I have been researching about fire alarms for the past two and a half years and have collected quite a few alarms. I am ready to get a fire alarm panel. My dad is a General Contractor and has good connections with Tyco Simplexgrinnell. He is going to buy me a conventional panel for my birthday (Oct. 24) directly from the manufacturer themselves and get a few NA’s. It will be my first panel and I am REALLY excited. We are going to put it up in my Garage using Electrical Conduit and FPL. I plan to have 1 Simplex TrueAlert Horn-Strobe and 2 TrueAlert Remote Strobes and 1 Simplex T-Bar. We’ll add more later. What are some good starter Simplex panels and what are some details about them?
I don’t own any panels at all, much less anything.by Simplex, but from what I’ve seen the easiest Simplex panel to work with would be the 4004. It comes standard with two zones, is expandable to up to 8, has two separate NACs, is programmed via DIP switches, and has two separate 7-segment displays - a red one for alarms, and an amber one for troubles. If you’ve seen Jared’s (jjinc24) system tests, that’s the 4004.
No, they’ve been discontinued in favor of the 4005, which is considerably more complicated than the 4004. It’s programmed with the front keypad or programming software (I think).
The Simplex 4004 was discontinued a couple of years ago. A good starter panel from Simplex is a 4006 or a 4008. They are conventional Panels. They may have some addressable panel features such as an LCD Display and a keypad, but they are good for starters, yet they are a tough job to wire up, as lots of panels. If you weren’t ordering one straight from simplex, I would recommend the 2001, 4208, 4001, 4002, or 4004. The 4208 and 2001 were made in the 1970s, the 4002 and the 4001 were made in the 1980s, and the 4004 were made in the 1990s. Sadly, they are all discontinued.
If you haven’t already, I would recommend reading over <URL url="So you want to buy a FACP...]this post[/url]. Honestly, it sounds like you still have some research to do before rushing into this. I can’t say that I recommend pulling the trigger on a brand new panel in 4 days without knowing what you want at this point, but that’s just my $0.02.
Has your dad looked into how much this equipment is going to cost? It ain’t gonna be cheap coming straight from Simplex. You could find much better deals on eBay such as this and this, but if cost isn’t an issue, knock yourself out.
With all that aside, Simplex still makes two conventional panels - the 4005 and 4006. The programming is nearly identical for both. For your purposes, the 4006 would be the better choice. Smaller cabinet, less unnecessary expandability, and built-in SmartSync. You can read through the manual here.
Programming can be done through the front keypad. Whether it’s complicated or not depends on your knowledge. Everything is pretty straightforward if you have an understanding of basic terminology and you know what you’re after. You can read through the manual here to get an idea of what’s involved.
Yes, programming is done via DIP switches, but you won’t have to do much to get a small system up and running. $399 is more than I would pay for one, but a lot cheaper than purchasing a new panel from Simplex. I just saw one go for $150, so good eBay deals will come if you’re willing to wait a bit.
Programming a 4004 is real easy. There is one switch on the board that selects programming mode. Then the ACK and RESET buttons are used to make the selections. The basic programming menu is on the inside of the panel door.
The 4001 is pretty good. Though I’d like to mention you forgot the 4207, which was similar to the 4208 but had a more modular card-based setup, and was made from 1975 to 1979 (the 4208 came out in either 1969 or 1970.)
The 2001 may have first came out in the late 1970s, but it was more prominent throughout the 1980s (a typical 2001 system may have 2901-9806 horns on 2903 light or strobe plates, 4251 T-bar pulls and older-style Simplex smoke detectors of some kind.) Here are the periods I believe they were out…
If you want to go with addressable devices, or are willing to use Zone Adapter Modules, I would recommend a Simplex 4010. VERY good panel from what I’ve heard. (One of my old schools actually has one, too!)
If I were you I’d recommend starting with a cheaper and easier to use panel such as the Fire-Lite MS-5UD. These panels are very easy to get ahold of and use and would be a great learning tool to get the gist of how fire alarm panels work before diving into something more difficult (and significantly more expensive) such as Simplex. You can order an MS-5UD on many websites including Amazon and even Newegg. It’ll be significantly cheaper than anything from Simplex too.
But if you have your heart set on Simplex, I’d recommend the 4006 like everyone else here.
Keep in mind that TrueAlert devices cannot run off the Full Wave Rectified current that the MS-5UD outputs and will die. So if you do get a MS-5UD, don’t use your TrueAlerts with it. Your T-Bars should work just fine though, as they are just fancy switches.
If you absolutely want to use Simplex signals, you will need a panel that outputs filtered DC and (depending on your model of TrueAlert) SmartSync on the signal circuits. If you manage to get TrueAlerts, then yes, go with the 4006.
As far as the older Simplex panels that a couple of people recommended, I wouldn’t recommend much in the 400x line.
The 4001 and 4002 are fairly rare and temperamental models that are prone to bricking if not wired properly.
Like we’ve mentioned earlier, the 4004 has been discontinued.
The 4005 and 4006 seem to be the ones you want. If you don’t need expandability, then go for the 4006.
And of course, if you don’t know what you’re doing, do not get anything like a 4010 or greater. Addressability is much more complicated than conventional stuff, especially when taking addressable protocols, programming, and device addresses into account.
Again, I don’t own any panels, but I do feel like I have enough conceptual knowledge to help steer you in the right direction. Of course, the moderators are more than welcome to correct me if I’m wrong, but I feel like I know enough to help other people.
Thanks guys! My dad is getting a panel from a fire saftey center that has been taken out of a building for really cheap. It is either a 4004 or 4002. Soon I’ll hopefully be on YouTube with fire alarm videos along with my already going carwash channel. Have a great night!
Actually, Fire-Lite now has a panel called an MS-5UD-7 which I guess I should have mentioned. What is different is it has a beefier power supply that outputs filtered DC. I think it may have been meant for replacing conventional systems with mechanical horns as the power supply puts out more amps.
Edit: Looks like they dropped the MS-5UD-7. However there is an MS-10UD-7 which is a 10 zone panel with filtered DC.
One of the reasons I am getting the 4004 besides the great deal is that it can be programmed with DIP switches and can run all kinds of NA’s since it isn’t Full-Wave Rectified Power. Plus my dad can most likely get the 4004 for under 60 bucks. But I also hope to get a new Firelite panel too later. Thanks guys!
