The Siren Board

Can a Federal Q be converted to run on 110v instead of 12v? I know they pull very high amperage on 12volts.

Cyrun wrote:Can a Federal Q be converted to run on 110v instead of 12v? I know they pull very high amperage on 12volts.

Sure. Just find a C-face motor with the right shaft. Will probably take a little customizing to make it work however.

Cyrun wrote:I know they pull very high amperage on 12volts.

How high exactly?

If you didn't want to change the motor, you could use a 110V to 12V transformer with (Q's are DC, right?) a motor controller.

The problem is that you'll have to find one that has an amperage rating that exceeds what the motor needs. Electrically, it's not as efficient as a motor replacement; but it saves opening up the Q and breaking something.

I built two of these for my Design and Technology Major Project (one for each motor) but the capacity can be upped to 20A with the addition of another MOSFET of the same type.
Speed is controlled by a trim-potentiometer that is on the circuit board.

You'll still need to add in the transformer though.

Justin wrote:

Cyrun wrote:I know they pull very high amperage on 12volts.

How high exactly?

If you didn't want to change the motor, you could use a 110V to 12V transformer with (Q's are DC, right?) a motor controller.

The problem is that you'll have to find one that has an amperage rating that exceeds what the motor needs. Electrically, it's not as efficient as a motor replacement; but it saves opening up the Q and breaking something.

I built two of these for my Design and Technology Major Project (one for each motor) but the capacity can be upped to 20A with the addition of another MOSFET of the same type.
Speed is controlled by a trim-potentiometer that is on the circuit board.

You'll still need to add in the transformer though.

At 12v, they can pull several hundred amps starting up, and dozens of amps running. They make rectifiers big enough, but it would be cheaper to swap motors.

JasonC wrote:At 12v, they can pull several hundred amps starting up, and dozens of amps running. They make rectifiers big enough, but it would be cheaper to swap motors.

Fruitcake!
Didn't think it would be that much. Oh well. Thanls for clarifying that, Jason.

Thanks for the responses. Currently the siren is in my yard and I probably will just leave it running on the 12volt set-up.

Cyrun wrote:Thanks for the responses. Currently the siren is in my yard and I probably will just leave it running on the 12volt set-up.

If you want to keep it on a 12 volt system, get several car batteries, wire them in parallel, and keep them on a float charger. Use a large relay to operate the siren, which will let you switch the siren on whatever voltage the relay's coil uses. This is similar to modern DC siren systems.

My dad had a 100 amp "booster" charger like you used to see at a mechanics place. You can get them for arround 100 bucks. Check your local NAPA dealer or Sears and get a new charger. They are clean and supply plenty of power for the Q. That way you can have it indoors. I have a Q on my Jeep and it runs perfectly on one 650 CCA battery. It would do just fine on the charger. This charger ran an all-light Streethawk lightbar no problem. There the tall ones with a handle for pulling them arround on their wheels. Big charger but worht the money.

Another cool thing they can do is the ability to select you amp output. You can switch between setting such as 20A 30A 90A and such. Then you could have the siren slowly rise on a low amp output and make it sound like a CD siren!! (may be hard on the motor that way though)

and just for you info, dont run any strobes or LEDs light off one of thouse chargers. the power isnt that clean for thouse type of electronics. you will fry them, i think it would be fine for the q though.

loudmouth wrote:and just for you info, dont run any strobes or LEDs light off one of thouse chargers. the power isnt that clean for thouse type of electronics. you will fry them, i think it would be fine for the q though.

My electronics theory is a bit rusty, but adding a few filter capacitors should help clean up the electrical noise.