RoboFlush: The Automatic Toilet Flusher is a quick-and-dirty hack to solve a nagging problem with a toilet that requires its handle to be held down for the entire flush cycle. Although this common issue could have been repaired with standard plumbing techniques, an electronic solution was more interesting.

The system uses a BASIC Stamp 1, servomotor, and serial LCD. A high-torque Hitec servo attaches directly to the flushing handle of the toilet and the control electronics are mounted in a plastic project case. The servo is fixed into place using a large steel L bracket, double-sided foam tape, and zip-ties. The entire system is powered by a 12V, 5A DC supply hidden behind the toilet.

Operation is simple: First, the BS1 waits for a button press from an external doorbell push-button. Once the press is received, the BS1 moves a servo from an idle position to the flush position for a preset amount of time (approximately 10 seconds) and then moves the servo back to idle. The total number of flushes and the number of flushes since the last power cycle are displayed on a backlight-enabled serial LCD module.