Applications for Intercom Systems, Wireless Intercoms, and Two-Way Radios

Using a Strobe Light on a Wireless Callbox

When you see a wireless call box in a parking lot there is often a blue strobe light mounted on top. The purpose of the strobe light is to draw attention to the callbox when someone presses the call button on it. Then security personnel or other nearby people can see which wireless callbox called for help.

Hooking up a strobe light to the callbox is a fairly simple process. The strobe light has two pairs (4 wires) of wires coming off of it.  Two of the wires are for power. There is an  AC version that has a standard electrical plug and a DC version has just two wires for positive and negative. The other two wires are for the contact closure. These are the wires that connect to the relay on the callbox.

Then it’s a matter of programming the callbox to trigger the relay as desired.  Most instances using a strobe generally have the callbox set for “relay on when active”.  In this application, the relay is latched as long as the callbox is powered up and working.  The strobe will either stay latched until the unit times out after a period of inactivity, or it can be programmed to be turned off with an “off code” from another radio.

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