Self-calibrating fire sensing device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11688276-B2
Application number	US-202117395624-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 6, 2021
Priority date	Jul 2, 2020
Publication date	Jun 27, 2023
Grant date	Jun 27, 2023

Abstract

Devices, methods, and systems for a self-calibrating fire sensing device are described herein. One device includes a first transmitter light-emitting diode (LED) configured to emit a first light, a second transmitter LED configured to emit a second light, a first photodiode on-axis with the first transmitter LED, wherein the first photodiode is configured to select a first gain or a second gain of a first variable gain amplifier and detect an LED emission level of the first light responsive to selecting the first gain and detect a scatter level of the second light responsive to selecting the second gain, a second photodiode on-axis with the second transmitter LED, wherein the second photodiode is configured to select a third gain or a fourth gain of a second variable gain amplifier and detect an LED emission level of the second light responsive to selecting the third gain and detect a scatter level of the first light responsive to selecting the fourth gain, and a controller configured to recalibrate the fourth gain responsive to the detected LED emission level of the first light and recalibrate the second gain responsive to the detected LED emission level of the second light.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A self-calibrating fire sensing device, comprising:
a transmitter light-emitting diode (LED) configured to emit a light;
a first photodiode configured to detect an LED emission level of the light;
a second photodiode configured to detect a scatter level of the light;
a third photodiode configured to detect an additional scatter level of the light; and
a controller configured to recalibrate a gain used by the second photodiode to detect the scatter level and recalibrate an additional gain used by the third photodiode to detect the additional scatter level responsive to the detected LED emission level of the light.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein the first photodiode is on-axis with the transmitter LED.

3. The device of claim 1 , wherein the third photodiode is on-axis with the second photodiode.

4. The device of claim 1 , wherein:
the second photodiode is configured to detect a first type of smoke; and
the third photodiode is configured to detect a second type of smoke.

5. The device of claim 1 , wherein the third photodiode is located 60 degrees from the transmitter LED.

6. The device of claim 1 , wherein the second photodiode is located 120 degrees from the transmitter LED.

7. A method for operating a self-calibrating fire sensing device, comprising:
detecting, via a first photodiode, a light-emitting diode (LED) emission level of a light emitted by a transmitter LED;
detecting, via a second photodiode, a scatter level of the light;
detecting, via a third photodiode, an additional scatter level of the light;
triggering a fault responsive to the detected LED emission level of the light or the detected scatter level of the light; and
recalibrating a gain used by the second photodiode to detect the scatter level and recalibrating an additional gain used by the third photodiode to detect the additional scatter level responsive to the detected LED emission level of the light.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the method includes detecting, via the third photodiode, the additional scatter level of the light to detect different types of smoke than the second photodiode.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the method includes:
comparing the detected LED emission level of the light to a threshold LED emission level; and
triggering the fault responsive to the detected LED emission level of the light being below the threshold LED emission level.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the method includes:
comparing the detected LED emission level of the light to a previously detected LED emission level; and
triggering the fault responsive to the detected LED emission level of the light being less than the previously detected LED emission level.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the method includes recalibrating the gain used by the second photodiode to detect the scatter level responsive to the detected LED emission level of the light being less than the previously detected LED emission level.

12. A fire alarm system, comprising:
a self-calibrating fire sensing device, comprising:
a transmitter light-emitting diode (LED) configured to emit a light;
a first photodiode configured to:
detect an LED emission level of the light; and
transmit the detected LED emission level; and

a second photodiode configured to:
detect a scatter level of the light; and
transmit the detected scatter level;

a third photodiode configured to:
detect an additional scatter level of the light and
transmit the additional detected scatter level; and

a monitoring device configured to:
receive the detected LED emission level, the detected scatter level, and the additional detected scatter level of the light;
compare the detected LED emission level to an LED emission level specification range; and
transmit a command to the self-calibrating fire sensing device;

wherein the self-calibrating fire sensing device is configured to recalibrate a gain used by the second photodiode and an additional gain used by the third photodiode responsive to receiving the command.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the transmitter LED and the first photodiode are on a first axis and the second photodiode and the third photodiode are on a second axis, wherein the second axis is offset 60 degrees from the first axis.

14. The system of claim 12 , wherein the monitoring device is configured to:
receive the detected additional scatter level of the light from the third photodiode; and
compare the detected scatter level to the additional scatter level.

15. The system of claim 12 , wherein the monitoring device is configured to compare the detected scatter level to a scatter specification range.

16. The system of claim 12 , wherein the monitoring device is configured to transmit an error notification responsive to the detected LED emission level of the light being outside of the LED emission level specification range.

Assignees

• Honeywell Int Inc

Inventors

• Barson Michael
• Wolf Benjamin
• Dearden Christopher

Classifications

• G08B29/28 Primary

  by changing the gain of an amplifier · CPC title

• G08B17/107 Primary

  for detecting light-scattering due to smoke · CPC title

• G08B29/043 Primary

  of fire detection circuits · CPC title