----- Original Message -----
From: "Tony Duell" <ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 21, 2002 02:29 PM
Subject: Re: ZX-TEAM meeting and Webcam
> >
> > > From: Ben Franchuk <bfranchuk_at_jetnet.ab.ca>
> >
> > > Glen Goodwin wrote:
> > >
> > > > 1 -- Build an interface for every device under the sun, including
the
> > > > toilet seat.
> > >
> > > That is easy -- a micro switch ...
> >
> > Not as easy as you might think. You want it to flush when you get up,
but
> > not when you sit down, or when the seat is unoccupied . . .
>
> We had mechanical edge-triggered devices in the 14th century (seriously,
> I've admired one for a considerable time). Surely it's not beyond
> engineers today to design a device that triggers on the microswitch
> returning to 'normal'.
>
> If you were ingenious you'd use 2 microswitches. One to detect the
> position of the seat, one to detect somebody sitting on it. A 'rising'
> edge on the second (so called, because it detects the person rising ;-)),
> not closely followed by the first going to 'seat up' state will trigger a
> flush. Lowering the seat, though, might well trigger also trigger a flush.
C'mon, folks. I wasn't going to respond to this thread, but we've had
unattended automatic-flush devices for years. IR, I believe. Walk past it,
no response. Stand (or sit, as the case may be) for more than X seconds and
the device is armed. Y seconds after vacating the space, and you hear the
magic sounds...
No need to waste IO pins on something like that when they're better used
elsewhere.
>
> And we could combine the hand-washing detector with the seat-up sensor,
> and then moan at people who leave the seat up ;-)...
>
Bob
> -tony
Received on Thu Mar 21 2002 - 19:31:52 GMT