Home Alarm Siren: can split wiring and run two sirens?

10 years ago

I have a Orevox R58GS self-contained electronic siren 6-12 VDC (I'm reporting what the label says), I do find this siren still available (I didn't install it, was there when I bought the house). It has wires colored red (warble), white (negative) and yellow (steady).

I was recently broken into, one of my neighbors was home but didn't hear the siren (although it works) but I live in an area of acreage homes and the siren is on the opposite end of the house where this neighbor is. The siren is outside on the roof.

What I'd like to do is split the wire running into this siren and run a second siren over near the neighbor that didn't hear it. I know NOTHING about home security system wiring/etc. so I wanted to ask the experts here it it's doable.

I had to call the alarm monitoring company out once for a 2-minute fix of a door sensor, they charged $150. I can't afford to call them out for this so need to figure out a way to DIY it.

Thanks!

Comments (5)

Ron Natalie
10 years ago
Depends on what the alarm system you are connecting it to can support. To be sure you'd need to check the documentation on the alarm or look at the relay or transistor that is driving the siren to see if it can sink enough current for both units.

Of course, the other issue is what you expect your neighbor to do when your siren is going off. Generally the noise makers are for the benefit of the criminal whose poking around.
Wayne Reibold
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks for responding.

The alarm system was here when I bought the house and I have no documentation on it. When you say to look at the relay or transistor that is driving the siren I can see if there is a legend but if I find it what exactly am I looking for?

What I'm wondering is the siren says 6-12VDC so does that mean it's capable of running at 6 or 12 VDC (or anywhere inbetween)? Is it conceivable the alarm panel is sending a 12VDC signal in which case if I split it I'll be sending 6VDC to each of my two sirens? I'm just totally guessing on all of this, when I read 6-12VDC on the siren it had my mind wandering and this is what I came up with.
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Ron Natalie
10 years ago
I think that siren will take any voltage from 6-12.

You are going to hook these up in parallel (i.e., the two wires from each siren to the same terminal on the alarm). That way they'll both see 12V (or whatever the alarm puts out). The issue is that the current the alarm will have to provide will be the sum of the two currents, and so you're needing to find if the addition of the second exceeds that.

Do you have central monitoring? My favorite is to get a monitoring company that will also send text messages out to your (and perhaps your neighbors) phones. As I said, the noise makers are primarily to scare off the intruders.
steve340
10 years ago
Your siren should have an amp rating of what it draws and your panel should have a maximum current for the alarm output. If an additional siren exceeds that limit, you can add another power supply with a relay to run the other siren.
brickeyee
10 years ago
"If an additional siren exceeds that limit, you can add another power supply with a relay to run the other siren."
as long as the relay coil does not overload the output and the output is designed to drive relays.

Relays have a nasty habit of producing a voltage spike of the opposite polarity when switched off abruptly.