At one time I had an alarm clock which was named "Gabriel", for its legendary horn announcing the end of the world. It was hacked out of an alarm panel from a hazardous waste tank farm. Built inside a Nema 12 raintight box, it sported a 150 watt light bulb on top, and a honker that could be heard across a 40 acre tank farm. I kept it across the room. The light bulb would come on first, then a few seconds later the honker would begin its earsplitting cacophony. The idea was that the sleeper would so abhor the honking, as to be willing to get out of bed to disable the thing once the light went on. Worked most of the time. Nobody slept through it, at least. -- Lawrence Lile "Peter L. Peres" Sent by: pic microcontroller discussion list 02/05/2003 08:31 PM Please respond to pic microcontroller discussion list To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU cc: Subject: Re: [EE]: thin weight sensor Well, the alarm clock is useless, try a fog horn (the kind with compressed air). For your application you can easily assume that weighing one leg of the bed is enough and use a simple spring and microswitch. A deflated auto inner tyre folded several times could act as spring I think. To make sure of success I would use a device that tosses you out of bed by lifting one side until it's at 45 degrees angle although there is no guarantee that this will work either ... Peter -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu -- http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads