Electrical help? Not an arcade... but gameroom decor

darthphunk

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Electrical help? Not an arcade... but gameroom decor

Hey there!

So my birthday was a few weeks ago and my mother in law picked up an old fire alarm panel at a yard sale and bought it for me. I thought it would be awesome to hang up in my barcade and wire it so my Fireball light and the alarm sounded at the same time.







Tell me if I am going to burn my house down:

My idea is to put a spare switching power supply I have in the alarm box and run the alarm bell, lights and fireball light off of the 12v line and run it through the on off toggle on the front of the panel. I know the Fireball light is 12v, but I am not sure about the alarm bell. When my mom bought it, the guy touched the two disconnected wire leads to a 9v battery and the alarm went off... albeit weakly.

So am I on the right track? Should I try something else?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Jeremy
 
You are on the right track, but you should gather more info about the bell. I work with similar looking bells and they all operate on 115vac. I would think most 12vdc power supplies would burn out from the draw fairly quickly.
 
You are on the right track, but you should gather more info about the bell. I work with similar looking bells and they all operate on 115vac. I would think most 12vdc power supplies would burn out from the draw fairly quickly.

I can't seem to find info on the bell.

The reason why I think it's lower power, the wires that are connected to supply power aren't a big enough gauge for 115vac... I think. Seem to thin to me.
 
I can't seem to find info on the bell.

The reason why I think it's lower power, the wires that are connected to supply power aren't a big enough gauge for 115vac... I think. Seem to thin to me.

Gauge of the wire won't necessarily dictate voltage. A lot of Arcade Fans are 115V and have something like 20 - 22 gage wire.
 
Gauge of the wire won't necessarily dictate voltage. A lot of Arcade Fans are 115V and have something like 20 - 22 gage wire.


That's true, but it does signify amperage. If the wires are thin gauge then the draw should be minimal.

Do you have any info on how these boxes were originally wired in? Are there any components missing from inside that housing? If it was hardwired to mains power then it is likely 115vac.

Are the lights and switches all wired to the same power source? If so you can pull the bulbs, identify them, and then find their normal operating power...
 
I would have guessed 120VAC, too. I googled a bit, and it looks like a lot of fire alarm bells run off of 24VDC.... but there are 12VDC and 6VDC bell too (in addition to 120VAC and 24VAC ones...)

I'd take off the bell, and see if there are any specs on a nameplate anywhere.

If that didn't turn up any information, I'd probably hook it up to 12VDC briefly... measuring the current draw with a meter (and wearing earplugs).
 
I would have guessed 120VAC, too. I googled a bit, and it looks like a lot of fire alarm bells run off of 24VDC.... but there are 12VDC and 6VDC bell too (in addition to 120VAC and 24VAC ones...)

I'd take off the bell, and see if there are any specs on a nameplate anywhere.

If that didn't turn up any information, I'd probably hook it up to 12VDC briefly... measuring the current draw with a meter (and wearing earplugs).

Welp... I took off the bell and what do you know... there's a giant label that says 6VDC.

Works like a charm :)
 
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