Silver Trashmaster

Aaron Silver

Summary:

Many people can identify with the following situation: It’s been a long hard day at school / work and you eat dinner then go to bed. You wake up in the morning and leave to go back to work. At around 2:00 in the afternoon, it hits you: you forgot to take out the trash! It is very easy for a person to forget for several reasons, including forgetting what day is trash removal, what the current day is, too much on a person’s mind, etc. Once it is forgotten, you are stuck with extra trash. The Silver Trashmaster is the solution to this common problem. The necessities of operation for this design are simple: First and foremost, it will be very safe for the customer to use The unit itself will be able to hold 3-4 full bags of trash, including a bag of recyclables on the top. The user will be able to program a time controller device on the top of the unit and set it for an appropriate time the night before trash collection. When that programmed day and time arrives, the time controller unit will turn on a motor on the trashcan which makes the unit go forward. It will continue forward until it reaches a stop at the end of the driveway, which will turn off the motor. The trashcan is then ready and able for pickup from a collection truck.
There are several methods possible to accomplish all of the above requirements. The designer originally planned on having a large 1725-rpm 1/3 horsepower electric motor mounted on the back exterior of the trashcan. A long extension cord plugged into the wall was an alternative power source considered for the motor. A third wheel could have been added to the underside of the trashcan so it could move freely. There were several ways to move the trashcan, with a pulley or gear system attached to the motor and the rear back axle or rear back wheels of the unit. To accomplish the motor turning on at the right day and time, a whole computer system or some bare microprocessor unit with some logic circuitry could have been used to turn on the motor at the correct instant in time. To stop the trashcan, an optical sensor system attached to the wheel, at the end of the driveway, or somehow using time were all viable methods.
The final design ended up with a smaller 12-Volt high torque motor located on the bottom interior of the trashcan. The power source was a car battery which was on the bottom of the trashcan itself. A time controller unit was used as the primary means of detecting and switching on the motor at the correct day and time. A large pulley wheel was attached to the back axle and connected to the motor. An electrical switch is used to turn the motor off when the trashcan reached the curb and came into contact with a stopping device (such as a brick). Two rigid casters were placed in the front bottom of the trashcan. Finally, a protective covering was placed inside the trashcan, separating the motor and electrical systems from the trash itself.
The final product worked quite nicely! The time controller device is very easy to program and works wonderfully. When activated, the trashcan begins to wheel itself forward. It will continue going forward until it hits some type of stop at the end destination, triggering the switch and shutting off the motor. The trashcan can also hold an appreciable load, over 50 pounds!