I believe you did post something on there a while ago.
I could possibly help you with finding a 6500. We just threw out an MKII as well, I wanted to keep it but it had false alarm issues. I already have a full 6500, and I have many spare strips, and my workplace has some 6500 parts that my boss is going to scrap eventually. For me, I’ve been eyeing up government institutions in my area, as Edwards basically had that contract for a very long time, as well as they have their massive plant here about 2 hours away from me, opened since 1950 too in a small northern Ontario town. I’m very surprised they haven’t moved, as many of their other competitors are located in the GTA, like Mircom for example has a large factory in Vaughan.
That is also the best way to do so, but it is very hard to keep track of it all. Sometimes you have to be at the right place, at the right time. But thank you, I am really hoping to save as much as I can before it is too late. I wish the same for you too, your collection is amazing and very well preserved.
Work has kept me lacking with a lot of what I want to do, but I’m hoping to make time for them. I want to make more videos of my collection and the different devices, as well as continue along with my new channel, basically an OldSchoolFireAlarm channel for my area. I’ve been working with an organization to try and preserve items at an old hopsital that was near me, but unfortunately 2 of the buildings were scrapped by vandals. There is a third building not owned by them, and I’m trying to contact them next. The hospital had very old 50s Edwards Single Stroke Chimes, very rare to say the least.
You should try searching some places around Ottawa (cough cough: ex-twoplyboy territory), Thunder Bay, Sudbury, and North Bay (Garret Claridge territory) There could be some 6500s lurking around there.
I believe the model of those Edward single stroke chimes is 18. Zak Wolf Has a video on his YT channel of one sounding.
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I definitely would not mind that at some point later on down the road, thank you very much for the offer. Does Edwards still have their plant up there or has it all been outsourced like a lot of other manufacturers? That’s a shame those two buildings were scrapped, I’m assuming they got ahold of the fire alarm systems? Scrappers usually don’t go for them, but sometimes they do, or destroy/vandalize them in the process of scrapping other stuff unfortunately. I’d eventually like to make videos on things in my own collection as well, however, I am waiting until I move this year coming so I have more space. That way, I can actually set up functional demo systems mounted on a wall (something a bit more professional than just on the floor of my bedroom). At least that’s the hope.
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I made some more updates to the collection post, I had a few more things come in recently (including a 4048R, I finally found one after years of looking). I also have a few non-Simplex things in my collection if anyone is interested in seeing them. I have a Cerberus Pyrotronics MXL system (and some of the addressable devices that go with it), and some older Wheelock stuff. If anyone wants to see those, I can dig them out and post pics.
No worries. & Yes, as far as I’m concerned they still have it up there. & Yeah, scrappers here go for anything metal to sell to the metal scrapyards, so they see a bright metal bell or a metal appliance on the wall, they will take it. The place was bought by non profits, and they had no money for any security at the time before abatement started. There was even sirens on the rooftops that they stole as well.
Glad to see another enthusiast with a 3 bay 4100+ panel. The 80s and 90s simplex panels are my absolute favorite. I’ve got one of them as well that I have networked to a 4020. All it’s missing is a voice bay.
Though I will say, yours looks a lot cleaner than mine. I built mine from scratch and a bunch of parts got banged up in transit but it works I guess. Guess it’s a good thing you get your panels from local building demolitions rather than random people on eBay from all over the country. Have you ever gotten around to testing yours?
Also cool to see someone with one of those classic 4603s. They look super cool but are super fragile. I’ve gone through 3 of them at this point lol. Guess I have bad luck. I’m blown away at how clean those panels look. You take good care of those things.
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I’ve tested it a few times since I’ve had it, which has probably been for about a year now. It works well, however, it can be rather finicky if you aren’t careful. The last time I tested it I thought my audio controller board went out as the speaker circuits no longer worked and a few “CARD MISSING FAILED” troubles came in for the speaker card and VTG board. Turns out the ribbon cable going to the switch controller card was pushing against the speaker circuit card, causing a bad connection with the motherboard. I was able to fix it by moving the cable, but nonetheless, these panels are very touchy. I just wish I had a way to reprogram it for my own use or knew someone that could help me with that since it still has all of its old MapNet devices programmed into it, which are causing about 70 or so missing device troubles that I cannot clear. Nonetheless, I don’t power it up often as I don’t want to risk damaging components or placing extra stress on the power supply from power cycling it.
But it’s cool to see someone else with one of these panels, they are getting very hard to find. Most 4100+ systems I’ve seen in my area have all been replaced with a 4100es if the system being serviced by JCI, or a competitor’s system.
Your 4100 looks relatively clean from the photo, though. Mine is pretty mint, but trust me, it wasn’t like that when I got it. Both my 4100 and my 4020 came out of a hospital campus that sat vacant for nearly a decade before it was demoed last year. They were a part of (from what I can tell from the node list in both panels) a 15 node 4120 network that even had an NDU/NVCC and a Graphics Command Center. I wish I would have gotten those as well, but unfortunately wasn’t able to. But I always take all of my panels apart completely, vacuum out the cabinet, wipe it down with a rag and cleaner, clean all of the circuit boards with compressed air, along with a lot of other things to try to get them back to a “like-new” condition. Probably a little excessive, but it’s worth it in my opinion.
I’m curious as to how your 4100 is set up…does yours also have MapNet or is it conventional?
Yes I will agree these panels can be a bit fragile. I have one of the newest versions of the software that happens to be compatible with both my 4020 and 4100+. However after a few downloads, I believe I hit the limit on my 4020 as it refuses to download now. I believe I just have to swap the cfig chip and it should be good but nonetheless yes these 90s software based panels are pretty touchy.
So the guts to my 4100+ originally were all zone cards and an ES upgrade kit. I was able to put a 4100+ cpu and display back in it and I also managed to hunt down a mapnet card for a good price. They’re crazy expensive nowadays. I removed a bunch of the zone cards to make room for a future voice bay and put the mapnet card in so it is programmed to do both.
Awesome collection! When you mentioned that one of your speaker strobes is a 4903-9146, well since it is 110CD, it is actually a 9144 from that case.
Making a quick update to this thread, I’ve gotten a couple of new things since my last update in January that I think are worthy of sharing.
Simplex 4603-9101 Remote Annunciator (1st Gen. and 2nd Gen. Respectively):
I have yet another Simplex 4603 series annunciator in my collection (well, two). The first is a 1st generation from 1992 (with trim ring and back box), the second is the slightly newer version with priority 2.
Simplex 4903-9109 Speaker Strobe:
This 4903 was manufactured rather early on, being manufactured in 1994. Much like my -9202, the strobe on this model flashes at the slower 20 flashes per minute rate.
Simplex 4098-9781 (Base) + 4098-9701 (Head) 1st Gen. TrueAlarm Smoke Detectors:
Ordered two more of these detectors to go with my 4120 and 4020 systems. Both are photoelectric.
Simplex 2903-9102 + 2901-9732:
3rd generation 2903 (surface mount), with a 2902-9732 LifeAlarm series speaker.
Simplex 4903-9105 + 2902-9732:
ADA series strobe plate from the early-mid 90s, with another 2902-9732 LifeAlarm series speaker.
Simplex 4904-9105:
Strobe-only version of the strobe plate above.
The next item I believe is the most exciting thing I have to share, and very well may top any other piece of equipment I have in my collection in terms of how special it is. Now this piece is only one, small part of everything I will need to have the complete version, but it is a good start at least. So, needless to say, I was able to obtain the BMUX out of a Simplex 2120. I have a long way to go before this panel is even near complete, but it is a massive start in the right direction. Of course, I will need an enclosure, mounting rails, and all of the additional bays such as the microphone and oscillator/amp boards, but I figured I can acquire a lot of that over time. The good news is this panel, in terms of the audio components, uses the exact same parts as the 2001 series. And while 2001 parts are not necessarily common, they are still common enough to where I think I should be able to manage tracking down the parts I’ll need. The other massive hurdle I have to jump over is getting this panel wired (both internally between all of the boards and components, and wiring devices to it). Documentation for this panel is not easy to find, so at this point in time, I’m not certain how and where things wire. Either way, it looks like I have yet another big project on my hands. It may take me a good bit of time (possibly several years) to get a complete, working panel, but nonetheless, I cannot wait to show off the final product when the time comes. Not a lot is known about the 2120, so I cannot wait to share what I’ve learned and how these work with the community.
Simplex 2120-8221 (BMUX Only):
This 2120 was manufactured at some point between 1986 and 1987 judging by the date codes on some of the parts on the inside. There are several different cards on this inside of this panel including (from left to right) an RS232 Interface board, x3 96K PRAM boards, and a CPU board. I believe this panel may be missing the BMUX and DC Transmission boards, although I’m not sure if those are required for it to function or not. This panel also features a built-in thermal printer, which according to some of the dates printed on the printer paper in the take-up reel, this panel was last used in 1998. Next to the printer are the display and printer controller boards. I have yet to power this up, as it is missing the AC Input board, but I am hoping to find one of those soon and get some power to this panel to test it out.
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HOW DID YOU GET THAT!?!?!?!?!? I have been trying to get a 2120 for YEARS (I’ve gotten VERY close before). I wish you best of luck on working on it.
Thanks. And it was a case of pure dumb luck. I ended up finding someone who had one lying around, I assume they had it for a good while.
I don’t believe so, the BMUX I got was pretty much all they had in terms of 2120 parts.
And nice find on his part. He got lucky finding the dress panel - the cabinet and dress panel are harder to find than the internal components themselves in my opinion. Do you know how he came across that?
I won’t get too into the specifics, but he was able to remove the BMUX as well as the dress panel from a building where it was sitting unused, and he’ll be retrieving the cabinet itself sometime in the near future.
His BMUX is missing nearly all of the internal components, so it’ll need to be rebuilt.
Congrats on your acquisition, by the way! I’m super jealous of how clean all of your stuff is as well…if only my stuff could be like that.
Ah, I know what you mean. Props to him for saving that, these things are getting very hard to find. I have a lot of work to do on mine, as well. The biggest challenge is finding a cabinet, door and dress panel - I have no clue how or if I’ll ever be able to do that. I could theoretically use a 4100+ cabinet since later generation 2120s used the same one, but that still won’t solve the problem of finding a dress panel.
And thanks, I try very hard to restore all of my stuff back to like-new condition. It’s a huge pain sometimes, and a lot of work, but totally worth it all.
Yep - in my experience the hardest parts to find for these panels are always the dress panels… I am facing that exact problem now, since my 4100ES is built in a 4100U cabinet and I have been unable to find a dress panel for the past 6 months. One will eventually pop up, but it’s a waiting game!
For the 2120 though, there are so few of them left that the dress panels are nearly impossible to find, unless you are removing the panel yourself…
I do wish you luck in getting your BMUX operational though, since there are so few of these things in collectors’ hands.
Adding another quick update to the thread. While this panel isn’t Simplex, I thought it still would be worthy of showing here as it was definitely an awesome find.
Cerberus Pyrotronics MXL:
This is something I have been working on for about the past month or so. This panel was originally an MXLR when I bought it - that is, a remote transponder cabinet for a larger MXL system. I’ve been transforming this panel into a complete MXL piece by piece, and it is pretty much complete at this point. This particular panel has 4 addressable loops and 6 NAC circuits - 2 of the loops and 2 of the NACs are built-in to the MMB-2 motherboard, while the others reside on the expansion cards (one ALD-2 loop card and two CSM-4 signal circuit cards). Unfortunately, just like with any other proprietary panel, I am limited in what I can do with it - I can’t add or remove cards, or change any of the system programming. However, what I can do is still use it the way it is, which is good enough for me. I’m hoping to do a demo on this panel at some point in the future, as there aren’t too many detailed examples of these systems in action.
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Recently, I got ahold of something kind of special…this is my new-to-me Simplex 4120-8009 annunciator panel. This essentially is a 4603 remote annunciator with a microphone and switches inside of a 4 unit 4100 cabinet. This annunciator would have been used on a voice evac 4120 system much like the one I own in its previous life.
The inside of this panel is rather simple - it consists of a 4603-9101 annunciator mounted on a special adapter plate that allows it to be mounted to a standard 4100 chassis, and a remote audio bay. The remote audio bay has a microphone, selection switches, and a few cards behind them like the LED/switch controller card, and an RIC card that connects to the RUI and remote mic input on the main control panel.
A lot like the other pieces of fire alarm hardware I own, this annunciator needed (and still needs) a bit of work to get it looking and working like new again. Unfortunately, the audio bay on this was pretty jacked up when I first got it. Some of the LEDs on the switch cards were broken off, and they were covered in spray paint. The microphone assembly was also covered in spray paint (which I’ve been able to clean off for the most part), and the microphone cable is partially cut. So far, I’ve replaced the switch cards, and will be replacing the microphone next. The text (like “REMOTE COMMAND CENTER” and the operating instructions) is also worn off of the mounting plate the annunciator sits on, but I’m going to try to find a way to stencil all of that back on somehow.
Anyways, figured I would show this here since you really don’t see too many of these older “Remote Command Center” style annunciators anymore. This was definitely a cool find, and I am excited to put this to use on my own 4120 system.
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