Gentex LED Commander 5 Signals

I honestly have no idea why Gentex kept the Commander 2 line around even after basically replacing it with the Commander 3: they could have had the Commander 3 take over everything the Commander 2 did & better, with horns, horn/strobes, & remote strobes, yet Gentex still kept on selling the Commander 2 horns & horn/strobes even though the latter is fixed-candela & the former could have had a Commander 3 model made to replace it so that everything belonged to the same series (at least now though the Commander 5 will likely be replacing all of the previous Commander product lines so everything will be uniform).

Actually, the Commander 2 strobes post Commander 3 release were for candelas that the Commander 3 could not do, such as 15/75 and 177

As I said though, could Gentex not have developed Commander 3 versions of those Commander 2 models so that everything would be part of the same series & they could get rid of the Commander 2 line completely? (though I suppose this doesn’t matter if the Commander 5 line will replace all of its predecessors)

What is the difference between 15/75 Candela and the 15 and 75 Candela setting on the Commander 3?

I don’t want the Commander 3 and 4 to go away. Those are My Favorite Gentex Models. And they are super reliable.

“15” & “75” are both separate candela settings, “15/75” on the other hand kind of “combines” the two: the strobe is 15 candela from the side & 75 from the front (no idea how that works or why it’s seemingly necessary but yeah).

Well like I said the Commander 5 will likely replace all of its predecessors due to the advantages you get with LED strobes, so they might. Even if they do they had good long production runs.

I mean, the Commander 3 is just a multi-candela Commander 2.

ADA was first introduced before the introduction of UL 1971, so strobes were required to be 75 candela under UL 1638, which only considers the candela directly in front. This resulted in strobes such as the Wheelock WM and Faraday 5522-U that provided over 100 candela directly in front of the strobe while minimizing current draw.

On the other hand, UL 1971 requires the strobe intensity at various angles to be a certain percentage of the overall intensity rating, and strobes whose intensity ratings would fall below 15 candela were not UL 1971 listed. This resulted in the creation of the 15/75 candela strobe to meet the 15 candela minimum of UL 1971 and the 75 candela requirement of ADA (which follows UL 1638). More recently, 15/75 candela strobes have become mostly obsolete due to ADA being updated to be consistent with NFPA codes, but some manufacturers such as Mircom have introduced new 15/75 strobes in recent years.

Oh: is that the reason for WM-series strobes? Alright, good to know: honestly thought they were made mainly for outdoor applications which would require super-bright strobes (though maybe they were just the same. Those requirements would also explain the semi-frosted lens too).

15 candela is the required minimum nowdays last I checked so why anybody wouldn’t make strobes that weren’t at least 15 candela I would have no idea.

Ah okay. Yeah it was rather stupid that the standards of two different organizations would differ like that: glad they’ve since been brought on an even playing field so that 15/75 strobes will no longer be necessary.

If they Discontinue the Commander 2, 3, and 4 then I will have no Alarms that are still being Made. Besides my EST 278/9Bs.

I am really hoping that Gentex can Include testing ports as well as a magnetic metal mounting bracket as well as screws that you can use to mount the alarm without having to remove the beauty plate when installed.

I also hope that Simplex on the other hand does not make their LED Devices limited. It would be better if it was permanent. Their xenon strobe tubes are huge and last a short time, so it would be nice if they at least found an LED retrofit as well as better building quality. I think Simplex should definitely make a Simplex TrueAlert Strobe Plate that’s selectable for Free Run and SmartSync! I also think Simplex could make Single Gang LED Conventional TrueAlerts. That would be nice! I feel as if Simplex is very overdue on finding replacements on the 4906 TrueAlerts, however recently, they changed the logo on the SmartSync and Free Run TrueAlerts. So all in all, I think they should definitely find a replacement for the Conventional TrueAlert line sometime in the next year. These replacements if Simplex made it, would also apply to the Fixed Candela SmartSync 4903-9417, 9418 and 9419 Horn Strobes. It just has to be any horn strobe older. The ceiling strobes are a huge pain to remove, which makes me think that they should move on to something much simpler

Run-on sentence aside, the point of the beauty plate is to hide the screws. Having screws accessible without removing beauty plate defeats the whole purpose.

There are several things to respond to there, but this is a thread on the Gentex LED signals, not the Simplex ones.

Considering System Sensor did with their LED NAs (though I believe Wheelock beat them to that by quite a few years with their Exceder series) I don’t see why they wouldn’t: it’s a novel & innovative feature for techs in the field.

Compared to LED strobes xenon strobes definitely don’t last as long, yes, but just the same it’s not like they’re flashbulbs that burn out after a single use: they’ll still last for quite a long time & thus will still work for the time being.

Yeah, which is why a lot of notification appliances made during this century so far have their screws hidden (except for outdoor devices which apparently need the screws to be accessible from the front for some reason).