I have a rare System Sensor SP1R2475ADA that I thought the speaker of was inoperative at first: turns out as I just discovered today that it does work, it’s just very quiet. Does anyone know any way I could get the speaker working at full volume again? I’d be very grateful for any help with this problem given the rarity of this device (& of course I’d love to be able to actually use it properly).
what audio source are you connecting it to?
The same audio source I connect a lot of the speakers I have to: a computer speaker bar’s audio output port (though this is usually only if I’m testing or screwing around with them: I have a quite powerful MP3 board on my setup). I know it’s not the source since any other speaker I connect to it sounds fine: it’s just this one that’s ridiculously quiet for some reason.
Well there’s your problem. You need an amp to correctly power some fire alarm speakers.
I think you misread what I typed: any other speaker, even fire alarm ones, sound absolutely fine when powered in that manner, but the SP1R’s is really quiet for some reason.
There is variance with normal speakers too. some run nice and loud off my phone, but others barely make noise. it may have a different rating than your other ones.
It can be set for 25 or 70 volts like most, as well as 1/8 to 4 watts: usually setting any of the speakers I have to 25V & their highest wattage setting makes them output sound nice & loud, but not the SP1R for whatever reason.
I’m not sure what the internals of these look like, but be sure that all solder joints are intact, then clean all the dirt off of it.
It’s fairly clean & I’ve noticed what looks like rust in several spots, but other than that it still seems like it’s in pretty good condition.
Get a 70V amplifier. You’ll be able to use that speaker and all other 70v speakers like other fire alarm ones.
Nah: like I said setting all the configurable ones to 25V makes them sound loud even without an amplifier. I do have one that’s only 70V & thus rather quiet as a result, but even it’s louder than the SP1R! (& that I hope is plenty loud if I use it with the aforementioned MP3 board)
I think you should remedy that rust. corrosion and oxidation are some of the worst things that can happen to essentially anything electrical.
I said it looks like rust, I’m not sure if it actually is though (or for that matter if it’s affecting the operation of the speaker).
Whatever it is, clean it off, just to be safe.
Here are some photos I took of it. Note the “rust” on the speaker connections (first photo) & the back of the circuitry (third photo).
That might be capacitor juice, or soldering flux. the latter isn’t too bad, but the former should be cleaned up pronto.
What do you suggest my next course of action is? I don’t know if that stuff truly needs to be cleaned off or not because I don’t know exactly what it is or if it’s affecting the speaker’s operation.
go ahead and clean it. it never hurts to, so long as you do it right.
According to my dad there’s a chance the speaker is just worn-out & nothing but replacing the speaker would fix it: sadly however I can’t do that as not only would I have no idea where to find an exact replacement speaker but the original is permanently attached to the rest of the alarm so even if I found a replacement I don’t think I could swap the two (aside from maybe breaking it apart).
That’s unfortunate. You could still keep the strobe for parts though, right?