Fire monitoring system

Claim 2

A fire monitoring system for monitoring a plurality of fire warning zones, said system comprising: a receiver having a plurality of signal/power supply zone lines connected thereto, each zone line leading to a different one of said plurality of fire warning zones; a plurality of sensors, each sensor being capable of detecting an environmental abnormality characteristic of the presence of fire, each sensor connected to said receiver by a respective signal/power supply zone line and being respectively disposed in one of said fire warning zones, and each sensor including means for short-circuiting a zone line connected thereto with a low impedance in the event said environmental abnormality is sensed; at least one analog sensor having an address and disposed at one of said warning zones and connected to one of said signal/power supply zone lines; and an analog sensor controller connected to said signal/power supply zone line of said at least one analog sensor, said analog sensor controller including means for polling the address of said at least one analog sensor and for calculating an analog signal from said analog sensor.

Claim 3

A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said plurality of sensors for detecting an environmental abnormality includes at least one ON/OFF sensor directly connected to a signal/power supply zone line for a zone other than the zone in which said analog sensor is disposed.

Claim 4

A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said analog sensor controller comprises: at least one fire detection relay respectively connected to each of the signal/power supply zone lines having an analog sensor connected thereto; at least one abnormality detection relay respectively connected to each of the signal/power supply zone lines having an analog sensor connected thereto; a memory for storing a fire/abnormality detection program and fire/abnormality reference data; and a central processing unit for accessing each analog detector by address in accordance with said program, said central processing unit including means for comparing response data from the accessed analog sensor with said reference data and for generating a signal when the result of said comparison indicates a fire is present to drive said fire detection relay to short circuit the corresponding zone line with a low impedance and for supplying a fire detection signal to said receiver, and said central processing unit further including means for resetting said abnormality detection relay when the result of said comparison indicates an abnormality has occurred.

Claim 5

A system as claimed in claim 3, wherein said analog sensor controller further comprises a display and control panel means for receiving said fire detection signal through a display interface for displaying a signal indicating the presence of a fire, said display and control panel means also including means for setting selected information in said analog sensor controller.