Electronic Siren Tone Generator and Controller
Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2018 7:52 pm
Over the past few weeks I've been working on making a thing that I've been wanting to do for ages. A few of you might remember my video of a laptop powered amplifier that was feeding audio to two 15 watt speaker horns. A week later I dismantled the entire thing thanks to a homeowner being annoyed (who would have known!). This project sat dormant for about half a year until I got this package from my American uncle which had the manual siren kit from Chaney Electronics inside. To put a long story short, I build the tone generator, tested it, then I modified it with a stereo jack and a power supply.
The controller works by feeding constant voltage to the tone generator and its timer, which is waiting for a positive voltage trigger of 9-12VDC. This is achieved by pairing the trigger voltage for the amplifier duration timer with the tone generator timer. A key switch operated push button completes the trigger circuit. When the tone generator relay is closed, tone rises. When opened, tone decreases in pitch. Here is how it operates: I put the assembly in an old 3 phase contactor and overload box I salvaged from a kiln. It was pretty rough but it turned out great in the end. The amount of free space in it meant I can put add-ins into it in future. I.e, battery backup for example, or a radio that pulses a relay. If I had more money I could make this controller a multi signal controller and not a single signal one like it is now. I have got it programmed to mimic Whelen's analogue attack signal, wail, and alert and I need to manually select which program I desire to activate. There's a 4 second delay after pressing the button but I've designed it that way, otherwise it wouldn't work right.
The tone generator is a manual siren kit from Chaney Electronics and it $6.00 to buy. It produces the most realistic sound, I believe, to date, for a small prokject like mine. It's also loud. Here is the product if you're interested: http://www.electronickitsbychaneyelectr ... mber=c6382 The tone produced makes the horns resonate and the tone carries well. At some point I'm going to go into a remote field and see how far it carries. The tone profile resembles a triangle wave, as it isn't as harsh as a sawtooth or square, and isn't as soft as a sine wave.
Enough rambling, here's a video of it sounding. If you don't respond well to strobes then it's best if you listen only or not watch at all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi0bQybMU9k
(I apologise for the large photos.) Moderators please move to relevent forum if this isn't the right place, Thanks!
The controller works by feeding constant voltage to the tone generator and its timer, which is waiting for a positive voltage trigger of 9-12VDC. This is achieved by pairing the trigger voltage for the amplifier duration timer with the tone generator timer. A key switch operated push button completes the trigger circuit. When the tone generator relay is closed, tone rises. When opened, tone decreases in pitch. Here is how it operates: I put the assembly in an old 3 phase contactor and overload box I salvaged from a kiln. It was pretty rough but it turned out great in the end. The amount of free space in it meant I can put add-ins into it in future. I.e, battery backup for example, or a radio that pulses a relay. If I had more money I could make this controller a multi signal controller and not a single signal one like it is now. I have got it programmed to mimic Whelen's analogue attack signal, wail, and alert and I need to manually select which program I desire to activate. There's a 4 second delay after pressing the button but I've designed it that way, otherwise it wouldn't work right.
The tone generator is a manual siren kit from Chaney Electronics and it $6.00 to buy. It produces the most realistic sound, I believe, to date, for a small prokject like mine. It's also loud. Here is the product if you're interested: http://www.electronickitsbychaneyelectr ... mber=c6382 The tone produced makes the horns resonate and the tone carries well. At some point I'm going to go into a remote field and see how far it carries. The tone profile resembles a triangle wave, as it isn't as harsh as a sawtooth or square, and isn't as soft as a sine wave.
Enough rambling, here's a video of it sounding. If you don't respond well to strobes then it's best if you listen only or not watch at all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi0bQybMU9k
(I apologise for the large photos.) Moderators please move to relevent forum if this isn't the right place, Thanks!