There are some universal human experiences we don’t talk about much, at least not in public. One of them you’ll have in your own house, and such is our reluctance to talk about it, we’ve surrounded it in a fog of euphemisms and slang words. Your toilet, lavatory, john, dunny, khazi, bog, or whatever you call it, is part of your everyday life.
For his Hackaday Prize entry, [VijeMiller] tackles his smallest room head-on. You see, for him, the chief horror of the experience lies with the dreaded splashback. Yes, a bit of projectile power dumping leaves the old rump a little on the damp side. So he’s tackled the problem with some maker ingenuity and installed an Arduino-controlled foam generator that injects a mixture of soap and glycerin to fill the bowl with a splash-damping load of foam. Rearward inundation avoided.
The parts list reveals that the foam is generated by a fish tank aerator, triggered by a relay which is driven by an Arduino Uno through a power transistor. A solenoid valve controls the flow, and a lot of vinyl tubing hooks it all together. There is an HC/06 Bluetooth module with an app to control the device from a phone, though while he’s posted some Arduino code there is no link to the app. There are several pictures, including a cheeky placement of a Jolly Wrencher, and a shot of what we can only surmise is a text, as foam overflows all over the bathroom. And he’s put up the video we’ve placed below the break, for a humorous demonstration of the device in action.
A toilet foamer is new to Hackaday, but we’ve had a few lavatorial projects before. This one with an Arduino saving water, for example, or an auto-flush for a bathroom-trained cat.
Honestly, all you need is to dump a few pieces of toilet paper before the deed, and no splash…
This is more Earth friendly — also discovered that using foam could exploit using less water in the bowl — saving the Earth from your back end.
But what about the unnecessary release of soap/detergent into the environment, hows about a little bowel control, unless your eating Mexican/Thai Curry!
^
They do make more eco-friendly detergents — tho if they aren’t sold between Taco Bell and the toilet, I won’t see them.
Trouble is, the reduced amount of water is causing problems in the sewer because things aren’t getting flushed through them properly any more.
Reducing the water level in the bowl would probably need a replacement toilet though, right?
I do the same. Minimizes the awkward plopping sound too.
That increases the risk of clogging a little bit, while I don’t think the foam would. If it clogs and you have to flush more than once, or you have to flush more than once to avoid clogging, that uses more water.
I am thinking of some kind of gag project involving an old flyback transformer and a metal toilet seat.
I am going to put my mailbox on the net before my toilet though, that is for sure.
Use a piece of very thin wire e.g. out of a scrap transformer. Nearly invisible and makes it very easy to conceal.
Something else that can have a similar effect is an ionizer. On a sufficiently dry day, you’ll get charged up by the ions and end up with a static discharge right to the crotch.
Now what I’m curious about is if females would feel more of a jolt from such a prank. I read that they have roughly twice as many nerve endings in that area as compared to males.
This project is some serious shit… (sorry could not resist)
Excellent illustrative video!
yeah, but how secure is it? I’d be worried about backdoor vulnerability.
+1
Thx Jenny! Per the missing “app” code — it was such a simple MIT App Inventor build over an image sending any thing other than “0” to trigger the event that it did not dawn on me to include it. I shall resolve that shortly. Per overflow — it times out — after some timing practice. Per “scent” in the video — other users in the household have noticed it actually reduced odor tremendously, even after Chipotle! The rest of what Chipotle does to you, Arduino can’t solve that. — or can it?!
I had an idea like this a few years ago. No electronics, just a few drops from what looks like a mini hand sanitizer dispenser. (You know the brand.) I’m pretty certain somebody sells something similar.
Some ‘commode styles’ seem to be the worst offenders; most low-flows are designed horribly.
Would have become an annoying infomercial…
“Does you plops go flop? Billy Mays here for the Splash Stopper Toilet Foamer. Don’t let your feces takes a half gainer back on to your cheeks!” etc
Well, at least it isn’t related to “flex-seal”.
Ah yes, good ol’ Poseidon’s kiss.
The Yellow Bellagio
A quick Google and the product is Poo-Pourri, the advert is a hoot! One of the “flavors” is rosy starlet. Really!
Ahhhhh!!! I knew I’ve seen it before.
Poo-Pourii is a mist spray for odor not a foam etc. I have ginger.
This page claims this is not a problem, and also explains how German toilets are different: http://asecular.com/~scott/misc/toilet.htm
Gah — it just kind of lays there. American diets would have us standing on the seat.
OH MY GOD!!!! That is the most disgusting thing the German’s have ever done, and that’s saying something!
To be fair those are legacy toilets, you won’t find them in newer buildings.
Talking about disgusting.. apparently Americans typically don’t have toilet brushes in hotels / public places? Enjoy the murky poop water created by someone else’s dissolving stains splashing back up at you :’)
Dutch here. Very common. Hell, we got two of those in the house :’)
https://c24i.imgup.net/shitshelfaef7.jpg
Gah! — I’d rather squeeze it out over the balcony and hope for the best *whispers* some one passing by *unwhisper*
I’ve seen “shelved” toilets here and there around the Europe and “normal” ones in Germany. There is a much bigger difference between “Normal” toilets and American ones: the amount of water in the “pool”. In American toilets the pool is quite large and there is a valve at the bottom which opens after. Hence the expression “to flush a toilet”. In “Normal” toilets (shelved or not, it doesn’t matter) the pool is rather small instead of a valve there is a siphon. This is a much better design because there are no moving parts along the way of poop a toilet room is always separated from sewers with the siphon full of water. “Normal” toilets are never flushed. To remove poop water from a tank situated above a toilet is poured which: a) takes poop through the siphon to sewers and b) remains in the siphon. Moreover most tanks today have separate “programmes” (different amount of water) for #1 and #2.
American toilets work on a siphon, there is no valve keeping the water in the bowl. The only “valve” is the flapper in the tank that lifts when you pull the handle, allowing the water to leave the tank to fill the bowl enough to activate the siphone.
With a high fat sausage diet, inspecting for blood in the stool is not unreasonable. Being of a certain age I was recently tasked with getting samples to put on a screening card. (Better than a colonoscopy) The typical American toilet made that a little difficult.
Oh, so that’s what they mean by TMI. Samples? Like, which piece of corn looks the plumpest?
Arduino + hacker code + foam generator = Cheech and Chong “foam all over”.
Couldn’t you just aerate the hell water while in use? No additives required. Surface tension broken, and the buoyancy of any object greatly reduced. ………patent pending
But you’ll be churning and bubbling all that stink, like the bog of eternal stench in the movie ‘Labrynth’…..
Get more roughage in your diet. It’s healthier and the resulting taper on the projectiles prevents splashing. Hydrodynamics to the rescue.
I believe I took Turd Ballistics in college.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwij4cnr99jTAhVU32MKHZxbAtUQyCkIJTAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D-XNDM4eAn1U&usg=AFQjCNGJKnL8kJTc2gEd-O8ZYzRrd8QG5w&sig2=3AC0eaK6Qt7bLDTS6OmsYA
The YouTube channel “Smarter Every Day” did this with a simple sheet of TP on the surface of the water. Someone mentioned this above, but was shot down because “the environment”. However, there is more damage to the environment in the manufacture of an Arduino than in a roll of TP; not to mention the fact that the TP doesn’t require a small, but steady source of power to continue working. The TP trick will work in a blackout.
Hell, I don’t need an Arduino, or even a 555-timer. Just a “healthy stream” will foam that bowl right up.