Low Voltage Door Closed Light

Remove the light switch in the bathroom and replace it with an opccupancy sensor that will switch the light on when someone enters the washroom. Then hook another light outside the washroom to the sensor output so that the 2nd light will turn on as well.

Cant' tie into hard wired system.

because you're being so cheap, its hard. I would suggest you consider this. it solves a lot of problems CHEAPLY and is available in various time amounts.

You totally missed the point or didnt comprehend.

Not about conserving electricity or timing cycles. It is about being occupiec or not and visible outside of designated room.

Here ya go... ya don't get much cheaper than this.

hahaha.

See reply to fredski.

Amazon.com: Bathroom Door Lock with Occupancy Indicator ..
NEW|VIGI Comfort Indicator Lock,Door lock with indicator,Pri
No batteries, no wires.

Thnks,

needs to be outside of room and visible from back of the walled room.

Kinda like a BLUE LIGHT SPECIAL at K mart..lol.

We opted against an audible signal

How would you opt out audible signals?

Me thinks there would be plenty!

So you want a light that the work force can see in the work area. Which will tell them the restroom is occupied with out them getting up to go to it. I guess an effort to improve the amount of work being done. Won't work. Instead of the random person get up to go to the restroom you will have a race when the light goes out. That and the fact that there will always be some that will forget close the door as they leave and the light will stay on. So there will always be those that will go check if its been on awhile. Then there is moral. Some will take long then others. Each of use are different and our body function come at their own pace. Some even may have an under lying medical issue that may take them longer. Open them up to ridicule. Now that you got them watching for the light they will take notice to those that take longer.

If the occupancy level is such that there is that much wondering back and forth. Sound like you need to upgrade the number of facilities. The work force isn't being as productive as they could be if they were not trying to hold it in. How many employees use the one facility?

Wow, didn't think this was that big of a dilemma???

Ozzb, you were the only one helpful. However, I really don't need a social study of biological and social interactions thesis.

Just exactly as i explained.

To wit, the stall door is hung so it naturally is open. I just want to put a sensor on it that indicates to an external light that it is closed. (IE Someone sitting on the toilet) No one here cares about who takes longer than others. Just that it is available..

As stated earlier for others, we can't tie into existing facility infrastructure.

It is possible that I was mistaken that this is the place to get a simple straight forward answer. Thanx for your time.

Yes, you are mistaken that this is a place that caters to people like you who demand a exact answer to their question, and nothing more.

Put an indicating door lock on the stupid door, as PWSlack, and I, suggested and your petty problem will be solved without tying into anything except an intelligent answer.

You do need some social training, by the way.

Any device that has to transmit a signal to another location will drain the batteries quickly....just not practical as a stand alone system.....why not just choose a designated alternate location for backup facility....

Has to be battery or able to plug into a standard 110V outlet. We are a remote NAVAL facility, no alternate location. We have lots of Batteries

Yea, i changed the parameters. I wanted to keep the mechanics extremely low vis. As it turns out there is a receptacle that may be usable.

thnx..this is helpfull

GBP£5.50 at the local hardware shop; it saves messing around with the lighting circuits.

I did say this was a silly project. A lighthearted one that was a diversion. Sorry to have wasted your time.

Life is short!!! Enjoy the moments.

BTW....

You are correct, it IS a silly project, and you have been given many good answers and a few silly answers. Pick one.

If you really cannot tie into the building system...

I would hang a small box, like a 3" x 3" one, on the outside with two push buttons mounted so they can be pushed by a user of the facilities. A small relay inside the box attached to the two push buttons. Button 1 gets pushed when someone goes in. The relay will then latch itself on until the 2nd button gets pushed on exit from the facilities. First button will be normally open, a normally open relay contact pair in parallel with the button. Second button is normally closed and is in series with the first button and the relay contacts which is all in the feed to the relay coil. Second set of normally open relay contacts power your indicating light. Power all of this with a cord, with a small fuse of course, that plugs into a wall receptacle.

You are Awesome!!!!! Thats exactly what I was thinking.

That's good, but why incandescent lamp(s)? An LED (or more than one) and a limiting resistor (or an LED lamp having an imbedded resistor for the 3V supply) Will do the same indicating job at vastly lower current and therefore vastly longer battery life.

Additional LEDs could be placed in appropriate positions for visibility from different directions.

Can you explain what problem is solves?

I would posit, it's sort of like, well maybe exactly like, the "occupied' lights on airplanes. Keeps people from having to get up and que for a bathroom break. Don't know the size of the facility, but being a guv bldg who knows what the rules are. Well in fact I do know what the rules are. You've got to submit a Request For Proposal to the Buildings Department. After several proposals have been given, you can put the project out to bid, with all the disclaimers. (Minority (including type of minority and their minority ranking), women owned, etc. After the suitable bidder is found, a funding source must be located and approved. It has been awhile, but I'm certain there are a few more steps. By this time of course several bladders will have burst, and many of the folks will have retired, it is even possible this particular contractor has gone out of business or the facility may have been shut down.

hahahahahaha

Yup.

Another soldier in the trenches

As a matter of fact it is not a simple problem. In my lab there is a toilet room, with the door visible if you go to the door of your office. How do you know that the bathroom is occupied? Look at the light switch. Well, there is one guy, (I don't know who is, and even if I knew, I wouldn't talk to him) who closes the bathroom door and lives the light on (because the fan inside would work only when the light is on).

The "real men" who have a prostate, will understand that, sometime, it is imperative to go there, and if the light is on....you understand.

So, it is a similar problem with our OP's one.

The only way to solve it is a latch, as it was recommended, with the possibility to close a contact when the "busy" red sector shows. It implies a bit of work, but solves the problem. The contact would actuate a relay, which will power a blue light (although I would opt for red one).

You are way-over-engineering the problem!

There wasnt one to begin with, but now the latch has to be the switch in case somebody leaves the fan on!

Read the OP, he is clever enough to know that the door is generally open (kind of a good sign the bathroom is free). Now all that needs to happen everyone closing the door when engaged! You see? The switch on the closed door will light up the sign and say "busy".

You might want to post your problem in a seperate thread and we can have a go to solve it!

Sorry, i needed to clarify a bit.

Restroom has a stall, and a urinal.

So, when the stall is in use is what needs to be identified. 2 people have access at a time.

Just go outside to pee. You're on "a remote naval base".

I'd still go with an audible signal.

Audible signals may be so common outside the bathroom as to be ignored by the rest of the sailors in the room.

I think I've offended the OP, he may not be back. Or he may have locked himself in the bathroom for some privacy.

"he may have locked himself in the bathroom for some privacy."

If we only had a light that would tell us if he's in there!

You could get a remote battery powered wireless camera.

Two ideas, one "Engineering" and the other "just for fun".

First, we have magnetic indicators for tank level measurement. As the tank fills a float tips the magnet over to show a "red" surface and then as it sinks, the sensor is flipped back to show the green surface. No electricity, high reliability.

Second is a "string" on the door connected to an external flag. When the door is closed, the flag is up, when open, the flag is down. (Similar I suppose to the mailbox indicators that seem to be the trend in the USA) No electricity, high reliability, a little gimmicky.

hahaha..

We currently have the mail box flag. It started as a joke, then made more and more sence. So we want to dress it up a bit and make it vissible to all.

How about an old school solution from my K-3 School. Old school- takes a piece of Masonite about 4" x 6" and paint "Restroom" on it. Place a hanger in a very observable but convenient location. Mandate that everyone must take the "restroom pass" with them when they use the facility. No tag on the hanger means "in use", on the tag means use it but don't waste the company's time.

Many modern variants could be adapted from this. Put one of those "sensormatic" tags on it and it could be used for such things as: time management analysis; electric door control so no one could enter without it; if left in the rest room in an emergency, the entrant could leave without having to grab the "pass" and the door would still open for responders; the "occupied light" could be controlled by the tag without any intervention on the part of the entrant; number of flushes per entrant to make water saving mandatory; and many other absolutely necessary management information that could be incorporated on a spread sheet.

Issue everyone their own tag or swipe card. This would adapt itself to even greater advantages to management. Just think about the possibilities: corporate limitations on the number of restroom breaks per day per person; length of use statistics for each employee or guest; flushes per individual for water usage; control of "occupied" designators or annunciations; turning the lights off during periods of inactivity (just don't set it to short, people of long usage per visit could be caught in the dark prior to leaving); avoiding employees from having romantic liaisons in the privacy of the rest room stall (set for no more than one person at the same time); and numerous other entries for a personnel management viewpoint.

Go even further and connect a LEL or discriminating gas level detector to the tag control. This could be used to find those who contribute the most gases detrimental to the ozone layer. Perhaps even automated Draeger tubes operations and photocell readings as a temporary installation till the IC circuits could be developed and constructed. You could even patent it to put your name in infamy within the US Patent Office annals!

Just think of all the data you can obtain for a spread sheet or a data base! It would probably draw more attention than the introduction of LOTUS 1-2-3 during the super ball game!!!!!!!!!

Good Luck, Old Salt

I was tempted to say: "I hope you don't work for the government!", before it dawned on me, that no one as smart as you has ever worked for the government.

I think he's a double agent

The simplest fix is to just mandate, that everyone who uses that toilet have a smart-phone, and that they must upon closing, and opening of said door in question, promptly tweet their 'bathroom status' to the interested group, the contact info of all parties involved having been preprogrammed into that phone by the manager who passes out the phones. Problem solved!

Oh yeah! It just needs an APP that shows the status of all the toilets near you.

Brilliant idea!

Go on then! Here is a solution!

For the toilet- a microswitch located on the bottom of the seat. Connect it to a battery and a LED bulb located outside the bathroom. Maybe a heavy duty switch for those that will put a heavy load on it.

For the urinal- put a conductance meter, a modifies ohm meter, with a platinum sensor in the liquid of the urinal. Also connect this to a battery and an LED. The urine will increase the conductance of the water and as the water replaces it the conductance will lower. Only problem with this is some people may not flush it. This would give a false positive signal. Cure for that could be to install one of those photocell activated flush valves. The urine will automatically flush and bring in low conductance water.

More acceptable to the employees might be to expand the rest room. Refer to the Federal Standard for OSHA to find out what the minimum number of toilets and urinals is for the number of people in your workforce, 29CFR1910.141(c)(1)(I)

Good Luck, Old Salt

Mount a couple of PIR (passive infrared) sensors over the depositories, wire them to a microcontroller and display for #1 and #2 as the devices are being occupied, so if #1 is being used, it shows#2 still available for the desperate...won't make any difference if the door is ajar or the fan left on.

BS1 sip basic stamp from Parallax $29.99, PIR sensors $7.99ea. Serial to TTL adapter so you can program it from your computer $4.99. 5v power supplied from 'wall wart'(old cellphone charger), used phone wire to wire up, led's with limiting resistors for displays, i.e. about $60 U.S dollars and 2 hours, then everyone knows when the urinal or toilet is occupied. You will just need to convince the girls the PIR sensors are not transmitting their picture.

No power, no wiring, clear indication of being occupied, no maintenance.

- A simple raised flag - lever pressure of closing the door. Seen by all.

jt.

I was in the pub with my girlfriend last night when she said
"can I ask you a question?"
"Of course you can." I replied, stroking her hair. "What is it?"
"Why are you with me?" she asked.
"Because I love you." I said smiling.
"I know that," she said, "but this is the ladies toilets and I'm trying to take a s**t."

You can buy those stick-on LED lights. Just take one apart and connect a wire pair across the switch. At the other end or the wire pair connect a microswitch which is installed on the stall.

Or just put the stick-on LED on the wall next to the door and let people turn it on when they go in and off when they leave.

Thats what i did.

Thnx all!

Closed circuit TV.

The closed door light you're looking for has already been developed and is on the market. Check out www.headsuplock.com

Here's something new!

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Toilet-Restroom-Occupancy-Notification-Vacant-In-Use-Lock-Deadbolt-Indicator-/252809734094