My legacy alarm has an “internal sounder” wired separately to the main alarm siren that “delivers an audio signal to up to 3x 16ohm speakers”. This serves two functions - a loud siren on trigger and quieter warning tones during exit and entry states.
It is unclear what voltage is supplied to this speaker.
Is it possible to use this speaker with Konnected? How would I get the two volumes? Is the best that can be done just an on/off with the alarm terminals?
I pulled out the multimeter and found the following:
Is it fair to conclude that the volume is driven by voltage?
Given the complexity I will use the supplied piezo buzzer for the “quiet warnings”.
What would be the best way to incorporate this internal speaker to sound with the external siren? I believe it’s just on/off so it would ideally be connected to a switchable output (unfortunately I’ll be using both ALRM terminals already for the external siren and strobe respectively, so I think that counts OUT2 out?).
(a possible solution includes getting a new siren a la UK siren options?)
Typically a sounder with specifications in ohms is just a speaker – it doesn’t make a sound by just applying voltage to it, like the more modern sirens do. A speaker needs a siren driver to create the oscillating sound. You can probably find a siren driver for $10~$20 on Amazon or eBay or something. Basically the siren driver takes a 12V input and outputs the oscillating sound to the siren.
Modern alarm systems sirens have all of that built-in to the logic board inside of the siren, which IMO is way easier to work with. Cost-wise, it’s not usually cost effective to buy a siren driver when you can just replace the whole siren for a more modern one at nearly the same cost.
Yes - I quickly came to the same conclusion after falling into the rabbit hole of speaker power :). I also realised that speakers of this type require AC anyway so yes, a new siren is where I’ve landed. It’ll probably be wired in parallel with the external siren so I can switch the strobe separately.