I have ordered some devices on Ebay. These devices came in a set, and some of these include speaker strobes. I have absolutely no idea how to wire them, what to wire them to, or how to amplify the signal enough to do so. Lets say I just want to use one. I have an alarm panel, and I want to have a chime tone playing constantly. Is there a way to take an old iPod or something, and play a repeating tone through these alarms, and have it ONLY go through when the panel is in alarm?
Hi welcome to the forums!
Speaker Strobes are not like your speakers in your stereo system you might have in your house. Unfortunately you can’t just plug a iPod in to one and have it play. (Sadly) They require an audio amplifier for the speaker,and constant power for the strobe. They are also a much lower wattage then your home stereo.
So I do have a few questions for you:
What brand and model is the speaker strobe?
What brand and model is the panel?
Panel: MS-4
Alarm: EDWARDS P-038347-0060
I feel like I bought these and won’t have a way to use them… 
There’s not going to be any direct way to hook them up and use them - you’re going to have to modify them to work.
First, on the speaker/strobe, look at the backside of the physical speaker and check the ohm rating (upside down horseshoe symbol), if it’s around 8 ohms, this should work. You will have to isolate the physical speaker from the circuit board. You should see two wires going from the speaker to the circuit board. Cut these wires at the circuit board - you should then have two wires about 3-4" long coming directly from the speaker. You now have a basic speaker just like on your home stereo system.
Second, your mp3 player will have a 3.5mm headphone jack. The pinout on the jack will be tip-left channel, ring-right channel, sleeve-ground (google search can give you a good visual on that). You will need to adapt everything to go from the stereo channels of the mp3 player to the mono of your setup. And depending on how you do the next step, may need some adapters or even strip down the wire.
Third, you can’t just connect the speaker directly to the headphone jack, it won’t work that great. You will have to go through some amplification - the headphone jack on the mp3 player typically isn’t designed to push a full sized speaker, only tiny headphones. Google “Radio Shack 277-1008” - that is basically what you need but you can probably find something similar. This amp does have a built in speaker but can be bypassed by plugging in a cable and connecting directly to a small speaker. You can trigger everything through the alarm dry contact relay on the fire alarm panel. Use the relay to make/break power to the amplifier.
You can also utilize an ELK voice driver (either the ELK-120 or ELK-124) which would replace both the mp3 player and amplifier above. These modules are basically a recordable speaker driver designed for a burglar alarm system. You can record to the built in mic or download a .wav file directly to the module (using their sound card interface). They operate off 12VDC so you will have to step the voltage down if you want to power it from the 24VDC alarm panel. And instead of triggering it off the panel NAC circuit, I would just use the alarm dry contacts.
Of course, keep in mind this modification should never be used for life safety - you’ve just bypassed any type of supervision and using non-listed means and devices for connecting everything together. But will work for what you are asking to do.
Ah the Radio Shack 277-1008, so many good memories of scaring the neighbors cat. :mrgreen:
I was going to mention that exact one!
Thanks for all the input! I’ll certainly give it a try! Alarms come in today, I’ll report back!
Just a simple suggestion, I would try it out first on one of the speakers you don’t care as much about 
. Maybe one in poor condition, since they will technically be getting ruined.
Always a good idea when you are messing with electronic on a FACP. Don’t want to fry a whole NAC, only one device DOA better than like 6.
Unfortunately, Zach’s panel won’t be working anymore, he made a post about him wiring it while it was on. The Magic Blue Smoke came out.
Oh, wow. The magic blue smoke. :shock: I think I read that post, but didn’t put 2+2 together. Well, that is unfortunate, and I hope Zach can find another panel at a decent price.
I did actually! After all this time. Now, I am having trouble finding these wires we talked about before, and cannot find manuals due to the age of these alarms. They are 110v outdoor rated, but I feel we should have no problem converting them to be used with a mini amplifier of some kind. There are two wires I see, yellow, and black. Labeled to 1 and 2 on the speaker unit. Are these the leads I’m looking for?
Ignoring the fact this was bumped, because it was done by OP. Hey, at least you don’t need to worry about the strobes! [Edit: Given the strobes are also 110VAC]Plug the strobe into the wall (I will let Lambda or someone explain how to do it), and there you go!
NO! Be very sure of the ratings for this device before doing anything.
I have not found a datasheet on line for the P-038347-0060 on line. I did find this information on a web site selling some.
P-038347-0060
Manufactured by EDWARDS SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY
EDWARDS
SPEAKER/STROBE ALARM 70V 20-24VDC 125-105MA
According to this the strobe voltage rating is 20-24VDC. The current draw is listed as 125-105MA. Do not confuse this information.
The operating voltage information should be on a data plate or sticker on the device.
Connecting 120 volts AC to a 24 volt DC device is a good way to start a fire and/or get badly injured.
Yeah, I’m not touching that…
Yeah, I went off of what Zach said about the voltage…
Can you post pictures of the alarm and the terminals on the back? That way we can see what we’re working with.
Actually, I answered my own question! I’m a hobbies the like many of us, so my set up is very janky and was built on a budget. That being said, the speaker is powered enough by an old theater system I happened to have. I managed to isolate the positive, and negative wires. The audio will run through the alarm relay (meaning no silence, and will not always start at the beginning.) and as for the alarm, it’s a big boy. I had to screw the speaker in place, and could only tape the strobe over it… Whatever works!
(Video coming soon)