Kevin Renfrow

Ok, so the name still needs a little work, but the device is really cool in my opinion. Last night (i.e. early this morning) we finally got around to assembling our creation that’s been in the works for a while now. Essentially we’ve got the following:

As shown above, there’s a power supply connected to an LED behind a sign (written only in crude German now, but soon to be included in many different languages) which says essentially “occupied when light glows.” This sign setup is mounted on the wall outside of our suite bathroom. One terminal of the power supply is connected to the LED and resistor, and the other end is routed down the door frame into the interior of the bathroom.

The wires pass under the door, up the wall, and around to the bathroom stall door. The picture above shows Brendan making some modifications to the switch joint which is connected to the two wires. When the bathroom stall door is closed and latched, it compresses the switch, closing the circuit, and activating the LED outside.

The key constraints to our possible designs was that it had to be extremely intuitive to understand and that it wouldn’t require any user interaction to set or reset.

So you may be thinking, ‘why’d we bother in the first place?’

Honestly, it’s because we’re nerds and got a little too bored. The slightly less motivating reason for this approach, but the original driving force, was to provide a service to our guests of the opposite gender. Our suite is populated with 8 guys, but we frequently have female guests who visit to work on homework or just hang out. Up to now, the situation of using the bathroom was kind of awkward because you had to knock on the door and listen if anyone was in there. Also, while you’re in there, you have to hope that the suite residents extend the same routine before they enter the bathroom.

With the new BUNS setup, anyone can immediately determine the occupancy of the bathroom without needing to even open the door. Time will tell if the new system will be up to the standards of the opposite gender, but I think that it is definitely an improvement from the non-existent system before.

A little about the author: Kevin is a student at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, CA. He loves the outdoors and enjoys backpacking, camping, hiking, biking, kayaking, and just about everything. When he's not in the great outdoors, he spends his free time working on web development projects and tinkering with computers. Kevin is currently serving as the Web Coordinator for the Western Region, Order of the Arrow, BSA.