Smoke detector that triggers a relay?

[Observer Tom]

Anyone know of a smoke detector that triggers an electrical relay?

About 6 months ago one of my ballasts fried. I was home watching tv and smelled what seemed like cigar smoke. I looked around and realized one of my ballasts was sizzling like an egg and putting a ton of thick black smoke into my exhaust.

I turned it off and everything worked out fine, but it made me realize if I had not been home that sucker would have cooked until it either lit itself on fire, shorted the breaker, or someone reported the smoke and the fire department came. Basically I dodged a bullet any way you look at it.

It was not a fault in my wiring, the ballast's capacitor simply fried. The ballasts were outside the room in a reasonably cool, open area. I did not have a fan blowing air over them, but the environment was good enough that I don't see it as a preventative measure.

What would have helped is shutting off the ballast as soon as it began smoking. I would love to have a smoke detector that tripped a relay that shut off all my lights. A relay could also be used to trigger a fire extinguisher system or whatever else someone wanted to use.

So does anyone know of a smoke detector that triggers an electrical relay?

 

[Observer Tom]

I didn't find anything on the ICMAG forums, but I did find a couple useful links from the web:

http://www.edcheung.com/automa/smoke_det.htm - This site talks about using normal smoke detectors designed so that if one detects smoke, all of them emit sound. They share a common line which could be used to trip a relay.

http://www.smokesign.com/asdetwitbuil.html - lol this is exactly what I wanted, this unit actually has a built in relay so I wouldn't need to buy any additional parts and mod something myself.

Well, instead of deleting my original post I'll leave it up so maybe someone else will consider using one of these and possibly saving themselves from a ballast fire. =)

 

[dontstepongrass]

open up a smoke detector and replace the siren circuit with the relay activation circuit basically. might need to use a limiting resistor if the voltage in to the siren is higher than the range needed to activate relay.

 

[BlindDate]

Why would you delete your original post??????????????

 

[Observer Tom]

Well I asked and answered my own question a few minutes later. Seemed kinda pointless to leave it up, until I realized maybe someone else would benefit from considering a similar detector.

 

[strydr]

open up a smoke detector and replace the siren circuit with the relay activation circuit basically. might need to use a limiting resistor if the voltage in to the siren is higher than the range needed to activate relay.

Nice idea!
you could add this:
http://www.remotemonitoringsystems.ca/
to watch that relay, then email you, shut things down, and take a picture of the damage (or any number of other things)...

 

[fridge-farmer]

This is an awesome find!

Any details on the required wiring for the one found here - http://www.smokesign.com/asdetwitbuil.html ?

I'd like to hook it up so it kills power to everything if smoke is detected - any ideas? My experience with relays is a bit limited.

Thanks! Great link and good advice.

Anybody else suffer a ballast fire? Since many of us have these high wattage ballasts in our homes - it seems a very important safety measure.

Does the quality of the equipment also play a role?

 

[GDK]

Might be too late when smoke is detected.

Stay Safe

 

[fatcat666]

Might be too late when smoke is detected.

Stay Safe

if you hooked that detector up to a fire supression system it would put out a potential fire and probably kill your plants, but at least you wouldn't be coming home to the fire dept. and LEO rummaging through your burnt grow equip.

 

[Crash-n-Burn]

The on-board relay on that smoke detector probably can't handle running voltage through it... It's likely made to trigger an alarm or something. However, you could use that relay to trip another one that CAN handle the voltage.