PROCEDE DESTINE A PRODUIRE UN SIGNAL REPRESENTATIF DE LA QUALITE D'UNE FLAMME DANS UN BRULEUR

UN ANALYSEUR DE FLAMME POUR UN BRULEUR COMPORTE ESSENTIELLEMENT UN PROCESSEUR 20 QUI COMPTE CONTINUELLEMENT LES IMPULSIONS DE SORTIE D'UN CAPTEUR DE FLAMME, TOTALISE LE NOMBRE D'IMPULSIONS SUR UN INTERVALLE DE TEMPS PREDETERMINE ET COMPARE CE NOMBRE A UNE VALEUR DE SEUIL. LE NOMBRE TOTALISE EST CONTINUELLEMENT MIS A JOUR POUR REPRESENTER LES IMPULSIONS RECUES AU COURS DE L'INTERVALLE DE TEMPS PRECEDENT, DE FACON A DEFINIR UNE FENETRE TEMPORELLE DE LONGUEUR FIXE SUR LAQUELLE ON TOTALISE LES IMPULSIONS DU CAPTEUR DE FLAMME. Method and apparatus for evaluating the quality of a flame in response to outputs from a flame sensor. The present invention includes a method and apparatus in which output pulses from a flame sensor are continuously counted.The number of pulses is accumulated over a time interval of a predetermined length and compared with a threshold value. The accumulated total is continuously updated to reflect the pulses received over the previous time interval to effectively provide a moving time-window of a fixed length over which pulses from the flame sensor are accumulated. Other additional checks may be made to ascertain that a flame is present, including the time over which no pulses are detected and a long-term average of the number of pulses. A preferred embodiment disclosed in which numerous self-checking features are incorporated, and which includes a novel bar-graph type of display for displaying flame quality and diagnostic information.