De-meh-lition: eWave Automatic Soap & Sanitizer Dispenser

In the post for today's deal, @ranneyd suggested that "for $5 this might just be worth it for the sensors inside, if your the engineering type."

Let's find out!

As any tinkerer knows, the first step of taking almost anything apart is playing the age-old game, "Find the Screws." The first one is under the arm, close to the spout.

The next two are under the refill lid. Note that I haven't emptied the hand lotion from our viscosity test.

At this point, you can take off the top. You can see from here the pump motor (top left), a few belts and pulleys, an infrared LED (bottom), and the speaker that makes the pleasant chime when enabled (middle). The pump assembly is held in place by 4 screws - one is hidden under the removable pulley in the center. Dang I'm good at this game.

With those four screws undone, a lift and slight twist gets the pump assembly out of the reservoir, which, as noted earlier, is still full of hand lotion. Don't do this.

That speaker's just held in by a piece of adhesive and the pump assembly. Removing that black tab makes it pop out easily.

There it is, along with the infrared LED. You might have to tug a bit, but it comes out pretty easily. The motor isn't tied down in any meaningful way, and can just be lifted out.

Lifting the motor assembly out of the top lets us start working our way down. However, the front panel is still attached at the bottom. Looks like we haven't won "Find the Screw" yet.

As any veteran FtS player knows, rubber feet are frequently used to conceal screws. The eWave is no unique case, and each foot conceals a screw you'll need to undo to remove the base. They take a bit of wiggling, but I was able to get them out without too much effort and no tearing.

Crap, where do we go from here?

Aha. Undo these screws, and you'll be able to remove the soap reservoir, which, again, if you're doing this right, should not be full of lotion.

Removing the reservoir removes the pins holding the front panel in place, allowing us to remove it and gain access to the infrared sensor. There's also the PCB that makes the whole thing run.

Here's a shot of everything you're getting. The most reusable parts are likely the infrared LED and sensor, the motor, the speaker, and the tiny white LED attached to the motor. You might get some use out of the pump assembly, too, if you're clever. And since it's 2-for-Tuesday, you're getting two of each of these!

If you get this all apart and decide, for some reason, you want an automatic soap dispenser again, it's not too hard to put back together.

Well, I'm sure those bits weren't very important.