Japanese PATLITE Teardrops and Clarion AA-227A Siren

WhelenNDealin

Member
Aug 6, 2017
575
Ontario, Canada
Haven't been on the site in a while. Figured that I'd post about some new toys brought to me courtesy of one of my wife's old friends. First up is a set of PATLITE teardrops. I know nothing about teardrops, but they're fairly sizeable and from the looks of it, are for permanent mount. In Japan, stealth cars are just regular cars with permanent mount teardrops on them. What I found interesting about these is how they rotate. The rotators aren't positioned vertically; they're horizontal. One teardrop rotates right-left and the other left-right, so it's interesting to have this pair. They run absolutely beautifully and the domes are NOS quality. In Japan, emergency vehicles use red lighting. No idea what blue's used for.

Here are some photos. Will post videos once I record some better ones.

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The second item is a Clarion AA-227A siren. It'd have been used on a police vehicle and likely emits a simulated mechanical tone. I've found some info on the AA-228A; which appears to be the same siren, albeit with an actual ground wire. With the AA-227A, it appears that you run the ground cable to the siren's body. Opening it up confirmed this (I think) date of manufacture for the siren uses the Japanese calendar and was produced sometime in either Shōwa 50, 56 or 58. The numbers are a bit faded, but that'd be 1975, 1981 and 1983, respectively. It looks to be Shōwa 56,though. Sadly, its a dead unit at this point. Hoping that I can get it up and running. Simple enough with only one tone. Can't find any circuit diagrams or any info on this specific model; even on Japanese sites. I've found circuit diagrams made by a fella who designed and built clones of the model AA-228F, which has the same tone, but adds the option to have the delay between rises and falls either 4 or 8 seconds. Hopefully those diagrams can help. Hoping that the transformer isn't cooked as one of the interesting things about this siren is that the siren outputs have a few options based on the impedance/resistance of the speaker.
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JazzDad

Member
Aug 5, 2011
5,165
USA
I wonder how you get a zero ohm speaker? Just a short length of wire?
 

cmb56

Member
May 22, 2010
746
Norrköping, Sweden
I think that blue is used on security vehicles and that these are intended to be mounted on the body sides at the rear.
Clarion also made or make, I am not sure, motorcycle sirens. Both with build in amplifier and with remote amplifier.
I have seen them on police motorcycles in Thailand with the Clarion speaker version with build in amplifier. The sound changed by a knob on the back of the speaker.

Michael
 
Jun 18, 2013
3,709
PA
very nice.. don't let them go :)
 

WhelenNDealin

Member
Aug 6, 2017
575
Ontario, Canada
I think that blue is used on security vehicles and that these are intended to be mounted on the body sides at the rear.
Clarion also made or make, I am not sure, motorcycle sirens. Both with build in amplifier and with remote amplifier.
I have seen them on police motorcycles in Thailand with the Clarion speaker version with build in amplifier. The sound changed by a knob on the back of the speaker.

Michael

I suspected that the teardrops were for mounting on body sides, but even having been over there a few times, I've never seen blue lighting, so thank you for the clarification!

As yes, the AA-111 motorcycle amp/speakers! I'm considering getting one and having it first sent to my wife's family, as most sellers on that site won't ship internationally and the shipping prices within Japan are insanely low. Not to mention delivery 7 days a week and if you're not there to accept the parcel, you call the post office and they bring your parcel to you, regardless of when you call. Shipping prices to Canada are surprisingly low as well. Actually costs less to have a lot of items shipped here from Japan than from the US . J-Post is off the charts like that.

Back to their motorcycle sirens, there's an earlier model whose model number eludes me, but it has a knob on it to adjust the speed of the rise/falls. It's an interesting one.

The site itself has some incredible newer stuff as well as lightbars; including PATLITE's take on the AeroDynic and the ubiquitous Vision/Vector style of bars that police vehicles use. All are on raised platforms for visibility over the insane crowds of people. All of the bars aren't cheap; despite the overall low price of warning equipment over there. If I had a huge amount of disposable income, I'd pick one up and bite a huge bullet to get it here; but it'd be well worth it. If you're looking for Chinese knockoff Fed Sig minibars that use fake Solaris LEDs for the front and rear lightheads and the ubiquitous Chinese attempt at fake TIR 3/CON 3/??? for the right/left lightheads, you're in luck! They're dirt cheap!

@Stampeed Valkyrie, I recall you telling me that you had one of the Vector style bars a few years back. Such a shame what happened. Don't want to rub salt in wounds, but even over there, they go for a king's ransom. You build me a Twin 12EFH clone with clear domes and we can arrange a little trade ;) .

As for the siren, it's totally dead, as previously stated. Won't even turn on. After browsing through several Japanese sites (with the help of Google Translate and a lovely wife), it looks to be an earlier variant of the AA-228G not 228A. Basically the same siren that's in the video below, except with only the 4 second delay between rises and falls. I think that I've pinpointed where the problem might be and it's worst case scenario: the transformer :eek:. It's a wonky one that has outputs for the different impedances. Two of the inputs have continuity, two seem to be dead and the juice in seems to be dead, but I'm far from an electronics expert and am asking fellow members for any and all advice, tips and help.

@MtnMan I already know that I'm going to need your help getting this siren up and running, BIG TIME! PM will be inbound.

@JazzDad I'm taking a stab in the dark, but I think that's their wacky way of saying the common. Heck their term for a horn ring is "remote siren" or "remote mounted siren". Everything over there seems to be console mount, so no confusion (over there). My other guess is that it's Japanese; it's not supposed to make sense. The more you try to analyze anything that's distinctly Japanese, the closer you'll come to madness. It's a place that just doest make sense. Buddy of mine there set up an old deactivated Vickers Gun (including tripod, ammo box and belt of inert rounds) on the street in front of his place and nobody cared. You could walk down a busy street there with a deactivated M60 and nobody would care. Hell, the police wouldn't send the tactical team to light you up. Carry a knife on your belt and you're getting stopped. They likely wouldn't even stop you if you were pointing a deactivated weapon at someone as deactivated weapons are totally legal. He has a buddy with an absurd collection and he himself has an arsenal. It just doesn't make sense over there. It's like being on a hallucinogen.

Tangents aside, here's the AA-228F. The AA-227A would/should sound the same as when set to 4 second delay.


In the wild:



 
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WhelenNDealin

Member
Aug 6, 2017
575
Ontario, Canada
I looked little more closely on Patlite’s web site and to what I can understand is that it is security vehicles belonging to School Security Patrols that use blue lights and that Volunteer Security Patrols also are authorized to use blue.

https://www.patlite-vehicle.jp/bluelight/ex.html

Ambulances belonging to hospitals in Thailand are using blue. Some might be exports from Japan.

Michael

Interesting stuff! Thank you!

Are imports from Japan to Thailand all that common? I've seen quite a few YouTube videos where they're using US brands and one with police vehicles equipped with LP6000s. Unsure if they were some sort of LED retrofit. Is halogen lighting still fairly common there?
 

cmb56

Member
May 22, 2010
746
Norrköping, Sweden
There are a big mix of equipment used in Thailand.
US made lights, Chinese copys of such, some European lights and of course Thailand made lights.
There is difficult to see if a light bar is original US made or a Chinese copy if you are not close to it.

A majority of fire vehicles in Thailand are built by European manufacturers and have European warning equipment installed.
Quite often Premier Hazard.

The police sub division Highway Patrol was using a single red Unity RV-45 for a long time.

The Fire Service and Police in Thailand are state owned and using red lights.
The ambulances operating from hospitals use blue lights and the Rescue service is private.

It is a big mix of vehicles used by the Rescue Service because that the vehicles are privately owned.
The warning equipment are also what the owners of the vehicles get and therefore a big mix of colours.
All red, red/blue and red/amber.


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This is a Rescue ambulance owned and operated by a relative of mine.

Michael
 
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cmb56

Member
May 22, 2010
746
Norrköping, Sweden
Regarding your question about Japanese equipment in Thailand, I can not say that they are common but I have seen light bars that I concidered to be either Osaka Siren Co. or Patlite.

I have seen some electro mechanical sirens used on fire vehicles and on rescue vehicles.
Both Osaka Siren Co. , Tokyo Siren Co. and Yahagi.

I bought a 4,5” Yahaga siren with build in red light I found in an used electric equipment store for some years back.

These sirens usually are turned on and is streaming at full pitch.
If there is a red light build in it is wired to the same circuit as the motor.

Michael
 
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cmb56

Member
May 22, 2010
746
Norrköping, Sweden
You can make a joke of the catalogue page I shared but Patlite’s web site and catalogue are not available in English.

The information was intended for ProPatriaNeverPassAFault and to what I understand is that he is married to a Japanese lady so he would not have any problem to have it translated.

For me that can not read Japanese I get the information of the model numbers, voltage, amperage, wattage on bulbs, mounting options, left or right rotating versions, weight and flash rate.

Maybe @ProPatriaNeverPassAFault can have the text translated for us?

Michael
 
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TDC

Lifetime VIP Donor
Dec 4, 2012
174
Carswell AFB, TX
I looked little more closely on Patlite’s web site and to what I can understand is that it is security vehicles belonging to School Security Patrols that use blue lights and that Volunteer Security Patrols also are authorized to use blue.

https://www.patlite-vehicle.jp/bluelight/ex.html

Ambulances belonging to hospitals in Thailand are using blue. Some might be exports from Japan.

Michael
The clear Blue Bunny Rabbit covers fit on those, right?
I have a picture at home … School Security.
(FYI: NSFW if you Google, "Japanese Blue Bunny Rabbit Police Security")
 

WhelenNDealin

Member
Aug 6, 2017
575
Ontario, Canada
Sorry for the late reply all. Have photos of the internals and video. Also have some YouTube links to PATLITE sirens for fire vehicles and ambulances. First, I need to address something important.

I wouldn't trust him. He'd tell us that the items are personally inspected by Mothra or Biollante.

@JazzDad You're all wrong on this one. Mothra works as a foreman at Clarion. Word is that he's transferring to the Towa Arms plant near Nagoya. Mech-Godzilla and Rodan inspected the siren and lights. As for Biollante, I heard that it's the bastard that fried my siren amp. I have a bone to pick with it.

@cmb56 Thank you Michael for finding the catalogue! I'll ask her to translate parts of the catalogue. She's learnt to my ways and usually whenever I ask her to translate something, the response is "lights or sirens? Why can't you just use Google Translate?"

Video of teardrops.

Photos of internals:

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PATLITE Sirens:

Ambulance Siren. The Harmonic Hi-Lo is for use in residential areas and when approaching hospitals, mostly. The computerized voice is saying "The ambulance is approaching from the left/right/centre, please make way."




Fire Sirens. Fire vehicles also have a little simulated bell tone and a wacky tone for passing/clearing traffic The second video is of an older system.



Another PATLITE siren. This one is interesting. Their take on an American style siren. Sounds great an I love the "yeow" tone. There's an early version of this from the early to mid 80s called the PATLITE Policeman that's pushbutton.

 

Phillyrube

Member
May 21, 2010
1,272
Flatistan
Interesting, thanks for the photos. How are these mounted on a car? They look like the old cowl mounted Fireballs on 70 and 80s ambulances.
 

WhelenNDealin

Member
Aug 6, 2017
575
Ontario, Canada
Interesting, thanks for the photos. How are these mounted on a car? They look like the old cowl mounted Fireballs on 70 and 80s ambulances.

@cmb56 indicated that they're mounted on the sides of a vehicle. Ah, yes, the cowl mounted Fireballs and single rotator beacons! Always was a fan of those. IIRC, they used them until the early 90s on Ontario Ministry of Health ambulances and into the early-mid 90s on some town FD vehicles.

more awsome

I have three more awesome Japanese sirens lined up for you! These ones are from PATLITE. First and third ones are for FD vehicles and the second for ambulances. Second one has five different electronic voices. Will have the missus translate what they're saying. I can only understand what the ones saying "kyukyumaso" (ambulance) are saying. Again, politely asking motorists to move.

Side note: their ambulances move incredibly slowly. I'm talking slow as in NEVER exceeding 20 mph or so. Fastest that I've ever seen one go was about 25 mph. That's HAULING for one of their ambulances.




Will post more as I find them. You can find these systems on the same site where I got the teardrops and siren from, but they seem to go for a decent chunk of change. That being said, I'm keeping my eyes peeled for one as well as a Clarion AA-228F and any of the Clarion AA-600 models. Will be posting video of those shortly. They're interesting as they're also light controls and have some interesting alternate tones.

Just my two cents on the Yeow tone; it reminds me a lot of the WS-227a's yelp. I seem to recall @Wailer describing the WS-227a's yelp as a "bow-wow". Yeow and bow-wow are pretty close. The latter is more canine and the former is more feline, but otherwise similar.

Regarding the teardrops, are those bulbs 35w halogen? After running the teardrops for even a short amount of time, the domes get fairly warm. I just don't see an incandescent bulb throwing out that much light or heat.
 
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WhelenNDealin

Member
Aug 6, 2017
575
Ontario, Canada
The bulbs, shown in the pics with the domes removed, are incandescent. They look like a newer version 1195 bulb.

I'll be darned! They certainly throw out more light and heat than I'd ever expect from a 12v incandescent of that wattage! @dmathieu Are the bulbs in teardrops typically incandescent? I know next to nothing about them as they're not really my area of interest, so to speak. I've seen incandescents in the really cheap Chinese knockoffs, but I'd have expected that a decent teardrop would use a bulb with a bit more oomph.
 

dmathieu

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 20, 2010
8,766
S.W. New Hampshire, USA
The older vintage teardrops had incandescent because that was all that was available. 1195 was the brightest of that size available, When Halogen 55 Watt H1 came out that was the choice, starting, most notably, with Federal's FBH11 Super Fire Ball in 1978. Then the bayonet base 50 Watt 795 and 795X came out in the late 1970s and 1980s, and that became most common as a brighter option with most manufacturers.
 
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cmb56

Member
May 22, 2010
746
Norrköping, Sweden
The 1195 is rated 50cp and that means normaly 37,5 Watt and that is slightly more than the original 35 Watt halogen that Patlite use in this light.

The European version of the 1195 is 45 Watt.
They look the same but the European bulb has a higher light output.

Many Asian made teardrop lights has quite often only 15 to 20 Watt incandecent bulbs.
You might think they are toys but they are used professionally.
Very low light output!
I have seen them used on ambulances in blue and you almost did not noticed that they where on.

Michael
 
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cmb56

Member
May 22, 2010
746
Norrköping, Sweden
I have seen Asian made bulbs of the 1195 type that is rated 40 Watt and it might be that type of bulbs that are mounted in these lights.

Look on the socket if there are any number or other information that give you a hint of the Wattage.

Michael
 
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WhelenNDealin

Member
Aug 6, 2017
575
Ontario, Canada
I have seen Asian made bulbs of the 1195 type that is rated 40 Watt and it might be that type of bulbs that are mounted in these lights.

Look on the socket if there are any number or other information that give you a hint of the Wattage.

Michael

Will definitely check the bulbs for numbers. The labels on the teardrops indicate 35 Watts.

Many Asian made teardrop lights has quite often only 15 to 20 Watt incandecent bulbs.
You might think they are toys but they are used professionally.
Very low light output!
I have seen them used on ambulances in blue and you almost did not noticed that they where on.

Michael

That's pretty scary stuff when you consider how crowded and bustling the roads in most any major city in Asia are. Not to mention pedestrians. I'm not sure where you are in Thailand. I haven't been to Thailand, but from what I've heard, the larger cities are quite congested and the traffic is fast paced (motorbikes, took tooks, etc) ; so poor warning light visibility would definitely pose a huge risk to citizens and first responders alike.

In Japan, I've found that it really depends on the city when it comes to people paying attention to warning equipment and moving out of the way. Tokyo is what you'd expect from a huge city that's extremely crowded; vehicles and people generally aren't as quick to move. Osaka, as always, is a beast of its own. It seems that they have an almost defiant attitude there. I've found that people in Sendai are particularly respectful in these regards. Nagoya is a mixed bag, but they tend to be more respectful than in Tokyo. Despite its size, from what I've seen in Yokohama, people take notice and act accordingly, but I haven't spent much time there at all. I've spent the most time in Sendai, Nagoya and Kasugai (smaller city outside of Nagoya).

Thanks again, Michael! You've been a huge help with providing info and also showing us what things in Asia are like with emergency lighting. I appreciate it very much!
 

JazzDad

Member
Aug 5, 2011
5,165
USA
I love the tone that fades away.
 

WhelenNDealin

Member
Aug 6, 2017
575
Ontario, Canada
@ProPatriaNeverPassAFault
To clearify, I am living in Sweden but my girlfriend is Thai.
She has family members with the Rescue Service in Bangkok.

You mention Osaka and the third siren (the one on top) is not Patlite but Osaka Siren Co.

Michael

@cmb56 My apologies for not checking to see if you you're in Thailand or not. Still, thank you for your clarification on everything and the information that you've shared. As for the Osaka Siren Company siren, I can't read Katakana, nor Hiragana and especially not Kanji and ought to have the video titles translated or have used a translator for the sake of accuracy. Thank you again for clarifying that!

@JazzDad If you liked the tone that fades, you might like the harmonic hi-lo that their ambulances use. There are a couple of different types in the videos below.

HERE ARE SOME MORE JAPANESE SIRENS ^_^ !!! They're just so sugoi (or as the cool kids say: sugee!) (b^_^)b o(^▽^)o!!!


Here's another Japanese ambulance siren for everyone's viewing and listening pleasure ! This video has the harmonic Hi-lo used in residential areas and when approaching hospitals.


Video featuring the voice system on Osaka Siren Company ambulance sirens. My wife will hopefully translate what they're saying. Now that worlds have collided for her and I'm delving into Japanese warning equipment, I'm risking testing her patience. The beautiful handmade and razor sharp Japanese chef's knife that she had made for me might end up being plunged through my heart. The courts would likely deem it as justifiable as well.



Here's a video of a Clarion AA-602A siren/light controller that I'd mentioned. Notice the alternate tones that sound like they're from a Nintendo game. Also notice the Western style wail and yelp alternate tones as well as one that's like nothing any of us have ever heard. I did some research and found out that it's used to repel whatever giant monster is attacking Japan that month. Mothra is immune to it as he's a foreman at the Clarion factory and helped to design the tone himself as a weapon in his upcoming battles against the aforementioned giant monster of the month. Said tone was also designed to disrupt J-Pop idol group performances as most Japanese people can't stand J-Pop.


Clarion AA-600A. More or less the same system albeit with fewer tones. Mothra was not involved in the design process.


EDITED FOR ACCURACY WITH SECOND VIDEO.
 
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cmb56

Member
May 22, 2010
746
Norrköping, Sweden
@ProPatriaNeverPassAFault
No problem.

If you look at the top left corner on the siren on top, you see a red oval with the letters SS in white.
That is the logotype of Osaka Siren Co.
If you know that, it is an easy thing to recognize the make.
They also call their sirens for Mark ”someting” and this one is Mark 8.
The contemporary one is the Mark D1 series.
The Mark 10 and 11 had been discontinued since 2016/17.

Michael
 

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