Electronic Faucet
onurco
have a course project at analog electronics which is to make an
electronic faucet with photo transistors.I have an idea how to operate
while hands come close but i don't have an idea how to control the
water.
Any help will be grateful.Thanks anyway.
Frank Bemelman
news:1140300383.2...@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
Search your own house. Good chance you find a machine that
somehow takes water, all automatically. Next step is to find
some screwdrivers and explore the inside of the machine.
--
Thanks, Frank.
(remove 'q' and '.invalid' when replying by email)
Kryten
news:1140300383.2...@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>I am an undergrad student at electric and electronics engineering.I
> have a course project at analog electronics which is to make an
> electronic faucet with photo transistors.I have an idea how to operate
> water.
Visit your local scrapyard and have a rummage around.
Take some old washing machines or dishwashers to bits - they have to switch
the flow of water on and off, so they should be useful.
You will have to do some thinking to find how they work, but that should be
educational or at least fun.
Si Ballenger
Junk washing machines water valves and lawn sprinkler control
valves would probably be the inexpensive things to check.
Keith
It would be more interesting to make them more "linear", (i.e. regulating
temperature). Digital is so obvious. ;-)
--
Keith
spinning
Robert Baer
Make sure you use a grid leak detector before calling the plumber but
after using the bit bucket.
Spehro Pefhany
They make regulating faucets, however they don't have any of your
electronic gimcrackery and LED/LCD gewgaws. I think they use a bimetal
to work the mixing valve. No electrical power required, in any case.
Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
--
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward"
sp...@interlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com
Zak
> They make regulating faucets, however they don't have any of your
> electronic gimcrackery and LED/LCD gewgaws. I think they use a bimetal
> to work the mixing valve. No electrical power required, in any case.
Probably a wax cartridge?
Anyway there are faucents that detect hands coming nearby. The
interesting thing is the low power: they are battery operated. One
claims a 1 year running time running on 4 AAA batteries and 4000
operations per month.
Thomas
Spehro Pefhany
My wall switch timer for electric lights uses a tiny electric motor
and a gear train and cam to operate a microswitch. A single AAA
alkaline battery powers it for something like a year. It will switch
120, 240 or whatever, the microcontroller and all runs from the single
cell, so the microswitch is the only thing that needs to be connected
to the outside world. The circuitry wouldn't even have to be hot if
they didn't use the NC contact of the microswitch to tell the micro
the switch state.
It also turns the lights on at a calculated dusk time based on the
calendar and approximate latitude. Not bad for $35 US.
Keith
They're installing proximity sensors on the toilets/urinals at work. I
was wondering if this was a ploy by the plumbers' union. ;-)
--
Keith
Fred Bloggs
The electronics is only 1% of it, the rest is manufacturing, regulatory,
and practical ( such as single IR beam does not work too well on
detecting hands with too much pigment). Some context background:
http://www.eere.energy.gov/femp/pdfs/29267-6.4.pdf
Also, see Economy Solenoid Valves Series 11 http://www.bcvalve.com/ .
Looks like most products assume single line feed from remote temperature
regulating manifold.
spinning
electronic faucet? They're horrible! They're very unreliable. They
often are either slow to react, or they don't turn on at all, or they
stay on after you've left and waste a lot of water. The sensor design
sucks big time.
To improve reliability may require a far IR (motion) sensor, as apposed
to a near IR sensor. It also instead of trying to sense the hand in
the sink and having to deal with water and dirt, it might be easier to
sense the person's body or arm or the area around the sink. Failing
that, a better choice might be a non-optical sensor, like ultrasound,
or a capacitve sensor, or an electric field sensor, which as I
understand it, senses capacitance to ground by driving an antenna with
a 100 kHz sine wave.
But what is an electronic faucet supposed to achieve anyway? It seems
like an aweful lot of trouble just to save one twist of the wrist, and
they're probably more expensive than a standard faucet. Any
engineering school worth a damn ought to teach how to ask these
critical questions about design!
Why not just use a normal faucet, or maybe use one that can be operated
with a foot pedal?
good luck.
Sincerely,
M
Spehro Pefhany
<spinningtow...@yahoo.com> wrote:
The link that FBloggs posted indicated a quick ROI (6 months) and
continuing savings on water and water heating costs. People don't
(can't) leave the taps on, they can't easily fill the sink with water
and shave, they can't pick how hot the water should be, overshoot and
have to waste all kinds of hot water.
>Why not just use a normal faucet, or maybe use one that can be operated
>with a foot pedal?
>
>good luck.
>Sincerely,
>M
I suspect a button which gives you an ADA-compliant 10.01 seconds of
dribbling lukewarm water would do as well or better. Just have to make
the actuator wheelchair accessible and they can eliminate those long
paddle handles on the taps.
Michael A. Terrell
>
> They're installing proximity sensors on the toilets/urinals at work. I
> was wondering if this was a ploy by the plumbers' union. ;-)
>
> --
> Keith
Don't be silly! Its the toilet scrubber's union who's behind this
scam. ;-)
--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.
Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida
Fred Bloggs
> They're installing proximity sensors on the toilets/urinals at work. I
> was wondering if this was a ploy by the plumbers' union. ;-)
>
Nah- it means they're tired of dealing with your sh_t.
Joerg
>
> Why not just use a normal faucet, or maybe use one that can be operated
> with a foot pedal?
>
That would be way too practical. Like the stick shift in a car (I'd
never buy anything else...).
Regards, Joerg
Joerg
>
> Take some old washing machines or dishwashers to bits - they have to switch
> the flow of water on and off, so they should be useful.
>
Fridges with ice and cold water dispensers are easier. They have two
valves as a paired assembly and those are right on the back. Takes about
30 seconds or so to remove. Been there, done that after ours quit
working and a neighbor had to pay almost $150 for that repair. Cost me
$43 plus tax for the part and considering the cheesy plastic
construction I thought even that was outrageous.
Regards, Joerg
Jim Thompson
You don't have to drive in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
It's what you learn, after you know it all, that counts.
Joerg
>
> Anyway there are faucents that detect hands coming nearby. The
> interesting thing is the low power: they are battery operated. One
> claims a 1 year running time running on 4 AAA batteries and 4000
> operations per month.
>
>
That's what they all claim. I kind of believed it until we took care of
a neighbor's house and garden. They had one of those battery operated
sprinkler timers that say 'guaranteed energy reserve to close'. Well, at
the end of the cycle, errrrrr ... rat ... tat ... tat ... beeeep ...
silence. The dang thing didn't turn off and the hand valve was somewhere
inside the garage.
Regards, Joerg
Spehro Pefhany
Probably a substandard BOR circuit.
Joerg
>>
>>That would be way too practical. Like the stick shift in a car (I'd
>>never buy anything else...).
>
> You don't have to drive in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
>
That's true. But even in the days when I had to that didn't bother me
much. An automatic can really throw you a curve when it's icy out there
or when you have to crawl up a steep mud "road" in heavy rain. Not much
of a concern in Phoenix, of course :-)
Regards, Joerg
quietguy
have just been on thei privates etc - so you wash your hands clean, then
touch that dirty tap handle to turn the water off. Was/is a big problem
for infection control in hospitals who haven't fitted foot or electronic
on/off taps
David
spinning
> Was/is a big problem for infection control in hospitals who haven't fitted foot or
> electronic on/off taps
I thought hand washing was for employees only. j/k ;-)
But seriously, as I'm washing my hands, I usually also wash the tap
handles; it only takes a few seconds. The problem is with some sinks
when you rinse the soap off the handles, the water doesn't always drain
back into the sink and it can make kind of a mess. Also, I sometimes
use my elbow to dispense the paper towels, then use the paper towel to
open the door. Ah, clean hands!
Jim Thompson
<spinningtow...@yahoo.com> wrote:
At MIT they taught us not to piss on our hands ;-)
Michael A. Terrell
>
> On 21 Feb 2006 09:41:19 -0800, "spinning"
> <spinningtow...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> >> so you wash your hands clean, then touch that dirty tap handle to turn the water off.
> >> Was/is a big problem for infection control in hospitals who haven't fitted foot or
> >> electronic on/off taps
> >
> >I thought hand washing was for employees only. j/k ;-)
> >
> >But seriously, as I'm washing my hands, I usually also wash the tap
> >handles; it only takes a few seconds. The problem is with some sinks
> >when you rinse the soap off the handles, the water doesn't always drain
> >back into the sink and it can make kind of a mess. Also, I sometimes
> >use my elbow to dispense the paper towels, then use the paper towel to
> >open the door. Ah, clean hands!
>
> At MIT they taught us not to piss on our hands ;-)
>
> ...Jim Thompson
Its really sad that you had to wait till college to learn that.
quietguy
spinning wrote:
>
> But seriously, as I'm washing my hands, I usually also wash the tap
> handles; it only takes a few seconds.
Me too
> The problem is with some sinks
> when you rinse the soap off the handles, the water doesn't always drain
> back into the sink and it can make kind of a mess.
I dont care as I really dont want to catch something nasty
> Also, I sometimes
> use my elbow to dispense the paper towels, then use the paper towel to
> open the door. Ah, clean hands!
Me too
Cheers
David
quietguy
David
Jim Thompson
That's just a line out of an old Harvard/MIT joke...
Two guys go into the john (one from Harvard, one from MIT), and take a
leak.
When they're finished the MIT guy heads for the door.
The Harvard guy remarks, "At Haaah-vaaahd they teach us to wash our
hands after we urinate."
To which the MIT guy replies, "At MIT they teach us not to piss on our
hands."
Paul Mathews
Battery-operated water control devices generally use a pilot type of
valve, i.e., a valve with 2 fluid circuits, one small and one large.
The small 'pilot' circuit has a tiny solenoid valve that doesn't
require much current. The small flow in the pilot circuit is used to
operate a much larger valve. It's a kind of hydraulic amplifier, using
the water pressure as a free source of energy. The longest-life devices
use magnet-biased solenoids, so the pilot solenoid is pulsed on and
off. The Sloan Optima series is rated for 5 yrs or 50K flushes, and
it's an honest spec. The power budget for the 4AA cells was divided
about equally among these consumers: CMOS microcontroller,
photoelectric sensor circuitry, solenoid driving, and battery
self-discharge.
Most of the reliability issues with electronic water control is due to
particulates in the water supply that clog the tiny pilot circuits.
There are several important patents relating to how to design the
internals such that they don't tend to clog. The ubiquitous Sloan
Royal's success was originally based on its patented centrifugal inner
chamber, that forced larger particles in the water away from the pilot
orifices.
Paul Mathews
Paul E. Schoen
>
> Two guys go into the john (one from Harvard, one from MIT), and take a
> leak.
>
> When they're finished the MIT guy heads for the door.
>
> The Harvard guy remarks, "At Haaah-vaaahd they teach us to wash our
> hands after we urinate."
>
> To which the MIT guy replies, "At MIT they teach us not to piss on our
> hands."
>
> ...Jim Thompson
I heard the same joke, but it was about a Marine and a Navy Guy. I forget
which was which.
Paul E. Schoen
(JHU Army ROTC 1966-1969)
Pooh Bear
spinning wrote:
If travelling to certain Asian destinations you might care to clean the whole sink area
carefuly before using it yourself.
Graham
Pooh Bear
"Paul E. Schoen" wrote:
Likewise but with Boeing and McDonnell Douglas.
Graham
redbelly
Frank Bemelman wrote:
> Search your own house. Good chance you find a machine that
> somehow takes water, all automatically. Next step is to find
> some screwdrivers and explore the inside of the machine.
First step is to make sure your laundry is all caught up. It may be
a while before you have a functioning washing machine again! :-)
Mark
John Fields
<To-Email-Use-Th...@My-Web-Site.com> wrote:
>At MIT they taught us not to piss on our hands ;-)
>
> ...Jim Thompson
---
But to piss on everything else?
--
John Fields
Professional Circuit Designer
Ted Edwards
> much. An automatic can really throw you a curve when it's icy out there
> or when you have to crawl up a steep mud "road" in heavy rain.
I've been driving various Jeep wagons for the last 25 years. All had
automatics and all gave me all the manual control I needed including
hiway, mud (what we call "loon shit" in this country) and loose desert
sand. Convenience of the automatic in city and paved hiway and control
when needed.
Ted
Rich Grise
Army & Air Force, and it was the Air Force guy who didn't piss on his
hands. ;-)
Cheers!
Rich
--
Elect Me President in 2008! I will:
A. Fire the IRS, and abolish the income tax
B. Legalize drugs
C. Stand down all military actions by the US that don't involve actual
military aggression against US territory
D. Declare World Peace I.
Rich Grise
I once saw a very cook toilet tank in Japan - the tank top was a basin,
with a hole in the bottom, and the fill pipe was a spout like a water
faucet, presumably so you could wash your hands right there, and then
your hand-wash water would go into the tank for the next flush.
Now _there's_ a water-saver toilet! ;-)
Rich Grise, but drunk
> On Tue, 21 Feb 2006 21:37:01 GMT, quietguy
>
>>
>>
>>> At MIT they taught us not to piss on our hands ;-)
>>>
I learned long before I was college age! ;-D
http://www.neodruid.net/images/Videos/001.mpg
Cheers!
Rich
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