could you suggest a PLC ? this one ?

Actually, I was thinking of one from AUTOMATION DIRECT, which is a business that is willing and able to do far more for every customer than Amazon has done for all it's customers in the past year. They offer a wide variety of PLCs and the small cheap ones are still much more rugged than the one shown in that Amazon link. Yes, the products are aimed more at industry, but that means more rugged and much better supported.

 

I hope she can safely, light, smoke and extinguish her cigarettes. And safely evacuate the home if smoke detectors activate.
Be sure to check smoke detector batteries. The detectors should be replaced every 10-years.

 

AUTOMATION DIRECT

Maybe you could provide a link to the cheap controller you are suggesting... I've looked and the cheapest 'starter kit' with masses more functionality than needed is, without servos/solenoids/switches/etc, over 3x $$ compared to the complete Arduino kit required (approx $70 inc MCU, power pack, servo, push button/LED & microswitch). Its massively over-engineered for this problem which doesn't need factory level resilience.

 

@MisterBill2 could you suggest one that would work for me they have so many on there i'm not sure which one will be best for me.
@MrSalts Shes been smoking over 50 years shes isn't cripple or mentally challenged other then her memory. Im not worried about her forgetting she has a cigarette in her mouth, so im not worried about her setting the house on fire. but yes i do have smoke detectors in the house.

 

@Irving i was thinking the same thing he keeps saying its rugged. and in my head im thinking i dont think shes gonna start smacking it around if it doesn't give her a cigarette but maybe lol

 

@Irving i was thinking the same thing he keeps saying its rugged. and in my head im thinking i dont think shes gonna start smacking it around if it doesn't give her a cigarette but maybe lol

Even if she did, that's more about your construction techniques than the PLC robustness. An industrial PLC is designed to cope with power fluctuations, noisy control signals, unexpected short circuits and all manner of hardware & software issues in a factory production environment and to fail safely if necessary. Important but not entirely relevant here. Being disabled, I run all sorts of home automation, monitoring & control systems on a variety of low-cost hardware with no issues, many subsystems being rather more mission critical than a cigarette dispenser!

 

I like MrSalt's suggestion for the logic where the 1 hour timer stops at the end of the time period and enabled the dispense button. The timer is then left halted until the dispense button is pressed. I think the simplest way to implement this (Other than using a small microcontroller such as a PIC12F1840 or ATtiny13A.) would be to us a CD4060 with it's oscillator section running at about 4.5 hz which would make Q13 roll over in about 1 hour. When Q13 goes from high to low this could be used to set a latch (Say a CD4013) The set output from this would be used to enable the dispense button and inhibit the oscillator section of the CD4060. When the dispense button was pressed it would also reset the CD4013 which would restart the timer.
I think rather than using a solenoid (Which would require a large current pulse.) to dispense, a small geared motor could be used with a crank linked to a push rod. It would also have disk on it's output shaft with a notch cut into it and a micro switch held actuated when the notch was not lined up with the micro switch. The micro switch would be wired so that it powered the motor until it was lined up with the notch. To trigger a dispense the motor would be actuated for a short time with a pulse that was long enough to move the motor away from the notch. The motor would then complete one revolution and stop again at the notch position. If the TS lived close enough to a member that could program a micro then I'm sure one of us could write the code.

Les.

 

@LesJones I agree a solenoid isn't viable. Low power 5v solenoids also don't have the stroke.

I like the idea of a geared motor driving a rubber tyre to push the cigarette out. A simple 3D printed wheel with a thick rubber band glued around it and a cam printed on the side to activate the microswitch would do the job very cheaply. In fact the whole hopper arrangement could be 3D-printed.

 

I'd get rid of the sensor.
I think a timer function where she can push a push a momentary button and that button only works if one hour has passed since the previous successful button press.
Specifically,
A button press will do nothing if one hour hasn't passed.
If an hour has passed, a button press resets the timer AND gives access to a cigarette.

I like this approach. Following major surgery I was given morphine for pain. I could push that button all day long for a morphine push in my IV. However, that was all I could do was push the button. Unless a preset time had elapsed it was "no morph for you" try again later.

You want a non refrigerable one shot timer function. You can use discrete components or like buy on Amazon or similar. You can also use a simple uC (micro-controller) which will require some minimal programming.

Ron

 

You want a non refrigerable one shot timer

That's the best kind, they won't spoil if left out.

 

The whole package does need to be fairly rugged. At least that has been my recent experience providing assorted technology solutions for the alzheimers afflicted mother of one client. Still strong enough to break things including switches and electrical outlets and bed remote controls. And a system that does not need to be replaced is often cheaper in the longer time run. There are some "smart relay" packages that appear to include some logic functions and those type of devices can provide the limited smart function of timer and logic for the application.
And my suggestion included the consideration that it would not be an electronics tech doing the assembly and wiring.