JP5022292B2 - Fire alarm system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a fire alarm system in which a plurality of fire alarm devices transmit and receive radio signals using radio waves as a medium.

  For radio stations used in Japan, the characteristics of radio waves used (RF characteristics) such as occupied frequency bandwidth and adjacent channel leakage power must satisfy the provisions of the Radio Law. In the Radio Law, different standards (communication standards) are defined for each purpose of use. For example, “low-power radio stations” defined as one of the radio stations that do not require a license in the proviso to Article 4 of the Radio Law include “wireless stations for cordless telephones”, “specified low-power radio stations”, “low-power radio stations” There are “security system”, “low-power data communication system radio station”, etc., and the standards for the radio equipment of each radio station are stipulated by the equipment regulations of the law.

  On the other hand, since the obligation to install fire alarms in houses has been legislated to reduce the number of victims of house fires, multiple fire alarms are linked using radio signals from the viewpoint of ease of installation in existing houses. A fire alarm system is desired. Such a fire alarm system has a function in which a plurality of fire alarms (radio stations) installed at multiple locations sense the fire and sound an alarm sound, and any one of the fire alarms When a fire is detected, the relevant fire alarm sounds an alarm sound and transmits information (fire detection information) notifying the fire detection to other fire alarms by radio signal, so that not only the fire source fire alarm A plurality of fire alarms can be interlocked to sound an alarm sound all at once, thereby quickly and reliably informing the occurrence of a fire. Such a fire alarm is driven by a battery as a power source in order to take advantage of the characteristic of transmitting fire detection information by radio signal, and is usually in a place where maintenance (battery replacement) is difficult such as indoor ceilings. Since it is installed, it is desirable that it can be used without maintenance for a long period of time such as several years.

  Here, in the fire alarm system as described above, when a fire is detected, a wireless signal is transmitted between a plurality of fire alarms. At that time, each fire alarm is arbitrarily (asynchronously). ) When wireless signals are transmitted, the wireless signals collide. In order to avoid such a collision, for example, Patent Document 1 describes a fire alarm system in which a plurality of fire alarm devices transmit radio signals by a TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) method. In the conventional example described in Patent Document 1, since each fire alarm device stores and transmits a radio signal in a time slot assigned to itself, the above-described collision can be avoided.

Further, in the conventional example described in Patent Document 1, in order to confirm whether or not the fire alarm is operating normally, a specific fire alarm (master station) to another fire alarm (slave station) A regular monitoring message is periodically sent to the slave station, and a slave station that has returned a response message to the regular monitor message is judged to be normal, and a slave station that has not returned a response message is judged to be abnormal. . It should be noted that the periodic monitoring message transmission is practically sufficient at most once a day.
JP 2006-343983 A

  By the way, in the above conventional system, if any abnormality occurs in the master station, the transmission of the regular monitoring message is delayed. Therefore, if the slave station counts the regular monitoring message reception interval, it is possible to determine the abnormality of the master station. Is possible. For example, when regular monitoring by the master station is performed in a 24-hour cycle, each slave station receives the next regular monitoring message beyond the cycle (24 hours) after receiving the previous regular monitoring message. Otherwise, the master station is judged abnormal.

  Here, the master station also operates with the battery as the power source, and if the battery is replaced between the previous periodic monitoring and the current periodic monitoring, the master station restarts counting the cycle after the battery replacement. In the slave station, if the transmission interval of the regular monitoring message exceeds the period, there is a possibility that the slave station may be erroneously determined to be abnormal although the master station is normal.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to prevent a specific fire alarm from being erroneously determined to be abnormal by another fire alarm due to a shift in periodic monitoring due to battery replacement. It is to provide a fire alarm system that can.

  In order to achieve the above object, the invention of claim 1 is a fire alarm system comprising a plurality of fire alarms and transmitting a radio signal using radio waves as a medium between the plurality of fire alarms, When a fire alarm is detected by a fire detection means, a fire detection means for detecting a fire, a warning means for informing a fire alarm, a transmission means for transmitting a radio signal, a reception means for receiving a radio signal, and a fire detection means Causes the alarm means to notify the fire alarm and causes the other fire alarm device to transmit a radio signal including a fire alarm message for notifying the fire alarm from the transmitting means, and further transmits from the other fire alarm device by the receiving means. A control means for notifying a fire alarm to a warning means when receiving a fire alarm message by receiving a radio signal; and a battery for power supply; A wireless signal including a periodic monitoring message is transmitted from all the other fire alarms at a substantially constant cycle from the transmission unit, and the control unit of the other fire alarm responds when receiving the periodic monitoring message. A wireless signal including a message is transmitted from the transmission means, and the control means of the other fire alarms excluding the specific fire alarm is not receiving a wireless signal including a periodic monitoring message from the specific fire alarm. When the threshold value set longer than the cycle is exceeded, the specific fire alarm is judged to be abnormal, and if not exceeded, it is judged to be normal, and the control means of the specific fire alarm is to receive a response message. Based on the presence / absence of the presence / absence of the other fire alarms, the first periodic monitoring message after battery replacement is transmitted at intervals shorter than the period. .

  According to the invention of claim 1, since the control means of the specific fire alarm device transmits the first periodic monitoring message after the battery replacement at an interval shorter than the period, the periodic monitoring periodic shift accompanying the battery replacement Can prevent a specific fire alarm from being erroneously determined to be abnormal by another fire alarm.

  The invention according to claim 2 is the invention according to claim 1, wherein the control means of the fire alarm other than the specific fire alarm is the presence or absence of failure of the other means except the transmission means and the reception means and the presence or absence of the battery In addition, when the reception unit receives a wireless signal including the periodic monitoring message, the transmission unit transmits a wireless signal including the presence / absence of a failure and the presence / absence of a battery together with the response message.

  According to the invention of claim 2, battery consumption in other fire alarms other than a specific fire alarm is compared with the case where the presence or absence of a failure and the presence or absence of a battery are transmitted separately from a response message for periodic monitoring. Can be suppressed.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect of the invention, the control means of the specific fire alarm device performs wireless communication with the security sensor that detects an abnormality in the target area and the security sensor, and the abnormality from the security sensor. A wireless signal including a fire alarm message and a wireless signal including a periodic monitoring message are sent to the security parent unit of the security system having a security parent unit that notifies the occurrence of the abnormality when a wireless signal notifying the detection is received. If the wireless signal including the response message to the periodic monitoring message is received from the security parent device, the security parent device is determined to be normal, and if the wireless signal including the response message is not received, the security parent device is transmitted. That the machine is abnormal, and Along with the sage, a wireless signal including normal / abnormal monitoring results of other fire alarms, the presence / absence of failure received from other fire alarms, and the presence / absence of battery exhaustion is transmitted from the transmission means to the security master unit. And

  According to the invention of claim 3, the control means of the specific fire alarm device, together with the periodic monitoring message, the normal / abnormal monitoring result of the other fire alarm device, the presence / absence of the failure received from the other fire alarm device, and Since a wireless signal including whether or not the battery has run out is sent from the transmission means to the security master unit, the result of monitoring the normal / abnormality of other fire alarms, the presence or absence of failures received from other fire alarms, and the presence or absence of batteries Compared with the case where the message is transmitted separately from the periodic monitoring message, the consumption of the battery in the specific fire alarm can be suppressed.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to prevent a specific fire alarm from being erroneously determined to be abnormal by another fire alarm due to a shift in the periodic monitoring due to battery replacement.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of this embodiment, and a fire alarm system is configured by a plurality of (only two in the drawing) fire alarm devices TR. In the following description, when the fire alarm devices TR are individually shown, they are expressed as fire alarm devices TR1, TR2,..., TRn, and when collectively shown, they are expressed as fire alarm devices TR.

  The fire alarm TR transmits a radio signal using radio waves as a medium from the antenna 3 and receives a radio signal transmitted from another fire alarm TR by the antenna 3, and a sound (buzzer sound or voice message). Etc.), the alarm unit 5 for notifying (sounding from the speaker) a fire alarm (hereinafter referred to as “alarm sound”), and the alarm unit 5 when a fire is detected by the fire detection unit 4 using a microcomputer as a main component. A control unit 1 that causes a radio signal including a fire alarm message to be sent to the other fire alarm device TR and a fire alarm message to be transmitted to another fire alarm device TR, and an alarm sound to be output as will be described later An operation input receiving unit 6 that receives an operation input for stopping the operation and a battery power supply unit 7 that supplies an operating power to each unit using a battery such as a dry battery as a power source. The operation input receiving unit 6 has one or more switches (for example, push button switches). When the switch is operated, an operation input corresponding to each switch is received and an operation signal corresponding to the operation input is controlled. Output to part 1. A unique identification code is assigned to each fire alarm device TR1, TR2,..., And the destination of the radio signal and the fire alarm devices TR1, TR2,.

  The radio transmission / reception unit 2 transmits / receives a radio signal using radio waves as a medium in accordance with “radio station of low power security system” defined in Article 6, Paragraph 4, Item 3 of the Radio Law Enforcement Regulations. In addition, the fire detection unit 4 detects fire by detecting smoke, heat, flames, and the like generated with the fire, for example. However, detailed configurations of the wireless transmission / reception unit 2 and the fire detection unit 4 are well known in the art and will not be described in detail.

  The control unit 1 realizes various functions to be described later by executing a program stored in the memory with a microcomputer. When the fire detection unit 4 detects the occurrence of a fire, the control unit 1 drives a buzzer included in the alarm unit 5 to sound an alarm sound, or an alarm voice message (stored in a memory or the like in advance) ( For example, in order to notify the fire alarm by causing the speaker to sound “fire”, etc., and to notify the fire alarm also in other fire alarm devices TR, a wireless signal including a fire alarm message is transmitted from the wireless transmission / reception unit 2. Send it. Also, when the wireless transmission / reception unit 2 receives a wireless signal transmitted from another fire alarm device TR, the control unit 1 controls the alarm unit 5 to sound an alarm sound. That is, in the control unit 1, when the fire detection unit 4 detects a fire, the alarm unit 5 sounds an alarm sound to notify the fire alarm, and the wireless transmission / reception unit 2 transmits a radio signal including the fire alarm message. Have.

  Here, in the radio equipment regulation Article 49-17 “Radio equipment of radio stations of the low power security system” of the Radio Law Enforcement Regulation, the period during which radio signals may be continuously transmitted (transmission period) is 3 seconds or less. It is stipulated that the period (pause period) provided between the transmission period and the transmission period in which the radio signal should not be transmitted is 2 seconds or more (see No. 5 of the same article). For this reason, in the control unit 1 in the present embodiment, the wireless signal is transmitted during the transmission period that complies with the wireless facility rules, and the transmission is stopped and received during the suspension period.

  Further, in order to extend the battery life of the battery power supply unit 7 as much as possible, the control unit 1 repeatedly counts a predetermined intermittent reception interval (however, the intermittent reception interval is longer than the transmission period) with a timer built in the microcomputer. In addition, every time the intermittent reception interval is counted, the wireless transmission / reception unit 2 is activated to check whether a desired radio wave (radio signal transmitted by another fire alarm device TR) can be received, and the radio wave is captured. If not, the average power consumption is greatly reduced by immediately stopping the wireless transmission / reception unit 2 and shifting to the standby state. The radio wave reception check is performed based on the received signal strength indication signal (Receiving Signal Strength Indication: RSSI signal) output from the wireless transmission / reception unit 2 and is a DC voltage signal proportional to the magnitude of the received signal strength. The details are well known in the art and will be omitted.

  Further, the control unit 1 of a specific fire alarm device TR1 (hereinafter referred to as a master station) periodically activates the wireless transmission / reception unit 2 in the first period (for example, 25 hours) of about one day to generate another fire. A radio signal including a periodic monitoring message is transmitted in order to confirm whether the alarm devices TR2, TR3,... (Hereinafter referred to as slave stations) are operating normally (periodic monitoring). In the slave stations TR2,..., The control unit 1 monitors whether or not the fire detection unit 4 has failed and whether or not the battery power supply unit 7 has run out of battery at regular intervals (for example, every hour), and the monitoring result ( The presence or absence of failure and the presence or absence of battery) are stored in a memory (not shown), and when a periodic monitoring message is received from the parent station TR1, the monitoring result stored in the memory is reported to the parent station TR1 and the periodic A radio signal including a response message for responding to the monitoring message is returned to the master station TR1. After transmitting the radio signal including the regular monitoring message, the control unit 1 of the master station TR1 switches the radio transmitting / receiving unit 2 to the reception state and receives the radio signal transmitted from each fire alarm device TR2,. There is a slave station TR2, which does not transmit a radio signal including a response message within a predetermined time after transmitting a radio signal including a message, or a response message transmitted from any of the slave stations TR2,. When the monitoring result of presence or absence of battery is notified, the slave station TR2,... Malfunctions by driving a buzzer provided in the alarm unit 5 to sound a notification sound (communication impossible or faulty, battery It also has a function of notifying that a break has occurred. When the control unit 1 of the master station TR1 and the slave stations TR2,... Determines that a failure or a battery has run out, a warning sound for immediately informing the occurrence of an abnormality (failure or battery runout) from the alarm unit 5. (Buzzer sound, voice message, etc.) are sounded from the speaker of the alarm unit 5. In addition, you may make it perform the warning by light by blinking display elements, such as a light emitting diode, instead of a warning sound or a warning sound.

  Here, with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 2, the regular monitoring process by the control unit 1 of the master station TR1 will be described in more detail.

  First, the control unit 1 counts the first period (for example, 25 hours) by a timer built in the microcomputer, and starts the wireless transmission / reception unit 2 every time the first period elapses (that is, every 25 hours) to perform periodic monitoring. A radio signal including the message is transmitted to all the slave stations TR2,... (Steps S1, S2). Then, after transmitting the radio signal including the regular monitoring message, the control unit 1 switches the radio transmitting / receiving unit 2 to the reception state and receives the radio signal transmitted from each of the slave stations TR2,. It is determined whether or not there is a slave station TR2,... That does not transmit a radio signal including a response message within a predetermined time after transmitting the signal (step S3), and the slave stations TR2,. Is determined to be normal and stored in a memory (not shown). On the other hand, if there is a slave station TR2,... That does not transmit a response message, the second period (for example, 4 hours) is counted by another timer from the time when the predetermined time has elapsed, and the second period has elapsed. (That is, when 4 hours have passed since the regular monitoring of the 25-hour period), the wireless transmission / reception unit 2 is activated, and the wireless signal including the regular monitoring message is sent to the slave stations TR2,. Is retransmitted (steps S4 and S5). Then, after retransmitting the wireless signal including the periodic monitoring message (first time), the control unit 1 switches the wireless transmitting / receiving unit 2 to the reception state, and retransmits the wireless signal including the periodic monitoring message within a predetermined time. It is determined whether or not a radio signal including a response message is received from the slave stations TR2,... (Step S6), and if a response message is received from the slave stations TR2,. On the other hand, if the radio signal cannot be received from the slave stations TR2,... Even after the predetermined time has elapsed, the control unit 1 determines that the number of times the periodic monitoring message is retransmitted is a threshold value N (for example, twice) (Step S7), if not, the process returns to step S4 and retransmits a radio signal including the periodic monitoring message when the second period has elapsed. If the response message cannot be received even if the number of retransmissions of the regular monitoring message exceeds the threshold value N, the control unit 1 determines that the slave stations TR2,... Are abnormal and stores them in the memory (step S8). .

  Note that the control unit 1 of the master station TR1 causes the radio transmission / reception unit 2 to transmit a radio signal including the regular monitoring message every first period (every 25 hours) regardless of whether or not the regular monitoring message is retransmitted.

  On the other hand, by sending a regular monitoring message from the master station TR1 to all the slave stations TR2,... That is, the control unit 1 of each slave station TR2,... Does not receive a radio signal including the periodic monitoring message from the master station TR1, and the second period (4 hours) is multiplied by the number of retransmissions in the first period (25 hours). The master station TR1 is determined to be abnormal when it becomes longer than the time (= 25 + 4 × 2 = 33 hours) plus (doubled) time, for example, 33 hours + α (α is several minutes to several tens of minutes). To do. However, when the last received periodic monitoring message is the first retransmission, the control unit 1 of the slave stations TR2,... Does not receive a radio signal including the periodic monitoring message from the parent station TR1 during the first period. It is longer than the time (= 25 + 4 = 29 hours) that is the sum of (25 hours) plus the second period (4 hours) times the number of retransmissions minus 1 (1 time), for example, 29 hours + α. If the station TR1 is determined to be abnormal and the last received periodic monitoring message is the second retransmission, the control unit 1 of the slave stations TR2,... Transmits a radio signal including the periodic monitoring message from the parent station TR1. The period of no reception is longer than the time (= 25 hours) that is the sum of the first period (25 hours) plus the second period (4 hours) times the number of retransmissions -2 times (0 times), for example, 25 hours + α When master station TR1 is judged abnormal To do. Then, when the control unit 1 of the slave stations TR2,... Determines that the master station TR1 is abnormal, the control unit 1 immediately causes the alarm unit 5 to sound a warning sound for notifying the occurrence of the abnormality from the speaker of the alarm unit 5. In addition, you may make it perform the warning by light by blinking display elements, such as a light emitting diode, instead of a warning sound or a warning sound.

  Here, when the battery of the battery power supply unit 7 is replaced in the master station TR1, the timer counting the first period is reset because the microcomputer of the control unit 1 is reset. Starts counting the first period from the beginning. For example, if the battery is replaced 12 hours after the previous periodic monitoring, the timing of the first periodic monitoring is 12 hours + 24 hours from the previous periodic monitoring when the first period is counted after the battery replacement. 36 hours later, the control unit 1 of the slave stations TR2, ... determines that the master station TR1 is abnormal.

  Therefore, in the present embodiment, the control unit 1 of the master station TR1 transmits the first regular monitoring message after battery replacement (after reset) at an interval (for example, 1 hour) shorter than the first period (25 hours). I am doing so. As a result, there is a probability that the periodic monitoring interval before and after the battery replacement becomes longer than the threshold (33 hours + α) at which the control unit 1 of the slave station TR2 determines that the master station TR1 is abnormal due to the periodic monitoring periodic change accompanying battery replacement. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the master station TR1 from being erroneously determined to be abnormal by the control unit 1 of the slave stations TR2,.

  By the way, the control unit 1 of the master station TR1 detects the fire and causes the alarm unit 5 to sound an alarm sound and transmits a fire alarm message to each of the slave stations TR2,. After receiving the fire alarm message from TR2,..., The wireless transmission unit 2 is caused to transmit a synchronization signal at a constant period. This synchronization signal is a signal that defines a time slot necessary for performing TDMA (time division multiple access) wireless communication between a plurality of fire alarms TR, and one cycle is a plurality of times. Each of the slave stations TR2,... Is assigned one time slot different from each other. Then, a message from the master station TR1 to the slave stations TR2,... Is transmitted in a synchronization signal, and a radio signal including a message from the slave station TR2,... To the master station TR1 is assigned to each slave station TR2,. Stored in the current time slot and transmitted. Therefore, it is possible to reliably avoid collision of radio signals transmitted from a plurality of fire alarm devices TR (the master station TR1 and the slave stations TR2,...). Although the time slot assignment for each fire alarm device TR may be fixed, the time slot assignment information may be notified to each slave station TR2,... By a synchronization signal transmitted from the master station TR1.

  FIG. 3 shows a frame format of a radio signal transmitted and received by the fire alarm device TR. A synchronization bit (preamble: PA), a frame synchronization pattern (unique word: UW), a destination address DA, a source address SA, a message M, One frame is composed of a CRC code. Here, if the identification code of each fire alarm device TR is set as the destination address DA, only the fire alarm device TR of the identification code receives a radio signal and acquires a message. By setting a special bit string that is not assigned to the fire alarm TR (for example, a bit string with all bits set to 1), a wireless signal is broadcast (multicast) to obtain a message for all the fire alarm TRs. Can be made. For example, a radio signal including a fire alarm message is broadcast from the master station TR1 to all the slave stations TR2,. The control unit 1 transmits the radio signal for one frame from the radio transmission / reception unit 2 continuously in a number that can be transmitted within one transmission period when the radio signal is transmitted asynchronously. When transmitting and receiving data in the TDMA system, it is not necessary to store a plurality of frames of radio signals in one time slot.

  Next, referring to the time chart of FIG. 4, the transmission / reception operation of this embodiment when shifting to the TDMA wireless communication will be described.

  For example, when the fire detection unit 4 detects a fire in the slave station TR2, the control unit 1 of the slave station TR2 sounds an alarm sound from the alarm unit 5 and activates the wireless transmission / reception unit 2 to transmit a radio signal including a fire alarm message. It transmits to all other fire alarm devices TR (master station TR1 and other slave stations TR3,...). At this time, the control unit 1 of the transmission source slave station TR2 continuously transmits the radio signal by the number of frames that can be transmitted within the transmission period, and the radio transmission / reception unit 2 during the pause period (reception period) after the transmission period. To the receiving state. Note that each fire alarm device TR is intermittently received asynchronously. However, if the transmission period is repeated a certain number of times (for example, three times), a radio signal including a fire alarm message can be received.

  Here, if the low-power radio is used, the wireless communication distance can be sufficiently covered as long as it is within an area of a normal house. Therefore, the fire source child station TR2 can connect other fire alarm devices TR (master station TR1 and master station TR1). It is usually possible to send a message to other slave stations TR3,. However, as described above, the master station TR1 periodically monitors the slave stations TR2 to TR5, and the normality of the communication path is confirmed between the master station TR1 and each of the slave stations TR3 to TR5. However, since the communication path between the slave stations TR2 to TR5 has not been confirmed, there is a possibility that a message does not reach a certain slave station due to the influence of an obstacle, for example.

  Therefore, the control unit 1 of the master station TR1 that has received the fire alarm message continuously transmits a radio signal including the fire alarm message to the other slave stations TR3 to TR5 other than the source slave station TR2 a plurality of times. . When the control unit 1 of the other slave stations TR3 to TR5 receives a fire alarm message transmitted from the slave station TR2 or the master station TR1, it immediately sounds an alarm sound from the alarm unit 5 and sends a fire alarm message from the radio transceiver unit 2. A response message (ACK) for confirming reception is returned by a radio signal. In addition, when all of the fire alarms TR notify the fire alarm (sounds an alarm sound) when a fire is detected by at least one fire alarm TR in this manner, hereinafter, it is referred to as “fire interlocking”. .

  When receiving the ACK from all the other slave stations TR3 to TR5, the control unit 1 of the master station TR1 causes the radio transmission / reception unit 2 to transmit a synchronization signal for defining a time slot at a constant period. In the present embodiment, the first time slot TS1 is the slave station TR2, the second time slot TS2 is the slave station TR3, the third time slot TS3 is the slave station TR4, and the fourth time slot TS4 is the slave station. Each is assigned to TR5.

  Here, the master station TR1 periodically monitors each of the slave stations TR2 to TR5, and the normality of the communication path is confirmed between the master station TR1 and each of the slave stations TR3 to TR5. The communication path between the stations TR2 to TR5 has not been confirmed. Therefore, when a large number of slave stations TR2,... Are arranged, the number of communication paths between the slave stations TR2,. Since the exhaustion becomes intense, as described above, the specific fire alarm device TR1 is set as the master station, and the other fire alarm devices TR2,. By notifying a message (to be described later), even when there are slave stations TR2,.

  Further, when the interlocking is started by sounding an alarm sound from all the fire alarm devices TR, a synchronization signal is transmitted from the master station TR1 at a constant cycle as described above, and the operation shifts to TDMA communication. The control unit 1 of the master station TR1 repeatedly transmits a fire warning message to all the slave stations TR2,. Then, the control unit 1 of each slave station TR2,... Checks the state of the alarm unit 5 every time it receives a fire alarm message transmitted from the master station TR1, and if the alarm unit 5 is stopped, the alarm unit 5 Sound the alarm again. Therefore, after the fire alarm is started to be notified by all the fire alarms TR, all the other fire alarms (children) are set in a plurality of time slots defined by the synchronization signal transmitted by the specific fire alarm (master station) TR1. Stations) TR2,... Can be assigned to perform wireless communication by time division multiple access (TDMA) to avoid collisions. Furthermore, all other fire alarms from a specific fire alarm (master station) TR1 The fire alarm can be reliably notified to the slave stations TR2,. As a result, a plurality of fire alarms TR can be effectively interlocked while avoiding collision of radio signals.

  By the way, the periodic monitoring is performed almost once a day. Even if the communication path is normal in the regular monitoring described above, the cause (from generation of a new noise source or sudden failure) Etc.), a communication path between any of the slave stations TR3 to TR5 and the master station TR1 may not be established. Therefore, when the control unit 1 of the master station TR1 does not receive an ACK from any of the slave stations TR3 to TR5 (for example, TR5), the radio signal including the fire alarm message is transmitted again from the radio transceiver unit 2, and the slave station TR5 When the ACK is received from the wireless transmission / reception unit 2, the wireless transmission / reception unit 2 transmits the synchronization signal. However, if the ACK cannot be received from the slave station TR5 even if the fire alarm message is transmitted a predetermined number of times, the control unit 1 of the master station TR1 stops the retransmission of the fire alarm message and sends it to the radio transceiver unit 2. Send a sync signal. Further, the control unit 1 of the master station TR1 includes the above-described fire alarm message for the slave stations TR2,... That have not been able to establish a communication path in the regular monitoring, or have received a notification message that the battery is dead in the regular monitoring. The wireless signal may not be retransmitted, the number of retransmissions may be reduced, or the synchronization signal may be transmitted regardless of whether a response message is received from the slave stations TR2,. However, for the slave stations TR2,... That have notified only the monitoring result with failure by the notification message in the regular monitoring, it is possible that the alarm unit 5 can sound an alarm sound in response to the fire alarm message. Therefore, it is desirable that the control unit 1 of the master station TR1 retransmits the radio signal including the fire alarm message.

  By the way, the fire alarm system of this embodiment is in a state where no fire is detected in any of the fire alarms TR (standby state), and in a state where all the fire alarms TR are sounding an alarm sound (linked sounding) State), as described later, only the fire alarm TR that detects the fire (fire source) sounds the alarm sound, and the fire alarm TR other than the fire source stops the alarm sound (interlocked) The operation state is transited between (stop state). That is, when a fire is detected by at least one of the fire alarm devices TR in the standby state, as described above, the fire alarm is sent from the fire slave station TR2 and the master station TR1 to all the other slave stations TR3,. When the message is transmitted, an alarm sound is generated in all the fire alarm devices TR including the master station TR1 and the slave stations TR2,.

  When an operation input for stopping the alarm sound is received by the operation input receiving unit 6 of any fire alarm device TR in the interlocking sounding state, if the fire alarm device TR is the master station TR1, The station TR1 transmits a message (alarm stop message) requesting the stop of the alarm sound to all the slave stations TR2,... Or if the fire alarm device TR is the slave station TR2,. When the master station TR1 receives the alarm stop message from the stations TR2,... And transmits the alarm stop message to the other slave stations TR2,. Transition to the stop state. However, when an operation input for stopping the alarm sound is received by the operation input receiving unit 6 of the fire source fire alarm device TR, the alarm sound is also stopped in the fire alarm device TR of the fire source. Here, the control unit 1 of the master station TR1 keeps the fire detection status of the master station TR1 and each slave station TR2,... Updated as needed in a memory (not shown), and all the fire alarms TR as will be described later. When a fire is no longer detected in, transition from the fire-linked state to the standby state.

  When the interlocking ringing state is changed to the interlocking stop state, the control unit 1 of the master station TR1 starts a time limit for a predetermined alarm sound stop time (for example, 5 minutes). Then, after the alarm sound stop time has elapsed, the control unit 1 of the master station TR1 refers to the fire detection status held in the memory, and if all the fire alarms TR have not detected fire, When a recovery notification message is sent, a transition is made from a fire-linked state to a standby state, and if a fire is detected by at least one fire alarm TR, the fire is stopped by sending a fire alarm message using a synchronization signal. Transition from state to linked ringing state. Even when any fire alarm device TR newly detects a fire in the interlock stop state, the control unit 1 of the master station TR1 transmits a fire alarm message by a synchronization signal to change from the interlock stop state to the interlock ringing state. Transition.

  For example, as shown in the time chart of FIG. 5, in a fire-linked state (linked ringing state) with the master station TR1 as a fire source, an operation input for stopping an alarm sound is received by the operation input reception unit 6 of the slave station TR4 that is not a fire source When the alarm stop message is transmitted from the slave station TR4 by being accepted, the control unit 1 of the master station TR1 that has received the alarm stop message transmits the alarm stop message M2 by the synchronization signal and sets the time limit of the alarm sound stop time. Do. However, in the master station TR1 that is the source of fire, the alarm unit 5 continues to sound an alarm sound. After the alarm sound stop time has elapsed, the control unit 1 of the master station TR1 confirms the fire detection status of its own fire detection unit 4 and the fire detection status of the slave stations TR2,..., And at least one of the fires is detected. When the alarm device TR detects a fire, the fire alarm message is transmitted again to each of the slave stations TR2,.

  On the other hand, as shown in the time chart of FIG. 6, if the fire is extinguished within the warning sound stop time and the fire detection unit 4 stops detecting the fire, the control unit 1 of the master station TR1 After a lapse of time, a recovery notification message is transmitted to each slave station TR2,... By a synchronization signal, and when an ACK returned from all the slave stations TR2,. Is stopped from wireless communication using the TDMA method (hereinafter referred to as “synchronous communication”) to wireless communication using intermittent transmission and reception (hereinafter referred to as “asynchronous communication”).

  Further, as shown in the time chart of FIG. 7, if the fire of the fire source is extinguished and the fire detection unit 4 of the slave station TR 4 does not detect the fire in the interlocking ringing state with the slave station TR 4 as the fire source, A recovery notification message is transmitted from the station TR4 to the parent station TR1. The control unit 1 of the master station TR1 that has received the recovery notification message refers to the fire detection status held in the memory, and if no fire is detected by all the fire alarms TR, the recovery notification message M3 is sent by a synchronization signal. It transmits to each slave station TR2,. When the control unit 1 of the master station TR1 receives ACKs returned from all the slave stations TR2,..., Transitions from the interlock stop state to the standby state, and stops the transmission of the synchronization signal, thereby stopping the asynchronous communication from the synchronous communication. Return to.

  On the other hand, as shown in the time chart of FIG. 8, when a fire is newly detected by another fire alarm (for example, the slave station TR3), a recovery notification message is received from the slave station TR4 that is the first fire source. The control unit 1 of the master station TR1 refers to the fire detection status held in the memory, and since the slave station TR3 is detecting a fire, it does not send a recovery notification message and continues to send a fire alarm message. Maintain a fire-linked condition.

  Here, the processing performed by the control unit 1 of the master station TR1 in the fire-linked state is briefly summarized with reference to the flowchart of FIG. When a fire alarm message is received from any of the slave stations TR2,... In the standby state (step S1), the control unit 1 of the master station TR1 updates the fire detection status held for each slave station TR2,. (Change from fire non-detection to fire detection) (step S2) On the other hand, if a recovery notification message is received from the fire slave station TR2,... (Step S3), the fire detection status of the slave station TR2,. Update from detection to non-fire detection (step S4). When a recovery notification message is not received from any of the slave stations TR2,... In the fire interlocking state, when the alarm stop message is received from any of the slave stations TR2,... (Step S5), the control unit 1 of the master station TR1 issues an alarm. Is determined to be stopped and a synchronization signal including an alarm stop message is transmitted from the wireless transmission / reception unit 2 (step S6). Also, an alarm stop message is periodically transmitted by a synchronization signal from the transition from the interlocking sounding state to the interlocking stop state until the alarm sound stop time elapses (steps S7, S8, S6), and the alarm sound stop time. (Step S8), it is determined whether or not the fire alarms (master station TR1 and slave stations TR2,...) That are detecting fire remain by referring to the fire detection status held in the memory (step S8). S9) If at least one fire alarm is still being detected, it is determined that the fire interlocking is continued and a synchronization signal including a fire alarm message is transmitted from the wireless transceiver 2 (step S10). If the fire alarm is not fire-detected, the recovery from the fire-linked state to the standby state is determined, and a synchronization signal including a recovery notification message is transmitted from the wireless transmission / reception unit 2 (step S11).

  Here, if any of the slave stations TR2,... Does not return an ACK in response to the recovery notification message, the control unit 1 of the parent station TR1 transmits a radio signal including the recovery notification message from the radio transmission / reception unit 2 again. It is desirable to stop the radio transmission / reception unit 2 from transmitting a synchronization signal when an ACK is received from the slave stations TR2,..., Or when a predetermined time has elapsed after the recovery notification message is retransmitted a predetermined number of times. Further, when the master station TR1 fails in the interlocking ringing state or the interlocking stop state and the synchronization signal is not transmitted, the radio transmission / reception unit 2 of the slave stations TR2,... Remains in the reception state in order to receive the synchronization signal. If the control unit 1 of the slave stations TR2,... Continues to receive a synchronization signal for a predetermined time (for example, a time corresponding to several cycles of the synchronization signal) or longer, the battery may be consumed significantly. It is desirable to stop the transmission / reception unit 2 to suppress battery consumption.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, when no fire alarm TR detects a fire, each fire alarm TR transmits a radio signal asynchronously, and any fire alarm TR detects a fire. When a fire occurrence is notified to other fire alarms TR, a specific fire alarm (master station) TR1 transmits a synchronization signal of a certain period, and each fire alarm ( (Slave station) Since TR2, ... are assigned to perform synchronous communication, when there is little frequency of transmission of radio signals because there is no fire, asynchronous communication is used to reduce power consumption and extend battery life. When a fire is detected by the fire alarm device TR, that is, when the frequency of wireless signal transmission is relatively high, it is possible to avoid collision and reduce information transmission delay by performing synchronous communication

  By the way, wireless communication is performed between the security sensor that detects abnormalities other than fire, such as gas leaks and window glass breakage by suspicious individuals, and a wireless signal that notifies the abnormality detection from the security sensor is received. And a security master unit that notifies the occurrence of the abnormality (gas leakage, window glass breakage, etc.), and transmits / receives radio signals between the master station TR1 and the security master unit. There is a case where a security system is installed together with the fire alarm system of the present embodiment so that the security master unit is linked to fire by transmitting a wireless signal including a fire alarm message to the parent unit. Since the security master and the security sensor generally use a battery as a power source and perform wireless communication, it is desirable to perform regular monitoring similarly to the fire alarm system of the present embodiment.

  Therefore, the security master unit is periodically monitored from the master station TR1 by returning a response message from the security master unit to the periodic monitoring message transmitted from the master station TR1. At this time, the abnormalities of the slave stations TR2,... Acquired by the regular monitoring are transmitted from the master station TR1 to the security master unit together with the regular monitoring message, and the anomaly is sounded by the security master unit (such as a warning sound from a speaker). Alternatively, it is desirable to notify at least one of light (such as blinking of a light emitting diode). In this case, since the number of transmissions of radio signals from the master station TR1 to the security master unit is reduced as compared with the case where the abnormalities of the slave stations TR2,. Battery consumption can be suppressed.

It is a block diagram of a fire alarm device (master station and slave station) in an embodiment of the present invention. It is a flowchart for demonstrating operation | movement of the master station at the time of the regular monitoring in the same as the above. It is a frame format of the radio signal in the same as above. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the operation | movement which changes to a fire interlocking state from a standby state same as the above. It is a time chart for demonstrating the operation | movement which changes to the interlocking stop state from the interlocking ringing state same as the above. It is a time chart for demonstrating the operation | movement which changes to the interlocking stop state from the interlocking ringing state same as the above. It is a time chart for demonstrating the operation | movement which changes to a standby state from a fire interlocking state same as the above. It is a time chart for demonstrating the operation | movement in a fire interlocking state same as the above. It is a flowchart for demonstrating operation | movement of the master station in a fire interlocking state same as the above.

Explanation of symbols

TR1 Fire alarm (master station)
TR2 Fire alarm (slave station)
1 Control unit (control means)
2 Wireless transmission / reception unit (reception means, transmission means)
4 Fire detection part (fire detection means)
5 Alarm section (alarm means)

Claims (3)

A fire alarm system comprising a plurality of fire alarms and transmitting a radio signal using radio waves as a medium between the plurality of fire alarms,
Each fire alarm detects a fire with a fire detecting means for detecting a fire, an alarm means for notifying a fire alarm, a transmitting means for transmitting a wireless signal, a receiving means for receiving a wireless signal, and a fire detecting means. Sometimes the alarm means informs the fire alarm and the other fire alarm device sends a radio signal including a fire alarm message for notifying the fire alarm from the transmitting means, and the receiving means transmits it from the other fire alarm device. A control means for notifying the alarm means of a fire alarm when the radio alarm message is received and receiving the fire alarm message, and a battery for power supply,
The control means of a specific fire alarm causes a radio signal including a periodic monitoring message to be transmitted from the transmission means at a substantially constant cycle to all other fire alarms,
The control means of the other fire alarm device transmits a wireless signal including a response message from the transmission means when the periodic monitoring message is received,
The control means of other fire alarms excluding a specific fire alarm, the period during which no radio signal including a periodic monitoring message is received from the specific fire alarm exceeds the threshold set longer than the above period If the specified fire alarm is abnormal, it will be judged normal if it does not exceed,
The control means of the specific fire alarm checks whether the other fire alarm is alive based on whether or not a response message is received, and transmits an initial periodic monitoring message after battery replacement at an interval shorter than the above cycle. Fire alarm system, characterized by   The control means of other fire alarms excluding a specific fire alarm monitor whether or not there is a failure in other means other than the transmission means and the reception means and whether or not the battery is exhausted, and the reception means includes the periodic monitoring message. 2. The fire alarm system according to claim 1, wherein when a radio signal is received, a radio signal including the presence / absence of a failure and the presence / absence of a battery with the response message is transmitted from the transmission means.   The control means of the specific fire alarm device performs wireless communication with the security sensor that detects an abnormality in the target area and the security sensor and receives a wireless signal that notifies the abnormality detection from the security sensor. A wireless signal including a fire alarm message and a wireless signal including a periodic monitoring message are transmitted from the transmission means to the security parent device of the security system having the security parent device that notifies the occurrence, and the security parent device performs periodic monitoring. If a wireless signal including a response message to the message is received, the security parent device is determined to be normal. If a wireless signal including a response message is not received, the security parent device is determined to be abnormal. Further, together with the periodic monitoring message Normal / different of other fire alarms Monitoring results and fire alarm system according to claim 2, characterized in that for transmitting radio signals from the transmitting means to the security master unit and a presence or absence of existence as well as battery exhaustion failure received from the other fire alarm.

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