Notification appliances are widely used in fire alarm systems, emergency warning systems, facility monitoring systems, and the like. As used herein, the term notification appliance refers to a device which generates an audible alarm (e.g., a horn, a bell, a siren, a buzzer, etc), a visual alarm (e.g., a strobe or a flash), or both. Typically, such notification appliances are attached to an electrical backbox, which in turn is mounted on a wall or ceiling surface (surface mounted or wire mold mounted) or embedded in the wall. Electrical leads or wires extend into the backbox through knock-outs in the rear or sides of the backbox. The audible and/or visual alarm generating elements, e.g., an acoustic transducer and/or an electronic strobe or LED, are usually mounted on the notification appliance, with electric leads leading rearwardly into the backbox. An intermediate mounting or adapter plate is sometimes used to attach the notification appliance to the backbox.
In many deployment scenarios, a plurality of notification appliances is usually daisy-chained together to form a circuit or a loop of notification appliances. In turn, this circuit of notification appliances is in communication with an alarm or control panel that monitors the status of the notification appliances and causes the notification appliances to be triggered during an emergency situation.
As such, each notification appliance may have at least two leads and, at times, up to eight leads that will need to be connected to the circuitry of the notification appliance. Since it is necessary to provide a certain amount of slack in connecting the numerous leads to the circuitry of the notification appliance (e.g., connecting the leads to one or more screws on a terminal block of the notification appliance circuitry), there is often a substantial length of leads that must be careful stowed within the backbox. However, given the gauge of the leads, the bundle of leads are often quite stiff. As such, as the notification appliance is pushed toward the mounting plate during installation in the field, it is possible that one or more leads may disengage from its terminal or one or more leads may create a short. Unfortunately, such errors would not be easily detected until the entire loop of notification appliances is deployed. For example, an installer will perform a continuity test at the panel for the entire loop of notification appliances, where the installer may detect an open condition or a short condition. Although such erroneous condition can be detected, the installer does not have the ability pinpoint exactly the location, i.e., which notification appliance, is causing the error. As such, it is necessary for the field installer to check all the notification appliances in the pertinent loop. This is extremely time consuming and impractical, especially if the loop contains a large number of notification appliances.
Therefore, there is a need for a mounting plate having a configuration that will increase the ease of installation and also allows a continuity test to be performed for a circuit of notification appliances.