Hardware Gateway

Fire panel events, live on BACnet.

FireLink FSI-BACnet attaches to the serial port your Siemens fire panel already has and publishes every point to the building management system over BACnet/IP, without ever writing back to the panel.

See what the BMS sees Talk to us
Rear panel of the FireLink FSI-BACnet gateway: 12 V DC input, HDMI and DisplayPort, four USB ports, two Ethernet jacks numbered 1 and 2, and two DE-9 serial ports marked COM 1 and COM 2.
How it works

Read. Model. Publish.

Three stages between the panel's serial port and your BMS front end. Pick one to watch it run.

Read

The gateway polls the RPM's FSI serial port and decodes the framed protocol, reading every event queue, every point, and every trouble code the panel reports. Each frame carries a checksum, an opcode, a message number and a node-module-device address.

RS-232 · FSI frames
Gateway Panel STX 4A F 07 001-000-000 ETX
Panel Gateway STX 9C A 08 001-003-012,SMOKE L1 B12 ETX
opcode A node 1 module 3 device 12 ALARM

Model

Import the panel's own XML export to recover the real device tree of nodes, loop modules, and detector bases. Every point receives a deterministic BACnet instance number, so the object a technician commissions today is the same object the BMS reads next year.

panel-export.xml → device tree
▸Node 01XLS panel NODE-01
└Module 03loop card LOOP-03
└Device 12smoke detector AI:3012
└Device 13smoke detector AI:3013
└Device 14pull station BI:3014

Publish

Serve BACnet/IP on UDP 47808 with intrinsic reporting, so the BMS discovers the panel's points like any other device on the network. No driver, no polling script, no custom integration on the BMS side.

BACnet/IP · UDP 47808 · device 47201
BMS · Who-Is FireLink · I-Am 47201
AI:3012SMOKE-L1-B12Normal
BI:3106PULL-L1-STAIR-NAlarm
AI:3204DET-L2-CORRIDORTrouble
BI:3301FLOW-SW-RISER-2Normal
Which panels

Built for Siemens fire panels.

FireLink speaks Siemens' Foreign Systems Interface over RS-232, attached to the RPM's serial port. Scope it to one panel with FSI Local, or to the whole XNET network with FSI Global.

Siemens MXL fire alarm control panel: a black wall cabinet with a handset, rows of zone LED modules and control switches.

MXL

The classic Siemens intelligent panel line, connected through its FSI serial interface.

Siemens XLS operator interface: a black front plate with Alarm, Supervisory and Trouble indicators, a central display and blue navigation buttons.

XLS / FireFinder

XLS systems attach at the RPM's serial port, the same port the panel already exposes for foreign systems.

Siemens Cerberus PRO Modular fire panel: a tall dark floor-standing cabinet with an operator display, handset and control modules behind the door.

Cerberus PRO Modular

Modular nodes on an XNET network, covered panel-by-panel with FSI Local or network-wide with FSI Global.

Serial link fixed by the protocol
Baud rate19200
Data bits7
ParityEven
Stop bits1
HandshakeNone
Event model
StandardNorth American NFPA
Event queues4 or 9, per panel configuration
Queue typesAlarm / Supervisory / Security / Trouble
What the BMS sees

Real BACnet objects, not raw frames.

Every panel point becomes a proper BACnet object with a name taken from the panel's own device tree and an instance number that never changes.

Sample point, as published

Node2/XDLC(2)/OP921(1)/MultiCritSensor(1)

addr 2-2-1-1 · OP921 detector base on an XDLC loop, Cerberus PRO Modular node

Map key BACnet object Instance What the BMS reads
Point status
2-2-0-1-1|statusLifeSafetyPoint1 Also available as MultiStateInput or BinaryInput. Per-point overrides win in the order component > type > global.
Detector analog scanned no faster than every 300 s, so trend it
2-2-0-1-1|aiAnalogInput17Analog value
2-2-0-1-1|ai:senseAnalogInput30Sensitivity
2-2-0-1-1|ai:thresAnalogInput31Threshold
Trouble reason
2-2-0-1-1|troubleMultiStateInput32 The full 231-code trouble table as state text, so state 62 reads "AC Fail/brownout". The operator sees words, not numbers.
Node level
node:2|audsilBinary66 Audible Silenced. One object per panel node, so the BMS knows when audibles were silenced at the panel.
Notification classes
ClassPrioritiesCarries
FSI Alarms40 / 80 / 200Alarms. Acknowledgement required.
FSI Faults120 / 120 / 220Troubles and supervisories.

Every instance number is derived from the point's address, which is what the map key records. They stay stable across restarts and re-mapping, so your BMS graphics never break.

Features

Commissioning that respects your time.

The point list comes from the panel, the numbers never move, and the paperwork exports itself.

Panel-XML import

The panel's own XML export becomes the device tree. Nothing typed by hand.

Deterministic instances

Derived from the point's address, so 2-2-0-1-1|status is always 1.

Per-point override

Publish any point as LifeSafetyPoint, MultiStateInput or BinaryInput.

231 trouble reasons, decoded

The BMS shows "AC Fail/brownout", not code 62.

Intrinsic reporting

Alarms require acknowledgement. Faults report on their own class.

EDE CSV export

A standard EDE file (VERSION_OF_LAYOUT;2.2) for your BMS engineer's tools.

Live traffic log

Watch decoded FSI frames arrive, NAK reasons included.

Auto-Reset

Restarts itself as a background service, commissioned from the browser.

Read-only by design

Never writes to the panel. By construction, not policy. See how.

Read-only by design

The panel stays in charge.

FireLink listens; it does not command. The gateway never transmits an ack, silence, reset, arm/disarm, or set-time to the panel, and WriteProperty is denied on every object it serves. A BMS operator, or anything else on the BACnet network, cannot change the state of the fire system through this gateway.

ack silence reset arm / disarm set-time WriteProperty

The panel remains the only authority on the life-safety system.

Connections

Two cables and a browser.

This is the complete list of everything FireLink connects to.

Front view of a female DE-9 panel connector: a silver flange with a screw hole at each end and nine sockets in two rows on a blue insert.

RS-232 · DB9

To the RPM's serial port on the fire panel.

19200 · 7-E-1 · no handshake

Front view of a shielded RJ45 Ethernet jack: a metal housing with amber and green link LEDs above the opening and eight gold contacts inside.

Ethernet · RJ45

BACnet/IP on UDP 47808, within the Annex J range 47808–47823.

BACnet/IP · UDP 47808

The FireLink commissioning screen in a browser: a dark sidebar listing Overview, Import XML, Representation, Settings and Live, beside the Object representation page with its global defaults.

Commissioning UI

Configure, map, and watch live traffic from any browser on the network, with nothing to install on your workstation.

browser-based

About NESCO

From the company behind the NESCO cloud platforms.

NESCO is an engineering firm covering MEP engineering, low-current systems, and custom software, serving Lebanon and the Middle East.

FireLink FSI-BACnet comes from the same discipline that runs our cloud platforms: engineering you can hold to account, delivered as software. This page extends the corporate site at www.nesco.com.lb.

MEP · Low current · SoftwareCore disciplines
Lebanon & the Middle EastWhere we operate
Contact

Put it on your riser.

Leave your details and we'll get back to you about your panel and how the gateway fits.

Get started

Ask for a walkthrough

We'll show you the commissioning UI against a real panel export, covering the XML import, the point map, and the live traffic log.

Prefer email? info@nesco.com.lb · +961 79 306 690

Thanks — we've got it.

We'll reach out to arrange the walkthrough. If it's urgent, call +961 79 306 690.