Fire Suppression System Using Raspberry Pi-3B

• Main Idea Behind the Project

              Well from the beginning of the year we had a plan to learn details about Raspberry Pi and the functionalities of it.Finally we got a chance to make it happen when we were assigned to do one hardware project.We thought to involve Raspberry Pi somehow so that we can earn knowledge from that as well as that will be a new experience.So what can we do using Raspberry Pi was the real challenge then for us.A few ideas crossed over our minds but finally we were satisfied to the proposition of making a model of fire suppression system using a temperature sensor and a gas sensor because this is built from the perspective of the self-fire-suppressive kitchen later which can be considered as an IOT(Internet of Things)project with some additional modifications.

• What it does ?

              From the naming we can guess that the model of the project is a fire suppression system.How it can analyze fire ? Well we first created a system that can automatically turn on and off an exhaust fan according to the change of the temperature.So it is responsible for cooling the environment.But we are also measuring the volume of LPG and CO2 at the same time using a gas sensor which is controlling a water sprinkler.If the LPG limit is higher than the safe limit and the exhaust fan can't cool up the environment then the most probable reason is fire.So we turn on the water sprinkler and when the fire is out,the gas will be automatically reduced and the sprinkler will be automatically turned off.

• How we proceeded

Booting up Raspberry Pi

              First we started our journey by collecting a 16 GB micro SD card to be used as hard disk for the Pi.Then we downloaded the Raspbian OS(Stretch with Desktop Version) from the website here.Then we formatted the SD card using SD card formatter software.Next we installed Etcher to burn the image disk to the SD card.After done flashing by the software Etcher we ejected and reinserted the SD card and directly went to the Boot disk and in the terminal (in windows CMD)we have to write the following command.

>>> echo ssh
>>> exit

Then we will notice a new file creation on the Boot section named ssh where is written "SSH is now on".

Now we will insert the SD card to the RPi and power it up and it would automatically boot up.

Connecting Pi through Ethernet and IP Finding

              As the SSH is enabled now so we then tried to find out the IP of the Pi.For doing this we connected the Pi and the laptop with an Ethernet cable connection and when the network is unidentified by the laptop then using Advanced IP Scanner we can copy the the IP of the RPi.Next we have to eject the SD card and reinserted into the laptop for another modification.This time we have to get going to the "Boot/cmdline.txt" and we would add a few lines at the end as follows :

>>> ip :IP_RPi::IP_laptop(or PC)

Then we saved and exit the file.Now connecting this through the same procedure we will get everything ready to access the desktop from the laptop.

Accessing the Desktop of RPi form laptop

              Next we have to install PuTTY and VNC Viewer.Then using PuTTY we can access to the terminal of the RPi and when we get there we have to write:

>>> start vncserver

              We would copy the IP with the port address and then in the VNC Viewer we would give that IP and thus we accessed to the desktop of the RPi from laptop.

Gathering components and Building Circuits

              What electrical components we required were :

[1]Raspberry Pi (Model 3B)

[2]DS18B20 Digital Temperature Sensor (see_datasheet)

[3]MQ-2 Gas Sensor (see_datasheet)
[4]Exhaust Fan(12V DC cooling fan from the PC)
[5]Mini Water Pump (5V DC motor)  
[6]LCD(16 x 2) [Optional]
[7]Breadboard(s)
[8]Jumper wires
[9]4.7 KOhm Resistor

* Later we faced some difficulties of the GPIO pin's 3.3V issue and    so we had to include Arduino Mega 2560 to solve that.

The circuit diagram that we maintained finally was :

• Difficulties we faced

              Honestly from the very beginning of the project,we faced tons and tons of difficulties because of not having proper knowledge.We always had to search for answers in the internet.Sometimes some procedures and tutorials do not even work for our case and always we have to search for some more.Starting form how to boot up RPi to connecting SSH and accessing through PuTTY and also the circuit building and the debugging some silly indentation problems in Python codes and even we also faced serious trouble for not having some backup for our codes.Moreover the GPIO pins and their digital nature,supplying maximum of 3.3V,was another issue at the very end.That's why we couldn't generate any HIGH signal from the GPIO pins.Also being GPIO as digital pins we also couldn't take any analog reading from the gas sensor.All we needed to do is that we had to use Arduino for fixing those.We hopefully could have done all in the settings from RPi but we didn't have necessary electrical knowledge to solve that issue on that particular moment as we were almost closing in time and the submission date was really knocking at the door.But we learnt a lot honestly to say.Especially importance of backup,periodically doing it,how to start completely from scratch and overall some stress and panic handling at the danger moment.Hopefully for some new challenging adventures,these lessons will be fruitful.

• Some moments

Some Initial Stages of the Model

Final Model of our Project

Temperature Measuring and Showing on LCD 

Our Collaborative hardship during smoke Testing
by CO2 blowing

Some readings from RPi 

• Much Grateful To

              First of all that person whom I want to thank a billion times and always appreciate his collaboration and helpful mentality even if there are thousands of academic stuffs on the way.I really admire his profound knowledge not only in software but also as good as in hardware and dedicated mind.Without his help and guide we would find it really difficult as we were merely beginners in the journey then.

              So again a special thanks to -

              Amadou Yuffon Olabi 

Current International Student from Cameroon 4th Semester,Dept. of CSE

              And obvious thanks and grateful to two of my project mates without whose support and hardship we couldn't succeed at all.So also heartiest gratitude towards-

              Shahriar Ivan
Current Student 6th Semester,Dept. of CSE

And

              Fahim Shahriar Shakkhor
Current Student 6th Semester,Dept. of CSE