whats the difference between whelen 2800 to 2900

[holler]

TURN THAT THING DOWN!

I can't, it stresses out my amps.

[coastalsyrolover]

Oh right because the thunderbolts and the hurricanes blowers shut off and the other sirens get too quiet to hear from a distance and if you tried to mimic that it would hurt the amps. That makes so much more sense now. Thanks for the reply dclarkct! I really learned a lot today. And lol that's funny holler (Jeb. I don't know which you prefer or if you even care.)

[Duderocks5539]

I don't mean to bump but I believe 2800s didn't come with 465 Hz ESC-864s ,but they did come with 450 Hz ESC 2020s before they switched over to 435 Hz 2020s.

[uncommonsense]

I don't mean to bump but I believe 2800s didn't come with 465 Hz ESC-864s ,but they did come with 450 Hz ESC 2020s before they switched over to 435 Hz 2020s.

No. Plenty of 2800s have the 465 hz 864 controllers. The Whelens in St. Louis (City), MO certainly have them. The 2800 debuted circa 1994ish and the 2020 around 2001. Also, people knowledgeable with Whelens (again Nick Metts I believe but I could be wrong from where I read this) state that the 2020s have a glitch that caused them to drift to a lower tone after a SiTest, not that it was intentional.

[Duderocks5539]

Are 450 Hz ESC 2020s more rare then 465 Hz ESC-864s on 2800s?

[uncommonsense]

Both are very common in the wild.

[Duderocks5539]

Yeah the most common controller on 2800s are 435 Hz ESC-2020s ,but some got retrofitted with 560 Hz ESC-2030s. So basically the early circa 1994 2800s came with 465 Hz digital ESC-864s ,Then in 2001 they came with the 450 Hz ESC-2020s ,then sometime later they came with 435 Hz ESC-2020s that were on them until the 2800 line was discontinued in 2006.

[DJ2226]

Yeah the most common controller on 2800s are 435 Hz ESC-2020s ,but some got retrofitted with 560 Hz ESC-2030s. So basically the early circa 1994 2800s came with 465 Hz digital ESC-864s ,Then in 2001 they came with the 450 Hz ESC-2020s ,then sometime later they came with 435 Hz ESC-2020s that were on them until the 2800 line was discontinued in 2006.

Actually the number of 2800 series sirens on 864s and 2020s are probably equal. There are so many with older and newer controls it's hard to tell which is more common. Here's my take on the timeline.

The 2800 series were out by 1994. Someone who recently got a hold of a 2804 mentioned that his was made in 1993, so we can probably say late 1993 is when they made their debut. All of Whelen's WPS series sirens were analog until 1995 when the digitized ESC-864 came out, so the panels peak at whatever pitch they want in alert, usually at 650+ Hz for the older units and 400 - 510 Hz for the slightly newer ones. They also appeared to be limited in how big they came. The biggest analog 2800 series siren I've seen online was the 2808 in Taylor Lake Village, TX. I think the reason for that was because of the 4008, since the oldest Type III panel I've seen online happened to house an analog controller and only had 8 slots.This was from the controller from Friendsville, TN's 4008. That's a mystery, since the 2700 series went up to 9 cells before Whelen dropped it from the lineup. The digital panel came out in 1994 but from what I can tell was only used with the 404R and the, what I've been calling, the 280 series. These were basically the predecessors to the Vortex-R/O series. After that everything had the digital panel, and the Vortex-O series was created with the name eventually being changed to the OmniAlert series.

In around 2001 is when the ESC-2020 came out, but not every siren had that board since Whelen still had some of the 864 boards in stock that they sold off. By around 2002 the last of the ones with 864s were sold off. My hometown of Columbus, GA was one of the cities that happened to receive a few of the last ones mixed in with the other 2020s. Unfortunately those were FPU'ed when the county retrofitted everything with Motorola RTUs. On a side note Whelen also did this when they transitioned to the ESC-2030, and Ft. Benning, GA happens to have one of the last 2905s sold with a 2020. The alert tone was originally set for 450 Hz on the 2020s, but due to the glitch the controllers peaked at 435 Hz. Here's an interesting tidbit. The tones on the Whelen tone and voice library web page are set for 450 Hz.

The 2800 series was sold up until 2007 from what I can tell and was replaced by the 2900 series sometime in either 2005 or 2006. When the 2900 series first came out it used the same 450/435 Hz panel as the 2800 series and had the same ratings, and there are a number of videos online of the early units going off in 435 Hz alert. By the time 2007 came around Whelen had switched to the 560 Hz alert tone, but due to the glitch from before those also slipped and ended up peaking at 530 Hz until the hardware was revised later that year. A number of 2806's were sold that year to the North Anna and Surry plants in Virginia that had 560 Hz panels with a hand full of 2906's that happened to have the glitched 530 Hz panels and a few 2806's that had 435 Hz panels. If I'm not mistaken the Tuttle Creek Dam Failure Warning System was installed that year as well and features 6 2809s with glitched 2020's. Those happen to be configured in European mode, and like with the regular tones they have also slipped in pitch.

By 2008 I believe all of the older 2800 series sirens were sold off. Everything from that point on was using 2900 series heads on a 560 Hz 2020 panel. Basically everything that happened to the WPS series after 1994 happened to the Vortex-O/OmniAlert-OA series, so any of them sold within the timelines above had the same pitch and heads.

[Duderocks5539]

Yeah the most common controller on 2800s are 435 Hz ESC-2020s ,but some got retrofitted with 560 Hz ESC-2030s. So basically the early circa 1994 2800s came with 465 Hz digital ESC-864s ,Then in 2001 they came with the 450 Hz ESC-2020s ,then sometime later they came with 435 Hz ESC-2020s that were on them until the 2800 line was discontinued in 2006.

Actually the number of 2800 series sirens on 864s and 2020s are probably equal. There are so many with older and newer controls it's hard to tell which is more common. Here's my take on the timeline.

The 2800 series were out by 1994. Someone who recently got a hold of a 2804 mentioned that his was made in 1993, so we can probably say late 1993 is when they made their debut. All of Whelen's WPS series sirens were analog until 1995 when the digitized ESC-864 came out, so the panels peak at whatever pitch they want in alert, usually at 650+ Hz for the older units and 400 - 510 Hz for the slightly newer ones. They also appeared to be limited in how big they came. The biggest analog 2800 series siren I've seen online was the 2808 in Taylor Lake Village, TX. I think the reason for that was because of the 4008, since the oldest Type III panel I've seen online happened to house an analog controller and only had 8 slots.This was from the controller from Friendsville, TN's 4008. That's a mystery, since the 2700 series went up to 9 cells before Whelen dropped it from the lineup. The digital panel came out in 1994 but from what I can tell was only used with the 404R and the, what I've been calling, the 280 series. These were basically the predecessors to the Vortex-R/O series. After that everything had the digital panel, and the Vortex-O series was created with the name eventually being changed to the OmniAlert series.

In around 2001 is when the ESC-2020 came out, but not every siren had that board since Whelen still had some of the 864 boards in stock that they sold off. By around 2002 the last of the ones with 864s were sold off. My hometown of Columbus, GA was one of the cities that happened to receive a few of the last ones mixed in with the other 2020s. Unfortunately those were FPU'ed when the county retrofitted everything with Motorola RTUs. On a side note Whelen also did this when they transitioned to the ESC-2030, and Ft. Benning, GA happens to have one of the last 2905s sold with a 2020. The alert tone was originally set for 450 Hz on the 2020s, but due to the glitch the controllers peaked at 435 Hz. Here's an interesting tidbit. The tones on the Whelen tone and voice library web page are set for 450 Hz.

The 2800 series was sold up until 2007 from what I can tell and was replaced by the 2900 series sometime in either 2005 or 2006. When the 2900 series first came out it used the same 450/435 Hz panel as the 2800 series and had the same ratings, and there are a number of videos online of the early units going off in 435 Hz alert. By the time 2007 came around Whelen had switched to the 560 Hz alert tone, but due to the glitch from before those also slipped and ended up peaking at 530 Hz until the hardware was revised later that year. A number of 2806's were sold that year to the North Anna and Surry plants in Virginia that had 560 Hz panels with a hand full of 2906's that happened to have the glitched 530 Hz panels and a few 2806's that had 435 Hz panels. If I'm not mistaken the Tuttle Creek Dam Failure Warning System was installed that year as well and features 6 2809s with glitched 2020's. Those happen to be configured in European mode, and like with the regular tones they have also slipped in pitch.

By 2008 I believe all of the older 2800 series sirens were sold off. Everything from that point on was using 2900 series heads on a 560 Hz 2020 panel. Basically everything that happened to the WPS series after 1994 happened to the Vortex-O/OmniAlert-OA series, so any of them sold within the timelines above had the same pitch and heads.

Are you saying that 450 Hz are the original Hz for the 2020s from factory but a glitch caused them to run in 435 Hz?

[Tyler]

Are you saying that 450 Hz are the original Hz for the 2020s from factory but a glitch caused them to run in 435 Hz?

The alert tone was originally set for 450 Hz on the 2020s, but due to the glitch the controllers peaked at 435 Hz.