Patent Application
20130285805
The present invention relates generally to an alarm system interconnection and more particularly to an alarm system for interconnecting hazardous environmental condition detectors for proving supervision amongst detectors in the system and method thereof.
Electronic fire and smoke detection systems have been used for many years in both commercial and home applications. These systems range from simple to extremely complex architectures and work to detect fire and/or smoke to alter occupants of a building to hazards within a building. Prior art
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Although the fire alarm systems 100, 150 can allow one or more of the detectors to communicate using an individual or interconnected control bus, a drawback of these types of systems occurs if the control bus and/or interconnect bus becomes disconnected or otherwise disabled. When this occurs, any communication with the electrical panel 107, 163 will become disabled and the remaining detectors will continue to operate as if no problem exists.
An embodiment of the invention includes a hazardous environment condition notification appliance system for providing interconnect supervision that includes one or more notification appliances that are each interconnected to form a loop configuration. The notification appliances use at least one interconnect line extending between the devices for providing supervision between devices without the use of a central control panel. In another embodiment, a supervised interconnect smoke alarm system includes one or more smoke detectors where an interconnect line extends between each of the smoke detectors. The smoke detectors include an interconnect input and an interconnect output for connecting the smoke detectors into a loop configuration for detecting operational status between each one of the detectors. In still yet another embodiment, a notification appliance that includes an interconnect input connector configured to receive an input signal from a first remote notification appliance and an interconnect output connector configured to transmit an output signal to a second remote notification appliance. A processor is configured to be in communication with the interconnect input and the interconnect output where the processor determines if the input signal is received within a predetermined time period for indicating if the first remote notification appliance is operating properly.
The accompanying figures, where like reference numerals refer to identical or functionally similar elements throughout the separate views and which together with the detailed description below are incorporated in and form part of the specification, serve to further illustrate various embodiments and to explain various principles and advantages all in accordance with the present invention.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.
Before describing in detail embodiments that are in accordance with the present invention, it should be observed that the embodiments reside primarily in combinations of method steps and apparatus components related to a smoke alarm interconnect supervision system. Accordingly, the apparatus components and method steps have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.
In this document, relational terms such as first and second, top and bottom, and the like may be used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions. The terms “comprises,” “comprising,” or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. An element proceeded by “comprises . . . a” does not, without more constraints, preclude the existence of additional identical elements in the process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises the element.
It will be appreciated that embodiments of the invention described herein may be comprised of one or more conventional processors and unique stored program instructions that control one or more processors to implement, in conjunction with certain non-processor circuits, some, most, or all of the functions of a hazardous environmental condition interconnect supervision system, as described herein. The non-processor circuits may include, but are not limited to signal drivers, clock circuits, power source circuits, and/or user input devices. As such, these functions may be interpreted as steps of a method used in using or constructing a hazardous environmental condition interconnect supervision system. Alternatively, some or all functions could be implemented by a state machine that has no stored program instructions, or in one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), in which each function or some combinations of certain of the functions are implemented as custom logic. Of course, a combination of the two approaches could be used. Thus, the methods and means for these functions have been described herein. Further, it is expected that one of ordinary skill, notwithstanding possibly significant effort and many design choices motivated by, for example, available time, current technology, and economic considerations, when guided by the concepts and principles disclosed herein will be readily capable of generating such software instructions and programs and ICs with minimal experimentation.
An interconnect line 213 interconnects each of the notification appliance 201, 203, 205 in a daisy chain or loop-like configuration such that interconnect line 213 not only extends between detectors but also loops back from the last notification appliance 205 to the first notification appliance 201 to form the loop. As will be described herein, the interconnect line 213 is multifunctional and is used for supervision by each of the notification appliances 201, 203, 205 for determining when the interconnect line 213 or a notification appliance as become broken, disabled or defective. An alarm condition is reported to the electrical panel 207 by way of a bus such as alarm line 215. Alternatively, if the hazardous environmental condition detector system does not have a panel then the next detector in the chain can provide an alert if it did not receive an anticipated signal. By detecting this type of trouble or fault condition using an interconnect line 213, a greater number of detection devices (smoke, heat, CO or other types) can be connected together since each will detect faults in the system. For example, using an interconnect system of this type and the use of the interconnect line 213, the current fire code enables 64 devices to be used in the system where as many as 48 devices can be smoke detectors.
As seen in
In addition, the same IN interconnect and OUT interconnect connections for each of the detectors 201, 203, 205 also serve as the means to communicate the alarm status to all detectors interconnected via the interconnect line 213. This enables a detector, such as detector 205, to provide notification to the electrical panel 207 via the alarm line 215. Those skilled in the art will further recognize that the alarm line 215A can be comprised of one or more wired connections connecting to the electrical panel 207. Thus, if a change in state occurs in less than the 180 second time limit, a detector will recognize that an alarm event (e.g. fire, smoke or CO) has occurred, at which point a sounder in the notification appliances 201, 203, 205 will annunciate the fault using the interconnect line 213 and notify the electrical panel using the alarm line 215. The electrical panel can then notify a central alarm using a telephone, Internet or RF connection so that a fire department or other emergency service can be notified of the alarm condition.
In addition, each notification appliance 201, 203, 205 is also able to determine the type of alarm that is on the interconnect line 213, for example, three long pulses can indicate smoke detection while four short pulses can indicate the detection of carbon monoxide (CO). Since the interconnect system 200 can recognize alarm types, this allows the alarm to not only signal building occupants to the type of alert but also can prioritize one type of alert over the detection of another. For example, if an detector were sounding for a CO detection, it will sound four short pulses and will drive its OUT interconnect with four short pulses. If this alarm subsequently detects three long pulses on its IN interconnect, it will stop signaling the CO alarm with the four short pulses and switch to three long pulses if the detectors were set to prioritize for smoke or another type of detection.
Thus, each notification appliance 201, 203, 205 includes an interconnect input connector configured to receive an input signal from a first remote notification appliance. An interconnect output connector is configured to transmit an output signal to a second remote notification appliance while a processor is used that is in communication with the interconnect input and the interconnect output. The processor is configured to determine if the input signal is received within a predetermined time period in order to determine if the first remote notification appliance is operating properly. As noted herein regarding the system operation, each of the plurality of notification appliances changes a signal state (for example, high or low) so that a fault condition can easily be detected during polling by the other of the plurality of notification appliances. Power to the plurality of notification appliances is supplied via at least one power bus and battery backup. As noted herein, the notification appliance can be configured to detect smoke, heat, fire, carbon monoxide and/or other hazardous conditions.
The hardwired interconnect 215, may also include a transceiver for providing a wireless interconnection between each of the smoke alarm detectors 201B, 203B and 205B. In this configuration, each of the hazard alarms 201B, 203B and 205B will be polled in-seriatim from one or more of the other alarms so that a malfunction or alarm condition can be easily detected. As seen in
After determining if the interconnect IN state has changed 605, when the state of the interconnect IN has changed 619, a determination is made if a watch dog (WD) timer is greater than the interconnect IN count 621. The WD timer is a timer used to determine when a signal on an interconnect IN is to change state e.g., 1 or 0. A change of state will reset the count. When the WD timer is not greater than the interconnect IN count, then this must be an “expected” change 623 and the interconnect IN count is reset 625. Thereafter, the step of determining if the interconnect IN count is greater than the fault time 609 is again made so that a fault 613 or no fault interconnect line condition 611 is determined. If there is a fault, then the fault detector 615 is reinitialized and the process begins again 617.
In the determining step 621, if the WD timer has a value greater than the interconnect IN count 627, then an alarm annunciation is set-up 629 and the number of pulses are measured to determine if a smoke, CO or other type of alarm is detected 631. Thereafter, the interconnect IN count is reset 625 and it is determined if the interconnect IN court is greater than the fault time. If not, this indicates a no fault condition 611 and the process begins again 617. If the count is greater then the fault time, a fault has occurred 613 and the fault indicator is initialized 615 and the process starts over 617. Thus, the method as described with regard to
If it is determined that an alarm is detected on the interconnect IN line 703, then it is further determined if the pulse type designating an alarm 721 is a smoke alarm 723. If it is not a smoke alarm but instead is a CO alarm 725, then the appropriate logic signal pulses are generated at the interconnect OUT 727. For example, four cycles in an “on” state for 0.1 second, then 0.1 second “off,” then a delay of 5 seconds, and then this is sequence is repeated. Thereafter, the process starts again 713 at the interconnect OUT 703. If a determination indicates that the alarm is a smoke alarm 723, then the smoke alarm 729 will generate a signal on the interconnect OUT line that can, for example, have three cycles for 0.5 sec in an “on” state, then 0.5 second “off,” then a delay of 1 second, and then this sequence is repeated. Thereafter, the process begins again at return step 735. Hence, the method as described with regard to
Thus, according to an embodiment of the present invention, a notification appliance interconnect supervision system uses an interconnect line for supervising a plurality of notification appliances in a loop configuration. This system offers an advantage in that it allows more than 12 interconnected smoke detectors where each detector can detect an interconnect fault. Moreover, the system also allows the detectors to communicate their alarm status to all detectors in the system as well as an electrical panel. In use, if a change in state occurs on the interconnect line in less than a predetermined time period, a detector will recognize that a fault has occurred and initiate a sounder alarm in the smoke detector to annunciate a broken or shorted interconnect. The system also enables a detector to determine the type of alarm that is on the interconnect IN line, e.g., three long pulses can indicate smoke detection while four short pulses can indicate CO detection. Thus, the detector determines the type of alarm that is on its interconnect IN line based on the number of pulses received for sounding either a smoke or CO alarm. This supervised smoke detector system offers both greater reliability and expandability over typically residential smoke detection system as used in the prior art.
In the foregoing specification, specific embodiments of the present invention have been described. However, one of ordinary skill in the art appreciates that various modifications and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention as set forth in the claims below. Accordingly, the specification and figures are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense, and all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of present invention. The benefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any element(s) that may cause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become more pronounced are not to be construed as a critical, required, or essential features or elements of any or all the claims. The invention is defined solely by the appended claims including any amendments made during the pendency of this application and all equivalents of those claims as issued.
