The NCDR is the heart beat of the Cooper true Pier-to Pier fault tolerant network. It allows information from any Cooper input and output device to be passed over the network and display on any Cooper Addressable Fire panels or remote display such the Sire monitor or the Cooper Graphic Package. Information such as Fire, General Alarm, Pre-alarm Faults, Disablement and status information from any panel is accessible on the Cooper Pier to Pier network thus allowing site wide cause and effect functionality.

Simply by adding and connecting the NCDR network card allows any Cooper addressable Fire Alarm control Panel to be networked. All other panels on the network will be instantly aware of a panel as soon as it is given valid network address, thus allowing additional panels to be added at any time with a minimum amount of re-programming. The NCDR dual channel serial gateway consists of two channels each using a FT3150 Smart transceiver and FT-X1 communication transformer.

Each Neuron supports a serial (232) interface allowing the Master Neuron to communicate with the host equipment and also to send messages to, and receive messages from the Slave Neuron. This allows nodes to communicate using 2 separate networks simultaneously thereby providing continuous communication in the event of open or short circuit faults on either network. Software prevents the duplication of messages. The network can be mounted inside the cooper addressable fire panels.