For those interested I thought I would put up a short review of a recent ebay purchase. An LPG detector/ alarm is a lot cheaper on ebay but the quality can vary but I decided to risk $10 to find out what I could get.
I have a electronics background so immediately took it apart to find out what detector was being used
Looks to me like a mq-5 detector but there is no part number obvious. The user guide states the detector is for lpg and natural gas which also suggests the mq-5. For those who don't know, the mq series of detectors are the real deal
The underside of the board has way more than I expected - most basic mq circuits don't need much to make them work but there are a few things to control such as the relay, status lights and buzzer
The instructions are typical Chinese translation quality but you only need to know where to intall and which wires to connect
I set this up on my workbench and the standby consumption is about .1A which I assume is all going to the heater in the detector. You can feel some warmth if you touch the case near the bottom.
I also used some butane gas to waft around the detector and the alarm sounded (it is not a good idea to blow too much gas on mq's because it affects long term performance) but I don't have anything more scientific to check what levels it operates at.
Well that's it for now. I will update this if I find anything else
I have a electronics background so immediately took it apart to find out what detector was being used
Looks to me like a mq-5 detector but there is no part number obvious. The user guide states the detector is for lpg and natural gas which also suggests the mq-5. For those who don't know, the mq series of detectors are the real deal
The underside of the board has way more than I expected - most basic mq circuits don't need much to make them work but there are a few things to control such as the relay, status lights and buzzer
The instructions are typical Chinese translation quality but you only need to know where to intall and which wires to connect
I set this up on my workbench and the standby consumption is about .1A which I assume is all going to the heater in the detector. You can feel some warmth if you touch the case near the bottom.
I also used some butane gas to waft around the detector and the alarm sounded (it is not a good idea to blow too much gas on mq's because it affects long term performance) but I don't have anything more scientific to check what levels it operates at.
Well that's it for now. I will update this if I find anything else
