On a recent r/firealarms post, there was a reply mentioning that Gentex had allegedly showcased LED alarms at a recent trade show. While we currently have no further information, I do feel like this is a step in the right direction for Gentex. With Potter switching to Eluxas, Gentex lost a major client, now really having Hochiki as a major client, as well as smaller local clients such as National Time & Signal. With this news, Gentex will be one of the last major company to make the jump to LED signaling technology, with Simplex only offering limited LED products.
As for now, all we have is speculation. So with that being said, what are some things you are looking forward to seeing with these new devices?
I for one expect the main line of alarms to only have either two tones line the Commander 4, or one tone probably electromechanical. Then there would be the LF sounders. Both of these would use the modified sync protocol the current LF sounders use for T3/T4 selection. Then there would be Gentex equivalent of the ELMT, which would have all the same tones as a Commander 3 for backwards compatibility.
I’m really hoping that Gentex would stick with devices that can be either 2-wire or 4-wire as needed like with their existing xenon devices, which have benefits that other manufacturers just don’t seem to realize (going by the way they’ve completely abandoned 4-wire with their current product lines: looking at you Wheelock & Edwards!): #1: You don’t need two different models for 2-wire & 4-wire operations, just one for both applications, thus fewer models as a whole. #2: A lot of non-fire alarm (general signaling) applications probably need 4-wire devices, which a lot of manufacturers no longer offer: if Gentex kept their switchable 2-wire/4-wire devices however they’d have something they could use (especially given the many options offered by Gentex in the way of lens colors, bezel lettering, etc.).
I’m also hoping that they’d give the LED Commander 4 the same tones as the xenon Commander 3, since for some reason they excluded the chime & whoop tones on the xenon Commander 4 (if it wasn’t for that I would probably call Gentex’s Commander-series one of the best serieses of notification appliances ever made).
My guess is that they’d either be simply LED versions of the existing Commander signals (possibly with additions like the aforementioned tones that are missing from the current xenon Commander 4), or that Gentex would have a low-frequency sound built into the new LED Commander 3 & 4 (which would further reduce the number of separate models along with keeping the aforementioned 2-wire/4-wire selection capability). Either way, I’d imagine that all devices would have temporal 3 & temporal 4 pulse capability built-in.
I can confirm the rumors about the led Gentex devices. While I was at the NFPA convention today in Orlando I saw the Gentex booth and at the booth they had what they called the Gentex commander 5. They have horn strobes and speaker strobe versions. The speaker strobe versions now will have a removable mounting bracket. The horn strobes will take the commander 4 style bracket
Please tell me they kept the “DIP switch mode configuration” that’s exclusive to Gentex devices (setting a signal as 2-wire or 4-wire via DIP switches that is).
There is no mention of low frequency sounders here, but the image contains what appears to be a horn strobe in a dwelling unit. Could the new horn strobe be capable of producing low frequency tones like the Simplex 49CMTV?
If other companies releasing new products recently is anything to go by 1 to 3 years from now (no idea why it would/should take so long to release a product that’s likely fully finished design, testing, & certification-wise: seriously, if it’s finished send it out the door: don’t wait a year or two for seemingly no reason!).
There was no footage of them going off, plus the fact Gentex has not announced them on their website yet. If you weren’t around back then, when the Simplex 5900 series was first found out about on the forums, they were only available in the Middle East due to LED technology being so new. And then the first LED Exceeders were pulled from the shelves due to their pulse width being too long. There is a lot more to a product being ready than just looks alone.
Good points (though when it comes to the LED Exceder it seems like Wheelock waited until they had the LED3-series in production to discontinue the original LED Exceder line. All LED Exceders flash the wrong duration if I’m not mistaken as well, thus meaning there are no such things as “first LED Exceders”, unless you count their successor, the LED3-series, which are identical in design to the LED Exceder-series aside from flashing for the correct duration).
Considering the word “Exceder” isn’t anywhere in the name I’m not so sure of that, but considering the designs are identical to the LED Exceder line maybe that is the case after all.
I hope the Commander 5 has the Same Tones as the Commander 2/3 but with the Addition of 800hz Code 3, 800hz Continuous, Hi Lo, Mechanical March Time, and something else.
I also hope they keep the Commander 2, 3, and 4 along with their other Products. The Commander 3 can’t go.
I hope Gentex doesn’t exclude the chime & whoop tones like they did on the Commander 4 (for whatever reason). March time tones aren’t likely though since that’s a deprecated pattern.
If the Commander 5 does everything the 2, 3, & 4 can do & more there’s no real point in keeping the aforementioned product lines, especially since LED strobes have several advantages over their xenon counterparts.
