Bells and Whistles for First Alert 1600


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Old 01-10-11, 06:08 PM
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Bells and Whistles for First Alert 1600

I've got the panel appearing to work but am not familiar with how to make it noisy when the system is triggered with outside noise makers. I wired the house about 19 years ago and am just now wiring it up. Windows and motions wired and working but I have a speaker in the attic from 19 years ago with speaker wires available to go to the panel, is this something that will make noise or does this panel only activate a bell? The speaker may even be a horn, I don't remember.
 
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Old 01-10-11, 06:46 PM
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If you are trying to use a speaker, you need a siren driver card. Vista panels (the FA1600 is a Vista 100) only put out 12v for the siren output.
 
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Old 01-10-11, 07:59 PM
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Siren driver card? Something like this Moose MPI-11 Siren Driver .......... NIB - eBay (item 220720990798 end time Feb-05-11 16:35:26 PST) ? How does it install? Hook power for driver card to Bell Outputs for 12vdc and then it probably has a place to connect the two wires for the speaker?

Or can I just wire this up without the Siren Driver, a siren, and hook up to the Bell/Horn connection? 30W DUAL TONE HORN OUTDOOR SECURITY ALARM SYSTEM SIREN - eBay (item 320641451649 end time Jan-13-11 11:30:38 PST)

Or is it just way easier getting a bell?
 

Last edited by 72Camaro; 01-10-11 at 08:17 PM.
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Old 01-11-11, 11:44 AM
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Take your pick. All three options are essentially the same amount of work. If you are certain that the device you already have works (try hooking it up to a stereo, it's just an 8ohm speaker), then the cheapest solution is the driver card.

Look at the device you have. Does the label say that it's a speaker or a 12v siren?
 
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Old 01-11-11, 05:50 PM
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The speaker/horn in question is on the other side of the house in the attic and a closet will have to be cleaned out before I can get to it. Got home late trying to get a horn and a couple door contacts which is a story in itself with no good results. Tomorrow is a new day and I should be able to get a horn and the door contacts to use two more zones not in use.

As of now I'm going to get a horn and connect it direct on the panel to get it working before going into the attic and then just make the speaker wire connections and be done.

On the Ademco 1600 panel it shows the 2000ohm resister parallel, that is really how this hooks up? I would think that would mess with the ground for the speaker.
 
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Old 01-11-11, 07:00 PM
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Unlike the consumer grade panels like the V20p, the bell outputs on the Vista 100/FA1600 are supervised. You _can_ cut a set of jumpers to make them unsupervised, but having the resistor at the end of the loop does add some advantages.

But, yes, it really does work that way...
 
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Old 01-11-11, 07:23 PM
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Thank you for all your help, I do appreciate it.
 
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Old 01-13-11, 06:15 AM
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MrRonFL, everything is up and running. I did have a horn with a warble in the attic but after 19 years it just didn't work any more. I brought it to the panel and hooked it up as Bell #2 and it clicked as it was on a cycle but did not make any horn noise. Any way to fix it or is it dead to the world? I was thinking of adding a second horn in the garage for one contact wire I did not use that would be arming a door. Is standard phone wire heavy enough for a horn? Distance of the wire is about 50'.
 
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Old 01-13-11, 03:44 PM
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Nope, if it's a 12v siren and doesn't do anything with a direct dose of 12vdc, it's dead; replace it.
 
 

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