Looking for a certain kind of alarm…...

My son is REALY into fire alarms and smoke detectors. I would like to get him a fire alarm maybe that is NOT WIRED. Is there a such thing?

What I’m looking for is a pull station that he can pull and activate a strobe or horn wirelessly. Its not gonna be mounted or maybe I can mount it in his room but its got to be wireless.

Any ideas and perhaps links would be greatly appreciated!! You have no idea how much!!! :lol: :lol: :lol:

Wireless fire alarm systems do exist, but they require a lot more equipment than just a pull and an audible in order to operate and it would be impractical for your purpose. You get into all sorts of programming with wireless transmission equipment, not to mention the extreme costs of obtaining those units.

There are a couple other options besides what you have described if you are willing to explore them. I hate to be a downer, but considering that these aren’t “toys” but rather life safety equipment, it may just be more of a burden or danger, especially if your son is young.

I’m assuming you just want this setup as sort of a “hobby system” and not as a real fire alarm or life safety setup. You can rig something together utilizing wireless devices fairly easily. Pick out your own pull station and strobe and get the following parts:

Linear D-67L 1-Chanel Wireless Receiver (the “L” after the model number here is important, don’t get the D-67)
Linear D-21A Wall Mounted Transmitter
Altronix AL624 Power Supply
Altronix TP2440 Plug-In Transformer

1.) Wire the pull station to the D-21A transmitter. The transmitter takes a 9V battery for power.
2.) Wire the strobe to the D-67L receiver and the AL624 power supply -you are using the receiver as a “switch” to turn the strobe on/off, so wire in series.
3.) Wire the D-67L receiver to the AL624 power supply for constant power - you could also use batteries for power instead of the power supply but keep in mind you will need a total of 24 volts (16 “D” cells) and the receiver does draw some standby power. So the batteries may not last very long or be more bulky.
4.) The TP2440 transformer is wired to the AL624

If everything is wired up correctly, pulling the pull station should latch the strobe into an active state. To reset and turn off the strobe, return the pull station to the normal position and press the RESET button on top of the D-67L receiver.

One other word of caution… I don’t know how old your son is, but make sure he understands this setup is what it is. Going around and pulling random pull stations in occupied building on a real fire alarm system will have some dire consequences!

Why not just mount it to a plywood sheet? Not on a wall and can easily be removed. This way you can install regular alarms and pull stations. Hook it up to a 9V and there you go.

Thanks for all your help. To answer a few questions……he is terrified of the pull bars. LOL. Every building we go into, thats the 1st thing he spots and points out. I don’t know all the kinds but, BG-12(i think) seems to be the one he spots the most!

So, a pull station hooked to a 9v would do the trick?? And plywood sounds like a much better idea than a wall!!

A plywood board setup would work great for your son. Plus, he could add more pulls to it as he gets older if he would like to.

A 24VDC “wall wart” adaptor would work great for this, or you could chain three 9V batteries together to get 27V. Just wire the positive feed through the pull station and then to the strobe, and hook the negative from the strobe back to the negative post on the adaptor. Then you’re all set!

This really removes a lot of the hassle you would need to go through for the wireless setup. I’d recommend going to Menards and picking up a couple junction boxes and a 2-3’ pre-wired section of flex conduit. Mount it all on the board, hook it up, and it will look almost like the real thing! :smiley:

Ok, I assume menards is like a lowes home improvement store….:-)….

For this set up, gimme a list of things I need to purchase……detailed. Because I’m nowhere near a handyman of any type, But, this will make his year!!!

Yeah, a wired setup on plywood would be much much simpler. Again, if you were just doing this as a demonstration system, you could even forget about the junction boxes and conduit. It’s all low voltage anyway. You might want to just get two pieces of plywood the same size, some 2×2’s, and make a sort or wall cavity if you catch my drift. Then surface mount the devices, cutting out for whatever is protruding out of the back, and feeding the wires inside the board. You might be able to go 12V (probably easier to find then 24V transformers), some strobes will work on 12V. I’m not sure how much time you would get out of 9v batteries. They are essentially 6 AAAA batteries wired in series.

In a quick search I found this company has 24VDC wall warts. The 1 amp or 1.5 amp unit should power any 24 VDC fire alarm device just fine. They also have an adapter that converts the barrel plug to a terminal strip. Makes wiring up easy and doesn’t require cutting the plug off.

If you have some time, I would recommend checking out <URL url="How to wire a pull station to a horn/strobe]this topic[/url] for some detailed information about how to do this. It’s a bit of a long read, but might be helpful in going forward.

In the meantime, if you wish to take the easiest route without much carpentry involved, I’ve made a basic list of what to get. This would be for a single sheet of plywood with junction boxes screwed directly to the board, and no conduit or wiremold. If you own a drill, you could do as Lambda suggested and drill an opening behind each junction box to run the wire on the back side of the board. Otherwise, you could simply have the wire pulled to slack on the surface of the board, and perhaps secure it with wire staples or gorilla tape.

  • Find a good sheet of plywood that isn’t too warped or has too many knots (you can have it cut to size at Home Depot or Lowe’s)

  • A single-gang box for the pull station

  • A 4" box for each horn/strobe you wish to mount

  • Pan-head wood screws to mount the junction boxes

  • Any Home Depot or Lowe’s should carry 20/2 or 22/2 AWG bell wire or security wire. It will work for a low-voltage demo setup, but don’t use it for any high-voltage connections.

  • This 24VDC 1.0a power supply

  • The barrel connector adapter with screw terminals on the website above

Now for some tools you’ll need if you don’t already have them:

  • A screwgun

  • Wire strippers

  • Wire cutters

  • Wire nuts if any of your devices have wire leads instead of terminals