REFLECTOR: [Fwd: [FlyRotary] UV-Tron Fire Detection System]

Scott Derrick scott at tnstaafl.net
Wed Aug 31 09:12:35 CDT 2005


How about a hot exhaust or turbo setting it off? 

Jim Sower wrote:

> Doesn't UV penetrate smoke?  I would guess you'd have a tough time 
> generating enough unpurged smoke to cause a problem.
> Interesting concept though.  I always thought fire fighting stuff on a 
> plastic airplane was kind of silly.  Most detection systems would seem 
> to give a lot more false positives than anything else and a LOT more 
> folks would die in too hurried emergency landings in challenging 
> terrain than would ever be saved by detecting a fire soon enough to 
> get on the ground successfully and while the plane was still flyable.  
> Sort of like the military banned practice flameout approaches when 
> they discovered that many more people were getting killed practicing 
> than were being saved by the benefits of practice.
> Once on fire, a plastic airplane doesn't last long.  Couple of minutes 
> for wing root (that's all your roll and yaw resources) and then the 
> spar goes shortly thereafter.  It would seem that if you're at cruise 
> altitude, the only thing fire detection buys you is the opportunity to 
> die all tensed up.  Prevention appears to be the only approach that 
> will yield real world dividends.
> Now this UV detector has me revisiting all that.  The biggest danger 
> is still false positives though.  You still have to land very quickly 
> and successfully, and acquiring the skill to do that will most likely 
> cost a lot of lives and airplanes.  Got to wonder if it's worth it, 
> all things considered.  Hard to figger - we don't have any idea of the 
> cost, and perhaps less of the benefits.
>
> I'll have to focus on prevention for now ... Jim S.
>
>
> Scott Derrick wrote:
>
>> I wonder how it would do if there was a lot of smoke?
>>
>> Scott
>>
>> Jim Sower wrote:
>>
>>> Thought this might be of interest ...
>>>
>>> -------- Original Message --------
>>> Subject:     [FlyRotary] UV-Tron Fire Detection System
>>> Date:     Tue, 30 Aug 2005 08:04:25 -0500
>>> From:     Mark R Steitle <mark.steitle at austin.utexas.edu>
>>> Reply-To:     Rotary motors in aircraft <flyrotary at lancaironline.net>
>>> To:     Rotary motors in aircraft <flyrotary at lancaironline.net>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Last week we were discussing various methods of dealing with fire 
>>> dangers in our aircraft. I decided to try out the Hamamatsu UV Tron 
>>> flame sensor, and promised to report my findings to the Fly Rotary 
>>> group.
>>>
>>> I located a pre-assembled circuit board from Superdroid Robots, a 
>>> company that supplies a variety of parts for robots. They were the 
>>> only place I could find that carried the Hamamatsu C3704 flame 
>>> detector and driver card. So, I ordered both along with a relay 
>>> board. (Attached is a picture of the boards.) The UV Tron sensor is 
>>> the clear glass “bulb” in the foreground. The small board on the 
>>> left is a voltage converter, allowing it to be connected directly to 
>>> 14v.
>>>
>>> I hooked it up to a 12v cordless drill battery and tested it using a 
>>> propane fire starter. It could easily “see” a flame from 6’ away 
>>> (maybe more, but I didn’t test it beyond 6’) and up to 90* right or 
>>> left. I didn’t test up/down, but the spec sheet indicates that it is 
>>> about the same in the vertical and horizontal planes. I could not 
>>> get it to false trip by using a fluorescent or a halogen light. 
>>> There is about a .5 second delay before it trips the relay. The tech 
>>> rep at Superdroid Robots indicated that the UV Tron sensor could be 
>>> remotely mounted up to 3’ away from the board. I plan on mounting it 
>>> in a small box on the firewall with the leads running though the 
>>> firewall to the circuit boards inside the cabin, wired to a big red 
>>> flashing LED on the panel. Everything in the picture (including s&h) 
>>> ran $150. I look at it as cheap insurance. Hopefully, I will never 
>>> need it.
>>>
>>> Mark S.
>>>
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
>>>
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
>>>
>>>
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>>> Homepage:  http://www.flyrotary.com/
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