Reusing old siren with new alarm control box

[HaiXin Tie]

I am trying to reuse the internal siren of an old home alarm system in
my house (ITI caretaker), which has a 4-wire input (red/green/black/
white). Inside the siren there are two speakers: one looks like a
regular speaker; the other looks like the one that would generate high
pitch sound. To each speaker there are two input wires connected to
it. But my new alarm's control unit only shows 2-wire connection
(+12V, INT) to an internal siren. (Online installer manual, page 6
diagram: http://nextalarm.net/abbra/files/Installer.pdf). My old siren
comes with the ITI caretaker system and doesn't have a model number of
its own, so I can't find its spec or manual. My question is, can I
still connect my old siren to the new control unit? If so, how should
I wire it? Another stupid question is that what is a good place to get
that kind of 4-colored wires? Radioshack/Fry's? I would really
appreciate your expertise. Thanks in advance.

Regards,
James

 

[Paul Ekins]

Not 100% sure of the connections in your existing speaker but if 4 wires
used for 2 separate speakers it would indicate a sounder similar to a "Twin
Alert" which has 1 speaker connected to internal output from panel and the
other connected to external output.

Good luck with your upgrade.


--
A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.


Paul Ekins

Linc Secure

 

[Just Some Guy]

The larger of the two speakers is for the siren. The smaller of the two is
the "beeper" that the Caretaker used for annunciating arming level,
entry/exit delay, chime etc. It sounds like your new panel has a voltage
output for the siren so you would need a "siren driver" to connect the new
panel to the old siren (which is really just a speaker). You would connect
it to the larger of the two speakers. Of course by the time you buy a siren
driver and connect it up you could have replaced it with a new
self-contained siren probably for less money.

 

[HaiXin Tie]

Thank you both for your reply and expertise. I guess it's not worth
the trouble/time/money to experiment the old siren given the risks and
uncertainty involved. I guess I will live with the internal siren or
buy a new siren if I decide to install one in the future.