Hello everyone, great forum

Just a quick question I am sure someone can answer

I have a ADE (8 zone one - 7amp battery) in quite a large house out in the middle of country, problem being I am not sure if I am asking to much of the system in regards to the siren output, currently I have a texecom external and a internal sound bomb (and 2 speakers... ) - was looking to put up another external sounder - is this too much to ask from this type of system? any ideas on limits?

Many thanks Tony

your bound to already have quite a high current draw with 2 speakers, int sounder and the current bellbox, so if you must get another i`d get a switchable SAB/SCB bellbox and enable it in SCB mode, this way it wont draw anything but charging current from the control panel.

I`d suggest looking to see if your existing bellbox can be switched to work in SCB mode also.

Never worked with this panel, but generaly outputs rated at 1 amp, as speakers not driven by bell outputs and soundbombs i guess are on a different output, ie internal bell, there shouldnt be a problem,

If in doupt leave strobe off secound bell as thats what uses currant.

Golden rule if fuse glows red, replace with nail

Also consider any strobes in the total consumption - they vary between 100-300ma.

Care must be taken not to put too much load on the panel in general not just one output.. Just because 2 outputs can fire 1amp each, doesn't mean it can deliver 2amps of current. Dave Partridge's reply is by far the best approach....

Thanks everyone for taking the time to reply B)

Currently the texecom has the option for scb/sab - what roughly is the difference? I would probabily stay with the same make of bell box for the new one- altho the sound bomb is also wired in series with the existing on - this is where I am worrying most. I will have a quick look to see the stobe output for this model

When the bell is set to SAB mode it draws sounder and strobe current from the alarm panel.

When it is set to SCB ("Self Contained Bell") it draws current from its own on board battery. This usually results in a slightly quieter sound as the battery is 7.2V not 12V.

A typical domestic system with 2 bells would usually have one connected as SAB and one as SCB.

If you try this and the Aux fuse blows you would probably either have to set both bells as SCB or as mentioned earlier don't connect the strobe on one of the bells.

MarkP

The ADE 8 zone panels are indead 1A rated ouput. The ADE bellboxs draw about 400mA for Bell and 150mA for strobe in alarm. However they sort of work in SAB and SCB mode at the same time. For instance they draw a percentage of the required current from the panel and a percentage from its own Ni-cad battery when alarming. Generally 2 ADE bellboxes and 2 internal speakers shouldnt be a problem. However do not connect any more than 2 x 16Ohm speakers to the internal speaker output, this will load the ouput and the panel will run hot.

Thanks everyone for all your help and time