Interfacing Flame Sensor with Arduino to Build a Fire Alarm System

Flame Sensor

A flame detector is a sensor designed to detect and respond to the presence of a flame or fire. Responses to a detected flame depend on the installation, but can include sounding an alarm, deactivating a fuel line (such as a propane or a natural gas line), and activating a fire suppression system.





There are different types of flame detection methods. Some of them are: Ultraviolet detector, near IR array detector, infrared (IR) detector, Infrared thermal cameras, UV/IR detector etc.



When fire burns it emits a small amount of Infra-red light, this light will be received by the Photodiode (IR receiver) on the sensor module. Then we use an Op-Amp to check for change in voltage across the IR Receiver, so that if a fire is detected the output pin (DO) will give 0V(LOW) and if the is no fire the output pin will be 5V(HIGH).



In this project we are using an IR based flame sensor. It is based on the YG1006 sensor which is a high speed and high sensitive NPN silicon phototransistor. It can detect infrared light with a wavelength ranging from 700nm to 1000nm and its detection angle is about 60°. Flame sensor module consists of a photodiode (IR receiver), resistor, capacitor, potentiometer, and LM393 comparator in an integrated circuit. The sensitivity can be adjusted by varying the on board potentiometer. Working voltage is between 3.3v and 5v DC, with a digital output. Logic high on the output indicates presence of flame or fire. Logic low on output indicates absence of flame or fire.

Applications of flame sensors

1. Hydrogen stations
2. Combustion monitors for burners
3. Oil and gas pipelines
4. Automotive manufacturing facilities
5. Nuclear facilities
6. Aircraft hangars
7. Turbine enclosures

Components Required

1. Arduino Uno (any Arduino board can be used)
2. Flame sensor
3. LED
4. Buzzer
5. Resistor
6. Jumper wires

Circuit Diagram

Code

int buzzer = 8;

int LED = 7;

int flame_sensor = 4;

int flame_detected;

void setup ()

{

   Serial.begin (9600);

   pinMode (buzzer, OUTPUT);

   pinMode (LED, OUTPUT);

   pinMode (flame_sensor, INPUT);

}

void loop ()

{

   flame_detected = digitalRead (flame_sensor);

   if (flame_detected == 1)

   {

     Serial.println ("Flame detected!! Take action immediately.");

     digitalWrite (buzzer, HIGH);

     digitalWrite (LED, HIGH);

     delay (200);

     digitalWrite (LED, LOW);

     delay (200);

   }

   else

   {

     Serial.println ("No flame detected. Stay cool");

     digitalWrite (buzzer, LOW);

     digitalWrite (LED, LOW);

   }

   delay (1000);

}

video