RE: [Upcycle It] WiFi Connected Smoke Detector #6: Listening to the Alarms

DAB — Sun, 30 Apr 2017 18:34:04 GMT

Nice update.

There are ways to make a dynamic threshold, but for now I think you are safe using a simple threshold value.

DAB

RE: [Upcycle It] WiFi Connected Smoke Detector #6: Listening to the Alarms

mcb1 — Sun, 30 Apr 2017 03:42:53 GMT

This is a good solution to overcome the issues you've highlighted, and ensure it can be applied in many juristictions.

It made me think about the imbedded solution and what it achieves with regard to "Fail to Safety".

Unless the basic parts of the detector have an internal mechanism to check and they extend it out, the only thing you can check for is power.

We use wired devices at work and they hold a relay energised until they go off, or they lose power, so they are as Fail to Safe as they can be.

They get tested at intervals to ensure they detect smoke, which is as much as you can do.

Battery powered detectors have a low power warning, which usually goes off in the early hours of the morning, either to annoy you, or because it's colder (I'm still convinced it's the first reason)

Here in NZ there are TV adverts to change the battery whenever Daylight savings change, which may change as 10 yr battery models become the norm.

As long as you detect the low power warning beeps, then imbedding the device doesn't give you any additional benefits as far as "Fail to Safety" goes.

Medium (separating noise from detector sound)

It's an extremely loud and penetrating noise, so hopefully with a little filtering and reduced gain, it should easily be detectable over most noise.

We have another TV advert about the benefits of a noisy beeping device v someone shouting at you in your sleep.

IMO it's a little too subtle and many people will miss the real message, but in reality the sound is very distinctive.

Mark