Ok, I am not going to buy anything, but I’m curious, whats the best setup for $150 ? I am just curious. It must include: A strobe/speaker(both), and atleast 1, 1 control panel, as long as it works, doens’t need to be special, or new, just used and cheap that actually will work with a normal system, also, it doesn’t have to have a panel cage for it(you can make your own :P), and last, it will require at least 2 smoke detectors. And again, I’m not going to buy anything, but me, and probably a few other people are curious. :?:
Is this for a fire alarm or security system?
It is for a fire alarm system, a normal one, also 1 more thing to mention, I forgot to say Lever 
Now is this a real life safety system in a building?
From what he’s described, this will likely be a demonstration system.
There are countless other topics detailing the basics of fire alarm systems, you’re looking at a small two-zone system. The Fire-Lite MS-2 is the smallest panel still being mass-produced, meaning if you look hard enough you can manage to bag one for pretty cheap. I’ve seen them as low as $100 on eBay.
As for initiating devices, you can find pull stations and smoke detectors for about $20 each on eBay, but make sure you get one that’s compatible with your panel, e.g., the System Sensor i3 series. You can use any pull station you like given that it is non-addressable.
Signals can run you anywhere from $10-50, depending on what you want. You mentioned that you want a speaker, but keep in mind that if you don’t have a slave voice evacuation panel or a panel with built-in voice evac capabilities, you won’t be able to use a speaker-strobe. You can, however, find common signals like Spectralerts for pretty cheap if you keep your eyes peeled. I almost bought a lot of 2 a few years ago for $6.
$150 is a pretty low budget, even for a tiny conventional system. I’d suggest saving up at least $200-250 before you jump in and buy something. I have about $400 worth of fire alarm equipment, purchased and acquired over the course of a few years. Patience is a virtue when it comes to this sort of thing!
Anyway, good luck with your collecting, and as always, if you need help, don’t hesitate to ask us!