I never understood the point of these, and their names are misleading: the do NOT refresh your air, they spread scent! If you think you need that, you probably should be cleaning or identify and eliminate a particular source of bad odours, not spraying masking scents into the air like a 17th century courtier in Paris.
> they spread scent! If you think you need that, you probably should be cleaning or identify and eliminate a particular source of bad odours
What if you think you need that because you prefer pleasant scents to the neutral absence of noticeable scent, not because of “a particular source of bad odours”?
Because “fresh" has long been considered a descriptor of particular noticeable scents, not the absence of scent (also true, though not as relevant here, of particular tastes.)
I imagine the "healthy" connotation that the term fresh carries is good for marketing. "generator" sounds industrial, polluting.. makes one wonder if it causes adverse health effects.
You're right, and that's why I consider their name misleading: these things are thoroughly unhealthy, and may mask another source of unhealth (bad scent maybe due to hidden mold for instance).
Not all odour sources are easily controllable (cooking in open plan apartments, pets, flat mates, toilets, etc.). Increasing ventilation also is not always practical, like when it's -5c outside, or you live on a main road where the air aggravates your allergies.
Also many people just like the scents and aren't trying to cover up anything.
Hah, I did the same thing in much the same way, though IIRC I didn't use a relay, I used the existing circuit board and found the place where their MCU output the signal to move the motor. Pretty nice hack, at least until I realized I didn't want a thing spraying perfume in my house.
A long-neglected project on my to-do list is to do exactly the opposite with one of these. I want to use the circuit board to detect movement in front of it and use the motor output to close a relay instead of squirting smelly stuff. The relay would then trigger a button push on my wireless doorbell button and ring the doorbell if it detected movement.
Same here, I found this article because I was looking for a time mod so it would spray less often than it does out-of-the-box. And now I'm convinced I should not be spraying any questionable chemical perfume in my house anyway.
Oh for sure, that makes more sense.
It just makes me chuckle that in the future using public restrooms, that people will try not to trigger a response from the 'air freshener AI'.
Love the concept but hate the smell of these "air fresheners" that just spray horrible perfume.
Thank God for products such as carbonfilters and Yocoair that remove odour instead.
Not a fan of spreading perfume, but Airwicks are a great source of an aesthetically acceptable case with battery compartment and motion sensor. I have one in each room of the house modified for sensing which is then used to drive a central thermostat.
Great write up! While this one probably isn't for me, it's planted the seed of an idea. I have a new kitten who we've just started allowing free roam of the house at night, which is fine until dawn when she thinks we all need to be awake and starts running around like a mad thing at half past stupid in the morning.
If I can make one of her noisier toys smart, maybe I can get Alexa to call her downstairs by turning it on, thereby giving us some peace without locking her away all night.
Now hook it up to a methane sensor that is also connected via WiFi and add a loudspeaker - so everytime the sensor sees heightened methane concentrations you spray and play an audio file that says "uh-oh, fart" in a Rainman voice.
(Hey downvote me all you want, we're talking about strapping a dual core MCU to an air freshener. It isn't like this was Nobel Prize material to begin with :-))
Hmm I have one that kills mosquito's - instead of squirting every x minutes it should listen to the sound in the room filtering out my snoring and wife talking to herself , the cats moving about and figure out how many actual mosquito's there are.
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[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 80.6 ms ] thread[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26732229
What if you think you need that because you prefer pleasant scents to the neutral absence of noticeable scent, not because of “a particular source of bad odours”?
Because “fresh" has long been considered a descriptor of particular noticeable scents, not the absence of scent (also true, though not as relevant here, of particular tastes.)
Also many people just like the scents and aren't trying to cover up anything.
https://koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2020/07/251_293448.html
The manufacturer was Reckitt Benckiser, who is also the manufacturer of Airwick.
https://www.reckitt.com/brands/air-wick/
BTW: There is ~some proof that geranium is a big allergic-igniter
I really should get back on that.
Used http://toit.io to connect the ESP32 to the cloud so I could control it from my phone (with a tiny Flutter app).
It would be easier to put a water flow sensor on the toilet though.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27124671
1. This page - spread Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) in your room
2. Monitor air quality in your room[1], including PM2.5, CO2 and VOCs
Choose one.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27124671
If I can make one of her noisier toys smart, maybe I can get Alexa to call her downstairs by turning it on, thereby giving us some peace without locking her away all night.
(Hey downvote me all you want, we're talking about strapping a dual core MCU to an air freshener. It isn't like this was Nobel Prize material to begin with :-))