CONCEPT
Better safe than sorry! This is the key sentence behind this project. The intention was to create a fire alarm system to protect spaces. That space can be somewhere in your house, like your bedroom or living room, but can also be used in closed/dark spaces, like the basement or installation room. But why ‘better safe than sorry’? Most of the fire alarms that are normally placed in your house only detect bad air quality, like smoke, but this new prototype also detects the bright light coming from the fire.
WORKFLOW
An air quality sensor and a light sensor are both linked to each their own red LED and are linked together to the same buzzer. When smoke is detected*, the red LED that is linked to the air quality sensor will turn red and the buzzer will go off. This is the same if bright** light is detected, the buzzer will go off and the red LED of this sensor will light up.
When both smoke and bright light are detected, both red LED lights will turn red and the buzzer will sound. I chose to work with two different LED lights because one sensor may detect earlier than the other. So, based on which red LED lights up you know exactly which situation you are dealing with.
In addition, a green LED has also been added to the system. The green LED light will illuminate when there is no dangerous situation.
*smoke is detected by ‘HIGH’ and ‘LOW’. HIGH means there is a good air quality and LOW means low of good air quality.
**’for this prototype the light sensor you have to measure what the normal light value is for the room you want to use it. Based on that, you determined the threshold
SCHEMATIC
BOM (Bill Of Materials
MOVIE PART 1,2 AND 3.
Below you find the movie that explains the project. It is uploaded in three parts because of the maximum upload size of this site.
CODE
PROTOTYPE
Next step
If we want to make the fire alarm better we can change the light sensor with a IR fire sensor, or add it to the prototype. These types of IR fire sensors are used for short range fire detection and can be used as a safety precaution to cut devices off / on.
Thank you!
