Last Sunday, we went to an Advance Auto Parts store in Glen Ellyn, IL to look for a chemical that my Dad needed. The store is fairly new, with what looks to be a Honeywell system. The pulls are BG-12s. The inside of the store has ceiling mount SpectrAlert Advance horn/strobes. At least I think they are horn/strobes.
Anyway, we walked in on a test. Prior to entering the store, I saw a weatherproof SpectrAlert Advance strobe outside flashing, so I knew the system was in alarm. I expected to hear the normal loud and obnoxious code-3 horns that Advances produce, however, that was not the case. The tone I heard was a quieter “beep” sound. Not mini-horns, but a much smoother sound you would hear out of a voice evac panel.
The code went something like: Beeeep (2 second pause) Beeeep (2 second pause) and so on. At first I thought it was a voice evac system, and the devices were speaker/strobes, since Advance horns and chimes don’t make that noise. However, after reviewing the video I took just after the system was silenced (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVKj8b3yBe0) it appears that the alarms had one tiny grille on them for a horn, rather than a speaker grille all the way around the device.
Here’s my best guesses: System Sensor made these custom, which is highly unlikely, or, I was standing under a strobe only device with a false grille, and the device up front (shown in the beginnning) was a speaker/strobe. That also seems unlikely, since usually ceiling mount devices in an area this big all produce audible warnings.
I have searched Honeywell voice evac panel tones, and I could not find a tone matching what I heard, and I searched the SpectrAlert Advance product pages, looking for a multi-tone version also with no luck. What do you guys think? Thanks. -Ryan 