wow, that guy is really pissed off at airwick inc. :)

Posted at 11:17 am on Dec 2nd, 2008 by alexfox

yea, that guys has issues.

Posted at 11:26 am on Dec 2nd, 2008 by barry99705

Hahah, I like the detailed pics, plain jane webpage, and the awesome attitude against money hungry corporations lol.

Posted at 11:28 am on Dec 2nd, 2008 by Jeff

It seems to me that the much better, slightly more complicated, and infinitely more useful hack would be to add a motion sensor (as can be found at you local home improvement or electronics store for a very modest fee, or I’m betting half of us just have laying around)

Just sayin…

Posted at 11:31 am on Dec 2nd, 2008 by Mythgarr

Ahhh, it’s so very refreshing to not have to deal with an Instructables website.

Real hackers write their own webpages like this.

A better thing to do with the air fresheners is to add a microcontroller that only lets it operate during certain hours that people are home.

Posted at 11:31 am on Dec 2nd, 2008 by AnarKIT

How on earth was the original circuit so complex? All it was doing was spraying on a timer with a button override – considering this was a mass produced device and cost should have been vital, wouldn’t you as the designer make it absolutely minimal?

as a side comment, what was the actuator for the spray? It sounds like a small electric valve could be useful for little projects and this might be just the place to get one.

Posted at 12:21 pm on Dec 2nd, 2008 by O Mattos

I also noted the airwick would dry out within 20 days on its lowest setting. So the way i defeated it was put it on a digital timer and set it to have it turned on around noon every day.

Posted at 12:25 pm on Dec 2nd, 2008 by Dittle

forget manual, just combine it with the story above about a sound activated circuit. tweak this one to go off at fart frequency

Posted at 12:28 pm on Dec 2nd, 2008 by al

Well if airwick could come up with a foul odor detector, they would have something. :) Of course the product hacked here, is designed not to last. All part of an economy based on consumption. While the possabilities are limited, it would be more interesting to see the circuit board re-purposed to perform another use. Hockaday or Instructables there is a contest possibility here, pleas do it.

Posted at 12:31 pm on Dec 2nd, 2008 by static

Depending on where you put it, it could really benefit from a light sensor that activates it after you switch the lights off (hint: bathroom). I smell (pun not intended) this as the perfect job for microcontroller and some very limited lines of code.

Posted at 1:12 pm on Dec 2nd, 2008 by pov

there was an article in the latest “make” that hooks up an arduino so you can control it from a terminal:

http://www.make-digital.com/make/vol16/?folio=161

Posted at 1:27 pm on Dec 2nd, 2008 by paul

Ok I know whats going on here but I belive I missed something… is it that you push the button pull the chain… just kidding but seriously.. do you push the button and then the circuit cycles once? Or will it spray for as long as the button is pressed. If it will cycle once then “Mythgarr” and “pov” are onto something. I think a cleverly placed Photo cell would do the trick. Now those two yellow wires, if you were to cut one of them in the middle and make two leads that use a photo cell to complete the circuit you would be in business… I would never buy one of these stupid things in the first place I think that they market to your wifey “all long with all the other gimiks wifey will waste money on each year…

Posted at 2:10 pm on Dec 2nd, 2008 by kyle007

Thanks .

Posted at 2:22 pm on Dec 2nd, 2008 by mohammed

Motion activated (with a minumum time between sprays to prevent over-spraying) airwick type fresheners already exist, with an override button. And it seems a bit nuts to buy a fairly complex one and hack it back to the old type, which can still be bought for less?

Not trying to be too negative, at least the write-up was good and there was enthusiasm! Better, but only just, than the “we added LEDs to our calculator” post lol.

Posted at 3:33 pm on Dec 2nd, 2008 by James

just saw an add for the clapper on tv hmmmmm clapper in the crapper??? sry folks I had to go there…….\/

Posted at 5:47 pm on Dec 2nd, 2008 by kyle007

Or what about rigging up a foot switch? Because EVERYONE washes their hands, right?

Or to add to the motion/light sensor, put it on a bit of a delay, I don’t want to get blasted sitting on the crapper…

Or set it to receive tweets from twitter, lol.

Posted at 6:40 pm on Dec 2nd, 2008 by doctorsound

add a motion sensor and hook it up to a cs/pepper spray can! instant chemical warfare landmine…

Posted at 6:18 am on Dec 3rd, 2008 by dan

Mad props and thanks for posting. I love it when someone finds a way to stop companies from ripping us off with their wasteful marketing plans. MORE HACKS LIKE THIS, HACKADAY!

Posted at 10:37 am on Dec 3rd, 2008 by walt

I’d like to combine a few of these (using various liquids) with my electromechanical one man band to add the dimension of smell to my performance

Posted at 1:28 pm on Dec 3rd, 2008 by Sol

I’m still trying to figure out the Lysol dispenser for my germaphobic sister.

Posted at 1:46 pm on Dec 3rd, 2008 by barry99705

Crap, that was supposed to be installed to the top of her roomba….

Posted at 1:47 pm on Dec 3rd, 2008 by barry99705

I used to have a cheap supermarket branded version. When it was set to ‘off’ it could be triggered manually by using the button.

Posted at 4:59 pm on Dec 3rd, 2008 by TheLucster

haha i read the whole thing in silence and then laughed out loud at the end…. “fuck you, airwick corporation”

Posted at 1:20 am on Dec 4th, 2008 by D

Enclosure for projects? Battery holder, led, button.. plus cheap and aesthecaly pleasing.

Posted at 1:49 am on Dec 4th, 2008 by superlopez

So if spraying every n minutes is wasteful, what would everyone think of it spraying when the light in say the bathroom is turned off? Going further why not require that the light be off for n minutes before spraying and re using the switch to select not to spray more than once with in x minutes. It’s kinda like that automatic kitty litter pan minus the robotic arm and all the nasty. How much additional logic would this require?

Posted at 5:35 pm on Dec 5th, 2008 by mpare

I picked up one of these units before I saw this article the other day. Mine has a timer setting, the longest interval being 36 minutes. I wonder if there’s a way I can change it to once every 2 hours or something similar.

Posted at 10:07 am on Dec 10th, 2008 by politicorific

YEAH FIGHT THE POWER, END AIRWICK’S OPPRESSIVE MONOPOLY!!

Posted at 6:29 pm on Dec 18th, 2008 by John

I found a way, with the newer Freshmatic freshener, to make the unit light sensitive, using only a photoresistor and a 200kohm resistor as a voltage divider. There is a terminal on the switch that if you bring down to as close to ground as possible will disable the circuit. Bringing it to about 1.3 volts allows the circuit to continue normally. (I have yet to test anything besides the 36 minutes setting, and faster is too much IMHO) Using a simple voltage divider across one of the batteries makes this mod simple and easy, hardest part is mounting the sensor somewhere that makes sense. If one wanted, a potentiometer could be added to adjust sensitivity.

Posted at 10:18 am on Mar 24th, 2009 by Frank