The Open Fly Detector

Description

In a really strange brainstorming session, a friend and I came up with the unique idea of creating a system that would detect whenever someone's zipper is down. We decided to enter this into the Zip It Good! Contest on Instructables.com and we wanted to share it with the Hackaday world.

My MattDougan and I approached this problem with two approaches. I used two photodiodes, one placed towards the top of the fabric behind the zipper and the other placed towards the bottom. An LED is attached to the zipper tab. When the zipper is pulled downwards or upwards, the photodiodes are triggered. When a "zip down" is detected without a corresponding "zip up" event, a haptic response is triggered alerting the user that their zipper is down!

Build Instructions

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Step 1

A step-by-step guide for building this project is located on Instructables.com
Just follow this link http://www.instructables.com/id/Open-Fly-Detection-System/

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Discussions

DainBramage wrote 11/03/2014 at 19:48

I suggest using an electric shock as your indicator. One decent jolt to the groin and no one will ever forget to zip it back up. :D

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Orlando Hoilett wrote 11/15/2014 at 21:13

Haha, I agree.

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Adam Fabio wrote 11/03/2014 at 17:49

As someone who walked out with an open fly today, this project can't come soon enough. rather than haptic feedback, why not just have a voice announcement? "Wardrobe Malfunction, Wardrobe malfunction" etc ;)

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Orlando Hoilett wrote 11/15/2014 at 21:15

Yes! I love it! With the volume of a bullhorn.

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Christoph wrote 11/03/2014 at 09:12

Please elaborate a bit more on the "haptic response". As a follow-up question: Can the system detect an obstructed fly?

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Orlando Hoilett wrote 11/15/2014 at 21:17

In my example, an LED lit up when the fly was left open. My partner suggested a slight "buzz" in the nether regions to indicate the fly is down. I think that at may be awkward so I was thinking maybe the device could have an accompanying wrist band that would vibrate slightly.

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The Open Fly Detector

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