Hi, I’ve got several healthcare facilities that have a mish-mash of old vintage simplex AV’s… and they want us to add outdoor AV’s to their courtyards. My problem is that I can’t get the same type of AV’s that they have bc theyre so old… so 2 issues are power and product compatibility. For example one site has our addressable Notifier panel with Simplex 2901-9806 horn/strobes throughout. How do I go about getting a compatible 24v outdoor rated device that is powered the same way as these old simplex ones?
If the older Simplex devices are on 24V, adding just about any modern weatherproof device shouldn’t have any issues. However if the circuits are coded and don’t have a dedicated nac for the strobes, then you might have problems.
I should add if it’s a modern notifier panel, I’m fairly sure something like the Spectralert P2RK is specifically rated on those panels.
Quick disclaimer: I’m not a professional technician.
I think the problem with the old devices though are that they are on a pulsed voltage, not a constant voltage like a newer p2rk. We use system sensor as our primary AV source and I know that this will not work with the old simplex from what I’m gathering from my technicians. It’s gotta be something we can change/have the options on for power or something (I’m in sales and trying to wrap my head around what I’m in need of lol)
Just a note: the 2901-9806 is a mechanical horn, not a horn/strobe (unless you mean a 2903 light/strobe plate together with a 9806).
If you were to get 4-wire devices those should be able to be pulsed by the rest of the circuit (provided they’re configured correctly of course, though you’d still run into a problem if there’s only one pair of wires for all the signals & thus nothing to drive the strobes continuously).