What's Inside a Carbon Monoxide Detector

[@jimshreve83]

You don't want to wake up dead. Nice one!

[@onesandzeros2u]

Good morning, hope you have a great day!

[@georgesmith4782]

The connector on the bottom right is for the battery version of this, (above the #8). The top resistor and brown capacitor are for the 110 voltage and the diodes convert it to dc.. The cap on the top left (c14) is for voltage limitation.

[@greghabiby5558]

These units are under a 10-year warranty. If you call the company (number on the back), they will send you a new one! They will ask for the manufacture date (printed on the back) and your mailing address. To maintain these, they are supposed to be vacuumed once a month, and the battery tested once every 6 months. They will ask about your maintenance to advise you on better care for your next unit. Thanks for the demo! I wanted to know the battery-looking thing on the board and would not have guessed it was the CO detector! I almost always take apart things that have failed before recycling the parts as best as possible.

[@TheRadiogeek]

I had the battery version of this unit fail on me last winter after nearly 10 years. I too had to take it apart a see what was inside. It was just like yours. I promptly replaced it with new unit the same day. Nice video. 👍

[@SerenoOunce]

Same PCB is used for battery or AC power, why some components are left blank depending on the power source.

[@georgesmith4782]

The five connectors on the bottom left, RS232 and common ground are for the pic programming of the chip installed and the others are for the factory testing of the board.

[@alsnow3582]

Very interesting! I've been wondering how those things work. A couple of months ago, I was patching a wall. When I did the sanding, it caused a lot of dust which set off my fire alarm. Drywall dust will trigger a smoke detector! I'll remember to cover it next time.

[@joever758]

Incredibly informative thank you

[@talideon]

Technology Connections did a good video on these recently.

[@scavenger888]

Wondering if this unit be converted a personal alarm, using the existing components and to reduce e-waste.

[@michaelpadovani9566]

Good way to utilize an end of life product! These are just as important as smoke detectors.

[@capitanschetttino8745]

Very very interesting!! Thank you!!

[@bblod4896]

Cool. Unpopulated connector was probably for a battery backup.

[@martinparker9044]

Are you going to connect up the pins for rs232 etc.? See what you get from it

[@flavespo]

Thanks for this video ......also has anyone ever told you that you sound like Tom Selleck!

[@learnelectronics]

Not that Im aware of. I figured I had too much Pittsburgh in me, sound more like Billy Gardell.

[@WatchesTrainsAndRockets]

My old detector woke up dead once I hunted down the source of the intermittent chirping. Why do these and smoke detectors always fail in the middle of the night?

[@learnelectronics]

My question as well

[@terrybouffard6165]

How does the CO2 enter that brown cylinder? It appears to have no place to allow it to enter as your diagram shows. Unless that brown plastic is a kind of membrane that allows the gas to enter through it?

[@deadlikedisco4726]

There are actually three little holes on the "positive side" behind the tab that connects it to the board. The CO can enter through there. The brown plastic is just plastic.