A rest stop in Monticello, FL
Notification Appliances
Initiating Devices
Flying J in Midway, FL
Notification Appliances
Initiating Devices
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St. Joseph’s Church and School- Mandan, ND
The original parts of this building were built in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. The original parts of the school were built in the 1920’s and 1930’s. This was actually one of the first buildings in my town and the original parts were built before my town was even established. The street this building is on is even named after the founding priest and he is buried in the basement.
The original fire alarm system was a pull rod system concealed in the wall. The only remnants of that system are blank cover plates over where the levers presumably would have been. Some time in the mid 1900’s, they would have upgraded to an electric fire alarm system that probably used AC horns, just like the original system, the only remnants are abandoned electrical boxes with red painted cover plates.
In the late 90’s the system was completely overhauled:
Panel: Probably a simplex 4002 or 4005
Notification Appliances: Wheelock NS horn/strobes and RSS remote strobes (signal coding: continuous)
Pull Stations: Simplex 2099-9754 (or similar looking)
Detectors: Simplex 2098-9201 detectors on conventional bases
In the late 2000’s and early 2010’s some major renovations happened in some areas and the system was upgraded again:
Panel: What I believe is a Simplex 4010
Notification Appliances: All of the original appliances were kept, but some of the wall mount Wheelock devices were moved onto the ceiling in areas where they added new drop ceilings to install fire sprinklers. Also, TrueAlert horn/strobes were added to expand coverage into some other areas of the school. The church also got coverage with TrueAlert horn/strobes and ceiling mount remote strobes in the restrooms. Outdoor TrueAlert horn/strobes were also added. Signal coding remains continuous on all devices and sync does not appear to be present (at least on the Wheelock devices).
Pull stations: Same pull stations in the school, but the church got 4099-9001 addressable pull stations.
Detectors: The school’s smoke detectors were upgraded to conventional TrueAlarm smoke detectors. A few conventional heat detectors were added in the kitchen. The church got addressable TrueAlarm smoke detectors and heat detectors.
Photos:
This system is pretty special to me as I went to daycare and preschool here and this was the first fire alarm system I ever encountered and heard.
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I wonder who could have put that piece of tape over that GX90…(& why for that matter: a disgruntled guest who thought it was too dang loud maybe?)
That’s not a System Sensor CO1224TR in that second photo is it?
Interesting how that system has a combination of Commander 1, Commander 2/3, & SPKE-series NAs (not to mention the GX90s which are most likely in the rooms of course). If I had to guess the Commander 2s/3s are replacing Commander 1 devices that failed (if there’s more than one of course), though having voice & non-voice signals in the same system is quite unusual: any idea why that system’s like that? Odd how the initiating devices are all Simplex too.
Well that was stupid, especially since the reflectors were made for wall mounting & thus won’t work properly if the devices are mounted on the ceiling instead.
Ooh, you don’t see those SSPKCLP-series devices every day! (on what’s supposedly a Mircom system no less) Nice find!
That cinema recently got a new fire alarm system! They replaced the Simplex 4100 panel setups with a Simplex 4100ES system, right in the existing 4100 cabinets. The original 4903 speaker/strobes are still intact, but a good chunk of the older TrueAlarm detectors were replaced with new ones over time. A few of the Simplex 2099-9761 pulls were replaced with 4099-9006 dual-action pulls. A fairly typical Simplex voice-evac upgrade, but it’s good to see the cinema’s fire protection is now a lot newer with a nice direct upgrade.
Siemens are now using LED strobes too?
Yep: they also released their own line of LED appliances not that long ago as well!
A rest stop with truealert es devices huh? Seems a bit overkill considering an es panel would be required. Still interesting nonetheless.
You’re certainly not kidding, but from what I’ve read what do you expect from JCI-controlled Simplex nowdays?
Simplex & Gentex signals in the same system? That’s sure new!
They have been using them for quite a while. They started off with the SL- series (seen in the post) which were rebranded Wheelock LED3 devices. Then, they moved to the SL2 devices, which are rebranded Eluxa devices. Recently, they have released the ACEND series, which are not rebranded Wheelock devices. I would say that the SL2 devices are somewhat rare compared to the others because they were only out for a short time between when Wheelock stopped making the SL devices for Siemens and when the ACEND devices were released. My school which just opened up in August has almost all SL devices. There are only a few SL2 remote strobes that were installed in the band area (the last area to be finished).
Not necessarily, the foundation series panels are only compatible with conventional notification appliances iirc.
I mean that of course JCI would go overboard with ES-series devices on a little tiny system like that: according to a tech on Reddit they charge ridiculous service fees even for such small systems.
Yeah. I’ve seen ES devices on many small Simplex systems in my area, but almost all of the Autocal systems have conventional notion. This is because the Autocall installer in my area is a reasonable local company, while JCI is a terrible corporate.
For example, the only Autocall system in my area that I know of with ES devices is my state’s 14 floor capitol building. Meanwhile, there are several small elementary schools and stores in my area that have Simplex systems with ES notification.
I’ve seen this before. The building I was in had like 4 or 5 rooms and one hallway and they went full on addressable. A couple conventional devices could’ve got the job done as originally there were just two Adaptahorns