ACA Siren Signal Controllers

[Andys Live WX]

So I finally joined the board this morning. And I have a question. I hear so much about Whelen, Sentry, and Federal Signal controllers, and have seen most of them. However, I have never seen an ACA siren controller. I've seen plenty of pictures of the motor starters, relays and contactors, but I've never seen what ACA made for controller i.e. like a federal AF timer. Does anyone have an info on them?

[sirendude2012]

ACA's catalogs from the 70s show a couple timers being offered, one of which had an internal clock that would automatically set it off at a given time. That is why it is ACAs that often do Time Blasts. The other controller was a very simple one, with a Steady and Wail button. Allertor controllers sometimes had a 3rd button that said Yelp, Yeow, or Pulsed Wail. This button is what controlled the Allertor's mysterious Yelp signal capability. I might be wrong on the 2nd timer description, but the first was definitely existent.

[Andys Live WX]

Do you happen to have any documentary or pictures of those?

[Travis]

Oh dis? Yeah they are pretty basic. I have some pics of a very old Compulert controller that I need to find. It was a rack-mount unit that looked somewhat similar to the unit below, but was a little more elaborate and had more buttons to press.

[Andys Live WX]

Is that the one most commonly found in the outdoor control boxes on a pole?

[murrfarms]

Is that the one most commonly found in the outdoor control boxes on a pole?

No, that's actually an old encoding device used to set the system off with. I'm not so sure that many people at all here on the board have ever seen what one of ACA's siren controllers actually looks like, outside of anything that's ever been in any of their old literature. I know I personally never have, since any old ACA siren I've ever dealt with has always had some sort of third-party controller on it, be it a Federal SiraTrol, Federal Controller, CD&F controller, or otherwise.

[Civil D Siren]

I have seen inside some of the early Compulert controllers. Many of those are on the Milwaukee County, WI system. Don't have any pics though.