Station siren setup

wilsonbr90

Member
Sep 30, 2013
1,427
Corning, New York
Our station siren has been botched together multiple times and is outdated for our needs. We no longer rely on the siren for alerting the members to assemble and therefore is is turned off.

I have been given approval to update the siren controls to function in the 21st century. As a reminder that we still exist. I'm fluent in electronics but not building circuits. Also I want something that's going to work for the next 30 years.

I'm having trouble piecing together what I need to provide all the functions Id like it to have. So here will be a rundown of desired features.

7 day timer to provide either a daily or more likely once weekly ramp up and down. Probably only a 3-5 second on and that's it

Trigger for a call. Will receive a 12v from either a pager or radio with our tones programmed. Would like it to turn on for 10-30 seconds then off. Needs to only operate between 8am-8pm.

Test button. Ramp up for 10-30 seconds then ramp down.

Emergency switch. Continual ramp up and down until the switch is turned off. - I can take care of this function with the manual cycle timer currently in the cabinet.

The siren is 480 3 phase on a Siemens contactor that has a 120v coil. Very easy to manipulate.

I know this is an odd duckling of a project but it's always nice to hear that ol' girl wind up and blow of the bee nests!

Any suggestions Even just on parts of the system are appreciated.

And no I don't want to just buy an AR timer. Cheap is the idea here and as simple as possible is appreciated.
 

MtnMan

Member
Dec 20, 2012
1,533
Eastern PA
That's an interesting enough project to get me thinking on a Sunday morning.

The elegant solution would be a programmable logical controller (PLC), which should be able to handle all of the functions in one box, but that's going to be a steep learning curve.

The simpler solution (and probably kinder to those others who may be maintaining the system in the future) is to use modular components. Below is a block diagram that I think captures all of the functionality you need. Here's a reasonably priced interval timer that will work for this application: https://www.zoro.com/dayton-encapsulated-timer-relay-1a-solid-state-6a858/i/G0634462/

LMK if you decide to pursue this route and I can provide further details.
siren control.jpg
 
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