Description

Smoke detectors are well-established devices for early detection of fires. Connected detectors are avalible, but they either rely on a wired infrastructure, use a special protocol with a local controller instead of internet standards, or they are much more expensive than standard non-connected devices. There are Internet-connected smoke detectors out there. Nearly all of them need a permanent power supply or a high-capacity battery. Also they cost much more than the cheapest stand-alone solutions. This approach adds a 2$ ESP8266 WiFi-enabled controller to the cheapest standard smoke detector available. As it powers up the WiFi chip only in case of a smoke alarm, it runs on a standard 9V battery for years - no special service required. The approach also preserves the normal alarm functionality and the acustic warning on low battery. In case of a smoke alert, the WiFi chips powers up, connects to the network and sends out a preconfigured message via the common MQTT IoT protocol within seconds. These mesages can be processed directly by any local automation system or even redirected to the Internet. The solution has been implemented as a working prototype. A unit costs less than 10$ and is completly backwards compatible to todays non-smart smoke detectors.

References

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZcnPoZn_O0

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