Male switches?

Sep 08, 2013 21 Replies

Installed an awning over the patio in Handyman Towers a few weeks ago. Fully electric job, wall mounted switch in an IP65 box.



Now, since the awning has a motor, it's clearly a boy's toy.



However, SWMBO and granddaughter have taken to extending/retracting it willy nilly.



It's clearly a blue job, not a pink job!



With the advances in technology, is it possible to get a switch that senses if you are male or female?



In article , Andy Bartlett writes

DIK switch?

Hundreds of years ago it was pink for boys and blue for girls. But as the devil took away the boys, people switched the colours of their clothes to confuse him.

Its simple, you just mount a PIR detector about 600mm above the ground.

Oh, and make sure only the men wear the trousers and the women wear short skirts.

I can't even claim originality for the above solution. When I was a teenager I had a book of electronic projects that had this "Male/Female Discriminator" in it.

SWMBO is a receptonist in a GP practice. She tells me the big Lloyd George files they still used for medical records are pink for male, and blue for female patients.

Change it to a key switch and keep the key in your pocket. :)

TOJ.

Well, not exactly, but if you can arrange it so it gives a feelable 50 hz tickle when touched, that might do the trick. Brian

Nah - they'd use it all the more on a "Stop it - I like it!" basis.

In most cases a weight sensitive switch to stand on while you operate the controls would discriminate nicely.

Failing that convert it to remote control via your phone - most women don't seem to be interested in mastering how to work the TV remote other than for the most basic functions, never mind anything more complex! You can always add a password then!

SteveW

I think medical advances in gender switching have overtaken technical advances in electrical switching.

Couldn't you just move the switch further from the cooker :-)

Owain

Have several switches that have to be operated in a certain order. I've always wondered about a 10 key pad that requires a certain three buttons to be pressed. Pressing any other button disables it.

Or label the switch as something weird:

formatting link

Fit a few lightwave relays in series and put the remotes in a safe within a safe within a safe so you have to operate the remote to open the safe for the next one.

You could just use a programmable remote to do the sqence but where is the fun in that?

polygonum put finger to keyboard:

Still is in parts of rural China. Unless the parents don't choose asphyxiation, of course.

I have thermostats like that .....

Male (i.e. me) sets them, to desired temop and leave alone.

Females of the house assume they should be used as switches, turned to full on until they are warm enough, then turned off ... no matter how many times I explain ... it makes no difference

They also fail to understand that 20 deg C is always 20 deg C. It doesn't change just because there is a foot of snow on the ground, or because it is sunny.

All the stats I fit either have mechanical locks behind the knob to stop them setting outside the range I want or have buttons and menus to complicated for them to operate.

However, I did notice this summer when it was 17C outside fairly early on in the day that I didn't feel as cold as I would have if it were that temperature inside in the winter.

Jonathan

You need a lockout on the switch, hidden on something a woman will never think to use,

You need to connect the lockout switch to the bog seat, so the awning controls only work when it is raised :)

Join the Discussion

Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.

Didn't find your answer?

Ask the community — no account required