Damega Ultimate Siren Review

timkenfire103

Member
May 24, 2010
19
Brewster, Ohio
Well everyone, here is the highly anticipated review for a product that has a lot of people curious. Without further delay, here is my review for the Damega Ultimate Siren.


The ultimate siren is a combination siren and lighting control. My unit is the 100 watt model but it is also available in a 200 watt version. This siren features a remote mount brain with keypad style controller. It uses a 15 foot RJ-45 (Cat5) cable to connect the control pad to the brain.


Siren tones include wail, yelp, phaser and mechanical and air horn. In my opinion the siren tones are good. I was actually suprised when I was testing them that they arent too far off from other major manufactures. I am still on the fence about the mechaical tone though. It is on a programmed ramp/fall cycle and it almost sounds more like wail then a Q. It also has PA which includes a screw on microphone with a 10 foot cable.


The control pad is backlit and has 19 soft push buttons along with an independent power switch. Ten of the buttons can be used for your lighting controls up to 10 amps each circuit. There are also 3 programmable buttons. Each siren tone has its own button. Dimensions are 4-3/4 long x 2-1/4 wide x 1 tall with the costruction being of a decent plastic.


The casing/box that the brain is in seems a bit long for my liking almost like a medium to large sized shoe box. The main power wire comes preconnected and is about 10 inches long. The wire harness is about 6 feet long and each of the leads for relay/switching are about 12 inches. Dimensions of the brain are 9-1/2 long x 6-1/2 wide x 3 tall constructed of a what appears to be gauged aluminum.


As far as testing the unit I hooked it up to a 12 volt power supply with a federal dynamax speaker. The programming/installation instructions were not included and testing was pretty limited. I just tested the siren tones since I figured that is what most of the board members, like me, were wondering about the most. I have included a video that demonstrates the siren tones.


I contacted Tom at AWL near the completion of this review and he mailed me a copy of the instructions.


The unit it appears to be pretty much plug and play. I am sure once you have the instructions it becomes really user friendly allowing you to customize different settings.


I placed the order on Monday July 9th through the website AWL Ultimate 100W Siren Controller and received it on Monday July 16th. The packaging was pretty good. The wiring, control pad and PA mic came wrapped in bubble wrap. The brain was in a plastic bag. Void spaces were filled with heavy packing style paper and the box was also lined with bubble wrap.


ai421.photobucket.com_albums_pp296_firetech304_Packaging.jpg


ai421.photobucket.com_albums_pp296_firetech304_Unpack.jpg


I purchased this siren for a few different reasons. First it is an alternative to the cost of a fed sig smart siren among a few other other sirens of its style. Second it has caught my curiousity after seeing a few other board members using them in their own personal installs. After trying to do some research there isnt much on the net about these sirens. I read on the board that these are believed to be a rebrand from another board member. After some time I decided to take a chance and see the unit for myself. My unit was purchased though Tom at Advanced Warning Lights. That brings me to the third reason, I told Tom I would do a review and demo video for him.


There were two things that I was not real impressed with. First was that the electronics inside the brain were not secure and did move around a bit. I went to take the brain out of the packing plastic and the “guts” were acually sliding inside of the housing. I not sure if it was due to a manufacturing issue or if something just came loose at some point. I havent investigated it yet. The second thing is that the lable/stickers for both the brain housing and keypad werent pushed on all the way. I had to go back over them and push them down so they didnt peel off, loose their sticky or get bubbled.


Now for my ratings


Durability/Construction 7


Performance 9


Ease Of Use 9


Appearance 8


Price 9


Shipping/Packing 9


Overall I can see why these are gaining popularity. For a combo light / siren controller for the price you can not go wrong. So if you are looking for an alternative to a smart siren or remote style siren for a fraction of the cost this is definitely a great choice.
 

Tom

Member
Dec 18, 2010
3,083
Taunton, MA
Thank you for this review. I think it is going to be very helpful for a lot of other people!!
 

JazzDad

Member
Aug 5, 2011
5,165
USA
I'd like to ask: are your fingers extra large, or are those buttons sort of small? It seems that it might be hard to pick out a particular button if you are bumping along in a response or pursuit.
 

timkenfire103

Member
May 24, 2010
19
Brewster, Ohio
I can see how the video may have been a bit confusing. I do have fat fingers and the angle that I was holding my phone while I was recording didnt help much neither


The keys/buttons are equivalent to the size on a smart siren keypad. The 3 buttons on the lower left are slightly larger. Those are your program/memory keys that you can set up different relays to come on (basically like pursuit/progressive switching).


I hope that answers your question


Thanks
 

EMT-BLS

New Member
Oct 28, 2011
2,640
Waterbury, CT
timkenfire103 said:
I can see how the video may have been a bit confusing. I do have fat fingers and the angle that I was holding my phone while I was recording didnt help much neither

The keys/buttons are equivalent to the size on a smart siren keypad. The 3 buttons on the lower left are slightly larger. Those are your program/memory keys that you can set up different relays to come on (basically like pursuit/progressive switching).


I hope that answers your question


Thanks
I'm not sure how familiar you are with the Smart Siren, but based on the pics you provided, the sizes don't appear to be that alike. I am including a pic for reference. The item under the Smart Siren keypad is a iPhone.


photo.JPG
 

timkenfire103

Member
May 24, 2010
19
Brewster, Ohio
I have both a smart siren and the ultimate siren and have done a couple comparison pictures and I have also measured the buttons with a pair of calipers.


The smart siren keys are .550 x .550


The ultimate siren keys are .390 x .390 and the persuit keys are .560 x .390


I correct my original statement that they are equivalent. I should have stated that the smart siren buttons are slightly bigger in size but the ultimate buttons do look tiny due to me having fat fingers.


ai421.photobucket.com_albums_pp296_firetech304_Damega_20Ultimate_20Siren_kaypadcomparison1.jpg


ai421.photobucket.com_albums_pp296_firetech304_Damega_20Ultimate_20Siren_kaypadcomparison.jpg
 

bshockme

Member
May 26, 2010
60
Missouri
any chance of someone making the instructions available online? I would like to see how the programable buttons can be programmed.
 
Nov 7, 2011
983
New England
bshockme said:
any chance of someone making the instructions available online? I would like to see how the programable buttons can be programmed.

They are not programmable. the progressive buttons are set by selecting what lights you want to have on for that memory button, and holding down the button for a few seconds until it "beeps"
 

EMT-BLS

New Member
Oct 28, 2011
2,640
Waterbury, CT
jcpse said:
They are not programmable. the progressive buttons are set by selecting what lights you want to have on for that memory button, and holding down the button for a few seconds until it "beeps"
In my book, that makes it programmable. The ability to have certain keys do certain functions, and the ability to change what functions it does, makes it programmable.
 

JohnMarcson

Administrator
May 7, 2010
10,971
Northwest Ohio
jcpse said:
....the progressive buttons are set by selecting what lights you want to have on for that memory button, and holding down the button for a few seconds until it "beeps"

........good explanation programming the functions on a controller.....
 

FireMedic129

Member
Jul 19, 2011
587
Kentucky
it looks very similar to the Feniex Olympian Siren i have in my jeep. The Brain box could be its twin brother!!!! The way that the 3 progressive buttons are "programmed" is exactly how the olympian is done. That is one of the things i do not like about the siren system i have. I hope you have better luck with this siren than Feniex did with the Olympian.


5228420610_cb3911909f_z.jpg
 

Hlover

New Member
Aug 31, 2012
3
Nj
Hey I was wondering does the siren have a manual wail button like this whelen does

. At 0.30 sec
 

JohnMarcson

Administrator
May 7, 2010
10,971
Northwest Ohio
JazzDad said:
I'd like to ask: are your fingers extra large, or are those buttons sort of small? It seems that it might be hard to pick out a particular button if you are bumping along in a response or pursuit.

Pulled from the video

Capture.JPG
 

badge22

Member
Aug 14, 2010
934
MI, United States
Um...."First was that the electronics inside the brain were not secure and did move around a bit. I went to take the brain out of the packing plastic and the “guts” were acually sliding inside of the housing."


Anyone?
 

StewartComm

Member
May 23, 2010
302
Jerusalem, Ohio
I just bought and installed this unit forgone of my customers. First thought...it was a little loose...as far as hearing moving parts. Easy fix. Second...programming should be specified a little more clearly. The unit is very loud and thus far seems to work flawlessly. Installed in a POV... I would like to see, or hear about some long term testing before I start installing them into police cars, fire engines or ambulances.
 

FFSmiley

New Member
Dec 8, 2012
1
Boone County, MO
I am wondering is this siren has a manual mechanical option?


Also, do the memory buttons only control other siren functions or can you run lights directly to them (like a three stage pursuit function)?
 

dshannon4296

New Member
Jun 8, 2012
1
United States
FFSmiley said:
I am wondering is this siren has a manual mechanical option?
Also, do the memory buttons only control other siren functions or can you run lights directly to them (like a three stage pursuit function)?

The way it works is you press a memory button and the current stored memory goes into effect. You can turn off or on what you want then hold down the memory button for 3 seconds and it will beep establishing the new stored memory. You can do any combination of lights or siren you wish all selected the same way by selecting or deselecting the desired buttons when that memory has been selected.


I just installed it and it seems to work great except for the PA. It is unclear and not very loud. You also have to get right up on the mic to get it to work at all. not sure if a different mic would fix this. More to follow when I learn more through field testing.
 

StewartComm

Member
May 23, 2010
302
Jerusalem, Ohio
The siren has manual and auto mechanical. The mechanical acts as a wail for mechanical. It sounds much better than Whelen's Moo siren, but not quite the Federal Signal Q. It has 3 button progression switches and a momentary button for changing light patterns. The other buttons are either on/off, or siren control functions.

FFSmiley said:
I am wondering is this siren has a manual mechanical option?
Also, do the memory buttons only control other siren functions or can you run lights directly to them (like a three stage pursuit function)?
 
May 23, 2010
837
LaGrange, KY
bshockme said:
any chance of someone making the instructions available online? I would like to see how the programable buttons can be programmed.

programming is show on you tube
 

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