Inside an automatic foam soap dispenser with clever pump.
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ย. 2020
- I was expecting this unit to be based on a single motor driving a separate fluid pump and aeration system. But they've got a very clever pump system that combines the two into one.
The infrared sensor seems to put out four pulses a second. I didn't reverse engineer the op-amp section because I have a feeling that it may just be a pre-filter and amplifier, with the microcontroller processing the resultant voltage level via an analogue input.
On eBay this type of unit has the description:-
350ml Automatic Foam Soap Dispenser Infrared Motion Sensor Touchless Hand Washer
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
This also keeps the channel independent of TH-cam's advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty. - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
I hope we are going to see this on Saturday connected to the Butane can.
Auto Whoofler 2.0
Moussee Whoofler!
Yes please!
You mean a bottle of Jägermeister
I'd like to see oxygen and alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
"Darling, I can't watch TV with you right now, I'm watching a man disassemble a soap dispenser."
"Goodness, honey, why didn't you say so earlier? Can you put it on the big telly?"
"Daddy, can I watch too?"
You watching that porn again?
True story
"I can see the circuit board already" - bigclive pillow talk...
At first glance I thought the springs were what was mixing the air and soap into a foam. That little foamer module makes a lot more sense.
Can u please share the Link to buy the foamer module???
You're lucky Clive. Randomly turning itself off is better than randomly squirting soap everywhere.
Release the schmoo!
The bigger the gob the better the job!
AvE effects?
"the only thing I notice is the range actually decreases"
That happens with age
Happens with people too!
@@kieranbyrne6090 That was his point.
I resemble that remark ;)
The swash plate pump reminds me that there have been attempts to make (steam and i.c.) engines which used the same principle in reverse, turning gas pressure into rotary motion. They are called axial engines. The main advantage is reduced frontal area. It seems only to have been used successfully to drive torpedos.
it's really only used in torpedoes because the cylinder is the limiting form factor, and swashplate engines are cylindrical. they have their drawbacks but those don't matter in a torpedo because it only needs to last for as long as it has fuel before it breaks down, since it's only going to be used once anyways.
It’s actually used quite commonly on cars. Not as an engine, but as A/C compressors. Most compressors with cylindrical bodies are usually pumps with pistons in parallel with the rotating shaft.
Moose on demand, thought that was only avilable is Sweden!
And Canada. ;o)
Älgar
This channel is awesome. Relaxing, funny, educational, detailed.
Indeed. Welcome to Clive!
If you're not also subscribed to the live channel, sub up to BigCliveLive too!
Cool that it is self-priming!
Now, how could alcoholic beverages be used in this? Jaeger-Mousse-dispenser? Instant wine-aereator?
Alcohol & science - it's like describing Russia with just 2 words 😆
@@em0_tion
And if you add fire, you're talking about Clive's Livestreams
If you could find something to maintain a bubble shape that wasn't soap, you might be on to something.
@@Phoen1x883 Gelled alcohol? (hand sanitizer)
That pump reminds me of the USB powered aquarium air pump Clive disassembled recently.
Me too. Some similarity.
Yeah the “sucky blowy” pump
Those are Clive’s words
Yeah, same general "three phase" principle. I wonder how many other gadgets it's in? No doubt Clive will show us.
I like how we all keep up with his videos and basically can reference stuff and everyone understand which videos, its like this is the sequel to the aquarium video
It's exactly the same to me, just few differences in the inlet.
My inner child giggled about the "mousse required sensor".
One week ago? How?
Kai TheAviator he’s a time traveler
@@ka-i patreon
For this kind of device, having connectors is absolutely posh.
It makes for faster assembly in the factory. The main assembly people don't need to solder and the soldered parts can be made by subcontractors.
Its probably worth the time/labour savings
May I ask why? Is it because of corrosion?
This man is the undisputed King of hacking cheap electronics with a just barely legal perverted undertone.
Who else wanted to see the pump on 24v instead of 6v ?
The motor is a standard type so replaceable for a different voltage for sure.
@@gbraadnl I think he meant running the 6v motor, on 24v, so that it ran 4x faster turning into a aircraft hangar fire suppression system on his bench
@@dogsarebest7107 ah, inducing more messy sputtering of foamy bits
@@gbraadnl Indeed! I was kind of hoping to see it, to be honest. The little silicone hose, whipping out, spraying thick lather in a continuous stream in every direction. Cue frenzied hand movement has he tries in vain to turn the supply off or disconnect an alligator clip. Camera cuts from overhead to Clive, sitting looking defeated, globs of foam covering his face, glasses, and beard, "Alright soo...."
@@dogsarebest7107 I fully agree, it should have to be replaced with the appropriate volted motor. Overvoltage is the key to success I would say
Just bought two on eBay. I have bought so many things after your videos (when you say "I like that") and they have all been brilliant purchases so far.
Sometimes I like to imagine that the photo of the circuit board is actual size and BigClive's hands are tiny.
For products which like to clip themselves back closed, I take an defunect credit card (or hotel keycard) and slice on a diagonal to make two (or more) disposable flat wedges. Kind of like making guitar picks.
As you work around the perimeter with the spudger, shove a wedge into the gap anywhere it seems to want to clip back together.
The explosion containment pie dish is getting washed, very elaborate way of doing it.
But I do approve.
And then my mind wandered of, down the gutter, pondering foamy lubricants, oh dear......................................
Had to order one of these, just because it's so neat. Two days later and I'm "experimenting" with different strength detergent mixtures. Gotta love eBay.
It only pumps for a couple of seconds. If you want another splodge of foam, you have to trigger it again.
Must, suppress, inner Sailor, shouldn't comment, shouldn't comment..... Your hose is so tiny but it makes so much foam!
So... when do we see the butane adapter for it?
What an elegant pump design. Just beautiful.
On the strength of your video I just bought 2 of these from amazon (arrived Friday) . Absolutely brilliant device. We have tried other, and more expensive, auto soap dispensers over the past couple of years and this is by far the best one yet. One in the kitchen and one in the bathroom !
Darn you Clive, just spent an hour researching these on the jungle and ordered 2 of them.
14:00 My immediate thought was to use one of these pumps to make foamy cream for Irish coffee. No more shaking and stirring the cream, and no more battling to spoon the cream over the top of the drink.
hahaha i had the same thought as you ...great minds think a like
For those that need it, this setup would make your own shaving cream. Not Clive obviously, lol
perhaps he shaves other areas ? :))
@@throttlebottle5906 Do you think he uses the funnel?
@@skrenos LMAO
Interesting design. Dirty boy, getting that foamy soap all over the explosion containment dish! ;)
Those springs are working on the same principle as renal or arterial stents - "propping the vessels open". A faster, cheaper and safer alternative to bypass grafting for those "not so occluded" vessels!
Hmmm. I have the rechargeable version of this unit. Very nice to see the slick design! Thanks! Now I don't have to shred my unit. Pretty clever setup... Stay safe! Stu
and how long does the charge last ?
someday you will have to open the unit to replace the lithium or buy a new dispenser ?
@@jyvben1520 Good question. I haven't been using it real often, but it's been sitting there in standby for about 3 months, still working. Figure that the pump will fail before the battery, but ifthe battery fails, I have several hundred lithium rechargeables in all sorts of form factors. Not a problem here.. :) Keep on watching the Clive! Stay safe, Stu
How much did it cost? Did it last? (particularly the battery)
Whatdoes it look like? (There are several different designs.)
I'm not an electrician or looking to be, but its always nice learning something new. Thanks for everything you do clive!
This is very popular in the Philippines. This is sold as Xiaowei X6S alcohol dispenser. It costs 10-15 USD here. I accidentally dropped mine once and thensuddenly sprayed alcohol randomly on its own. Apparently some alcohol seeped into the sensors and shorted some stuff triggering the spray. Letting it dry fixed it though haha.
Looks well made and assembled. Totally buying this.
I put my finger on it and it spurts everywhere nice one Clive. The motor is doing magical stuff 😹😅
After he removed the tank it came
These things are amazing, we have one of the Xiaomi Mijia soap dispensers. Batteries last forever and its much more economical on soap than a standard dispenser, especially with young kids around as they seem to feel like they have more soap on their hands when its foam.
Simple Human makes a good one too, and it's rechargeable and IP66.
I bought a similar model from Wish,and filled it with hand sanitizer. Works very well,spraying out a bubble of liquid,at just the right amount. Switch on the top flashes red to indicate low batteries,but AA's will last for months.
I always wondered how the manual foaming dispensers worked, thanks for showing us how the automatic one works. Similar principle I guess.
Yes. The manual ones have a standard narrow liquid pump and a much wider air pump cylinder.
Just bought that dispenser. Love it. Thanks for the breakdown. Takeaway is don't get any particulates in the soap as they may clog the tiny holes.
Unfortunately on one of the dispensers I bought, the anti-kink spring they used has rusted to the point it was leading to particles that were preventing the valves from sealing and therefore failing to pump - I've not opened the other one (same style as the one in this video) but hoping they used stainless steel spring material!
The other has also just stopped responding to detecting hands... As they use an unmarked SOIC 16 pin chip as microcontroller I'm not sure if the failure is there (no idea on replacement) or in the receiver diode (the transmitter can be seen blinking on a phone camera). The pulse can be seen on a scope but it's hard to know if its right or not - and the input connects seemingly directly to the MCU rather than the opamp as in this video, so even harder to fault find. It's not trying to drive the output transistor and the motor functions so it has been narrowed down to the IR side of things, but a bit stuck here now.
Just ordered one, they seem really useful.
BigClive you are the Bob Ross of Electronics! 😁
this video made some of the best noises ever
Great explanation, thanks for taking the time
The foamy soap dispenser mystery is now over for me. Clean up time.
The aeration methods are identical to that used on the Kirby Suds-O-Gun attachment. That one is easier to see since it is on a much larger scale.
Kirby vacuums! I remember those. My friends stepdad had a Kirby store when I was a kid. Only $600 for the vacuum... Oh you want the fabric bag that holds the dust bag? You want wheels? You want it self-propelled? Attachments? Shampoo kit? Only $2500! LOL. They're way too heavy to be a viable product today, but even though they weighed like 40 lbs, they glide on even the deepest pile carpet since they're self-propelled.
'It's frothy man' . . . . a moose? Nope, a polar bear wearing shades : )
You must be almost as old as I am.
I only get this reference from watching Ashens.
All that ingenuity to save us the minimal effort of pressing down on something much simpler. Kind of sums us up as a species - eccentric like the cam.
On the other hand, it helps to minimise physical contact between people and machine, thus reducing the chance of picking up the Corona Virus.
@@whitesapphire5865 but then you wash your hands straight after so no biggie
Fair comment. Domestic electric toothbrushes started out as an aid for frail people - now almost everybody uses them (except for me - but I'll probably get one when I'm frail).
@@nathanaelsmith3553 Every time you enter a store? Or handle items in store? Or when you go into a public building? You use a hand sanitiser, then go and wash your hands? Really? - That's going make it a long day!
@@whitesapphire5865 well no - if it's for use in a store or a public building as hand sanitiser then it sanitizes your hands. If it's for use in the bathroom then you scrub your hands under the tap straight after. Either way the dispensation immediately precedes the hand cleansing process, so any momentary contact with the pump is irrelevant. Worrying about that is simply bonkers.
Bonus fact: virologists say that detergent is more effective at killing COVID-19 than many alcohol based sanitizers that are mostly designed to kill bacteria. The virus has a protective fatty outer layer which detergent disrupts. By comparrison for a hand sanitizer to kill the virus it has to have an alcohol content above a certain level and not all sanitizers do.
Great video! Really educational, I love reverse engineering vids like this.
"When this signals back to the processor that mousse is required" lol
I have taken apart a pressure washer on which the pump worked the same way with 3 pistons driven via the wobbly base plate.
Thanks for vid Clive. I just bought two of these. Ad didnt sa you needed special foaming liquid. I gonna try your dilution method... Tnx again. Edit.....yep it works fine.....
Thanks for the tear down.
Neat! I would have thought the pump would have been the standard concentric type just actuated and released by a geared motor, but maybe this is smaller.
The pump is very similar to the one dedicated to the fish tank.
very clever pump system !
What would happen if you put whipping cream in this type of pump? Cream whippers use consumable cartridges. Could a pump like this be used to make whipped cream? Not sure about cleaning though.
Maybe, but it’s definitely not going to be the easiest thing to clean out the whipping cream from, especially so that it doesn’t spoil & have rancid cream inside the tubing/pump!!!
@@ZaneDaMagicPufferDragon i have never taken apart an actual cream whipper so i do not know how much work it is to flush them out either.
I am just curious if it would work more so then if it is practical.
I don't think it'd work, unfortunately.
The whipped cream cans and cartridges use NO2. The NO2 dissolves into the fat of the cream the same way CO2 dissolves into the water in soda and beer.
When you release the cream from the can the pressure drops and the NO2 can't remain dissolved and expands quickly creating millions of bubbles which the fat in the cream holds together.
I think something like this could work, but would probably need higher air pressure.... 🤔
Although, running cream through it as is would probably still produce a slightly frothy cream, but I don't think it'd be like the stuff from a can or charger. And as Zane said, it would be a nightmare to keep clean.
BRUXXUS Geez 🙄 Do I feel silly for missing that simple fact about the NO2 & fat in the cream. As a stupid teenager/twenty something I didn’t use the whipped cream cans properly!😏 My buddy and I would inhale the NO2 from the can in the upright position or later on we found a nifty little “Whippets Cracker” with the little NO2 Refill Cartridges to fill up a balloon 🎈 with NO2 so that you wouldn’t FREEZE 🥶 Your Lungs From The Ice 🧊 Cold 🥶 Expanding NO2 going directly into our lungs!!! So seeing as I abused NO2 as a 15-22 year old I wasn’t too concerned about how the whipped cream actually worked & got all frothy back then! 😉
Haha! I Just lost it when when it suddenly squirted on your hands after 'defusing it' 😂
Great entertaining and informative video as ever.
Interesting. MyMateVince dismantled a pump like that fairly recent if I recall correctly.
"Oh yes, much thicker!" Clive says about the creamy mousse...
I would love to see how much current it draws- both in quiescent state and pumping!
Can you make Jagermeister mousse with this?
I'm chuckling away at the thought of a Moose Pump!
Yes, for pumping out mousses (the large animal). I can't stop laughing.
I searched the comments to check whether anyone else had mentioned that; made me LOL while watching the video!!!
Clive: 'This is promising'
Viewer: Don't sound so bloody happy about it!
Kansas City likes watching your videos in between the summer homicide season !!
I’m betting that the op-amp is there to be a low-pass filter or maybe a band-pass filter. That way they send AC to the LED, and receive AC a from the photodiode in a way that lets them filter out any bias without the need for a complicated AGC circuit.
Put the filter in to the foamy wufflet 👍
That would be quire interesting to see the result!
We want foamy flames!
These things are super handy. They don't work so well if the housekeeper puts it through the dish washer though.
The ones that i deal with at work are the proprietary bottle kind and sometimes get wonky sometimes i have to close it up empty and run it once to get the mechanism in the right place so the bottles fit.
Would this be the basic technology that is used by airport firefighters to fight burning airplanes?
Very similar. The hangar foam systems use powerful fans blowing air into fabric bags with spray nozzles spraying a water and surfactant mix into them.
Yes. In a former life I trained as a firefighter at a small airfield. Our crash wagon was a converted Land Rover with 100 gallons of foam mix on the back. The standard hose nozzle would shoot a fairly normal stream of vaguely soapy liquid, but there was an attachment that caused air to be drawn into that liquid and generate a nice thick foam.
@@6yjjk Sounds like the snow foam lances used by car washers.
Those noices. CLIVE ASMR
@bigclivedotcom try using guitar picks when working on snap together assemblies like this. You can easily wedge them in place next to the fingers without breaking the fingers(if you get the right hardness picks they will break before they scar or break the fingers). You can them leave them in place as you work your away around a part so it doesn't keep closing on you. Old credit cards work too. But cheap thin guitar picks are great, and you work in a industry that someone would probably toss you some bags of them. Cause they aren't the style said artist/performer prefers to use.
Is this an eBay special, since its source wasn't mentioned? The metered amount of pre-foamed soap is appealing to those with children who don't appreciate the difficulty in finding hand soap refills in a pandemic...
Yes. It's one of many on eBay.
@@bigclivedotcom indeed, there are a lot. Looks like this one, or one very like it, is also on banggood
banggood.app.link/ygujDU05K9
Looks useful for a KY jelly dispenser
3:20: Interesting to hear. I heard years ago that it was unhygienic to store diluted soap because the preservatives in the soap are dosed to keep the concentrated product safe but will not be able to prevent bacterial growth when diluted.
I've got the rechargeable version of this but a big flaw is that it doesn't work in bright sunlight as it interferes with the IR sensor. So in my upstairs bathroom I can only use it at night. My windowless powder room has one and it works fine.
I was hoping so much that you were going to do a little modification to this and show us what happened if you ran it at double voltage or higher! Would it be like a foam cannon or just try to push too much through the little foam boosting canister and do nothing at all.
The problem with these is the soap sediments at the bottom after 1 day and the foam starts being runny. You need to stir the reservoir every day to keep the soap mixed well with the water.
If you use shampoo or dish washing liquid it shouldn't settle.
This pump could be perfect for producing certain 'special effects' in certain videos.
Yes, "special _effects_ "
Waiting for a fleshlight review...???
How easy would it be to increase the time of foam dispenser after the IR detection and thus increase the amount of foam? Very pleasant video. God speed you.
I have one of these from Xiaomi .. had quite a lot of flaws
It leaked onto the batteries for one, and another killer issue that cropped up after I opened it was the proximity sensor alignment
had a very very similar construction otherwise; mr Xiaomi did however use different connectors for the battery and motor though
I scoped mine and it was just a fixed pulse every 400ms (if I remember right)
The hoses were less posh, no springs inside, and the foamer/decombobulator was one part with the output hose
(did a repair-ish video of it if anyone's super interested)
I love the one I have at home.
Now I just need a cheap motion sensing tap...
eBay also has cheap IR sensing taps.
I actually wanted to get me one of these and I'm very happy to see it in bits, so that I know what I'd be buying. One thing that makes me wonder is how to clean this foam adapter. I've been using these manual foam dispensers for several years now and the problem with these, is that if you use the wrong soap (creme soap for example) the tiny filter meshes inside get clogged up quickly and there is little you can do to clean them. When buying such an automatic dispenser I was hoping to get something more maintainable, but it seems that the key piece is unfortunately glued shut and again there is not much that can be done to clean it once it gets clogged up with contamination.
bar soaps are so much easier.
The filters do block in the hand pump version. I'm not sure how this version will fare. Maybe purging a stronger cleaning compound through might help.
I use one of these for the BZK hand sanitizer you let us know about :)
Clive, you should autograph and sell the pcb photos you take. I'd buy one
09:50 - the middle of the valve plate looks like a little face with a shocked expression. Once you see it you can't stop seeing it! :-0
Top tip... just about any device that use 3 or 4 battery can be converted to lithium but just put a power bank inside of it and just wire it up to the terminals.
I've found that to be a PITA. I thought it was a good idea too, but you need to install BMS/charging board too, and figure out a way to USB charge it. Or you can put an 18650 battery sled and pull it out to charge on a charger. 2-3 battery devices (3.0-4.5V) can be run with 1 Li-ion battery, 4 battery devices can be run with 2 Li-ion batteries (sometimes 1) in series, though running a 4 battery device (6V) will be way undervolted with a single Li-ion battery.
I am delighted. Did you check wether you can use this soap foam for shaving? My son is autist and it is a tough job to teach him not using up a single can of soap foam in just one shaving session. I already thought of building such a dispenser but my time for tinkering is limited. I'm highly interested in an answer.
He might just be enjoying the foam. You could get one of these for him as a toy.
Incidentally, a huge number of the channel viewers are autistic and most have good technical careers.
The touch sensor chip is a TTP223
Hi, I discovered the automatic dispenser a year ago. One thing that's bothered me was the fact that the motor runs for a very short time, thus producing little foam. Any simple clue to a curious person on how to increase the running time? (mine is not adjustable). Thanks and have a great year 😉.
Anyone ever notice that characteristic soft bump at the start of every Clive video?
I noticed it a lot in this one, most of the time it's not really noticeable.
All the time. Especially when one listens on proper audio devices rather than squeaky phone speakers or whiny earbuds.
Interesting video, Clive .
Many years ago (before the internet) I read about moonlight interfering with the working of infrared beams . Is there any way you could demonstrate that?
I doubt it. But some modulated infrared detectors did have issues with electronic lamps that put out high frequency optical noise.
@@bigclivedotcom This was when they used to use infrared beams across a door to detect intruders . I've been trying to remember details of the crime report in a newspaper . Apparently thieves had been able to steal from a shop they broke into because although the beam was working the receiver end was flooded with moonlight which had enough infrared to keep it from triggering the alarm .
2:20 I personally like to just let them slide off and remove the connector separately, especially when they glue them with a thin goop.
I wonder if one could use that kind of pump to make whipped cream (foam) on demand... might be a nice application for dispensing directly onto a cake etc. Or perhaps a whipping cream is too thick to work like that(?)
the portable fish tank pump was like that one.. the spring inside the tube was a good idea..
Bah!! Bought a couple of these after watching the video first time; one of them has broken so I came back for help with disassembly! But BC didn't show how he got the pump and motor out so now I'm stuck!!
Now let's see a flaming mousse maker!
It's going to have a hard time competing with the existing 3D printed foamy whoofler.
A minute in and I'm screaming put it in the voice of knowledge!
Edit: Vise! Sorry.
Vice*
@@TheTruthAboutLemmings I accept your correction
After watching I ordered 3 square versions of this. They are great so ordered 3 more, but the square version is no longer available and the new round version does not work with rechargeable batteries! Alkalines only.
We have the exact same model at home. We use it for isopropyl alcohol.
It's not so suited to non foaming liquids. There are other versions that just squirt liquid without air.
I wonder about the standby current draw. How long can the unit sit on your counter waiting for you to need soap? If you need to turn the power on/off every time to conserve the battery the touchless sensor become less useful.
So far it's lasted a very long time on one set of batteries. (Months)
@@bigclivedotcom I was wondering what the quiescent current would be on a device like this.