
- Sound Setting — the temporal or tone setting. On horn/strobes the alarm current depends on both the sound setting and the candela, and FireDeck resolves the pair from the device's preset table.
Presets come from the manufacturer datasheet, so a 75 cd strobe draws what the datasheet says rather than a single nominal number.
Reading the device list
Devices are grouped into collapsible sections by circuit — IDC zones first, then SLC loops, I/O circuits, NAC circuits, AUX, then an AUX Power catch-all and Unassigned. On multi-panel projects those sections nest under each panel (FACP, NAC Power Supply, Auxiliary, Voice Evac).
Each NAC section header shows the loaded alarm current against the circuit's maximum, with a bar that turns yellow past 80% and red at 100%, plus a warning triangle when you're over. Rows flag a missing cut sheet, a duplicate address on the same circuit, and a device whose manufacturer doesn't match the panel.
Drag a row by its handle to reorder it; FireDeck re-assigns the addresses in that section sequentially. Click the pencil to edit a placed device — quantity, circuit, zone, loop, address, sound and candela settings, panel, alarm and standby current overrides, and free-text notes — then Save Changes.
For batch work, click Select to turn on checkboxes, then use Set Loop, Set Zone, or Delete on everything you've ticked.
Your own device library
Submittals → Device Library holds devices your shop adds itself. Click Add Device and enter the manufacturer, model, type, alarm and standby current, operating voltage range, candela, dB rating, UL listing, and any presets. Attach a cut sheet PDF to an entry from the Cut Sheet column.
Private devices appear alongside the global library wherever you search, and when a model exists in both, yours wins.
With devices placed, move on to Generating a Submittal.