I forgot to mention there were some beam detectors for part 3
I was at an Auto Museum in Brookline MA today. It’s a very old building, and I am guessing the system was put in in the 60s. The building is much older than that. The pulls were Honeywell Local Alarm pulls and some Edwards 270-SPOs. Most of the pulls were mounted high, some higher than others. There were Chemtronics 500 series heat detectors everywhere. One was painted lol. I also saw a 600 series heat detector too. I didn’t see many alarms. I saw a 10-inch bell in one room, and what resemble old rusty bells some other places. I also saw a System Sensor mini-horn in another room. Another odd thing was a Gentex SHG was found on a wooden post that wasn’t attached to the wall. The post was leaned against something near one of the pulls.
At the Seminole County Criminal Justice Center where I had jury duty today, they have EST Genesis H/S (red w/Fire lettering) and red trim plate around the Genesis w/white Wheelock AS style Fire lettering on the sides trim plate
Pulls are EST dual action
The T.J. Maxx store in Stoughton, MA (where I tried applying for a job today) has an addressable Fire-Lite system. I saw the panel, I think it was either an MS9200 or a MS9600; I forget what the brand was, but I’m sure it was an MS9200. The signals are Wheelock ZNS horn/strobes. There’s a wall-mount version above the main entrance, and ceiling-mount versions on the ceiling. The pulls are Fire-Lite BG-12Ls (I could tell by the way they kept flashing the little red light in the middle of the lever every half a second.) They also had addressable Fire-Lite smokes, I believe they were SP355-As (they didn’t look like the Fire-Lite SD355Ts at Massasoit Community College). Overall, to me it’s nothing really interesting except for the Wheelock ZNSs. Other than that, it’s a typical kind of alarm system I often find in stores.
Wouldn’t that make it a BG-12LX?
That’s an audible crosswalk signal for people who are visually impaired. What sound does it make?
My city has three examples:
One intersection near a couple of apartments not too far from the Campello train station uses 4-inch bells when the walk lights come on. One of them is an Edwards Adaptabel, the others may be either Wheelock or Faraday, I don’t know which. Very early audible sign setup, and VERY loud. I often try to avoid going near that intersection because of it.
The intersection near the Bat Bus Transfer center has Wilcox audible crosswalk speakers on top of their signals. The ones crossing Center St. make a “cuckoo”-type noise, and the ones crossing Commercial St. make a noise like a bird chirping.
The crosswalk near Caffrey Towers not too far from my college have Polara crosswalk buttons designed for the visually impaired. The buttons beep once every second for blind people to find the button. Once the button is pressed, it makes a “click” noise from the built-in speakers and a red LED comes on, letting you know the buttons work. When the walk cycle begins, the LEDs on the buttons go out, the buttons begin to vibrate, and they play a recorded voice message of a man saying “Walk signal is on to cross Crescent St.” repeatedly. When the “hand” symbol starts flashing, the buttons stop vibrating, and the speakers stop playing the voice message and go back to beeping every second.
If I remember correctly, those “talking” buttons and the audible walk signals near the Bat Bus center were installed when most of the traffic lights in my city were upgraded from incandescent bulbs to LEDs. They also upgraded most of the walk signs from the old incandescent or fiber-optic ones that either had the words, or some incandescent ones that even had the symbols on them, to LED ones that just use the symbols. Most of the new LED traffic lights are made by General Electric, which owns Edwards/EST. They didn’t replace the signal housings or the control boxes/timers, though.
I went to BWI Airport (Baltimore Washington International) to pick up my aunt today which is another long story within itself. I remember saying previously about the Wheelock MT’s well I found a lot more.
Panel: Notifier ???
Horn/Strobes:
Wheelock MT’s (New and old)
Wheelock AS’s and NS’s mixed together in some parts
Wheelock AS’s and 7002T’s in the parking garage
Pull Stations:
BG-12’s
Unknown pulls in the parking garage
Smokes:
All I saw were the Notifier smoke detectors I’m not sure exactly if they are the Acclimate™ or just regular smoke detectors.
Just a summary of my day we went there and we intended on pulling up to the arrival pickup but my aunt wasn’t there so me and my sister went inside to check it out. She still was no where in sight. We went back out into the car and got a hold of her on her cell phone. Well right after we told her where we were the cop there motioned us to move because we were parked and you really shouldn’t be. We had to go park in the garage and then we had a dispute on where to go in the elevator. Because the way it’s set up you have to go up to Level 6 in the parking garage, then go through a skywalk to get to the terminal. But my mom had to try every other floor before there because she claimed that Level 6 wasn’t right. So, all I can say is that it ended walking up four flights of stairs so I could prove her wrong. 
We went through the skywalk and all that then had to go down two floors and it was a long walk to the bag claim area where we finally met her. So yeah it was a long walk this morning. :lol:
The Bank of America near my college has an interesting system. The only signal I saw was a Federal Signal Vibratone 450D horn/strobe, the one with the non-ADA “FIRE” wedge strobe, it’s identical to the halon alarms in the Administration building at my college. The pulls were ADT 5050-001s (the Simplex T-bar knockoff), and they had a couple of ESL smokes (newer-looking ones) and a System Sensor i3 smoke. There was also an ADT keypad near one of the pulls.
I heard rumors that Simplex actually made that 5050-001 pull, but ESL and ADT branded it.
The system at the Progressive Auto Insurance service center in Altamonte Springs has an ADT system.
H/S - Unbranded True Alert’s (no Simplex or TrueAlert text)
Pulls - Simplex single action T-Bar (with ADT logo instead of Simplex logo)
System - ADT version of the Simplex 4008
Today I went three different places. Here are their fire alarm systems:
The building complex where my dentist office is has a Simplex 4010, and two TrueAlarm smokes by the elevators on the first and second floors (the only floors) And that’s about it. No pulls, no N/As, nothing else. Also, the 4010 has a sicker on it that says Elevator Control Panel.
Next is some hotel with a mini art museum in it. The places where I were in the building (lobby and mini art museum) have most likely a Notifier system. I say this because the pull stations were NBG-12LXs and most of the alarms were SpecterAlert speaker/strobes (white). Back when Pittway owned Notifier, System Sensor products were often seen with Notifier products. Some of the pulls had “Notifier by Honeywell” written on them, so I’m not quite sure when the system was installed. The smokes were either System Sensor or Notifier, but most likeyly Notifier. There were also a few white Wheelock speaker/strobes and ceiling mount SpecterAlert speaker/strobes and SpecterAlert wall mount strobes (all white). The outdoor alarm that I saw was a SpecterAlert Horn/Strobe (Red).
My dad needed to stop at a Boy Scout office/store to drop something off, and here’s the system: The outdoor alarm is an EST Integrity. The indoor alarms are white EST Genesis with fire lettering. This was the first time I’ve seen one in person, and It surprised me on how small it is. The pulls were EST SIGA-278s. If there were any smokes, they would most likely be EST SIGA-…s. I also noticed an addressable annunciator by one of the doors.
Well, I actually went back to the Holyoke store and it turns out, I was WRONG! The door to the room that the panel was in was open and the panel is actually that of a Simplex 4005. I also checked the smoke detectors and sure enough, the LEDs were on the heads, and not the bases. Also, at that store, there’s a huge sign blocking the -9237s:
The signs are actually translucent, so it’d be pretty interesting to see the system in action and seeing two strobe lights flashing through one of the signs… :lol:
Our B.B. doesn’t have a system, AFAIK. Also when I was in Roch yesterday I noticed their Michael’s (a hobby/craft store) has a Radionics system, but it has a CP MS-151 pull and an U-HN (or HNH)
Today I was in the University of Pittsburgh Athletics Association building, and they have a rather strange Simplex system. There were no smokes at all, and the alarms were very sparse. Sorry for the blurry photos; the place was crowded and I had to shoot the photos quickly.
Simplex annunciator and t-bar. These were mounted very low on some kind of mailbox. As far as I can tell, this is the only pull in the whole building.
Simplex-rebranded Faraday MTL and 4904 remote strobe. It seems weird that Simplex would install alarms like this. It must be a retrofit application.
Some of them are mounted like this.
This was in a huge room, but it was the only alarm. There wasn’t even a strobe.
Well like it’s been said in the past numerous times. It doesn’t matter if the building has smoke detectors or not, they might have duct detectors or as long as the building has a suppression system with waterflow detection it should be fine.
That is right. The Brockton Public Library only has smoke detectors (newer-style Simplex TrueAlarms) at the elevators, but they have a full sprinkler system (most of the sprinklers are concealed) and they may have duct detectors.
A Challenger Learning Center near me is part of the adjoining middle school. The alarms are 4099-9003 pull stations and addressable TrueAlerts. There are wall-mount TrueAlerts in the main plaza, True-Alert strobes in the bathrooms and in the briefing room, and Addressable Ceiling-mount TrueAlerts (white) in the simulators. I don’t recall if I saw smoke detectors or not, but they would most likely by addressable TrueAlarms. Outdoor alarms that I saw (where part of the school) were Wheelock MTs horn only.
A library branch that I don’t go to that often has Simplex 4099-9001 pull stations with Stopper II covers, a Simplex annunciator in an air lock, and red TrueAlerts. There are most likely TrueAlert strobes in the bathrooms. I don’t recall seeing any smokes again, but if there were, they most likely would be Simplex Addressable TrueAlarms.
A King Soupers (Kroger) that I don’t go to that much has an addressable Fire-Lite annunciator in the air lock (either LCD-40 or LCD-80F or similar), and System Sensor SpecterAlert Advance horn/strobes. There aren’t very many of the SpecterAlert Advanced. Outdoor alarms for the whole strip mall it was in were SpecterAlert Advanced.
A Wallgreens that I don’t go to that often has a Fire-Lite BG-12 at the entrance along with a Silent Knight annunciator. No alarms or outdoor alarms, which is strange because at the Wallgreens that I go to more often has a weather proof AS outside (and a BG-10 inside. I don’t know about the annunciator, I’ll have to look the next time I go).
Wal-Mart (Supercenter) has a Raidonics system with a t-bar in the customer service area (along with Raidonics annunciators). There are also some annunciators by the grocery department. Alarms are Wheelock ASes.
A Natural Grocers store has a Simplex system which includes a single action t-bar in the airlock (2099-9754?) and a non-addressable annunciator. Alarms are part of the 4903 series, and I’m pretty sure that there’s an alarm combo with a Simplex retro-fit plate near the restrooms. There are wall-mount 4903 remote strobes in the bathrooms mounted on the ceiling.
Finally, Pepboy’s Auto Parts has System Sensor(?) smoke detectors and Gentex GMSs or SHGs.
Yesterday, I went to an animal shelter for service hours. The alarms were SpectrAlert Advance ceiling mount horn/strobes, a weatherproof wall mount version outside, a wall mount version found upstairs (I think it was an attic), and the pulls are Edwards 270-SPO’s with all of them having glass breakrods in them. There were also some smokes, too, but I couldn’t identify them. I’ll get pics next week.
Here are the alarms at Petersen Events Center, as well as the parking garage we parked at.
The parking garage had Honeywell S464A pulls and gray Wheelock 10" bells
Under each bell was one of these. Not really sure what this is doing in a non-Simplex, non-voice evac system.
The garage had TrueAlarm smokes! These must’ve been installed after the Honeywell system was put in. Simplex probably services the system now.
Here are the alarms at Petersen Events Center:
All of the building’s alarms are white TrueAlert speaker/strobes. The pulls are dual-action T-bars.
There are also ceiling mount speaker/strobes.
Today I went into Braintree, MA to apply for a job at the South Shore Plaza Mall. Here are the alarms I saw…
The Braintree MBTA station has Wheelock AS horn/strobes, the red wall-mount ones installed on the ceiling! The pulls are Notifier BG-12s.
A Route 66 motel nearby (I stopped here to ask for directions to the mall via walking) has a VERY strange Simplex system. The panel is a Simplex 4006, and near it is a Wheelock AS horn/strobe. But the main signals were Faraday 6020 horns with strobes on them like the older MTL horn/strobes! The pulls were mostly Edwards 270-SPOs, but I thought I could see a Simplex T-bar pull somewhere. The panel is obviously a replacement for an older one, probably an ESL or Honeywell model.
Once again I visited the South Shore Plaza Mall, but I noticed that the 4603-9101 annunciators at each entrance had the larger “S” graphic in the Simplex logo!
The two graphic annunciators had the newer version, so I bet the panel may be a Simplex 4100, or they replaced it with a larger model like a 4100U.
As I said, the 4903 speaker/strobes here are the main alarm in the mall.
The pull stations in the main mall areas are all addressable single-action Simplex T-bars with Stopper IIs over them. Some are 2099-9795s…
…others are 4099-9001s.
They also have the old TrueAlarm smokes too.
However, at a bank, they had Wheelock MT4-24-LSM horn/strobes, and a J.C. Penny’s had Wheelock MT-24-LSM horn/strobes, they’re the red wall-mount versions installed on the ceiling! The smokes are System Sensor 2400s.
I also found this at one entrance: a Simplex TrueAlert horn/strobe! The weird thing is that there’s a 4903 speaker/strobe not too far from it.
However, TrueAlert speaker/strobes are commonly found in other stores. Most of them are 4903-9237s, like this one in the Disney Store.
Some stores also had 4099-9003 pulls instead of 4099-9001s. The Apple Store where I applied for has TrueAlert speaker/strobes, 4099-9001 pulls and newer TrueAlarm smokes.
Here’s the 4903-9357 speaker/strobe near the food court, probably replacing an older speaker/strobe.
Also, when I arrived at the mall, I saw a couple of SimplexGrinnell vans parked in the parking garage. The alarms didn’t go off at all when I was at the mall, so I guess they were doing silent testing like at UAlbany or they were just checking something in the panel quickly. I figured they must work on the fire alarm systems since the mall has a Simplex system for the most part.
The -9237 is a model of the old rectangular electronic horn/strobes, not a TrueAlert speaker/strobe…