New need help hooking up alarm

[Patriciann]

Hello,

I am new and this is my first post and I'm not sure where exactly to post this or what information is needed to arrive at a solution but I will simply begin and learn from there.

I have a 12VDC speaker that acts as an alarm and PA system. It is basically just a 35W speaker with a microphone attached that has buttons on it that can be pressed to select the one of the five alarm sounds. It is to hook up, supposedly, to the 12VDC car battery. It has two wires that are to go to the 12VDC power supply - bare at the ends without any plug or anything along with a four wire cord that runs from the speaker to the microphone and five different siren sounds selector that is also a part of the microphone. I wanted to use this by mounting it to my front door so when someone comes to my door I can hear them through the Harbor Freight color security camera that has a built in microphone that I have mounted by the front door that I have run through my TV and then I want to hook up this speaker with microphone and siren to the door to talk back to the person/stranger that comes up on the porch and also have the ability to trigger the siren to scare off those that are up to no good. How do I set this up to plug into my 110 VAC household current and what type of electrical wires to I need to take the current 12 VDC stranded wires and hook up some type of adapter to go to the the 110VAC household current? Also what type of wire, four wire bundles, should I look to purchase to lengthen the cord that goes from the speaker/siren to the hand set microphone/siren sound selector? I want to use this in my bedroom and have the speaker mounted on the door that is about 50' from my bedroom. How do I go about setting this all up to have a working PA/alarm that plugs into my 110VAC household current?

Thank you for any help.

Patricia

 

[daddles]

Hi, Patricia -- welcome to the forum. I lived in Stockton for 10 years in the 60's and 70's, but I understand that it's not quite the same place as when I lived there... Thus, I understand your need for the speaker/siren.

It sounds like your first task is to get a 12 volt power supply for the thing. These are pretty easy to find, but you need to know the current rating of the speaker/siren. There should be a label on it that tells you the operating current. You want to find a 12 volt power supply (that runs on 120 VAC) that has this current rating or larger. Since you say the thing is about 35 W, something like this might be appropriate.

You'll want to mount the speaker so that it is not accessible to individuals that come to the door. Also, you'll want any exposed wiring to be protected e.g. inside of conduit, as it's easy to just rip out or cut the wires otherwise.

There's nothing electrically difficult about installing the stuff you've described. The challenge will be to run the wires so that they are invisible and don't violate any regulations. If I was doing this myself, I'd run the wires either in my attic or in my crawl space, as I know I have the necessary access and where everything is. But it can be sweaty work on a hot summer day in Stockton... Unless you're good at it or you have a friend that's good with wiring, it might be best to hire someone to do the work.

Before you undertake any of this work, I'd suggest hooking it all up on the kitchen table to make sure that it all works beforehand and that you know which wires go where.

If you want us to help further, you'll have to show us some photos of the stuff you plan to hook up. For example, I couldn't tell you what type of wire to buy without seeing the instructions or pictures. Often, you can go to a local lighting or electrical supply place and there are knowledgeable people there who can help you with the installation principles and they'll have the needed materials. Where I live, we have such a place and they have super-helpful people.

 

[Patriciann]

Thank you so much. Yes, you are correct about Stockton compared to the 60's 70's. But everything has gone down hill since that time, sadly. I can post photos but the item I purchased new on EBay, it was only $29.99 plus $10.00 for shipping, did not come with instructions.


Thanks. Below is the information I have on the unit:

Here is what I downloaded from what I found on line:
Rated voltage: 12V DC(24V DC is available)
Current: 1300-1500mA
Sound pressure level: 115±3dB
Output power: 35w
ABS housing in black

• 5 Tone - 12V Car AMPLIFIER ALARM Speaker System Microphone
• The Car Alarm Microphone has pretty design, 12 volt siren work as a PA system including CARBON FIBER PATTERN microphone and has 5 siren sounds.
• Very simple to install the Car Alarm Speaker.
• Operate all functions with a single hand.
• Easy to install
• 12 Volt powered
• 35W Speaker provides very loudly sound
• It’s about 115 decibels unit at full volume.
• 5 Tone Car Alarm: Hooter/Ambulance/Traffic/police/Fire alarm
• Microphone for PA system.

 

[Patriciann]

Here is another pic that is better perhaps

 

[Patriciann]

Oh, also, I placed the HF color security camera into a bird house enclosure I created to protect both the camera and the related wiring that I then ran through I hole I bore through the door casing right behind where I mounted this enclosure. I want to mount the speaker with the siren shown in the picture to the outside of the front door area to the top of the door casing but inside the locked security door and then run the wires along the door casing to a place where I will drill out an area to run the cord to go from outside of the door area to inside the house where I will then run it to the 110VAC house hold outlet to plug into whatever adapter that is needed to take it from 12VDC to the household current. The speaker/siren cord is a four wire cord that I will need to purchase a 50' piece to splice into this and then use wire nuts or something to splice it into the four wire cord.

Now that I have probably completely lost you what do you think I should do to make this all work out? LOL

Thanks
Patricia

 

[daddles]

Well, the power supply part should be pretty easy. Even though it says "12 volts", I think you should probably look for a 13.8 volt power supply, as that's the typical battery voltage in a car and this appears to be a device intended for an automobile. You just need to find a device that supplies at least 1.5 amps of current (if it supplies more current, that's OK). That unit in the Amazon link I gave is more than capable.

The power supply can be mounted relatively nearby the loudspeaker. Since there aren't any instructions, I'd assume that the red wire is positive and the black wire is negative. Hooking that part up should be easy. Just use some 18 or 20 gauge doorbell wire and wire nuts.

The wire to the control unit is harder. If I was going to hook this thing up, the first thing I'd want to know is what those wires are. Before cutting the wire, I'd first see if I could open up the speaker by removing some screws and seeing what wires are inside the cable from the control unit. For example, one of the wires might be a piece of coaxial cable -- then extending the thing 50 feet might be harder than you think because the electronics might not be able to drive the extra wire. Thus, if it was me, I'd see if I could disconnect the control cable from the speaker, then hook in 50' of wire and see if it still is capable of working. If not, you're SOL unless you can find someone to do some electrical troubleshooting and design a suitable interface (and this would cost many times more than what you paid for the unit).

If you can open the unit up and show us what types of wires are in the cable to the control unit, we can go from there.

One of the first things you should do is to connect the device to your car battery (red to positive, black to negative) and make sure that the thing really works. No sense in beating a dead horse.

 

[Patriciann]

I'm going to open up the speaker case and take pics of the inside wiring and will follow up later. I took electronics in college and know how to solder circuits but even though I received As in all classes and know how to use a multimeter I don't remember much about it now days. Any walk thoughts you can give may do it and we could wind up with something good and if not it is not like I'm out a lot of money and the learning is a lot of fun too.

I'm glad I found this site. It may inspire me to jump in and learn and do a lot more over time. I love DIY projects.

I will follow up later and thank you.

Patricia

 

[daddles]

I'd be glad to help further and there are many others on this site with a lot more knowledge than I have, so it's very likely you'll get your problem solved.

 

[Patriciann]

Thank you so much. This may become a fun and educational experience that will lead to further projects.

I look forward to this.

Thank you so much for you help and kindness.

Patricia