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NahIDee
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Re: Sarnia's ACA Alertronics need your help.

Mon Oct 28, 2019 9:40 pm

I apologize for the bump but I think this might be of some help:

https://youtu.be/tEwlGcJ9xjQ

https://youtu.be/dfcarTF6KwM

(Both of these videos do not belong to me.)
Greetings from Saint Paul, Nebraska!

Proud owner of an ACA Alertronic AL-4000, Alertronic AL-6000R, Penetrator-15, Cyclone 120, Type-1 Allertor 125, a Federal Model C, and a Klaxon Mono AH!

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Re: Sarnia's ACA Alertronics need your help.

Tue Oct 29, 2019 6:09 am

nahIDee wrote:
Mon Oct 28, 2019 9:40 pm
I apologize for the bump but I think this might be of some help:

https://youtu.be/tEwlGcJ9xjQ

https://youtu.be/dfcarTF6KwM

(Both of these videos do not belong to me.)
Yes, one of my many Alertronic videos. I now have a 3rd board (in my possession this time). I suppose I could share some of the information that I have learned about this unit. Let me break down what I see in the photo of his controller to help us better understand how their system worked. I have highlighted the main components in different colors to help you guys see them. The item surrounded by the blue color is the Compulert radio. I know before it was thought that the city had removed the radio from the siren but it is indeed still there. Circled in the red is the actual Alertronic "brain" so far, of the units I have been in contact with, have had the older style board and only one has had the newer style board. I have yet to see a digital Alertronic main brain. As stated before Carson MFG made these boards for ACA. The newest board I have seen was from 1992 off an ACA AR-1600 and that one was still analog. Highlighted in yellow is the Lamarche Constavolt battery charger. These sirens to my knowledge never came with a rectifier to run on AC power and always had to run on two 12V dc deep cycle batteries that were then recharged when the siren was not in use. Highlighted in Purple is the Siemens-Allis 14-193-791-526 24V DC 100 Amp contactor. Unlike the SiraTone, the sirens amplifiers do not have a bias detector that turns themselves on when they sense an audio signal coming from the mainboard the Alertronic amplifiers are powered by a relay. On the main "brain" board there are two small relays one for the rotation circuit and one for the amplifier circuit. When the board starts or stops a signal the board opens or closes the relay which in turn closes the main 100 amp contactor that powers up the amps. Lastly highlighted in black are the amplifiers. Each amplifier is capable of producing either 200 or .5 watts. When the siren is ready for normal operation the technician would set the amplifier to high output. This would cause the amplifier to output the full 200 watts of sound. When the amplifier was set to the low setting for maintenance testing it was claimed that the amplifier would only output .5 watts. Once again, the amplifiers were also manufactured by Carson Manufacturing INC. The style of the board I currently have is supposed to output the frequencies of 750 and 650 but I figured out that mine generated roughly produces a 763.5 and 654 Hz. Well, I hope some of this information helps clear up the mystery behind these units. I should really make a thread on everything I know about these units. I believe I have worked on more of these than any other siren enthusiast.
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Alertronic Controller .png (732.77 KiB) Viewed 3372 times
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NahIDee
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Re: Sarnia's ACA Alertronics need your help.

Wed Nov 20, 2019 5:14 pm

FSThunderboltfan1000 wrote:
Tue Oct 29, 2019 6:09 am
nahIDee wrote:
Mon Oct 28, 2019 9:40 pm
I apologize for the bump but I think this might be of some help:

https://youtu.be/tEwlGcJ9xjQ

https://youtu.be/dfcarTF6KwM

(Both of these videos do not belong to me.)
Yes, one of my many Alertronic videos. I now have a 3rd board (in my possession this time). I suppose I could share some of the information that I have learned about this unit. Let me break down what I see in the photo of his controller to help us better understand how their system worked. I have highlighted the main components in different colors to help you guys see them. The item surrounded by the blue color is the Compulert radio. I know before it was thought that the city had removed the radio from the siren but it is indeed still there. Circled in the red is the actual Alertronic "brain" so far, of the units I have been in contact with, have had the older style board and only one has had the newer style board. I have yet to see a digital Alertronic main brain. As stated before Carson MFG made these boards for ACA. The newest board I have seen was from 1992 off an ACA AR-1600 and that one was still analog. Highlighted in yellow is the Lamarche Constavolt battery charger. These sirens to my knowledge never came with a rectifier to run on AC power and always had to run on two 12V dc deep cycle batteries that were then recharged when the siren was not in use. Highlighted in Purple is the Siemens-Allis 14-193-791-526 24V DC 100 Amp contactor. Unlike the SiraTone, the sirens amplifiers do not have a bias detector that turns themselves on when they sense an audio signal coming from the mainboard the Alertronic amplifiers are powered by a relay. On the main "brain" board there are two small relays one for the rotation circuit and one for the amplifier circuit. When the board starts or stops a signal the board opens or closes the relay which in turn closes the main 100 amp contactor that powers up the amps. Lastly highlighted in black are the amplifiers. Each amplifier is capable of producing either 200 or .5 watts. When the siren is ready for normal operation the technician would set the amplifier to high output. This would cause the amplifier to output the full 200 watts of sound. When the amplifier was set to the low setting for maintenance testing it was claimed that the amplifier would only output .5 watts. Once again, the amplifiers were also manufactured by Carson Manufacturing INC. The style of the board I currently have is supposed to output the frequencies of 750 and 650 but I figured out that mine generated roughly produces a 763.5 and 654 Hz. Well, I hope some of this information helps clear up the mystery behind these units. I should really make a thread on everything I know about these units. I believe I have worked on more of these than any other siren enthusiast.
In my opinion, creating a new thread about your knowledge of these Alertronic sirens would be a really good idea.
It would be good to know more about these sirens considering that there isn't a whole lot known about them.
Greetings from Saint Paul, Nebraska!

Proud owner of an ACA Alertronic AL-4000, Alertronic AL-6000R, Penetrator-15, Cyclone 120, Type-1 Allertor 125, a Federal Model C, and a Klaxon Mono AH!

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Re: Sarnia's ACA Alertronics need your help.

Fri Jan 31, 2020 5:09 am

Thanks very much FSThunderboltfan1000

Now our only hope is that whoever bought that last remaining Alertronic from Sarnia is able to restore it. One thing i remember about the tones of these sirens is that high was piercingly louder the the low, with a wonky timbre, always reminded me of two trumpets playing. There was no soft wind up either, hard impact, which I experienced the hard way being in the same park as one during a softball game (which is the one in my profile pic), luckly it was only a growl test (which was a single windup "WhooP"). The city did lots of those during the summer months.

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Re: Sarnia's ACA Alertronics need your help.

Fri Oct 08, 2021 9:40 pm

I ended up finding this posted on here. I do believe that this might be the video that you are looking for, though I could be wrong. Unfortunately, Wayback did not archive the video, rendering this to be somewhat of a useless find.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTs2Jjoet-U
Greetings from Saint Paul, Nebraska!

Proud owner of an ACA Alertronic AL-4000, Alertronic AL-6000R, Penetrator-15, Cyclone 120, Type-1 Allertor 125, a Federal Model C, and a Klaxon Mono AH!

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Re: Sarnia's ACA Alertronics need your help.

Fri Oct 15, 2021 7:10 am

As it turns out, there's still one last Alertronic in Sarnia's system, a forgotten AL-4000 by the half-demolished OPG station past Corunna. It is very unlikely to be active, but it still has its controller.
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Re: Sarnia's ACA Alertronics need your help.

Sat Oct 16, 2021 2:40 am

Yup, I saw it when I went to hear the St Clair County test in Courtright, ON. Sorry for the blurry photos.
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Re: Sarnia's ACA Alertronics need your help.

Sat Oct 16, 2021 2:50 am

I assume its dual tone just like the 6000Rs but is there videos of this siren functioning?
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Re: Sarnia's ACA Alertronics need your help.

Sat Oct 16, 2021 2:56 am

Nope been dead since the late '90s and most of the Sarnia area was replaced with ATI sirens in 2002 and the rest of the Alertronics were removed in 2012.
Proud owner of:
• Federal Sign & Signal STH-10
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Re: Sarnia's ACA Alertronics need your help.

Sat Oct 16, 2021 3:20 am

I wonder if the plant would allow somebody to obtain this siren, as it's not doing anything else and would be better in private hands.
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https://civil-defense-sirens.fandom.com ... irens_Wiki
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