Special needs kids have big troubles with potty training. A 'wee-wee' alarm would be of a lot of help.
What would be a good way of detecting 'it' without electrocuting anybody? A possibility would be to detect humidity or temperature but it really has to be a sturdy sensor. Any ideas?
Conductivity is the obvious choice - running the electronics with a 1.5V battery and connecting the electrodes through a high-valued resistor should stop anything bad happening (though don't take that as a guarantee ;)
I would just use a surface mount temp sensor on a piece of cloth and some conductive wire. Actually, I would go a non tech route. With my son, we made him go every hour, then every 1.5, then every 2 until we found where his max range was. Then 10 or 15 minutes before he hit that max, we would prompt him to pay attention to how his boy parts were feeling. In pretty short order (month or two) he got used to what it felt like when he needed to go and potty training was done.
I remember visiting a young relative once who had a similar issue (was very young at the time). I recall 2 electrodes that would snap into each other with part of his underwear in between. When it would get wet, it would conduct and a little buzzer would go off. Perhaps you could do something similar?
