Cable Specifications – AutroSafe and Autroprime

Definitions
Example Local Frame Earth The electrical connection to the framework at the described physical
position, such as the frame or chassis of a cabinet, the power cable
outlet etc.
Shield Generic notation of an electric barrier that attenuates an RF field.
Shield could be realised as a metallic encapsulation around an
electronic device (shielded cabinet) or around a cable (Shielded cable).
Dual Shield The shield contains two levels of barriers that must be electrically
isolated. Each shield may consist of multiple layers, like foil + braid or
braid+braid. The shield can be physically realised as; Foil, Mesh, Braid,
Armour (defined below).
Foil A shield made of a metallic film or sheet that is 100% proof. In general
100 MHz and above as it requires a quite thin foil to enable flexibility. It
will not be the best option for low frequency communication lines
(below 10MHz). Note that if the foil type of shield is used, it is required
that there is a wire available for termination of this shield (Pig tail).
Mesh A shield made of knitted wires to improve the coverage of the shield,
compared to braid. This type of shield is rarely used.
Braid A shield made of weaved wires. This is the most common method for
shielded cables, it makes the best price / performance. A double layer
of braid is often used to increase the attenuation, this is especially
effective at cable lengths above 0,03 of the frequency wavelength,
which is 70 m at 133kHz (PowerLoop).
Armour A mechanical protection of the cable, normally a rigid braid inside the
outer isolation. If the armour supports proper electrical conductance
and shield coverage, this may be used as one of the required shields
(PE).
Instrument Earth (IE) An earth reference that is normally used to reference measurements of
electrical signals.
Protective Earth (PE) An earth reference that is normally used as a coupling path for
unwanted electrical signals, like transients and over-voltage. The
chassis or framework of the installation is normally considered to be
the local Protective Earth. As the name implies, it is intended to provide
a safe electrical potential for human safety.
Ground Synonym for Earth.

PowerLoop Cabling - Guidance Table

Type of shield (Dual) Characteristics Usability for PowerLoop

Foil + braid Tradeoff to make good attenuation at both high Most commonly used alternative. Recommended to
and low frequencies. avoid long parallel paths. Contact Autronica for
advice.
Foil + foil Optimised for high frequency. Not suitable to Powerloop. If foil is a thin metal film
this cable shall not be used. One of the foils has to be
at least 0,3mm thick copper to be acceptable at the
low frequencies. (Aluminium foil has to be 0,5 mm).
Braid+braid Improved attenuation in low/mid frequency Well suited.
range (compared to single braid shield).
Foil/braid +braid or The extra foil in one (or both) of the shield Well suited, especially for long parallel Powerloop
Foil/braid + foil/braid layers improves attenuation both at high and cable runs.
low frequencies.

Note. If foil is used for shield, the foil shall contain a separate wire in contact with this one, to be used as a pig tail for shield termination.
Armour shall be made of a copper braid (or mesh) to ensure high conductivity. Armour shielding coverage shall be optically covering
2 more than 60%, and conductance similar to the internal wire pair. Armour with less than 60% coverage shall include another shield
Conversion table American Wire Gauge (AWG) to mm / mm layer to contain two layers of foil/braid or braid/braid to ensure proper low frequency shielding. A PowerLoop cable shall be contained in
a dual shielded cable, i.e. multiple pair cable shall not contain two or more power loop cables. It is acceptable to arrange tour / retur of
AWG No Diam. mm Area mm2 the same power loop cable within one such cable (two wire pairs), this requires each pair to be individually shielded. The intention is to
This document specifies the cabling for Autronica’s interactive fire keep the dual shield barrier between two adjacent powerloop cables.
8 3,260 8,350 detection systems, and integrated fire and gas detection systems.
9 2,910 6,620
10 2,590 5,270 With respect to absolute requirements, the term “shall” is used consistently. The term
12 2,050 3,310 “recommended” is used when different parameters or various considerations determine the best
13 1,830 2,630 alternative solution. Measures referring to cable type, dimensions and lengths in the table on the
15 1,450 1,650 back side of this document are given in metric units. For information on cable dimensions in
17 1,150 1,040 American Wire Gauge (AWG), refer to the table above (Conversion table AWG to mm/mm2).
18 1,024 0,8230
24 0,511 0,2050

116-P-ASIFGCABLESPEC/CGB Rev. C, 2013-09-25 | Autronica Fire and Security AS | Tel.: +47 73 58 25 00 | E-mail: info@autronicafire.no | www.autronicafire.com | Page 1(3)
Cable Specifications – AutroSafe and Autroprime

Cabling
Detection Loop Max cable Maximum Cable length (m) Cable length (m) Cable length (m) Cable length (m) Cable length (m)
Al_Com Fire current setting resistance capacitance for for for for for
Detection Loops (mA) (Ω) (µ F) AWG 20 (0,5mm²) AWG 18 (0,75mm²) AWG 17 (1,0mm²) AWG 15 (1,5mm²) AWG 13 (2,5mm²)
Autroprime 100 105 0,5 1500 2250 3000 4500 7500
Low Current 150 58 0,5 829 1243 1657 2486 4143
Detectors and 200 35 0,5 500 750 1000 1500 2500
I/O Units 250 21 0,5 300 450 600 900 1500

Cabling
Detection Loop Max cable Maximum Cable length (m) Cable length (m) Cable length (m) Cable length (m) Cable length (m)
Al_Com Fire current setting resistance capacitance for for for for for
Detection Loops (mA) (Ω) (µ F) AWG 20 (0,5mm²) AWG 18 (0,75mm²) AWG 17 (1,0mm²) AWG 15 (1,5mm²) AWG 13 (2,5mm²)
Autroprime 100 112 0,5 1600 2400 3200 4800 8000
High Current 150 78 0,5 1114 1671 2229 3343 5571
Detectors and 200 55 0,5 786 1179 1571 2357 3929
I/O Units 250 40 0,5 571 857 1143 1714 2857
300 30 0,5 429 643 857 1286 2143
350 23 0,5 329 493 657 986 1643
400 18 0,5 257 386 514 771 1286

Cabling
Max cable Maximum Cable length (m) Cable length (m) Cable length (m) Cable length (m) Cable length (m)
Al_Com Fire Loop Driver
resistance capacitance for for for for for
Detection Loops Module
(Ω) (µ F) AWG 20 (0,5mm²) AWG 18 (0,75mm²) AWG 17 (1.0mm²) AWG 15 (1,5mm²) AWG 13 (2,5mm²)
AutroSafe Standard loop driver
module 50 0,5 650 1000 1300 2000 3300
BSD-310
High-power version
BSD-311 (High- 20 0,5 250 400 500 800 1300
current)
2
In Integrated Fire & Gas Detection Systems, shielded cable is recommended. Cable dimension CSA 1.0mm

116-P-ASIFGCABLESPEC/CGB Rev. C, 2013-09-25 | Autronica Fire and Security AS | Tel.: +47 73 58 25 00 | E-mail: info@autronicafire.no | www.autronicafire.com | Page 2(3)
Cable Specifications – AutroSafe and Autroprime

Cabling Cable type / category Cable dimension Maximum cable length (m) Maximum resistance (Ω) / capacitance (F)
PowerLoop Dual shielded cable, twisted pair cables The Power Loop 1000m. The Power Loop Calculator Tool shall be used to determine the permissible cable length. Dual Maximum loop resistance depends on load.
shall be used Calculator Tool shall be shielded cable shall be used.
used to determine the The Power Loop Calculator Tool shall be used to determine the
cable dimension. Long parallel PowerLoop cable runs may introduce cross-talk between PowerLoops, thus it is maximum resistance.
2
Typically CSA 2,5mm recommended to avoid such long parallel runs. The permissible length of parallel PowerLoop cable runs
will depend on the quality of the cable shield. Segregation of parallel PowerLoop cable runs by 30cm (1
feet) will increase permissible parallel length significantly. Contact Autronica for design-advice for
applications with long parallel Powerloop cable runs.

AutroFieldBus Twisted-pair cables. Short length cables (< 600m): Characteristic impedance 100 Ω +/- 15%.
(AFB) Category 4, 5 or 6 The cable length is limited to 600m. Capacitance per 1000m shall be less than 200nF. Attenuation @100KHz, Max. 9 dB over full cable segments (or
between boosters).
Shielded cable required. Medium length cables (< 1000m):
Shielded by foil or braid. The AutroFieldBus cable length is limited to 1000m. Capacitance per 1000m shall be less than 100nF. Attenuation is defined by the wire to wire capacitance mostly, as long
2
as the wire is at least 0.5mm . The total attenuation of the cable
Cable length > 1000m: length shall not exceed 9 dB. If attenuation is not specified, normally
Boosters shall be used if the AutroFieldBus cable is more than 1km in length. Boosters shall be evenly the capacitance is defined. The capacitance shall not exceed the
spread round the AFB ring. NOTE: The maximum length for a total ring with Boosters is 2,8km (see also specified value in order to achieve the total communication length.
rightmost column).
All cable over full cable segment (or between boosters) shall be of
The booster can also be used in cases when different cable types (AFB cables) are used in a distributed same type and have equal specifications.
system (see also rightmost column).

Cabling Cable type / category Cable dimension Maximum cable length (m)
Ethernet –TCP/IP CAT 5 or 6, shielded or unshielded. Maximum 100m
(AutroNet) Single-mode or multi-mode optic fibre Maximum fibre length is determined by the transmission budget calculated from specifications of fiber cable, equipment, loss by fibre cable joints and connectors.

AutroCom Serial Multi-wired cable Maximum 10m

RS-232

AutroCom Serial CAT 4, 5 or 6. Maximum cable length 1000m - depending on the cable quality and baud rate.
VDR, ESPA, The transceiver is referenced to Earth in the AutroSafe panel. The transceiver at the other end shall be terminated and referenced to ensure low common mode voltage. For cable
Modbus connections out of the AutroSafe installation cabinet or earth reference (or where common mode voltage noise is expected) a galvanic isolation shall be introduced in the
communication path.
RS-422/RS-485

Power Supply / Cable dimension

Cabling according to system
load and project spec.

116-P-ASIFGCABLESPEC/CGB Rev. C, 2013-09-25 | Autronica Fire and Security AS | Tel.: +47 73 58 25 00 | E-mail: info@autronicafire.no | www.autronicafire.com | Page 3(3)