Most of us know what the standard ASC Compulert siren controller looks like.
The control panel with the buttons is technically separate from the rest of the controller, and it is called the RTU-2001-AC. This is why you can seemingly find the exact same siren controller in both the ASC Tempest line of sirens AND the E-Class / i-Force series. They share the same control interface, while the rest of the controller is different depending on application (electronic, electromechanical, or indoor mass notification).
Here's a typical Tempest configuration of this controller:
And here's a typical E-Class / i-Force configuration:
Notice there are only 8 buttons, 6 of which are used to activate the various signals. This makes logical sense for the Tempest line of sirens, as they only come standard with 3 signals plus a test function (Alert, Attack, Fire, and Growl). However, the E-Class and i-Force series of sirens come with 10 standard signals, according to this document about the RTU-2001-AC:
That would limit local button activation to only 6 of the 10 standard signals. Therefore, in order to access ALL of the signals on an E-Class or i-Force, you would have to use Compulert software. In my humble opinion, this is kind of odd. It reminds me of how most TVs and home audio systems would have certain functions reserved for the remote control, while only basic functions were on the unit itself.
If I'm not mistaken all 10 tones and voice messages installed on the siren's voice board can be accessed remotely via radio without using the CompuLert base station. The controller can be activated by two tone or DTMF including the fast 10 digit protocol Whelen uses. The limit on tones for local activation actually makes sense considering that won't be the primary source of activation in most cases. The siren is going to be activated mostly via radio or through some kind of controller interfaced with the CompuLert. Both Whelen's ESC and FS's MC/MCP/UV are similar in the sense that you can only access certain functions locally. By default both companies' panels can only activate the 7 standard tones and no voice, although you can reprogram FS's to be able to trigger voice locally and I wouldn't be surprised if it could be done with Whelen's controllers, at least the 2020 and 2030. In the case of the Federal controllers fast wail and whoop aren't included by default and need to be programmed into the controller, and you have the same situation with the European tones on Whelen's controllers. In the US alert and wail are the most common used tones, so having those being part of the 3 tones that can be activated locally on the ASC panels makes sense.
One interesting thing about ASC's current electronic controllers is they still have dual tone outputs. When the board generates tones the output from the microcontroller is split and one channel goes straight to one of the outputs and the other goes through an oscillator. The oscillator drops the pitch using a 7/6 ratio (ex. 670 Hz alert falls to 575 Hz). During voice broadcasts from either the voice board, radio, or local panel/audio input that system is bypassed to let the voice come through. ASC currently wires them to the high side output by default, but from what I heard you can custom order one to run on the low side or in dual tone. You can probably swap the wires to the low side fairly easily on an existing I-Force or E-Class and force the whole siren to run at a lower pitch. I'd prefer them better running that way anyway as it would probably help their performance in the distance. It would probably take more effort to do this to convert one to dual tone, but it has been done before albeit with an older controller.
If I'm not mistaken all 10 tones and voice messages installed on the siren's voice board can be accessed remotely via radio without using the CompuLert base station. The controller can be activated by two tone or DTMF including the fast 10 digit protocol Whelen uses. The limit on tones for local activation actually makes sense considering that won't be the primary source of activation in most cases. The siren is going to be activated mostly via radio or through some kind of controller interfaced with the CompuLert. Both Whelen's ESC and FS's MC/MCP/UV are similar in the sense that you can only access certain functions locally. By default both companies' panels can only activate the 7 standard tones and no voice, although you can reprogram FS's to be able to trigger voice locally and I wouldn't be surprised if it could be done with Whelen's controllers, at least the 2020 and 2030. In the case of the Federal controllers fast wail and whoop aren't included by default and need to be programmed into the controller, and you have the same situation with the European tones on Whelen's controllers. In the US alert and wail are the most common used tones, so having those being part of the 3 tones that can be activated locally on the ASC panels makes sense.
It makes sense now that you put it this way. Making all the signals available through push-buttons on the controller would unnecessarily drive up manufacturing costs and increase complexity, given most of the time only 2 or 3 of the available signals are used.
One interesting thing about ASC's current electronic controllers is they still have dual tone outputs. When the board generates tones the output from the microcontroller is split and one channel goes straight to one of the outputs and the other goes through an oscillator. The oscillator drops the pitch using a 7/6 ratio (ex. 670 Hz alert falls to 575 Hz).
That's what I've been wondering ever since I saw that AR-1600. The controller in that video was shown to be the older style before we got the updated control panel, so I wasn't sure if ASC electronic siren controllers still have dual-tone capability. Side note on the dual-tone frequencies- because the alert and attack signals peak at different pitches (670 Hz for alert and 740 Hz for attack), the alert frequencies would be 574/670 in dual-tone mode. I know this because I recently made a synth of the ASC dual-tone signals:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlhhisTNZWw
When you compare the audio with the video you linked, you'll see that they match up perfectly. Except for alert- I messed up on the frequencies for alert. I used 670/782 for alert instead of the 574/670. If you're wondering how I got the frequencies, I happened to come across FSThunderboltfan1000's post about the Alertronic controllers- and in that post I saw that he mentioned the frequencies marked on the control board were 654 and 763.5 Hz.
If I wanted to get the low tone for the attack signal, which peaks at 740 Hz, all I had to do was take 654 and divide by 763.5, which gives me 0.86. Then I take 0.86 and multiply with 740, which gives me 634 (rounding the number, obviously).
Lo and behold, 634/740 are the correct frequencies for dual-tone on the modern ASC controllers.
Going by that same logic to get the high tone for the alert signal, I took 763.5 and divided it by 654, which gave me 1.167. Then, I took 1.167 and multiplied it with 670, which gave me 782. 670/782 ARE NOT the correct frequencies. Instead, in order to get the correct Alert frequencies from 670 Hz, divide 654 by 763.5 and multiply that with 670.
Alert peaks at 574/670 in dual tone mode. Every other signal peaks at 634/740. The frequencies for Hi-Lo in the manual are actually incorrect- THE CORRECT HI-LO FREQUENCIES ARE 552 and 747.
EDITED IN ORDER TO CORRECT SOME PREVIOUSLY INCORRECT INFORMATION
Last edited by 07VFDInLCD on Mon May 02, 2022 8:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
That's what I've been wondering ever since I saw that AR-1600. The controller in that video was shown to be the older style before we got the updated control panel, so I wasn't sure if ASC electronic siren controllers still have dual-tone capability.
Even though the board in that siren is an older one, it is the same Compulert board used in newer electronic ASC sirens. Albeit, it has an oldddd eprom, it’s still the same design that goes on the new ones today. So you could very easily convert it to dual tone by splitting the amps into two groups (was just removing a jumper on the one I installed at tesomas) and running a wire from the second tone output (I believe jumper J101 or J102) and hooking it up to the other amplifier set. Super easy, just takes a length of wire and small molex pins.
Proud owner of a ATI HPSS16R, a Whelen Hornet, and an ASC T-128ACDC
may I ask, is it a chip or the whole board that makes the tones??
if it's a chip, is there a chip id I can find??
if not, where can I find a board...?
keep in mind I'm not good with chips/boards.
Tone file comes on the chip preprogrammed, board adds to it to create the second tone as far as I’ve been able to tell. All chips come preprogrammed from ASC and are proprietary in nature.
Proud owner of a ATI HPSS16R, a Whelen Hornet, and an ASC T-128ACDC
may I ask, is it a chip or the whole board that makes the tones??
if it's a chip, is there a chip id I can find??
if not, where can I find a board...?
keep in mind I'm not good with chips/boards.
Tone file comes on the chip preprogrammed, board adds to it to create the second tone as far as I’ve been able to tell. All chips come preprogrammed from ASC and are proprietary in nature.
alright cool!! thanks!!!
IDK, this is a thing though...
Things I like:
Sirens, Short Track Racing,
Ice Cream Trucks, RC Car Racing, and more!!
"The Milwaukee guy"
The photo for my PFP is from the Wisconsin historical society, Fire co. 19, from 1973
Here is a video that I made of the tones Please note there NOT the original tones there what I interpreted to be from the data
[youtube]https://youtu.be/HrNL3PU2r2I[/youtube]
