School Bell

[sean allan]

Has anyone got bell systems other than bell minder. Looking for possibly wireless system that can be used for lockdown and triggered from a cell phone etc.

[Joel Chandler]

Ubiquity have a ap system with built in speakers etc...

Haven't tried them but they sound interesting.

Joel Chandler

On May 2, 2016 4:29 PM, "sean allan" <sean....@gmail.com> wrote:

Has anyone got bell systems other than bell minder. Looking for possibly wireless system that can be used for lockdown and triggered from a cell phone etc.

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[Peter Lambrechtsen]

Had a look on trademe... can't comment on the quality or if it does the job but...

http://www.trademe.co.nz/electronics-photography/phone-fax/other/auction-1077183767.htm

Otherwise a normal phone ringer and then plug it into your PABX on an unused analogue extension and ring the number and you're away.

[Andy Gorton]

Spoke to an outfit in Oz recently who have NZ arm about lockdown,  audio and announcements over IP etc . Contact was Ja...@edwardsnz.co.nz . Might be worth giving them a bell (excuse the pun)

Cheers

Andy
(from a devcie that has dodgy spellnig)

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From: Peter Lambrechtsen
Sent: ‎02/‎05/‎2016 20:48
To: techies-f...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [techies-for-schools] School Bell

[Pete Mundy]

At one of the schools I work at we pulled out Bell Minder and whipped up a DIY system using an Arduino and a relay which 'presses' the (low voltage) bell trigger button at reception.

The Arduino is triggered via the USB port on one of the Mac servers. The server runs an instance of iCal with a bunch of calendar events that execute an Applescript which outputs the necessary trigger data over the serial port (just the letter 'a'). The receptionist (sorry, I mean 'office administrator', of course) rearranges recurring events in the iCal via screen sharing to achieve changes such as silencing the bells during school holidays or changing bells to double-rings at certain times etc.

It's all very DIY, but it works really well and it's been in opertation for over 4 years now :)

I'm happy to share code or help with anyone else who is interested in doing something similar themselves.

Pete

[Kevin Whelan]

were using bellminder with all wireless bells,they work very well and can be added to existing hardwired circuits as well,multitude of wiring options high /low voltage bells
really needs an internet based software rather than restrictive bellminder software but certainly works, and has manual trigger

[Simon - OBHS]

We are looking into the same thing as well.

I'm actually working on our own custom hardware/software system at the moment. It will interface with our upgraded fire alarm system as this is whats currently broadcasting the "bell" sound, whereas before we had actuall bells.

We did a trial lockdown last term and i just put the broadcast mic from the fire system up to my laptop speakers and played a lockdown message i found on the net. 

[Craig Harrison]

Hi,

Does anyone with the BellMinder system have the “Lantronix 1100 Ethernet to Serial adaptor” option mentioned in the manual and does it work as expected, i.e let you manage it from anywhere on the network rather than needing a direct serial cable connection to the device (appreciating that a client/server solution is not as ideal as a web interface to the system)

Kind regards,

Craig.


Craig Harrison | Information Systems Manager | DIO | DDI. +64 9 520 9238 | Ph.+64 9 520 0221 ext.7868 | M.+64 21 222 4107 | Helpdesk: +64 9 520 9230 |


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[Alistair Baird]

We had to upgrade our fire system last year, and so integrated with the school bells, as it just plays a wav file and you can, as Simon says {Hmm, I hear an interesting announcement coming on here} use it as a PA. We have the standard bell, the fire sound and announcement (Please evacuate the building...) a lockdown and a "Please standby for further announcement" after which you use the microphone at reception. The school bells are triggered from a relay from the alarm system, as is easily programmed as a special day almost every other week when we have differreing times for sports, special events etc

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[Tracy Briscoe]

Hi Sean

 

Here at St Peter’s we use the Gallagher Security system (formally called Cardax).  When we installed this it wasn’t for the security side of things but because it is modular and we have been able to program it to do very smart building management.  For example using some middleware we turn the air conditioning on in classrooms before a class starts, then automatically turn it off at the end of the class.  If the class doesn’t turn up, then the air-con is turned off, same thing if someone leaves a door or window open for more than 5 minutes – that way we aren’t trying to heat or cool all of Cambridge.  By doing smart things like this we have extended the life of our air conditioning units, and saved on our power bills. Because we’ve integrated BMS and security, we also do things like turning off lights when the building is armed.

 

The school bell is driven though Gallagher Security, and runs off a calendar which has entries for each weekday, plus day overrides specifying what days are school holidays.

 

In regards to lockdown we run a separate siren which can only be heard outside – the change of period bell is not used for lockdown.  The reason for this is that a real lockdown could go on for hours, and the constant blaring of an alarm will drive those locked down more crazy than being in lockdown itself.  In addition to the siren we display a message on all school computers, play a message using the paging function on our phones, and send a text message to all school cellphones plus the police.  The rights to initiate a lockdown have been delegated to particular staff around the school, and they lock the school down by pressing a button on their computer.  From a non-technology point of view we also have procedures as to what happens during and after a lockdown.

 

I suppose what I’m trying to suggest is not to just look at bells by themselves but to look at the whole system.

 

Gallagher has used us for a few case studies:

https://security.gallagher.com/training-and-resources/resource-library/case-studies/st-peters-school/

https://security.gallagher.com/training-and-resources/events-and-news/news/safety-top-priority/

 

I’m sure I could put you in touch with someone if you would like to explore what we’ve done further.

 

Regards,

 

Mr Tracy Briscoe

Network Engineer

 

St Peter's School, Cambridge, Private Bag 884, Cambridge 3450, New Zealand

www.stpeters.school.nz

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[Patrick Dunford]

Very expensive about $600 each

[Joel Chandler]

You haven't seen the bill to re-pull all the wires after lightning fried the 2 core wires across the campus that were used to drive our old bell system. This is cheap by comparison! We are in the market as well but I think we will look at an ip system hopefully.

The ubiquity gear is also an AP and a PA.. depends on how many roles you are trying to fulfill at once.

Though in looking at the manual i'm not sure it has bells sorted as well as I would like.

Joel Chandler

Dean of Teaching and Learning

[Simon - OBHS]

How many schools have had their fire alarm system updated?

Ours was updated over the past year to the more modern speaker based system rather than actual bells, so now we get the alarm sound with "Please evacuate the building".

Our old and very primitive bell timing system is currently still being used just to trip a relay which now just tells the fire system to play a bell sound which is stored in the system.

With needing a lockdown announcement and better flexibility over bell times and changes as well as having something networkable etc.. I'm in progress with developing a unit which can run the bell times as well as the lockdown announcement that can be easily managed via web and local touch interfaces.

Depending on how soon people want something, i'm not quite at a testing stage yet, however if interested, please get in touch.

[Patrick Dunford]

Probably why a lot of schools these days use the fire or burglar alarm system for their bells :)

[Matthew Strickland]

Not off the shelf but for us Raspberry Pi + Google Calendar API.

We are using this for the school gate so times can be changed remotely (google calendar app desktop/mobile etc)

Bells not yet but easily interfaced with our current Bellminder+firesystem.

Or if you Google "Wifi Relay" there are tons of modules you can buy off ebay, multi channel that have a board and an app, you can control anything remotely.

Matt