The box
We start with a nice box. It's painted black on the outside and white on
the inside, to reflect the light better.
As light-source, we've used some bright leds, ofcourse in combination with a
current limiting capacitor. The BUZ11s can switch much more, though, so
using 12V lightbulbs or CCFLs would work too. You can even wire the device to,
unlike other terror indicators, do something about the danger, too: just wire
an old 12V PC fan in series with the red light, and the level of smell can
go down much quicker.
The terror-levels are printed out using a color laserprinter. I'd love to offer
the design, but I kinda lost it, so you have to make your own... On top is some
plexiglass to shield the indicator from dust.
And eventually the toilet terror indicator nded up above the door of our toilet.
The electronics and the speaker are behind the box of the indicator.
This article has been published before in Elektor. Thanks to D_Dragon (Chris) for the help with the casing.
Last 10 comments Show all"As light-source, we've used some bright leds, ofcourse in combination with a current limiting capacitor." Current limiting capacitor? You mean resistor :)
What if you just used a circuit detector on an exhast fan. I have one of these in my bathroom. Most people look for these switches. Someone might just need the light to shower.
The Elektor.com link is dead.
Nice work! I recognized that this was from Sam and Max right away when I saw this on hack a day and it was as awesome as I was expecting! =)
as a response to Rachel's comment about using gas sensors... Part of the humor in this project is: the threat level isn't actually based on "fact", merely speculation.
Being unskilled with little bits of silicon tht go bang when I apply power to them, I'd love to see a modification of this circuit that is triggered by people speaking and drives a meter movement or LED bar graph. As conversation ebbs, the meter would slowly start to drop then pick up again as someone speaks with a tone generated when a certain threshold is exceeded. It would of course, be called a BS Detector.
Congrats on making Hackaday!
Gas sensors aren't as expensive as you might think. A quick search on eBay for "hydrogen sulfide" and "h2s" reveals several listings for sensors priced around $25. Hydrogen sulfide is the principle scent component of flatulence, the concentration of which should be a very good indication of terror levels.
You should post an MP3 of the ping sound for us wannabe's with no microcontrollers.
Nice project! Love the signs on the door too.. "A better Netherlands begins here."