Fire Department Alerting System

shues

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
10,276
NW Indiana
Yes, I have been able to use the Minitor II, Minitor III and IV, Minitor V, and Minitor VI amplified chargers interchangeably over the years. The accessory connector pinout doesn't seem to have changed.

The alerting system I made uses pins 2, 3, 4, and 5. Pins 1 and 6 are not used in my system.
 

MTRescue740

New Member
Was anyone able to figure out how to get ithe amplified charger to reset automatically? For example, when our tones go off, the pager goes off twice within about 20-30 seconds depending on the dispatcher. From my testing, the lights only go off the first time and will not go off again unless the amplified charger is reset
 

shues

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
10,276
NW Indiana
Was anyone able to figure out how to get ithe amplified charger to reset automatically? For example, when our tones go off, the pager goes off twice within about 20-30 seconds depending on the dispatcher. From my testing, the lights only go off the first time and will not go off again unless the amplified charger is reset


You're probably experiencing this because pins 4 and 5 are connected. Try breaking that circuit.

Pins 4 and 5 of the accessory connector are used to select the time duration of the relay contact closure. If these two pins are NOT used (open circuit), the relay will remain energized for approximately 10 seconds after an alert is received. If pins 4 & 5 are SHORTED, the relay will remain energized until the 'RESET' button on the front of the charger/amplifier is depressed. Pressing the 'RESET' button causes the contacts to open and turns off the ALERT indicator."
 
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shues

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
10,276
NW Indiana
With pins 4 and 5 connected, you're setting your relay to require manual reset. Disconnect pin 4 from pin 5 to set your relay for automatic reset.
 

MTRescue740

New Member
The relay we're talking about is internal to the amplified charger base.
I am not going to lie, I am kind of lost now, I'm probably over thinking about this. I am using the amplified charger to trip the Altronix 6062 board. I was originally using the white cable (pin 4) as the trip and the shield as the ground.

I need to figure out which pin to use instead of 4 for the automatic reset. We don't get a lot of calls so I can only verify it every so often, which is why I haven't figured it out yet through trial and error.

I can go over there and get a picture if that helps
 

shues

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
10,276
NW Indiana
Pins 2 and 3 correspond with the terminals of the dry contact relay inside of the amplified charger base. This relay is tiny. It can handle at most 750 milliamps while closed, it can switch at most 400 milliamps. It can take no more than 28 volts DC, and is rated at only 10 watts.

I use the dry contact relay inside of the amplified charger base and a very small wall-wart to trigger a solid state relay that does the heavy lifting. I have pins 4 and 5 shorted together so that the output stays active until the reset button is pressed.
 

tangelella

New Member
May 25, 2020
2
Pittston
Question about this system. My department just installed speakers for audio and a bunch of horn/strobes hooked to an altronix 6062, powered by a minitor vi amplified charger. The problem we are having is that the horn strobes are so delayed on activating that they can only activate for 2 seconds before having to cut out for the dispatch. We get the beeps over the audio speakers for about 5 seconds before the horns activate. is there a way to change this so that the horns activate instantly upon tripping?
 

tangelella

New Member
May 25, 2020
2
Pittston
so we had the company who installed the system here today and they think the delay is that the system needs to be 24v or the problem is in the horn strobes and may have to swap them out for different ones. Does that sound right?
 

MtnMan

Member
Dec 20, 2012
1,533
Eastern PA
so we had the company who installed the system here today and they think the delay is that the system needs to be 24v or the problem is in the horn strobes and may have to swap them out for different ones. Does that sound right?

Sounds like they have no clue.
 

Quentin

Member
May 21, 2010
956
Lancaster, Nebraska

This is what I put together. This uses two-tone detect that sends a trigger to a MQTT broker then node-red gets the trigger. From node-red the possibilities are endless. I have it also turn on my bedroom/hallway/garage lights between dusk and dawn with a 2min timmer to turn off.

The sounds is coming over a Sonos speaker and using a Wemo switch a generic 12v 5a power supply.
 
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edisonffa

New Member
Apr 8, 2020
2
Ohio
Okay, so I am up on all of the normal comments for alerting. A few questions that I would have though are the following:

What gang boxes have yall used?
What strobe housing have you used for the Fenix lights?
At our station we are planning on using 8 speakers, how would you recommend doing this with the limited output from the base?
Also, does anyone know where to get lighted PA speakers? I have seen them in stations before and are offered by companies like Phoenix G2, but I have not been able to find them anywhere else?

Thanks for the help on this, just trying to get the parts list and then get it built.
 

Joe319

New Member
Oct 29, 2020
1
New York
Ok so I’m new here and was reading about the firehouse alert system a read the post a couple times and seems pretty easy so I went and purchased all the parts I followed the directions like MAX posted first time I hooked all wireing wrong so went back and hooked up the positive wire from lights on wrong terminal now that I have it all correct I was waiting on the test from my department and nothing happened so I reread the post to make sure all wires were right and thay were am I missing something or did something wrong if anybody can help that would be greatly appreciate thanks Joe
 

Jpaulsen18

New Member
Jan 23, 2022
1
New hampshire

This is what I put together. This uses two-tone detect that sends a trigger to a MQTT broker then node-red gets the trigger. From node-red the possibilities are endless. I have it also turn on my bedroom/hallway/garage lights between dusk and dawn with a 2min timmer to turn off.

The sounds is coming over a Sonos speaker and using a Wemo switch a generic 12v 5a power supply.
Do you have a wiring diagram for this? And list of parts
 

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