Airwick Freshmatic Max , Time lag Hack

Hi
I have a couple of Airwick Freshmatic Max Auto room spraying units , the have 3 settings on them I=9 minutes , II=18 Min and III=32 min .
I would like to change the time settings to spray every Hour or there about's etc .
Is there anything I can make up to do that , or is there any module that I can fit in place ! , will post some pics of the Board later today , I don't have a Schematic for the board , will try draw something .
Just saying it now without the pics etc in case someone on here already knows about them ! .

Cheers

Spike

Can you get the number off that 8 pin chip ? I can't quite make it out.

Chances are it is a small custom microcontroller - would be easy enough to retrofit something and program it up but is it really worth it ?

Hi
Thanks for your reply , it is just a challenge to do really .

RB 1401C , SAG 3C3 .

cheers

You could fairly easy but i would question the effort. But being famous for doing stuff just for the hell of it.....

I think most simple approach would be find the output trigger from the chip, cut the trace. stick a decade counter in. So now when it triggers it puts a pulse on the counter and increments it by one, then you just choose which pin on the counter is going to be the new trigger. So lets assume pin 7, on the 9 min settings the chip would have to trigger 7 times before it reached the new output.

The downside is you would have to rig a reset up and see how the pulses are etc, so you might is all probability need a 555 timer.

The other way is a micro, if you have played with micros its the best route, if you havnt then its alot of learning for a air freshener! But same principle cut the track and solder to a pin, then get the chip to count the highs, when you reached the desired amount get the micro to output on another pin that goes to the other side of the track you cut.

As above - Googling the part number gives very little info.

Adding a decade counter is an option but you'd need to make sure you only pulse for a very short time (more electronics) and you'd also have to design it for very low standby current.

Easier to replace the whole chip with a small PIC programmed to pulse once an hour.

yeah i wasnt sure if he was savvy with micros, but i did add the micro bit. It might be possible to simply increase a capacitor, but with no info on the chip you havnt got alot to go on.
But i have wondered why they dont have wider settings on them, who needs air freshner more than once an hour? I hate the smell myself, smells like a erm well one of 'those' houses, you know one with dogs in.

Bad things have been reported recently about chemicals released by 'air freshener' and the like.. would not have one in the house....

granddad said:

Bad things have been reported recently about chemicals released by 'air freshener' and the like.. would not have one in the house....

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I dont know whats in them, although now i am going to go find out!
but i do know they dont fall under the same rules as say perfumes or body sprays. They are a funny category so i wouldnt be surprised if there was things in i wouldnt want to breathe. the main carrier is likely Ethylene glycol.

Supposedly safe enough to smoke!! I wouldnt though, its also cheap so i would guess thats the main carrier oil, bit thick as is so its them going to have some kind of solvent, denatured ethanol would be my choice but no idea what they use. I might research it a bit.

Thanks fo all the feedback ,I think I will just remove the board altogether and put some timer to the motor ! .

Spike

lol or yeah you could do that

INGREDIENT INFORMATION
INGREDIENT FUNCTION
Water Diluent
Ethanol Solvent
Fragrance/Parfum Fragrance
PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil Cosmetic
Compressed Air Propellant
Sodium Molybdate Antioxidant
Benzyl Salicylate Fragrance Component
Coumarin Fragrance Component
d-Limonene Fragrance Component
Anise Alcohol Fragrance Component

granddad said:

So what is “Fragrance”?
Fragrance is basically a catch word for all kinds of bad things. It can be labelled as “fragrance” or “parfum” and the real ingredients don't need to be disclosed and have not been tested for safety “Fragrance” can be made up of 1, or 2, or even hundreds of chemicals , Up to 75% of the time, when there is a “fragrance” in an ingredient, there are legally hidden phthalates, which is not a good thing. In addition to phthalates, there also can be other ingredients of concern, including aldehydes, toluenes, and petroleum-derived chemicals that might be best to be avoided.

Source ... Scientific American...

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Hi just tap on the blue frgrance word and it will bring up the msds

Little Ghostman said:

lol or yeah you could do that

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Any idea's of what I can put in !

I think the first thing you need to do before designing a new driver board is to establish if the motor is just allowed to stall for the full time the plunger part is in the fully extended position. Probably monitoring the motor current (Using a low valur current sense resistor.) using an oscilloscope would give you a good idea. If the current increased towards the end of the puse the motor is probably being stalled. Probably using a CD4060 as a timer would be ths simplest if you did not want to use a microcontollers such as an ATtiny13a or a PIC12F1840. The programming hardware for programming one of the ATtiny range is cheaper than that for programming a PIC.

Les.