Besides your Stickuino, sensor kit, breadboard and all the other goodies that are included in the Interaction technology kit that you acquired, there’s one piece that’s missing and that is of major importance to be able to complete your assignment. This is the pièce de résistance, the icing on the cake, the mother of all actuators: an automatic toilet freshener. It was not included in the kit as it is available from your friendly neighborhood household / drug store or supermarket.
You have one convenient option here: the latest Airwick Pure 24/7 freshener, which can be recognized by the grey flower decoration near the spray opening on the white (or sometimes black) body, although packaging may vary:
Airwick Pure 24/7
…in its box
…the full monty
…and in a different packaging. Other packaging exists as well.
The one above is the newest version that appeared on the market some years ago. In other years we used a different Airwick Pure / Airwick Freshmatic Max freshener which may still be available in some shops and can be recognized by the concave body:
Artist’s impression of the old version. Don’t buy this one.
For students new to this course we advise the latest Airwick Pure 24/7 freshener, as it can be integrated into your system a bit easier, even without soldering.
The old version requires you to mod the internals a bit, connecting and disconnecting some wires using some soldering. If you already have the old version, you can still use it.
The one from Action in its natural environment.
The latest Airwick Pure 24/7 freshener is available from some household / drug stores and supermarkets, such as Action, Jumbo, Albert Heijn, etc. Prices start at approximately 7 euros, but beware: we’ve seen it for as low as 6,49 at Action and as high as 13,16 at Jumbo and 13,29 at Albert Heijn (but hey, that one is black, which probably justifies the premium price ;-)). It comes with a can of freshener and a battery is included.
It looks rather stylish and, again, note that the packaging may vary a bit, as well as the included fragrance. Which one you choose might depend on personal preference and lifestyle, or just price and plain availability. Just make sure you buy the right version (with the grey flower decoration)
We offer a description of how to hook up the new Airwick Pure 24/7 freshener to your Stickuino on the hooking things up page. If you still have the old version and still need to mod it, we advise you to make use of the practical assistance that we offer, so we can help you out, as that is somewhat more involved.
Extra cans of freshener are readily available, should you need them, in a number of choices. Including – mind you – Apple Pie.
This automatic toilet freshener is rather dumb: out of the box it sprays once in a while, based on a timer, with the first spray occurring approximately 15 seconds after you apply power to it. However, if you succeed in connecting this actuator to your microcontroller and have the microcontroller apply power to it, you are able to control the spraying through your code and make it much more intelligent, using your sensor kit.
The 15 second start-up delay is actually a feature, by the way, as it prevents the freshener to spray immediately into the face of its owner when he or she first installs it and turns it on…
[Note that the 15 seconds start-up delay, due to the electronics internal to the toilet freshener, although a feature, is unneeded and even inconvenient for our purposes. But it is not a deal-breaker either as you can account for this in your code. Previous versions of the freshener could be modified to circumvent the internal electronics and get rid of the 15 seconds start-up delay, which made these a bit easier and more direct to control. That, however, is no longer an option with this new version.]
Get hold of this freshener to complete your kit!
Competitors?
Glade freshener
Beware: we spotted a Glade freshener at some shops that looks similar to the Airwick Pure 24/7 freshener and is similar in size. Prices of this model are comparable and it also comes with a can of freshener and batteries. The cans of freshener are interchangeable between both models, which is kind of a surprise. If you feel adventurous, you might get one of these and try to get it to work. We would be happy to explore this model together with you, but we can’t guarantee that it will work.
Other fresheners?
Don’t bother with all the other fancy models out there that we didn’t explicitly mention, such as more compact and semi-smart toilet fresheners that might already contain light sensors, motion sensors and sometimes even a smell sensor. They might not work dependably for our purpose and interfacing with their sensors is not the way to go for this assignment. Furthermore, we want to create a level playing field and that’s why we want everyone to use the same or comparable hardware components.
Other stuff?
Besides the toilet freshener you may need to acquire some other add-ons, such as electrical wire, duct tape, cardboard, screws, etc. to complete the assignment. As your needs will vary with your specific setup, we’ll leave that up to you. These things won’t break the bank. We have some of this stuff available at the Job Shop as well. Take some (but leave some for others as well; don’t take more than needed) before you head home to work on your assignment.
As mentioned, you could save yourself some trips to campus if you get yourself a (simple) soldering iron and some other basic tools (screwdriver, pliers).
Digital Rights Management
There’s an interesting, but somewhat dated story to the Airwick toilet freshener. Older versions of this toilet freshener were protected by a Digital Rights Management (DRM) scheme: it would only work if an original spray can was inside the toilet freshener. It’s the plain old printer cartridge system (also known as freebie marketing or the ‘razor and blades’ business model) taken to new depths (in a toilet freshener, of all things!).
The DRM scheme was pretty lame: there was an additional sensor in this device (a TCNT2000 reflective optical sensor to be precise) that wanted to see two black stripes pass in front of it during a spray shot. These stripes were printed on the neck of the original spray can and were lacking on some aftermarket spray cans. Not something a marker pen couldn’t fix…