Got a very special fire alarm control panel today. First off, it’s a simplex 2001-8001 which has been a bucket list panel of mine for years. Even though I do already have a couple of the smaller “repack” models, Ive never liked the fact that they were fully filtered, this one is. As you will also notice, this uses 4 AC bell circuit modules in the second bay. Pretty rare for a 2001.
The biggest thing that makes this so special, at least in my mind, is its history. Some of you may recognize this from the photos. This originally came from the former Garfield High School in Akron Ohio which has since been demolished. This panel was featured in an Old School Fire Alarms video a few years ago making this particular panel pretty special.
That I do now know. I found this on a recent eBay listing and recognized it from the video and pictures of it from its previous owners. I assume most of the devices were saved and preserved
*raises hand quietly* I second that, I love Simplex 2001s (and would love to own one) but with the inverted black/red cabinet, they look incredibly sleek.
So this was the one I saw on eBay not too long ago. I contemplated getting it, but then I realized I already have a Simplex 2001 repack that I can’t get working.
From my experience, the repacks are easier to restore and get working compared to the full sized ones. I built a 2 bay repack completely from scratch and it works great now. It’s just a matter of getting the right cards in the right spots and getting the jumpers in the right places if you were adding coding cards or special features. With the full sized ones, you have a bunch of wiring harnesses that are all one color and the schematics are barely legible so it’s really hard to restore one of those without some help from a technician who used to service these back in the day. These were obviously before computers and software made configuration much easier.
I’ve got it mostly working, the NAC card pulses with the march time card, but there’s no output from the NAC. I’ve got all the cards in the right position, cut diode D25 on the control card, and fixed an incorrect jumper on the board, so my best guess is probably a bad NAC card. I should also note that it’s a 2001-3081, so an earlier less common model.
2001-3081 is the model with an AC bell module. Would be mounted at the bottom left unless it was removed. There are 2 resistors you have to cut on the signal card as well in order for it to work. I believe they’re 15-16 and 29-30
There was no AC module when I got it. Jumpers 15-16, and 29-30 are also cut. I also found on some service forum to also cut jumpers 9-10, and 25-26, and to add a jumper wire to the fuse holders, but that didn’t help either. I also removed the OP/SP card and it’s jumper on the board for testing purposes with no charge in functionality.
