Hi,

This comes under "I'm just curious".

At work, we have urinals that have these ZURN automated flush valves
on them. They have some kind of "electric eye" sensor, so that, after
a person leaves a urinal, the thing flushes by itself. The sensor
could also be proximity activated, but its pretty sophisticated, since
you can't just wave your hand over the "eye", and make it flush.
Something has to be the right distance from the "eye" for a certain
amount of time, or it won't activate. Pretty ingenious.

I've spent a lot of time contemplating how these things are powered.
There are no wires running to the valve assembly. There is a small
encasement, but not large enough to hold a substantial battery supply,
which, IMHO, would be necessary to power some kind of solenoid valve.

Does anyone know how these things work? It would give me something
else to think about when I'm at work.

"Darmok" wrote in message
...

Something has to be the right distance from the "eye" for a certain
amount of time, or it won't activate. Pretty ingenious.

Infrared. Might have a turbine generator?

N

Darmok writes:

Hi,

This comes under "I'm just curious".

At work, we have urinals that have these ZURN automated flush valves
on them. They have some kind of "electric eye" sensor, so that, after
a person leaves a urinal, the thing flushes by itself. The sensor
could also be proximity activated, but its pretty sophisticated, since
you can't just wave your hand over the "eye", and make it flush.
Something has to be the right distance from the "eye" for a certain
amount of time, or it won't activate. Pretty ingenious.

I've spent a lot of time contemplating how these things are powered.
There are no wires running to the valve assembly. There is a small
encasement, but not large enough to hold a substantial battery supply,
which, IMHO, would be necessary to power some kind of solenoid valve.

Does anyone know how these things work? It would give me something
else to think about when I'm at work.

Probably a long life battery. The electronics only runs intermittently and
the solenoid only has to get the flow started. The water does the rest of
the work.

I suppose the water flow could also charge a battery or supercap, but then
what happens if no one has to pee for a long time?

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http://www.us.kohler.com/onlinecatalog/pdf/115255_4.pdf Low V. PS
http://www.us.kohler.com/onlinecatalog/pdf/115257_4.pdf (4 C cells)
http://www.totousa.com/toto/admin/up...U1GNC-0404.pdf -
water turbine recharges its batteries

Darmok wrote:
Hi,

This comes under "I'm just curious".

At work, we have urinals that have these ZURN automated flush valves
on them. They have some kind of "electric eye" sensor, so that, after
a person leaves a urinal, the thing flushes by itself. The sensor
could also be proximity activated, but its pretty sophisticated, since
you can't just wave your hand over the "eye", and make it flush.
Something has to be the right distance from the "eye" for a certain
amount of time, or it won't activate. Pretty ingenious.

I've spent a lot of time contemplating how these things are powered.
There are no wires running to the valve assembly. There is a small
encasement, but not large enough to hold a substantial battery supply,
which, IMHO, would be necessary to power some kind of solenoid valve.

Does anyone know how these things work? It would give me something
else to think about when I'm at work.

On Sat, 30 Jul 2005 15:55:50 GMT, Bennett Price
wrote:

Darmok wrote:
Hi,

This comes under "I'm just curious".

At work, we have urinals that have these ZURN automated flush valves
on them. They have some kind of "electric eye" sensor, so that, after
a person leaves a urinal, the thing flushes by itself. The sensor
could also be proximity activated, but its pretty sophisticated, since
you can't just wave your hand over the "eye", and make it flush.
Something has to be the right distance from the "eye" for a certain
amount of time, or it won't activate. Pretty ingenious.

I've spent a lot of time contemplating how these things are powered.
There are no wires running to the valve assembly. There is a small
encasement, but not large enough to hold a substantial battery supply,
which, IMHO, would be necessary to power some kind of solenoid valve.

Does anyone know how these things work? It would give me something
else to think about when I'm at work.

http://www.us.kohler.com/onlinecatalog/pdf/115255_4.pdf Low V. PS
http://www.us.kohler.com/onlinecatalog/pdf/115257_4.pdf (4 C cells)
http://www.totousa.com/toto/admin/up...U1GNC-0404.pdf -
water turbine recharges its batteries


Very interesting. I looked over those Kohler models. I'll have to
see if Zurn has a similar site. The Zurn models we have are no where
near the size of those Kohler units .. maybe 1/4 the size. Perhaps
they operate on the same principle though.

Hi!

I've spent a lot of time contemplating how these things are powered.
There are no wires running to the valve assembly. There is a small
encasement, but not large enough to hold a substantial battery supply,
which, IMHO, would be necessary to power some kind of solenoid valve.

Does anyone know how these things work? It would give me something
else to think about when I'm at work.

The one at my place of work is electric. It runs on 4xAA batteries that
supposedly last for at least 2,000 flush cycles. It is of the Sloan Valve
Company brand. That's as per the user's manual.

At first I thought that this thing might be recharged by water flow, but
sometimes the water pressure isn't very good...and as a result the unit
would not get charged up.

William

On Sun, 31 Jul 2005 19:09:27 GMT, "William R. Walsh"
wrote:

Hi!

I've spent a lot of time contemplating how these things are powered.
There are no wires running to the valve assembly. There is a small
encasement, but not large enough to hold a substantial battery supply,
which, IMHO, would be necessary to power some kind of solenoid valve.

Does anyone know how these things work? It would give me something
else to think about when I'm at work.

The one at my place of work is electric. It runs on 4xAA batteries that
supposedly last for at least 2,000 flush cycles. It is of the Sloan Valve
Company brand. That's as per the user's manual.

At first I thought that this thing might be recharged by water flow, but
sometimes the water pressure isn't very good...and as a result the unit
would not get charged up.

William


Yeah, the Zurn units where I work look like they could hold 4 AA
batteries. 2000 flushes, huh? I wonder if that's been tested

Hi!

Yeah, the Zurn units where I work look like they could hold 4 AA
batteries. 2000 flushes, huh? I wonder if that's been tested

I don't know, but it might make for an interesting experiment! :-D

Of course, with the programmed in delay (you can't just make it flush unless
you cover the sensor for a while first...there is no "rapid firing" of this
unit allowed) you might be in the bathroom for a LONG time.

The manual also gave the specs for carbon-zinc batteries, which didn't seem
to have near the lifetime. I'm not too surprised by this--carbon zinc
batteries seem to do a lot better with a steady low load on them.

Very theoretically I could take the one at work off and examine it. The key
is hanging in the janitor's closet, which is not usually locked up. Of
course, if I tried something would probably go wrong and water would start
gushing from the valve.

William