Topic Type
Question

I am interested in putting together fire alarm systems for two of my barns where I house livestock. Ideally I could set something up that would sound an alarm inside my house to alert me to the danger of a fire. I found fire alarms set up with relays, but they are quite expensive ($70/unit not including shipping). Standard fire alarms are pretty cheap. Any ideas on how to retrofit several to sound a remote alarm?

Thanks.

George

Forums
Farm Hack Talk
Forum comment

Is that $70 per unit as in you would have to buy 4 or 5 to relay them to your house? One idea that is not exactly the intended purpose of [Fido](http://farmhack.org/tools/fido-greenhouse-monitoring-text-message-alerts) but... It would detect an unusual spike in temperature from a fire and send you a text message. Though, at the point it's detecting heat it's probably too late. It would be better to take the Fido design and repurpose it with an [MQ2 Smoke Detector Shield](http://www.amazon.com/MQ2-Smoke-Detector-Shield-Arduino/dp/B005IDBDBO). A text message might be too subtle of an alarm, I wonder what LOUD alarms there that play well with Arduino.
Forum comment

Is to detect current going to the speaker (probably with a relay or SCR or somesuch) of a standard smoke alarm, and then the FIDO could send a notice out. You just have to get the voltage levels right :-)