Communications: electrical – Condition responsive indicating system – With particular system function
Reexamination Certificate
2001-03-20
2003-02-11
Pope, Daryl (Department: 2632)
Communications: electrical
Condition responsive indicating system
With particular system function
C340S511000, C340S531000, C340S533000, C340S537000, C340S660000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06518879
ABSTRACT:
The present application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 to Korean Application No. 2000-28973, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fire alarm apparatus, and more particularly to an apparatus and a method for monitoring line disconnection and occurrence of fire, capable of checking line disconnection and occurrence of fire regardless of the installation place of a terminal endpoint resistor that is for monitoring disconnection of the line connected to a fire detector, and a fire alarm apparatus having the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, in high and large buildings like offices and factories where many people come in and out, it is obligatory to install a fire alarm apparatus to minimize life injury by a fire.
FIG. 1
shows a line-wiring state of a conventional fire alarm apparatus in which a fire detector directly detects fire. Referring to
FIG. 1
, a plurality of fire detectors
3
,
4
and
5
for detecting a fire are installed between a repeater
1
and a transmitter
2
. Lines of the plurality of fire detectors
3
,
4
and
5
are mutually wired between the repeater
1
and the transmitter
2
to be electrically connected with one another.
When the plurality of fire detectors
3
,
4
and
5
detect a fire, a fire detecting signal for informing occurrence of fire is provided from the fire detector which detects the fire, to the repeater
1
. Repeater
1
informs a control center of the occurrence of fire through a fire receiver (not shown). In the above-mentioned fire alarm apparatus, the number of the plurality of the fire detectors
3
,
4
and
5
will be greatly increased in accordance with the size of the building in which it is installed, and the length of the line which electrically connects the plurality of the fire detectors
3
,
4
and
5
will also be increased in proportion to the area in which it is installed.
In general, in a fire alarm apparatus, terminal endpoint resistors
6
and
7
are installed, as shown in the
FIG. 1
, to check for a disconnection of the line of the fire detector, which is very long as described above. The terminal endpoint resistors
6
and
7
have to be installed at an end portion of the line, that is, at the reference mark “B” in FIG.
1
. However, an equipment provider that installs a fire alarm apparatus may install the terminal endpoint resistor
6
at a center portion of the line; that is to say, at the reference mark “A” in
FIG. 1
, to avoid the trouble of maintenance and repair caused by line disconnection. When the terminal endpoint resistor
6
is installed in this way, at the position of the repeater
1
, the line is detected as normal even though the line between installation place A of the terminal endpoint resistor
6
and the transmitter
2
is disconnected at reference mark “C”, for instance. Therefore, the fire detectors
4
and
5
installed between the installation place A and the transmitter
2
are not able to detect a fire, and the fire alarm apparatus can not generate a fire alarm.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,086,293 (granted to Karou Takahashi et al.) titled “LINE INTERRUPTION SUPERVISORY DEVICE FOR A FIRE ALARM SYSTEM” discloses a line interruption supervising apparatus for a fire alarm system that is capable of monitoring a line state regardless of the line length and the number of fire detectors. According to the aforementioned apparatus, a voltage level of the power/signal lines before the power supply interruption is compared with a line voltage level after a lapse of a predetermined time from the power supply interruption, and the open/interruption state of the power/signal line for fire detecting is determined based on the compared result.
Also, U.S. Pat. No. 4,568,923 (granted to Hiroshi Ouchi) discloses a fire alarm system that is capable of detecting line disconnection of the alarm line, wherein the fire detectors are installed without discontinuing the fire detecting function.
However, according to the aforementioned conventional apparatuses, the systems are not capable of precisely checking the line disconnection state with respect to the installation place of the terminal endpoint resistors, and are not capable of controlling the fire alarm preferably with respect to the respective states of line disconnection and fire. Moreover, when a fire occurs, an indicating lamp mounted on transmitter
2
of
FIG. 1
for example, is set to be continuously turned-on, so that it is difficult to locate the place of an in-house fireplug when a great deal of smoke is present.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is therefore directed an apparatus and method for monitoring line disconnection and occurrence of fire, which substantially overcomes one or more of the problems due to the limitations and disadvantages of the prior art.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for monitoring line disconnection and occurrence of fire, capable of checking line disconnection of the fire detector or occurrence of a fire regardless of the installation place of a terminal endpoint resistor that is installed for the purpose of checking disconnection of the line connected to a fire detector.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method that enable easy locating of an in-house fireplug.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a fire alarm apparatus having an apparatus for monitoring line disconnection and occurrence of fire, capable of checking line disconnection of the fire detector or occurrence of a fire, regardless of the installation place of a terminal endpoint resistor that is installed for the purpose of checking disconnection of the line connected to the fire detector, while enabling an in-house fireplug to be easily located.
To achieve the aforementioned objects of the present invention, an apparatus for monitoring line disconnection and occurrence of fire according to a first embodiment of the present invention includes an operation verifier that outputs a first detecting voltage signal representing an operation state of a fire detector and that outputs a verification-confirming signal in response to a line disconnection-verifying signal, a first detector that outputs first and a second detecting signals respectively representing an operation state of the fire detector and a state of a first line of the fire detector in response to the first detecting voltage signal and the verification-confirming signal, and a second detector that receives a second detecting voltage signal representing the operation state of the fire detector to output a third detecting signal representing a state of a second line of the fire detector. Also, a controller receives the first, second and third detecting signals, compares a voltage level of the first detecting signal with a voltage level of a predetermined first reference value, provides the line disconnection-verifying signal to the operation verifier according to a compared result, based on the second detecting signal generated in accordance with a result of providing the line disconnection-verifying signal, generates either a first line disconnection control signal to inform a first line disconnection of the fire detector or a fire control signal to inform occurrence of fire, based on a comparison result of the voltage level of the third detecting signal with a voltage level of a predetermined second reference value, and generates a second line disconnection control signal to inform a second line disconnection of the fire detector.
An apparatus for monitoring line disconnection and occurrence of fire according to a second embodiment of the present invention, to achieve the above objects of the present invention, includes a plurality of detectors that detect occurrence of fire to output a fire occurring signal and a controller that receives a detecting voltage signal representing a present voltage state of the plurality of detect
Kim Kang-Ok
Koo Min-Sik
LandOfFree
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