I’ve been wondering if the 6500 can be voice assisted
From what I have seen, I don’t think so, as the Voice would be provided by the Fire Safety Director via Microphone to aid in Evac Instructions (As this is common in NYC). I don’t know, as Im just an enthusiast and I don’t work for Firecom. The most HQ tones of the 8500 Whoop and Chime video, as you probably have seen already. https://youtu.be/KjlTyRBb7JI?t=68
It seems like Robville Virtual Realisations rebuilt the circuit from the patent and re-recorded it or rebuilt the tones from frequency’s used from the patent.
Oh thank you so much. Im sorry but i ment the edwards 6500 custom
That is my mistake, I misread 6500 for 8500. For the 6500, I have very limited knowledge, and I will let others users answer that for you.
Thats incredibly fine i have limited knowledge with the 6500 custom too. know its a panel from the late 70s early 80s but not much else
Yes, it was called the Edwards 6700. It was a voice part of the 6500. I know as my moms work had one of these at one point.
It is very rare today and I can’t even find any documentation on it. I know that it came with a microphone, handset for firefigher telephones, and selective/all call paging. I’m not sure if any came with automatic tape decks or anything.
The 6700 is on the left side, it is pretty simple.
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Thank you, what do those things sound like
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Unfortunatley I never heard it in person. I know the bells did a 20 bpm for 1st stage and then a 120bpm for second stage (it was a 2 stage system).
I do service work for the place now and the system has been completely replaced with a Kidde VM panel.
What country? Never heard of this in NYC
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Canada I believe is where it’s at or was at
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Where you are in nyc are firecom systems popular
In the beginning there was a fire at 1 New York Plaza and what came out of it was the fire could spread thru the elevator shafts, elevators were called to the fire floor because the call button were heat activated and there was no way to evacuate or communicate a 50 story building .
That led to Local Law #5 of 1973 requiring Voice Evacuation and Elevator recall. This was the first jurisdiction to enact such a law and there where no systems that were capable at the time.
FireCom came from Fire Controls (A mostly Pyrotronics HV Smoke detection company) and combining with Commercial Radio and Sound (Muzak type). Quickly they developed a combination fire and voice evac system call the FireCom 8000.
Other notable systems but short lived where
- AFA Centrak
- CoData
- ACME built Interior Fire Alarm systems and developed the FireGuard which was bought up by FireCom
- BRD was an offshoot from FireCom and which was bought up by FireCom
- American Multiplex which was bought up by FireCom
FireCom got the majority of work (More than 50% would be my guess) and I can only guess there where hundreds of these system before Pyrotronics and Mirtone got into the voice business.
Another company to mention is Casey Sound which developed the Comtrak 1720 and which was also bought up by FireCom in the last 20 years.
This is all from memory and industry conversations because I never worked for FireCom. Any corrections or further elaboration would be welcome.
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So I got a little more info…
- In the early 80’s FireCom had over 2000 service contracts
- ACME did not make the FireGuard, but had their own multiplex system. CASE made the FireGuard and bought ACME, then CASE/ACME was bought by FireCom.
- American Multiplex (Original Contractor for the WTC) was once owned by Kinney Systems (The Parking people)
- Edwards had the 5800 system that there were a lot of, most installed by Casey for jobs too small for the Comtrak 1720.
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In Canada. I guess the 6700 wasn’t used that much, if at all, in US. They had the 5800 series, which you mentioned, which Canada never really had.
In Canada voice evacuation was a lot different in the 70s and such. Most systems were combo systems, as the speakers were used for communication purposes, and then there was separate bell or horns to indicate the fire situation. I remember a hotel in Ottawa, Ontario with a very old system like this.
They were also usually 2 stage systems. Obviously as time went by, these systems became outdated and then we went to straight on voice evacuation systems. But depending where you are, most I’ve worked on are still basically set up the same, with a tone over the speakers instead of a separate NA, and then manual voice paging. Auto voice evacuation is usually an extra feature to add for these systems, and I only see them in very large places like Airports, or government institutions, well the ones who decide to upgrade their systems.
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What did the fireguard look like
And what products did case make
And what products did brd/afa centrak make
I only seen one in 52 Broadway around 1992 and do not remember
I think they only manufactured the Fireguard, they were a distributor of Pyrotronics and maybe Faraday
The both only made their own Class E system. Although AFA had been around for over 100 years and did manufacture stuff back in the day