Motion Activated

Forums: Life At Work, Motion Activated, P I R, Passive Infrared
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Anyone else have problems with motion activated stuff? It seems more and more stuff is motion activated.

In our workplace bathrooms and kitchens, they replaced the manual paper towels to motion activated (and made them cheaper and more flimsy) - there I am frantically waving my arms in front of the fool thing to get a small flimsy piece - then I need another one and 20 minutes later one responds. I even had the cleaning lady doing it for me once.

Then traveling last week - damn automatic toilets - never work so you have to check each stall at the airport to see which toilet is clean and when I am leaving then the automatic soap - I have to go to 20 before I find one that will give me a tiny squirt. And then the water and towels again.

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Type: Discussion • Score: 5 • Views: 822 • Replies: 8

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@Linkat,

Yeah I had problems activating the tap in the loo on a train, so annoying and I had trouble with the soap, I sussed it in the end.

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Most of them are PIR--passive infrared. They are passive because they don't send out a signal, they just respond to a significant signature in the infrared radiation band. The relays which they activate will not reset immediately, otherwise, they would be shooting paper towels out of the dispenser constantly until you moved away from the infrared detection zone. Certainly they're not perfect, but you can "beat" them by moving from one to another. If there's only one, you're screwed.

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@Linkat,

I recall a big power outage in NYC maybe a decade ago. Nobody could flush, and most couldn't get water where those systems were used. Brilliant

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Yep. I hate the things.

At work we have motion activated soap dispensers that are triggered any time you put your hands anywhere near the water. That means after you have gotten soap and are lathering/rinsing your hands the stupid thing keeps going squirt squirt squirt every half second. There is a big spill of soap by the time you are finished.

Not surprisingly the idiot things run out of soap by 1 or 2 in the afternoon.

I also hate when toilets decide to flush themselves while I am still sitting on them.

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@roger,

Hey I never thought about that! Jeepers that would be a huge bummer.

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@maxdancona,

and then my kids think the paper towel thing is real cool - so in a public restroom, they end up keep getting more and more of the stuff so it ends up being wasteful.

Another thing the automatic water facuet keeps getting stuck so that it ends up continually spewing water. I don't understand how that saves money or water.

I wonder if there is some sort of stats on whether this crap really saves any money.

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@Linkat,

I am sure the studies show that they save money under perfect conditions while they are new.

I bet studies on the overall effect of the things under normal long term use would show a very different result.

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Last time I set out on a long journey I was at the airport just after 5 a.m. and stopped at the restroom before broaching security et al. I had a long light raincoat on and my luggage in the stall compartment. That was the first time I ran into the auto flush thing, and it tried to eat my coat. Just short of having it meet water containing pee I managed to rescue it. Well, that woke me up.

I think they must have modified the vacuum settings by now..

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Motion Activated

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