Camera Flash Triggers 2001 AC!

[Jpressman8]

Wow. I don't know if camera flashes give off signals that are also used to turn them on, or what. Could it work on other 2001s you think?

It's most likely happened at random. I guess it's possible I could'nt say,but don't go out and try to activate your local 2001 . There are alot of devices that emit RF energy with random frequencies and if one just happened to match an activation frequency. This could be why you see FCC warnings on devices that reads "This device may cause harmful interference which violates FCC code# so and so". I guess you could compare this with 2 separate vehicles with the same lock numbers(ignition keys) it does not happen often, but it does happen. It might deserve some investigation.

[SouthDakotaBoy2009]

While this is hard to believe... what portions of this siren was the pictures taken?

I was taking a picture of the contacts, the box below the old FC style control boards.

for future refrence, I will no longetr be using the flash, (since most are outdoor controllers anyways), but the chances of it happening again is prob 1-10,000,000,0000,000,000,000.

Even Derek is puzzled by it, hes taken pictures of all the siren components before & his never triggered teh sirens.

and for future notics, no one I MEAN NO ONE is to try this out, unless you really want to see what the inside of a jail cell is like first hand.

[Robert Gift]

... just as I pressed the picture button & the flash went off, I heard a click & the 2001 AC roared to life.....in Fast Wail...

Fascinating!
Apparently the high Voltage flash circuitry causes an rf pulse which induces a spuriousignal and activates the siren.

Thry taking a flash near a radio not tuned to a station.

Try with the cabinet closed.
Hopefully it will be a tight Faraday cage and not allow such an anomally.

At Bendix Aerospace, someone took a photo of an instrument inside the space chamber (very high vacuum) through the thick quartz window 8? inches diameter.

Shortly afterwards, I was told, the window fractured and imploded.
Luckily. no one was near.

One experiment I always wanted to try and have not is to fire a flashbulb in a camera right next to a flashbulb to see if it could induce the free-floating flashbulb to fire.

[FedTB]

I can just see it now: Several siren enthusiasts, armed with this information, are going to go out and start snapping pictures of the control boxes on 2001s to see if they can get those particular sirens to activate. Not a good idea.

[JasonC]

One experiment I always wanted to try and have not is to fire a flashbulb in a camera right next to a flashbulb to see if it could induce the free-floating flashbulb to fire.

Won't happen, there isn't enough induced potential to do that (strobes are extremely power consuming).

[Justin]

Think the boys at Federal need to add "design with EMF shielding" to their to- do list? Baaad design in my opinion, especially considering what the device is used for.

Having said that, what are the chances of this ever happening to all the other thousands of 2001's sitting around the country side? Slim to nil.