Sensor Operated Hand Washing Faucets

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rhonald

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Sensor Operated Hand Washing Faucets. does anyone have an idea how this thing works? id like to have one installed at home
 
They use an infrared proximity sensor to detect when a hand is placed under it. Then it just turns on a solinoid valve or something.
 
There are many sensor operated faucets available for purchase though from my experience they are used more in commercial applications - public restrooms, offices, etc. Some operate from batteries, some from mains voltage - I've seen a few "solar" operated ones though I'd stay away from that.

Some of them operate for a fixed amount of time - to dispense a limited amount of water. Some operate as long as a user is present.
 
sensor operated toilets are great IMHO. No more hand flushing, coming in contact with filthy germs left behind by street bums, and nasty, unbathed truckers! Now if they would just have the restroom doors open without having to touch them!! I'm gonna get me a Michael Jackson Whacko Jacko glove!! You wash your hands in a public restroom then have to use them to open the door. That door is chocked full of germs from idiots that don't wash their hands after using the facility. What amazes me are coworkers who have very tidy, clean homes, cleaned and pressed clothing, are well groomed, but when they use a restroom, they don't wash their hands afterwards! Go figure!
 
haha aint that yuucky!!! btw how if you are to design these kinds of applications.. how would you design it?
 
If the restroom has paper towels, use them to dry your hands and then use them to open the door. Throw them away at the garbage can next to the door. If there is no garbage can there, then throw them on the floor, cuz there ought to be one there.

I'll also use the towel to turn off the water. If the paper is dispensed with one of those things where you pull down a lever to get a few inches of paper, then I will preset some paper out, wash my hands and then use the preset paper to get more paper to dry my hands.

Yeah - I'm a freak when it comes to public restrooms. They're really gross.

Of course, I've heard that my desk is probably more germ ridden than a toilet seat!
 
I always use a hand tissue whenever possible... but what does one do when there are air dryers on the walls instead of towel dispensers and the door is the type that you can't open using your foot or shoulder, but has a handle or knob on it? I guess you grab a length of TP and use that instead, then throw that on the floor outside the restroom!!!!

Speaking of wall mounted air dryers, ever go into a large city public restroom and see street bums grooming themselves for the day? LMAO. They're sponge bathing in the sink and then use the hand dryer to dry their hair and upper body!! Goofy!
 
hehe i think were pretty much off the topic (didnt mean to be rude or anything ). anyone about the schematic circuit idea for the automatic faucet?
 
This project dea has come up before, this time last year or so as I recall.

Options:
> Pyrolectric Sensor (infra Red), found in alarms, mounted on/near faucet.
> Foot operated switch
> Pressure Mat switch, placed on the floor in front of the wash basin.
> Vibration , some things do work better with a tap.
> Ultrasonics , detect the person stood in front of wash basin.

Finally, for the more effluent members of society,
the humble Lavatory attendent does everthing.
 
Hi Mad Professor. Shouldn't that be 'affluent' or was that pun intentional!
 
Could not resist it oh hairy one named Jon,

I was going to repeatedly use the word "taps" instead of "faucet" but thought that would be far to cruel.
 
The Mad Professor said:
Could not resist it oh hairy one named Jon,

I was going to repeatedly use the word "taps" instead of "faucet" but thought that would be far to cruel.
Click to expand...
lol!
 
Well at work the cleaners installed a new paper towel dispenser where you pass your hand past a sensor and a measured amount of paper comes out and until either the paper is ripped or the cutter bar raised no more hand waves work. Now the funny thing about about this device is if you just pass the tips of your finger past the sensor nothing happens. I'm busting my brains trying to work out what sensor is used.

Cheers Bryan
 
Give the powers to be enough time and they'll be dumping those dispensers in the trash, just as many other places already have. They gobble up batteries. The towel mfgr. throws in the dispensers for free when you buy their paper product. They provide one set of batteries to start you off. Those dispensers are very annoying in that they operate way too slow and they should be vandalized, kicked off the walls, then collected and dumped onto the front doorstep of the supplier. Those dispensers lasted 1 year at my workplace and our janitorial/maintenance dept. couldn't tear them out fast enough to return to the manually operated ones.
 
The latest edition of EDN (August 17, 2006) has an article (Tales From the Cube) which address these faucet sensors - not in a very in-depth manner, but they do talk about the specs a little.

Here's a small quote:
"...The electronics comprise an infrared LED that pulses 100mA for 50usec, 10 times a second. The circuit looks for an echo back, indicating that a hand is ready for washing.
Few plumbing fixtures come with access to AC power, so the faucets must be self-contained, relying on four AA batteries for power. The faucets need to go 15 to 20 years on one set of batteries, thus making them maintenance fee; the assumption is that the restroom will undergo remodeling before the batteries wear out."

The article goes on to talk about how the design used the LT1637 but there was a considerable lag on turn on of the IC.

It finally ended up saying that since then LT has released the LT6000 family that would operate continually for the entire length of the product.
 
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