Addressing optical firing cartridge using chromatic aberration

A method of operating a fire protection system, comprising:

• providing two or more fire extinguishers, each fire extinguisher of the two or more fire extinguishers including:
• a housing, the housing including:
• an extinguisher outlet;
• and
• a burst disk, the burst disk configured to retain a volume of fire suppressant material in the housing;
• a firing cartridge operably connected to the housing, the firing cartridge including:
• an output charge of the firing cartridge;
• and
• an ignition charge that, when detonated, causes release of the output charge to rupture the burst disk and release the volume of fire suppressant material through the extinguisher outlet;
• selectably transmitting a first light signal or a second light signal different from the first light signal from a light source along an optical fiber toward the ignition charge of a corresponding first fire extinguisher or second fire extinguisher of the two or more fire extinguishers;
• and
• heating the ignition charge via the corresponding light signal, thereby detonating the ignition charge of the corresponding first or second fire extinguisher.

An aircraft comprising:

• an aircraft structure;
• and
• a fire protection system disposed in the aircraft structure, the fire protection system including:
• two or more fire extinguishers, each fire extinguisher of the two or more fire extinguishers including:
• a housing, the housing including:
• an extinguisher outlet;
• and
• a burst disk, the burst disk configured to retain a volume of fire suppressant material in the housing;
• a firing cartridge operably connected to the housing, the firing cartridge including:
• an output charge of a fire extinguishing agent;
• and
• an ignition charge that, when detonated, causes release of the output charge to rupture the burst disk and release the volume of fire suppressant material through the extinguisher outlet;
• an optical fiber configured to transmit a light signal toward the ignition charge to heat and detonate the ignition charge;
• and
• a light source operably connected to the optical fiber, the light source configured to selectably transmit a first light signal to activate a first fire extinguisher of the two or more fire extinguishers, or transmit a second light signal to activate a second fire extinguisher of the two or more fire extinguishers.