3 ms·

Hey this is a relatively simple hack. If you're not looking for finesse and would go with anything that works, this could be done in a couple of hours. Also, r

Hey this is a relatively simple hack. If you're not looking for finesse and would go with anything that works, this could be done in a couple of hours. Also, rather than looking for sounds or temperature (which can easily produce a lot of false positives), you could simply make your tap into a switch and use it to trigger the clock.

jacquesm 17y ago
Put a flowswitch in the upstream line. Electricity and bathrooms don't mix.
- DanielStraight 17y ago
  And then have it report gallons of water used rather than time. And then sell it to me, because then I'd buy it too. For added fun, estimate natural gas or electricity usage based on the type of water heater installed. Ok, so that would take this way past simple.
  - jacquesm 17y ago
    A flowswitch is a binary device, it is used in central heating systems to make sure the water is moving when the pump engages, if the pump has failed the flowsitch won't trip so the heater will display a 'friendly' error code instead of burning a bunch of gas for nothing, possibly damaging the burner. It is simply used as a failsafe. There are vane based systems that will report actual flow rather than just whether flows or not. Usually these work with a vane with a little magnet embedded, every revolution of the vane counts for so much water. They're not very accurate though (+- 20% or so, especially if the flow rates vary in a wide range). A simple hall-effect sensor will act as the pickup on the outside of the copper or plastic housing that contains the vane assembly. You can get calibrated ones too, these are used in places like gas stations. Those are pretty expensive though.
joezydeco 17y ago
I'd actually look at sound. Shower noise has got to be pretty close to white noise. A little microphone and some filtering code to distinguish showering from other things, and you'd be in business.

jacquesm 17y ago

Put a flowswitch in the upstream line. Electricity and bathrooms don't mix.

DanielStraight 17y ago
And then have it report gallons of water used rather than time. And then sell it to me, because then I'd buy it too. For added fun, estimate natural gas or electricity usage based on the type of water heater installed. Ok, so that would take this way past simple.
- jacquesm 17y ago
  A flowswitch is a binary device, it is used in central heating systems to make sure the water is moving when the pump engages, if the pump has failed the flowsitch won't trip so the heater will display a 'friendly' error code instead of burning a bunch of gas for nothing, possibly damaging the burner. It is simply used as a failsafe. There are vane based systems that will report actual flow rather than just whether flows or not. Usually these work with a vane with a little magnet embedded, every revolution of the vane counts for so much water. They're not very accurate though (+- 20% or so, especially if the flow rates vary in a wide range). A simple hall-effect sensor will act as the pickup on the outside of the copper or plastic housing that contains the vane assembly. You can get calibrated ones too, these are used in places like gas stations. Those are pretty expensive though.

joezydeco 17y ago

I'd actually look at sound. Shower noise has got to be pretty close to white noise. A little microphone and some filtering code to distinguish showering from other things, and you'd be in business.