The T-128 and the mystery of the mammoth cabinets

[uncommonsense]

Hey folks.

So for people who know more about T-128s than I do, I have a question.

I've seen quite a few T-128s in my time. They don't end to have any overlarge or unique cabinets. But I've noticed that a lot of the older T-128s in the North Dallas 'burbs (I'm looking at you, Richardson) have these monstrous cabinets (much like this photo from Brent Wilcox at UNT):



Anyone have any clue what's going on inside those cabinets that makes them so large? T-128s aren't complicated sirens. The Compulert box, the contractors/motor controls, and a few batteries are all it takes...but those boxes look like they could house far, far more.

Just something that struck my fancy.

[TboltTX1]

Richardson installed their T-128s sometime in 2002. This was also the same time UNT replaced their 612s with T-128s

They have those same mammoth cabinets on the ones in Flower Mound as well which were installed around the same time Lewisville replaced their Thunderbolts, which was around 2000-2002.
http://ares.homeip.net/~bwillcox/sirens ... index.html

I would guess that the cabinet size has something to do with age, since the T-128 wasn't as refined then as it is now. Bryan could probably offer a better explanation though .

[Brendan Ahern]

I have seen older tempests with the smaller cabinets. I believe this setup was/is an added option. Everything goes into a single box, whereas in the regular setup you have 3. One for the radio/decoder, one for the contactors, and one for the batteries. It looks like they stuck all of it in one box. Looks cleaner, and that box looks like it's stainless steel. This may be something Clayton Werden can confirm.

[bwillcox]

Pretty sure that these large cabinets are for extra battery capacity over the stock 3 cabinet setup. The 3 on the UNT campus and the Flower Mound sirens are the only ones I have seen like that, though I have never personally stuck my nose in any of these cabinets.

-b

[RyanJamesDean98]

They did something like this is Sedgwick County with their ATI's. Its basically like the cabinet that is used to house the controls for a traffic signal. They put the control panels inside the big cabinet.

[SirenMadness]

I guess it's all right there so you don't have to open a separate lock for each compartment.

[siren fan]

Rowlett, TX Tempest sirens have the same large control box too.