Trojan WS-3000

[Synther]

Hi-Lo from one of these panels at 3:42.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N-GUNzt1Og

[uncommonsense]

The other video on this users YouTube is exactly what I was hoping to find. It also confirms that Whelen used 80W drivers on the 2000 and 3000 series after all. Whoever this guy is hats off to him.

[Model L]

I'll have to take a peek at my drivers. the amps are rated at 400w a piece, but they may well have only used 80w drivers, and the manual reflects this, only having 320 watts of sound output instead of 400 like the amps. this would mean the siren's total output is only 1,280 watts instead of 1600. interesting.

[Model L]

I was unable to find anything about the driver model online. it appears to be an SD-600 or D4F. I can't find any results for either search term. driver is manufactured by atlas sound.

[Model L]

Here's a video of my panel doing Hi-Lo. I stuffed a single driver in a bucket and covered it in a moving blanket so it wouldn't be too loud.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exA8kum9IS8

[DJ2226]

I'll have to take a peek at my drivers. the amps are rated at 400w a piece, but they may well have only used 80w drivers, and the manual reflects this, only having 320 watts of sound output instead of 400 like the amps. this would mean the siren's total output is only 1,280 watts instead of 1600. interesting.

The amps are rated like that since that's the max wattage they can output. They are set up to force the drivers to run at 100 watts in voice. If I had to guess they push the voltage going to them a bit higher to make them run at a higher wattage. That's how most of the European sirens are configured since they all use 100-watt drivers and are coupled to amps that force them to run at 125 or 150 watts. The current amp design for the WPS series sirens is actually rated for 500 watts since that's what they do in voice mode. There's a pin on the connector that triggers the overdrive on them that I think connects to ground via a relay somewhere on the logic board or motherboard. I haven't looked into the schematic for this siren yet, but I'm pretty sure the amps for it have a similar setup. The older 160 watt amps that they used before probably had the same feature that would push them to 200 watts, however there isn't any literature on them online for me to confirm that since those sirens are old as dirt.

For anyone curious since we're on the subject, the amp for the Vortex/OmniAlert lacks the overdrive and built-in driver resistance testing circuit, so those are true 400 watt amps. Even though Whelen only uses them for tone only applications, they can output voice like the WPS amps just at a lower power level. The original WS-1000 had a true 1000 watt amp that always pushed the drivers to 125 watts. It makes me wonder if the WS-2000 started out the same way with two of those amps but was knocked back to 1280 because of the risk of the drivers prematurely letting the smoke out.

[Model L]

Today Evan and I met up again, and did some work on the siren. We cleaned the head off and got the remaining 4 drivers unscrewed from the back, and we finished taking off the flex conduit from the control box. We also ended up mounting the siren head to the rotator, and were able to rotate it. however, something is wrong with the position encoder in mine, as the controller doesn't locate the head in the proper position when commanded to move in increments or cardinal directions. it instead rotates until it hits the endstop, then oscillates about a few degrees for a while before eventually stopping. I believe the issue likely lies with the LED's used within, though I am not certain of this. I'll have to do a little more tinkering.

[Model L]

ok, so I emailed whelen and recieved not only a manual, but new info. these sirens were ordered around 1987, which places them right before the 864 was introduced, meaning these were likely some of the last pre-864 whelens to be installed. additionally, the "card reader" that has the LED's on it uses phototransistors to pull the signal lines low, which makes it easy to test whether they're working. stay tuned, I'm going to try and troubleshoot tonight.

[Model L]

After troubleshooting I have both good and bad news. Good news is, the IR led's all work. I have yet to test the phototransistors, however that will be fairly simple I hope.

Now, as for the rotator motor on the other hand, not so good. I took it apart tonight to figure out why it sounded so bad, and as it turns out, both permanent magnets on it have become detached from the outer casing and were scraping against the rotor, causing it to run slow. this of course, explains why it sounded so bad. I believe I might need to get at the very least a new stator before this motor will work again.

[Model L]

Got around to doing a video of all 4 front panel siren tones. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6beQ_37X7pQ Enjoy.