Almost anything is better than Silent Knight. EST used to be the “laughingstock” of the fire alarm industry (whether or not that was deserved is debatable), but I think Silent Knight, and more broadly Honeywell now deserves to be.
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Right you are, as do Eaton & JCI for what they’ve done to the companies they’ve acquired (Honeywell was better in that aspect for a while after they acquired Pittway & all the other companies they now own, but in recent years even they’ve “faltered”).
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Baptist ER (Emergency Room)
Pulls Est Sigas
EST Smokes
Est announcaitor
System Sensor L Series SPKR
(yes i unfortantly made a visit to the ER cuz i had sliped on ice and broke my arm again)
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l series on a EST!?? Crazy..
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Cadillac Jack’s Gaming Resort- Deadwood, SD
This is a casino “resort” in Deadwood, South Dakota. Deadwood is a gold rush city that is situated in the Black Hills. It is mainly known for its historic buildings, street life, tourism attractions & businesses, restaurants, and casinos/gambling. It has a population of about 1,500 people, but it attracts around 2.5 million tourists annually. I would say it’s like if Las Vegas was a small town.
This resort consists of three hotels: SpringHill Suites by Marriott, DoubleTree by Hilton, and Tru by Hilton. They are distinct buildings that share walls, but are only open to each other at the first floor.
SpringHill Suites:
This building is the most separated building, as it is only accessible from the other buildings by a small hallway. This is a pretty normal hotel, with the lobby, a pool, and a small conference/convention area on the first floor, three floors of hotel rooms above that, and an underground parking garage below the building.
Panel: Kidde/GE FX- or VS- series addressable panel
Notification Appliances: Kidde EG1F-HDVM and EGCF-HDVM horn/strobes, and EG1F-HDVM and EGCF-VM remote strobes in most areas. The pool area and outdoor areas have red Gentex Commander 2/3 horn/strobes in GOE enclosures.
Pull Stations: Kidde/GE GSA-M278 addressable pull stations
Smoke Detectors: Kidde/GE FX-PD or V-PS addressable smoke detectors, with SB4U sounder bases in the rooms
DoubleTree (and casino and restaurant on ground level):
This building is the main building/hub of the whole place, as it is in the middle. The first floor has casino floor space, a customer assistance desk, and a Mexican restaurant. The other three floors have hotel rooms and amenities.
Panel: Most likely a Harrington HS-3030 running CLIP protocol addressable devices
Notification Appliances: White Gentex Commander 2/3 strobes and horn/strobes. The hotel rooms have GX90-4W mini horns. All of the devices are rebranded by Harrington Signal.
Pull Stations: Harrington HSPA1T-S CLIP protocol addressable pull stations
Detectors: System Sensor 2251 and 2251B addressable smoke detectors and 5251RP addressable heat detectors. The hotel rooms have Gentex 8000 series smoke alarms.
Annunciator: Harrington HS-3434LCD annunciator in the front entrance vestibule
Tru (with casino and restaurants on ground level):
This building is also a pretty major building, and is by far the most modern. The first floor has casino floor area, several restaurants, customer service areas, and some shops. The second floor has the hotel lobby and hotel rooms. The third and fourth floor have more hotel rooms. There is an underground parking garage underneath this building.
Panel: Autocall 4010ES or 4100ES
Notification Appliances: Autocall A49AV-APPLW horn/strobes with A49AVC-WRFIRE covers, and A49VO-APPLW remote strobes with A49VOC-WRFIRE covers
Pull Stations: Autocall A4099-9006 dual action addressable pull stations
Detectors: Autocall A4098-9714 addressable smoke detectors. The rooms probably have A4098-9772 sounder bases, but that’s just an educated guess, as I wasn’t able to confirm.
Annunciator: Autocall A4606-9102 or A4603-9101 annunciator (I saw it, but I forgot exactly which one, so I don’t know exactly which panel)
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Golden Corral: Jacksonville, FL
Bonus: Fire alarm fail from this exact location 4 years ago. This is no longer here.
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Not really: those Gentex strobes are infamous for having their support clips break off, so that place was just trying to keep it held on (even if that tape likely blocks the strobe a good bit).
Going by that last part & the fact that there’s still at least one Gentex speaker/strobe in place according to that one photo, did they replace it with a newer device or better fix the strobe?
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They replaced it with a newer device. This time I only saw 1 Gentex device, but last time I saw more of them.
That makes sense but in that case it’s still a fail, just for a different reason…
Here are some photos I took today around my area:
I will release more in-depth overviews of some of these systems in the future. These pictures are from three separate buildings: one with a Simplex system, one with an Autocall system, and one with a Cerberus Pyrotronics system.
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Update to the pet smart I went to in Jacksonville, FL a year ago.
The Silent Knight SK-5235 has been replaced with a Fire-Lite ANN-80
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Camp Whitcomb/Mason - James Lodge Merton, WI
Built 1994
Simplex 2901 Horn Strobes & remote strobes, throughout, i3 smoke detectors, Bg-12’s, all controlled by a MS5-UD
Based on what year this was built, and having 2901’s I bet that the original panel was a simplex something, because the MS5-UD came out around 2008, esp with the 2901’s.
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I have discovered some more devices in my school, inside a closet while grabbing supplies. One of these things is a red box, Edwards branded that has “FIRE ALARM” written on it in sharpie, and a hole with the label “RESET” anyone know what this is? I’ve been told that many people have accidentally hit it before and it set off the alarm, so it could be an initiating device of some kind.
I also found the amplifiers for the HyperSpike speakers in the main gym + auditorium, which is marked “FIRE ALARM AUDIO CABINET FOR AUDITORIUM AND PURPLE GYM FIRE ALARM SPEAKERS”. I think this is the HyperSpike amplifier since all amplifiers for the normal speaker strobes are EST power supplies, but these are DuKane amps. Below is a picture of the amplifiers and the HyperSpike speaker in the auditorium.
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I don’t think Simplex ever made an outdoor conventional speaker strobe. Assuming this is outdoor, that’s a fail!
Surprisingly, this is in an auditorium with a painted stone wall. It’s hard to tell with my poor photo. It’s in the same room as the horn and bell behind that grate in the last photo that are unused now.
I don’t remember exactly but I believe these are the annunciator’s labels (exact order is unknown):
- 1st Floor
- 2nd floor
- Duct Detector
- Sprinkler Flow
These photos are from the Pepsi All Seasons Arena, which is located directly next to where my district’s old high school was. Here is the system’s description:
The system hasn’t really changed since I wrote that description around a year ago, but the Cerberus Pyrotronics MS-51 pull station in the lobby did get replaced with a new Siemens MS-151 pull station at some point in the last 1 1/2 years since I’ve been in this building. If you’re not familiar with that model number, it’s one of these:
I was surprised to learn that they are still making these, and that my local Siemens dealer still stocks up on them.
I found a 3D tour of an abandoned school and found the following:
Painted 270 SPO
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Several of these unidentified horns
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What looks like an actuator switch which could have been attached to a pull rod bell along with a class change bell.
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Standard Electric Time model 50 iirc. Some look to be the single projector version as well
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Clairmont Center for the Performing Arts- University of Mary- Bismarck, ND
This is the music building on this college campus. This college uses (and always has used) exclusively Simplex fire alarm systems. This building was opened in 1992. At some point in the last year, the system was upgraded to an addressable system, but the old notification appliances were kept.
Panel: Likely either a Simplex 4002 or conventional 4100 (replaced with 4100ES in 2025)
Notification Appliances: Simplex 2901-9838 horns on 4903-9101 strobe plates
Here are some photos I found online that show them:
Pull Stations: Simplex 4251-20s (Replaced by 4099-9006 addressable pull stations in 2025)
Detectors: Simplex 2098-9202 smoke and heat detectors (Replaced by 4098-9714 addressable smoke detectors in 2025)
Annunciator: Silver incandescent Simplex annunciator similar to this one: (Not my image)
Credit: @The09Creeper
In 2025, the door was replaced with a metal plate, and a 4603-9101 was flush mounted on top of it.
Clock System: Surprisingly, they didn’t go with a Simplex clock system. Instead, they have a National Time and Signal clock system. The NATSCO system is still in use, and is still keeping accurate time to this day.
Here is a photo I found online of a clock and speaker combo that can be seen in most rooms:
Upstairs, some rooms have separate ceiling speakers and wall clocks. I’m not sure if the intercom system is still in use, or what it could be. If it is in use, I’ve never heard anything from it.
Other photos from around campus that I took or found online:
These two photos below are from Arno Gustin Hall, which is an auditorium that was opened in 1970. Although it is connected to the Clairmont Center, it is on a separate 4100ES system (that likely used to be a 4100+) for many other campus buildings that was installed a few years earlier. All of these other photos (including the one above) are from that system. These older devices under a grate are no longer used.
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Ai enhanced, can’t be considered accurate