As it's the time of year for odd articles, I thought there may be some interest in this device: I took one apart, and was surprised by how well it was made, and how complex its design appeared to be. It is held together with screws rather than just plastic clips, and, in particular, it has plugs and sockets on the circuit board where I expected just soldered leads. The photo at shows a disassembled view. The battery compartment is on the left; the aerosol can holder is on the right. It has variable timing (SW1) to set 5, 10, or 30 minute intervals, and SW2 allows instant use. When activated, the solenoid coil pushes on the aerosol for a fraction of a second to release the fragrance. The green led flashes once every few seconds to show the device is working. The black push switch connected to the "Enable" plug detects whether or not an aerosol can is present; if not, it turns the device off to save wasting the three AA batteries. Both sides of the circuit board are shown. The large transistor is a B772; the diode next to it is probably a 1N5401 (the 4 is not visible). I would have thought that, for simplicity and economy, it would have just used something like a cmos 555, but the controlling timer chip appears to be specifically designed. My guess is that this device is a bit like an inkjet printer - the cost of manufacture isn't far off the selling price, but the real money is in the consumables! -- Jeff

goo. I'd guess yeah it's something specifically designed for the device, and then as you say the margins are so thin that actually paying to have the die put in a package with pins would cut in too much. Even a 555 would be too expensive -- ----Android NewsGroup Reader----

An interesting domestic gadget?

Dec 24, 2015 22 Replies

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Mikko OH2HVJ 10 years ago

Reminds of our LN2+hot water in Coke bottles rockets; a balloon with hot water was inserted first, then a nozzle pipe that went about 10cm in and left room for LN2 fill. As the bottle was dropped on a sharp stick, it blew the water filled balloon inside and created a LN2+H2O mixture for more than 50m high flights.

mikko

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Tom Del Rosso 10 years ago

I hope no one takes that paragraph out of context.

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Tim Williams 10 years ago

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Tim

Seven Transistor Labs, LLC Electrical Engineering Consultation and Contract Design Website: http://seventransistorlabs.com

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