Sirens

Difficulty Level

Medium

Introduction

A siren is still a great line of defense against intruders. Whether to alerts you to a problem while you are asleep - or to scare off an intruder - a siren is a great addition to your system.

Important

Note: 12V devices, such as motion sensors, sirens and glass break sensors, require a 12V 2A power adapter. An example of one can be found on Amazon here.

Siren Types

Your system can support any 12V siren. A solid yet affordable siren is the Honeywell WAVE-2 Two Tone Siren.

Honeywell WAVE-2 Siren

What else do you need?

In addition to the siren, you will also need a 5V relay module. A single channel relay module can be purchased from Amazon here for approximately $6.00.

Single Channel 5V Relay

12V Power Adapter

Wiring Diagrams

Note

The WAVE 2 siren from Honeywell has two different "inputs", labeled "#1" and "#2". You can use either input. They both work the same, but have different tones.

Main Board
Expansion Board

Connecting the Raspberry Pi to the relay module:

Red wire: Connect the VCC header on the relay module to 5V on the Raspberry Pi
Black wire: Connect the GND header on the relay module to GND (ground) on the Raspberry Pi
Orange wire: Connect the IN header on the relay module to any GPIO pin on the Raspberry Pi

Connecting the relay module to the siren:

Yellow wire: Connect the NO terminal on the relay module to the (+) on the siren

Connecting the relay module to the 12V power adapter:

Orange wire: Connect the C terminal on the relay module to the (+) on the 12V power adapter

Connecting the siren to the 12V power adapter:

Black wire: Connect the GND of the siren to the (-) on the 12V power adapter

Important

When connecting a relay triggered device to a Raspberry Pi, it is important to know if the relay is a "low triggered" or a "high triggered" relay. For low triggered relays, you should use GPIO pins 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8. High triggered relays should use GPIO pin 9 or higher.

Connecting the Arduino to the relay module:

Red wire: Connect the VCC header on the relay module to 5V on the Arduino
Black wire: Connect the GND header on the relay module to GND (ground) on the Arduino
Green wire: Connect the IN header on the relay module to any digital pin on the Arduino

Connecting the relay module to the siren:

Yellow wire: Connect the NO terminal on the relay module to the (+) on the siren

Connecting the relay module to the 12V power adapter:

Orange wire: Connect the C terminal on the relay module to the (+) on the 12V power adapter

Connecting the siren to the 12V power adapter:

Black wire: Connect the GND of the siren to the (-) on the 12V power adapter

Note

In this example, the main system board (Raspberry Pi) is connected to an expansion board (Arduino Mega) via I2C. See our tutorial on Expanion Boards for more details.

Finished Result

Below shows the wiring completed on the inside of a Honeywell WAVE siren.

Siren Side

Here is the inside of a Honeywell WAVE siren properly hooked up.

Click to enlarge...

Security Panel Side

Here is what this looks like connected to a Raspberry Pi on the security panel side (using the optional GPIO Expansion Board).

Click to enlarge...