What kinds of environments is the Archon designed to work in?
The Archon is designed to withstand the operating environments often found where the fire system is found. You can see the full detail of operating environments in the operator’s manual: Archon Opman
What feedback are you getting from sprinkler inspectors?
We can see repeat usage by sprinkler inspectors and testers and several companies buying repeat orders and multiple units and questions about bulk pricing for larger contractors. One piece of negative feedback we received at a trade show was that the system would work on 99.9% of his applications but there are some that he doesn’t think it would be good to deploy on but he knew where those were and would not deploy it to those.
What feedback are you getting from AHJ’s?
No AHJs have contacted us but the output photo record with time stamp from a much higher accuracy calibrated system and the system is in full compliance with NFPA 25 2023 edition sections 13.4.5.2 and 4.6.6. The Archon greatly improves practices in the field and if you do receive such an inquiry, please do send them our way. After seeing the Archon in action Bob Caputo, the president of AFSA said “these should be on every truck” and he figured out tool would pay for itself after ~5 trip tests. AFSA now shows the system in their ITM classes.
How stable has the Bluetooth connection been in spots like mechanical rooms? What happens when the connection is lost?
The probes do have good wireless range but they are logging and it is not necessary that they remain in communication to run a full trip test. When you walk back into range, the app will resynch with both probes and calculate the trip times even if the inspector’s test connection was our of wireless range. You can see this process at the 2:38 time mark of this video: Archon Trip Tester Full Demo Video
How’s the battery life?
The battery life testing we’ve done has shown 15 hours of continuous use. We provide alerts on the probes and in the app before the start of a trip test if your battery is low as the battery running out during a trip test would require you to have to reset the valve, drain the system and rerun the test. To increase the number of tests you get out of each battery, we suggest you connect the probes, confirm pressures and then go run the full trip test. Once you have the results, you can turn off the probes or minimize the use of the backlight to get the most battery life out of them.
Is the app free or paid/subscription based?
The app is free. It can be downloaded from Google's Play Store or Apple's App Store.
What’s the expected calibration schedule/cost?
We recommend testers follow ASME and common metrology practice and have the probes sent in for calibration once a year. This is particularly true if you’re using them for gauge verification pursuant to NFPA 25 2023 edition 13.2.4.2 & 13.2.4.3 but we recommend for your own maintenance and record to keep the calibration current. We recommend that you also save the photo that is ouput from the app (which is automatically added to your phone’s photo gallery when you press the “capture” button in the app) be saved with the photos from the job whether that is in your own records or through a fire technician work order management platform. Each unit that ships from us comes with a calibration certificate that is good for one year.
What’s the replacement filter cost, and how often should filters be changed (not just cleaned)?
The part number for a filter replacement pack is ARFA2 and comes as a pre-assembled set of two. We would expect the filters to last quite a while. On average with our backflow test kit, the filters are being replaced once every 1-2 years. That is a much harder application for a filter as water is continually flowing through it. With the Archon, that is not the case. The replacement frequency however varies widely with usage and practice, but we do not expect that to be of much concern or expense for testers.
What’s the expected overall service life?
Although the warranty is only for one year, we expect that with proper care, the product life will greatly exceed that. Our backflow test kit has a warranty of 5 years and we see a very low incidence of warranty claims. We have been developing field rugged instrumentation for 25 years and have learned how to make these electronic measurement systems very reliably. Also included with this product is a hard and durable case to put the probes into after use which will protect them well from normal use and from the bumps and bounces around the service truck and job site. You can get a brief snapshot of our company history on the last episode of the K-Factor Podcast: K-Factor Episode 41 on Apple or here K-Factor Episode 41 on Spotify.
Will updates to the software occur automatically or require manually updating the app?
Software updates will occur automatically depending on the user's phone settings and if they have enabled automatic updates on their phone. How to enable automatic app updates is described below. If Arbiter pushes an update that includes new features, we will communicate that via a newsletter campaign, so be sure to sign up for the newsletter and subscribe to stay in the know about exciting developments.
Here's how to enable automatic app updates on both platforms:
iPhone (iOS):
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- Open the Settings app
- Tap your name at the top, then tap App Store
- Toggle on App Updates under the Automatic Downloads section
Android:
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- Open the Google Play Store app
- Tap your profile icon in the top right
- Tap Settings > Network preferences > Auto-update apps
- Choose Over any network or Over Wi-Fi only
Note that the exact steps on Android can vary slightly depending on your device manufacturer (Samsung, Google Pixel, etc.) and the version of the Play Store installed.