Found out something

On my Simplex LED Horn Strobe, on the piezo, it says Kingstate KPE-182. I don’t think Simplex even manufactured their piezos!

That could be very possible, that they just bought parts from another manufacturer, like they did in the past… Just like the 4030, IIRC, it was never manufactured by Faraday, Simplex (and possibly IBM since Simplex bought out IBM’s fire alarm division) but rather made by the [now defunct] Benjamin Fire Horn Co.

The same goes (correct me if I am wrong) for the 4050/4051 FA Horns, these were rebranded Federal Signal (formerly known as Federal Electric or Federal Sign and Signal) Vibratone electromechanical horns.

Very, very few (if any) companies manufacture their own devices down to the component level. The piezo is just another component like the resistors and capacitors on the board - they are sourced from specialized electronics manufacturers and combined to create the desired circuit behavior for the new product.

I can almost guarantee that any piezo found in a modern electronic horn will not have been manufactured by the alarm company itself, this is nothing out of the ordinary.

The 4050/4051 signals were manufactured by Faraday. The 4050 was the Faraday 5610(?) and the 4051 was the Faraday 5640. The 2901-9806, 4041 and 4040 were rebranded Federal Signal Vibratones.

Also, there was another horn, the Faraday 5940, that used a variation of the mechanism found in the 6020/6120 (Simplex 9833/9838) horns, but used the 56XX body and grille design. As far as I know, Simplex never rebranded the 5940 horns.

Faraday also made a 9833 that has a strobe in the middle called the “5506” and a 9833 with a 7002T style strobe called the “5505”. I’m also pretty sure that the “5504” (with a 7002T style strobe) and the 5940 are Simplex 4041s.

Two questions,

  1. Did Faraday manufacture the 7002T strobe Wheelock used or did Wheelock manufacture it for Faraday?

  2. Do those Faraday 7002T-strobes skip.

I don’t know who manufactured them only that they were used on those horns. As for if they skip, yeah they do because the video msj191961 posted on YouTube of his church’s fire alarm system going off, you can hear the Faraday 5505’s skipping at some points.

Simplex 4041s are rebranded first-generation Federal Signal Vibratone 450s. If you look inside a 4041/450, the sounder plate is smooth, while the Faraday 5940 has the same circular expression in the sounder plate that the 6020/6120 has.

msj191961 has a video with a 5505. You can’t see the strobe in the video, but he said it was working, and it doesn’t skip.

If the horn was made by Faraday, it would have the same diagonal setup of the mechanism.

I also think the SpectrAlert Advance horn was actually one of those Windsor electronic whistles.

Well it may look like the 6120/6020 but I swear it sort of sounds more 9806-ish than anything which is what a 4041 sounds like.

The Simplex 4041 was a re-branded early-generation Federal Signal 450, so I doubt they have any connection to the Faraday 5500 series.

But the 5940 which sort of resembles a 4041 with its clear metal plate, SOUNDS more like a 9806. At least in my opinion anyway.

The 4041 has a flat plate. The 5940 has the circle things dented into the plate.

Yeah but even still, from a distance you wouldn’t be able to tell so it WOULD look the same. You can’t say unless you were on top of it that it looked different and if you say that you can, you are lying.

But you’re right. The tones sound similar. Now, if you look at the back, it is a whole different story.

The Wheelock current MIZ signals use the same horn that was and is still used in the majority of BRK smoke alarms, as well as System Sensor8s MH mini-horns And their SpectrAlert classics.