Achievement of a wireless portable apparatus for self-checking emergency lights

• Published in: IEEJ transactions on electrical and electronic engineering 2016-11, Vol.11 (6), p.812-819
• Main Authors: Lin, H. C., Chi, M. N., Luo, W. L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Combustion; Devices; Electronic engineering; Emergencies; emergency light; Infrared; infrared ray; microprocessor-based data processor; microprocessor-based detector; Microprocessors; Wireless communication; wireless modules
• ISSN: 1931-4973; 1931-4981
• DOI: 10.1002/tee.22292

Nowadays, emergency lights are widely used in public places around the world. For safety consideration, their working conditions must be checked and reported regularly. However, usually the checking is done by humans, which poses difficulty in completing a standard process in a real situation. In this paper, we report the development of a small‐sized wireless apparatus for collecting the checking results from an automatic self‐checking emergency light. The proposed two‐way communication integrates wireless modules with infrared ray and microprocessors (PIC18F4520) between the handset and the emergency lights. The checked results are burned into the microprocessor‐based detector in the emergency light. Also, a calendar is installed in the emergency light so that it can be uploaded and adjusted by the microprocessor‐based data processor. Consequently, the checking mechanism can be operated at prescheduled times automatically, and the checked outcomes can be retrieved and displayed any time from the handset. Experimental results confirm that the proposed device is superior to other systems in terms of simplicity, cost, and reliability. © 2016 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.