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

Jim Sower canarder at frontiernet.net
Wed Aug 31 10:29:09 CDT 2005


Probably not.  Hot turbos are intense IR.  UV is the other end of the 
spectrum.

Scott Derrick wrote:

> 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.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -- 
>>>> Homepage:  http://www.flyrotary.com/
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>>>>
>>>>  
>>>>
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
>>>>
>>>>
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