Vintage Honeywell W854 "Decimal Code Transmitter" Coded Pull Stations 

Sorry about the rather slow and monotone video... I hope you enjoy these devices nonetheless! I've been back and forth to a day-long conference the past three days, and driving 3-4 hours a day has left me a little tired! Jump to 4:18 if you just wanna see the station in action.

Honeywell was very ahead for it's time back in the 1960s and 1970s. These are called "Decimal Code Transmitters". An explanation below. This setup was used in Coded fire alarm operations. The W854 series were the "transmitters" in the fire alarm circuit. These "transmitters" included zone contacts for normally open fire alarm devices. Like the S464a manual pull stations and TC487B heat detectors. They also had ionization smoke detectors "TC4010A" that could be wired to the coded pull station if desired. The ionization smokes were powered off of the Honeywell W853B power supplies. At the control panel was a "Decimal Code Receiver" model "W805B". This interface could distinguish between an "Alarm" and "Trouble" signal from the coded master pulls. In a trouble scenario, the coded pulls would code out the address, for example "1-1-3" back to the receiver. It would then ring the "Trouble Bell" at that coded address. This would mean that something went wrong "Open circuit, power loss .etc" This could be used on the Honeywell W247G (AC signal panel) and W733D (DC Signal panel). The W805B was wired to either panels "Box Circuit". On an alarm condition the W805B would open and close that box circuit per the sequence of the "coded master" which would make the horns or bells code out that sequence. The W854A were for class A and W854B for class B zone operation. Other models had options for aux relays, batteries (for W733 DC panels), and annunciator contacts for light matrix or graphic map annunciator displays. On a side note, these panels (W247 and W733) also had their own option for fan shutdown, Damper control, and Elevator recall. Remind you, this is 1968! No other manufacturer at the time had the capabilities that Honeywell did!

Kinda reminds me of the honeywell S473 coded stations

This type of system is in one of the older 60s style elementary schools in the school district I attend. Each hallway has one of those funky coded pull stations mounted high up in the corner. It’s job is to kinda act like zones. The conventional pull stations will activate all the horns in the building on continues and send a signal to those funky stations which will ring a single stroke bell in the office to the code that signals which area it went off in. It makes the system sort of like a conventional system but eliminates the need for a panel. One of the funky pull stations is in the office and it actually tied into the old (disconnected) street box system which had a code that would signal the fire station that the alarm went off at the school. Although confusing, they are neat little things.

Request: This with a Vibratone (if you can get them working with notification appliances).

Did these ever go to a central station?

The W854A would be insanely illegal today. I can't even believe that they would allow an nonoperational pull station like that even back in the day.

Interesting. So it functions as a master box in a way. Having an electric motor in each station sounds like a lot more equipment to fail

cool!

I wonder if another pull station would be right next to the "un-operational" W854A to activate it 😕. Other than that, that pull station is indeed very odd. Good video!

That’s awesome!!!

Great Video!:)

Awesome