# Sound-activated alarm (preferably a strobe light)



## Carol (Sep 16, 2011)

Hi All, 

I am trying to build an internal alarm system for work.  Nothing too fancy, but I'm having trouble narrowing down the parts to get what I want.

In the office we have a small lab (call it "Lab A"), then a larger lab ("Lab B").  The two labs are (acoustically) sealed off from each other and from the rest of the office.  In "Lab A", if an emergency condition is reported, we receive an alert, which sounds like a telephone ringing.  The ringtone is fairly loud, but a person must be physically located in Lab A to know about the condition, and respond to it.  If someone is not physically in Lab A, then we lose our ability to immediately respond to the emergency.

What I would like to do is wire up a system so a sensor in "Lab A" can detect when the alerting ring comes across the speakers.  When it does, I would like that sensor to trip, activating the alarm so people in Lab B can know that there is an alert in Lab A.  Ideally, I would prefer a strobe light to flash instead of a horn or alarm.   A person in Lab B can see the flashing light, and go to Lab A to respond as needed.   

Any ideas?  Thanks!


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## jks9199 (Sep 16, 2011)

Have you checked products for the deaf community?  You might find that they have something that you can wire directly into that bell, and trigger a strobe.  Or can you just run another speaker into the other lab?

Sometimes we try to put together fancy solutions and all we really need is simple, you know?


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## MA-Caver (Sep 16, 2011)

jks9199 said:


> Have you checked products for the deaf community?  You might find that they have something that you can wire directly into that bell, and trigger a strobe.  Or can you just run another speaker into the other lab?
> 
> Sometimes we try to put together fancy solutions and all we really need is simple, you know?


JKS beat me to it...  :asian: 
Here are a few links to give an idea... 
http://www.enablemart.com/Catalog/Deaf-Alert-Systems/RA-05-Amplified-Ringer-With-Strobe
http://www.lssproducts.com/category/alerting-doorbells-flashers
http://www.silentcall.com/catalog/p...id=32&osCsid=80393c1203c322f0b96966cb06a06b7e


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## MaxiMe (Sep 16, 2011)

Carol,
You could tap into your phone system with a visual ringer.
http://www.smithgear.com/krn-psf100.html
Or wire it to the alarm contacts if that system puts out the right voltage.


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## Carol (Sep 20, 2011)

jks9199 said:


> Have you checked products for the deaf community?  You might find that they have something that you can wire directly into that bell, and trigger a strobe.  Or can you just run another speaker into the other lab?
> 
> Sometimes we try to put together fancy solutions and all we really need is simple, you know?



Sure!  We could potentially run an amplified speaker in the other lab.  We're saving that as a last resort, because the other lab is already a noisy environment.   We're trying to find a strobe solution so to not add additional noise in the environment.  Good call on systems for the deaf.


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## Carol (Sep 20, 2011)

MaxiMe said:


> Carol,
> You could tap into your phone system with a visual ringer.
> http://www.smithgear.com/krn-psf100.html
> Or wire it to the alarm contacts if that system puts out the right voltage.



Its not a phone system, unfortunately.  Its a VoIP platform that runs over linux, that uses a .wav file of a telephone ringing as an alerting tone.   We don't have a formal alarm system either in the labs.  

Basically what I'm looking for is a glorified clapper    Something that can respond to a sound and flash a light in another room.


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## MaxiMe (Sep 20, 2011)

Sounds like Radio shack is gonna be your friend on this one. Wall wart stepdown to Dc out, a switch of some sort(your choice sound activated or mechanical) and a low voltage strobe. An a bit of 22ga 2 conductor wire.
If you build it they will run.. err something like that


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## crushing (Sep 20, 2011)

Also check under DJ Equipment.  Some of their light shows and strobes are sound activated.
http://www.amazon.com/Chauvet-Basic...al-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1316535388&sr=1-76


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## oftheherd1 (Sep 21, 2011)

What sets off your ring alarm?  That event trigger can be used to set off another alarm, your strobe with an IP address in your Lab B.  That is if you are using your VOIP, as it sound like you are.


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## Carol (Sep 21, 2011)

oftheherd1 said:


> What sets off your ring alarm?  That event trigger can be used to set off another alarm, your strobe with an IP address in your Lab B.  That is if you are using your VOIP, as it sound like you are.



Not an option unfortunately with the required security.  Thanks for the idea though.   Need a solution that will simply respond to audio sound and turn it in to a strobe light flashing.

I think it might be as simple as this!

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...ooglebase-_-D28X-_-202874188&locStoreNum=2686


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## Xue Sheng (Sep 21, 2011)

Maglites not enough anymore huh..... Starting on strobelights now I see :uhyeah:


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## Carol (Sep 21, 2011)

Xue Sheng said:


> Maglites not enough anymore huh..... Starting on strobelights now I see :uhyeah:



That's only because I couldn't make a sound-triggered strobe out of a maglite


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