Help needed.

[The inspector]

Hi all,

What a few months it has been. I won’t bore you with all the details, but in short, I have been seeking help to sort my thoughts out after my wife found out about my fetishes and my world came crashing down around me. She came to terms and asked me to get help after a fairly life changing event, (I’m still here). 

My wife agreed to come along with me and use it to try and help and learn. The person running the session said in a round about way that she can’t change a person and has no right to. She obviously fell in love with me and that person hasn’t changed, she just learned more about me. 

We went away for a weekend and had a serious talk about it and she has agreed that she will never understand. We are going to continue as we are as long as she doesn’t have to be involved in any of my fetishes. She will allow handcuffs in the bedroom but that’s it. Anything I do alone is up to me.

Got to repair a few friendships now after she told people things... but generally everything is on the mend... ish...

So what better way to celebrate and improvement in circumstances than to let my brain go wild in unsurprised form. I need help from the technical amongst you if I may..

Could any of you provide instructions on how to make a device that does the following. 

A mag lock will be on restraining something.

Timer is set to a duration of the users choosing. Say 1 hour

When a button is held a timer will start to count down.

If the button is released the timer stops.

If the button is held again the timer continues from where it was left off.

At the end of the timer the Matlock releases.

If anyone could point me to components/plans/prices that would be great. I have a scenario in my head that needs some workings.

[ltxrob]

glad to hear things are improving... and life is returning to normal..

With regards to your timer question, do a search for relay timer board on Ebay/Amazon etc
there are a lot out there, many have different selectable modes that can be used in a number of ways..
Fairly sure one of them has a time while trigger is high mode but not tried that myself so cannot 100% confirm

[Like Ra]

My wife agreed to come along with me and use it to try and help and learn. The person running the session said in a round about way that she can’t change a person and has no right to. She obviously fell in love with me and that person hasn’t changed, she just learned more about me. 

If I may... What for session was it? With a psychologist? Do you remember what was said in more details? That might help many...

[The inspector]

My wife agreed to come along with me and use it to try and help and learn. The person running the session said in a round about way that she can’t change a person and has no right to. She obviously fell in love with me and that person hasn’t changed, she just learned more about me. 

If I may... What for session was it? With a psychologist? Do you remember what was said in more details? That might help many...

Not quite a psychiatrist. More of someone to talk to that is impartial through the health care system. 

I saw them a few times first to just get my thoughts out. Then my wife came with me. the person holding the session asked me not to say anything. Asked my wife about how we first met. What she felt and saw, how she felt as our relationship blossomed and how she felt on the wedding day. All of which were positive answers. she then asked if the sex was good and still felt intimate. Again answered yes. So what has changed in the person you fell in love with? 

just gave her time to think about it and explained that even couples who have been married for 50 years don’t truly know everything about a person and that everyone has secrets. They also said that it can be terrifying to tell someone you live something that you consider to be very embarrassing.

[Like Ra]

What a wise (and experienced) guy! Something(one) to learn (from). Hats off, thumbs up!

[essanym]

Could any of you provide instructions on how to make a device that does the following.

A mag lock will be on restraining something.

Timer is set to a duration of the users choosing. Say 1 hour

When a button is held a timer will start to count down.

If the button is released the timer stops.

If the button is held again the timer continues from where it was left off.

At the end of the timer the Matlock releases.

If anyone could point me to components/plans/prices that would be great. I have a scenario in my head that needs some workings.

Glad you're back and everything is on the mend with your wife.

Now, for your request, I've been thinking about it and I can only see three possibilities.

1a.  Use an arduino microcontroller and load a very simple program onto it that can do what you are asking.  Going this route, you can completely avoid having to mess about with any mains voltage wiring since everything, the arduino and the maglock operate off of low DC volts.  Obviously the downside is having to rely on code running on a chip.  The actual programming side of it wouldn't be that difficult I don't think.  I could probably help with it since I have an arduino sitting here I could use as a test bed.

1b.  This is practically the same as just getting an arduino but there are some purpose built relay timers on amazon that run off of DC voltage.  The only real difference is that the microcontroller is aeady programmed and it's prebuilt to be able to do the kind of timer stuff you want it to do, probably.  I say probably because I've never used one.

2.  You could build a device which uses one of those mains outlet mechanical timers, but since you would need to switch it on and off, you would need to have a relay to control it which would involve dealing with mains wiring.  If I were going to build such a device, I would solder all of the connections and add heatshrink tubing where ever I could so if you aren't comfortable with mains wiring or soldering, I wouldn't really recommend this option.

Whichever you decide to do, I will be glad to help you find parts and build the device.

[The inspector]

Could any of you provide instructions on how to make a device that does the following.

A mag lock will be on restraining something.

Timer is set to a duration of the users choosing. Say 1 hour

When a button is held a timer will start to count down.

If the button is released the timer stops.

If the button is held again the timer continues from where it was left off.

At the end of the timer the Matlock releases.

If anyone could point me to components/plans/prices that would be great. I have a scenario in my head that needs some workings.

Glad you're back and everything is on the mend with your wife.

Now, for your request, I've been thinking about it and I can only see three possibilities.

1a.  Use an arduino microcontroller and load a very simple program onto it that can do what you are asking.  Going this route, you can completely avoid having to mess about with any mains voltage wiring since everything, the arduino and the maglock operate off of low DC volts.  Obviously the downside is having to rely on code running on a chip.  The actual programming side of it wouldn't be that difficult I don't think.  I could probably help with it since I have an arduino sitting here I could use as a test bed.

1b.  This is practically the same as just getting an arduino but there are some purpose built relay timers on amazon that run off of DC voltage.  The only real difference is that the microcontroller is aeady programmed and it's prebuilt to be able to do the kind of timer stuff you want it to do, probably.  I say probably because I've never used one.

2.  You could build a device which uses one of those mains outlet mechanical timers, but since you would need to switch it on and off, you would need to have a relay to control it which would involve dealing with mains wiring.  If I were going to build such a device, I would solder all of the connections and add heatshrink tubing where ever I could so if you aren't comfortable with mains wiring or soldering, I wouldn't really recommend this option.

Whichever you decide to do, I will be glad to help you find parts and build the device.

I may contact you soon to explain what I’m trying to achieve a bit better. Cost needs to be low.

[Like Ra]

Mains timer + 12V AC/DC adapter + door electro-magnet 😊

[The inspector]

Mains timer + 12V AC/DC adapter + door electro-magnet 😊

Not quite sure if I explained my requirements well enough. 

I have all the parts for a timed mag lock release as I used that for my last session. What I’m trying to achieve here is a timer that won’t release or countdown towards release unless a button is held. So if the timer was set for four hours, it it could take 6 hours to free myself if I didn’t hold the button for two hours. Make more sense?

[no smile]

If you are not into coding and electronic, I would search on the 2nd proposition.

If you want to dig a bit in, let's continue  😉 :

Arduino code should not be complicated here so, I would mainly trust it.  Just to be sure, I would run everything on a battery that would die in a reasonable time as plan B.

Here is a simple example (in C) (BEWARE ITS COMPLETELY UNTESTED AND I DID NOT CHECK WHETHER THE PINS ARE OK AS IT WOULD BE ENTIRELY BOARD DEPENDENT SO, NEED TO CHECK WHAT BOARD YOU USE) :

Code:

#define time_in_minutes 60   // push time
#define buttonPIN 5          // the button pin
#define buttonIdleState LOW  // the state of the button when not pushed - check if you need a pushup/pushdown resistor
#define outPIN 6             // the output pin

int countdown;

void setup() {
  // put your setup code here, to run once:
  countdown = time_in_minutes;
  pinMode(buttonPIN, INPUT);
  pinMode(outPIN, OUTPUT);
  digitalWrite(outPIN, HIGH);
 
}

void loop() {
  // put your main code here, to run repeatedly:
  if (countdown==0)
    digitalWrite(outPIN, LOW);
  if (digitalRead(buttonPIN) != buttonIdleState)
    countdown--;
  delay(1000);
}

Also, you need a bit of electronic to set it by yourself (resistors for the button and a transistor for the output)