external alarm buzzer for analog panel

[Jerry White]

I have an analog alarm panel from a 8.3 that the buzzer has failed on, i replaced the board with one from a spare motor and all is well. My question is could i solder a couple pigtails onto the board with the bad buzzer and connect a remote piezo buzzer that would be located in area that was easier to hear if an alarm is present? Fellow running the boat is about half deaf and can’t hear the alarms when engine is over an idle. Not sure what is driving the buzzer on the factory board and don’t want to overload the alarm circuit.

Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions

Topic

[Jerry White]

As an update I re-installed the alarm circuit board and it works great, though i had to try two different buzzers. The first unit would not work at the lower voltage (9.8volts), the second unit tried,
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HR6P9QU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
worked great and will wake the dead.

A side note is that if anyone is suffering with low oil pressure alarms when engine is pulled back to an idle, which seems to be pretty common with almost every mechanical cummins around here, a 3ohm resistor added to the oil pressure sender input will cure the problem. The 3ohms bumps things up just enough to eliminate the nuisance alarms.

JW

[Corey Schmidt]

You should be able to hook up the board back onto the panel and test everything without the engine running… just key-on and see if you can here the external alarm (Since the engine is not running you should here the low oil pressure alarm)

[jerry]

Got my wires soldered on and was wondering about bench testing the board before installing on the boat. Put power to the respective + and – terminals, and then ? Do the reset terminals needed to be jumped ? Take a pot and simulate an input to one of the alarm inputs?

[Tony Athens]

PCB Board Modifications

Usually easier to add 2 small ( 24-30 ga) 12″ long wires to the board and go remote ……………………………. Post a pic or two of your work..

[Jerry White]

Tony,

Thanks for the reply, I will get a buzzer coming and get it soldered onto the board.

Jerry

[Tony Athens]

Jerry,

If you are a really good “hands-on” guy and are capable of soldering to a PCB board ( the back in the this case), 100 % yes you can drive an external Piezo ( or “analog low power buzzer- buzzer”– I have personally done it a few times when I had the patience ( 20 + years ago) .. …..

Check the PCB board out as to + & -, and then use “common sense” with the proper tools to do it.. Steady hands will be part of the equation………

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Jerry White

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