Show HN: Loodio 2 – A Simple Rechargable Bathroom Privacy Device
loodio.comHey HN!
I posted here some years ago trying to raise money for a Kickstarter for a product I call Loodio.
Loodio is a motion activated music player for bathrooms that plays music during the bathroom visit to give users privacy during their sacred moments.
The kickstarter failed, but I managed to create a product eventually with a lot of effort.
I managed to sell 150 units of the first unit, mostly to United States but to all different parts of the world while working on the next version.
The problem with the first version was that it was running on a Raspberry Pi Zero W (that had to be wall connected) and it was pretty big, had crappy sound and took a minute to start since it had to boot a whole linux system. I was running it on a python script and unix services. To add music, people had to SSH into the unit so you can imagine how painful that was for some.
However customers loved it! But I knew I could do better. The most common request was battery operation.
Here are some reviews of version 1: https://loodio.com/pages/reviews
I'm proud to say that Loodio 2 is finally here and is working like I imagined when I started working on it almost 5 years ago now.
Loodio 2 introduces battery operation with 1 week of battery life (~5 hours of active operation). It has great sound and an easy way to add your own music with SD card support (4GB included).
It doesn't require any app. Can be run without WiFi (however you lose some features like internet radio, time updates, software updates and weather)
Why does it have a display, you may ask? Because, I used to have an electric toothbrush that came with a display. That display showed how long you were brushing to make sure you did your 2 minutes per brush. When I wasn't brushing my teeth, it showed the current time. And I stopped using the electric tooth brush (because a dentist told me they are too harsh on your teeth) but kept the display for probably 5 years afterwards because I noticed I really want to know the time while getting ready for school/work in the morning. Another thing I noticed was that I always check the weather outside, so I could dress appropriately.
So, Loodio shows you the time and weather (optionally) as well as playing music during your visit. These features together with the lights, are features that I think people don't expect to use but with time becomes as important as the music. Customer interviews verify this.
I wasted a lot of money trying to outsource the development the first 18 months. I then decided to start doing it myself. The version I'm selling is actually the 25th(!) iteration of the product. The problem with hardware is that it takes you around a month to iterate a circuit (if you don't live next to the factory in Shenzhen) because of the cycle 'Designing->Order from China->Testing->Repeat'. And I had no experience of electronics when starting out.
The enclosure is made from empty PCBs to save money for injection tooling later. It looks pretty cool. But mainly, works great!
I want to give credit to Tadeusz Karpinski and Velimir Stoleski that ported my crappy python script to the ESP32 that is running Loodio 2.
You need to try it! I really think you're gonna like it! https://loodio.com
I think the tenacity to deliver a product is great and hope that you get good feedback here. Congratulations on shipping a second version.
I had thought that noise machines were primarily for people who would be listening. For example, therapists put white noise machines in the waiting area, not where the session is occuring.
So, this sound provides the sense of privacy but would be better set up outside the bathroom to those who might hear, uh, human sounds inside.
You and other commenters make it sound obvious, but I'd say the ideal location of the cover-up noise is actually a tricky question. Our brains are exceedingly good at separating different sound sources, but a bathroom is a textbook example of a space that gives a shared acoustic profile to all the sounds within, causing them to be grouped together in our minds, and possibly identified as a single source.
As a thought experiment, imagine that the Loodio is actually playing loud farting/plopping noises. In that case, placing it outside the bathroom would make it easy to distinguish between the "real" and the "fake" noises: the real ones have the bathroom acoustics. Placing it inside would make it impossible to discern.
Now imagine that the Loodio is playing dubstep, which is barely a step removed from "loud farting/plopping noises". What is the ideal location now?
Yeah, there's an interesting effect of people in the shower being unable to hear those outside but those outside can hear those in the shower very well. It's fairly obvious when thought about that the relative amplitude of the noise source is much higher for the person stood next to it than further away.
>> Does it run on batteries?
>> Yes!
>> Every Loodio sold after 2025 runs on batteries.
Interesting but rather than wait for 2026, what about the ones sold now? ; - )
Might want to reword it to be something like "Every Loodio sold from 2025 onwards runs on batteries."
And on a more substantial point: isn't Loo primarily a British term? I'd be surprised if it's well understood in most other countries whereas toilet (vulgar as it sounds to certain Brits) is fairly widely understood. Maybe this isn't a big deal but you'd think the name was kind of crucial to getting the purpose of this gadget.
Will look into that.
The name was based on something 1) easy to say in most languages 2) I could get the domain for and is short and 3) wasn’t trademarked.
> And on a more substantial point: isn't Loo primarily a British term? I'd be surprised if it's well understood in most other countries whereas toilet (vulgar as it sounds to certain Brits) is fairly widely understood
Well... it's crucial for the portmanteau to work ;)
Shitterdio doesn't have the same ring :)
Oh wow I (American) didn't even remember until seeing this thread that loo meant that.
Having built a similar device, it appears that to give privacy to the person inside the bathroom, it is much better to have the music play outside. With music playing near to the "listener", the sounds coming from inside the room are much better covered.
Congrats for the realisation nevertheless!
Psychologically though doesn't it feel more private to have the noise inside the bathroom?
Until their outside the bathroom when someone else is in and realize it does nothing.
Feels like a really really weird device.
Even when I live with others, we aren't worried about bathroom noise.
I guess if you have a habit of talking to yourself while using the bathroom or showering and need to drown it out this is cool.
However, I'd love this as a general device. I get home and it auto plays music , etc
> Even when I live with others, we aren't worried about bathroom noise.
I think there's a specific target customer that would love this. I'm in the same camp you are... I couldn't care less. When it's just my wife and I at home it's pretty rare that we close the door even.
In university though I had a roommate who was absolutely paranoid about people hearing her in the bathroom. She would generally run the faucet the whole time she was in there to mask the sounds. Sometimes... I think she'd even run the shower; I don't know this for sure, but I'd hear the shower running in the bathroom for a while and she'd come out looking just as un-showered as she had when she went in.
> However, I'd love this as a general device. I get home and it auto plays music , etc
You can do this with most home automation systems today.
You know darn well you aren't the target market for this device, and you know darn well that there is a target market for it as well as why it exists, so you're being disingenuous when you propose talking to oneself as the only possible reason for it.
Can you imagine that there might be people who are different from you in this respect?
This device has potential to sell millions, it's just going to have a bunch of really weird use cases.
As a seller it's none of your business what end users do with your device as long as it's not a safety hazard.
How much privacy does this really give? You're still announcing to the world, 'hey everyone I am taking a shit!' because the music is only playing when someone's in the bathroom. It seems like you'd want music constantly playing outside the bathroom if you want to actual privacy.
Can it default to flight of the valkyries?
Yes. You could technically hide the unit (not sensor) and play scary sounds from it too during Halloween.
Besides running on battery and ecosystem woes, why this over a apple homepod which is cheaper and has better engineering and sound?
initially i was thinking this was some groundbreaking technology that would somehow help with privacy via fancy audio engineering - but alas it seems like just a portable speaker with a cute design.
anyway, congrats on the launch of V2 - it's valid if it's a passion project and you had fun building it in any case, just curious about why anybody would choose this over the plethora of other portable speakers
is the killer feature here motion detection ? because that seems like it can also be accomplished via a third party motion sensor + Apple Home integration
Exactly. I used HomePods to solve this problem. Hey Siri, play my x playlist. Hey siri, stop.
Right. The problem is that you are announcing you’re about to do something embarrassing. Loodio always plays no matter intention and is easily paused with one button click.
this again can be done w/ a cheap sensor that integrates with apple home integration and still come under cost of this product - likely with both superior sensor and speakers
I love, love, love that you shipped. It looks great and I'm tempted purely to support you and see what it's like.
But I gotta ask: how much **** noise are you lot making in the toilet? What on earth are you all doing in there...!?
I may look Swedish but my intestinal tract was inherited from my Middle Eastern father. lol.
Add to basket purely on the basis of that reply :-)
Living in a tiny urban apartment, this is a problem I am interested in a solution for. However, I always read that such solutions might block the noise for the toilet-user, but not for those outside of the toilet. I'm curious as to the efficacy of a white noise machine versus this device and, specifically, if either is really effective. It's an interesting solution, OP, an I commend you for your efforts - but I fear $150 is going to be a difficult sell.
Pretty easy to test with a phone running mynoise set to white noise.
I’ve heard the same. I expected the product to be a speaker to mount on the top of the door to play music on both sides of it, or something.
Enters the bathroom.
The speaker starts blasting “Eye of the Tiger” into the foyer.
Or "Didn't wash hands... Didn't wash hands... Didn't wash hands...... Did wash hands!"
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/47/79/c0/4779c078d42b9faf8dda...
This is a cool product. I carry a JBL speaker with me everytime i use the bathroom in the morning. Haha!
You get it!
How loud is it to cover up the sound of people using the bathroom? Also the FAQ says it produces "sound cancelling sounds", but also has no microphone. Don't you need a microphone to produce the inverse wave and cancel out sound? Or is this using some other kind of "sound cancelling sound" technology?
Maybe it's not "Active Noise Cancelling" but it's "White noise louder than the brown noise". Still useful though.
next black mirror episode will be someone screaming for help as they are trapped in the bathroom while their anti-brown-noise device drowns out their pleas and they are left to die in there
I would just have a boombox ready to play Sabotage by the Beastie Boys whenever I go
HASS, Roon, a PIR, and Ride of the Valkyries… :s/would//
I prefer So Spoke Zarathustra during my morning constitutional.
I mean if it's configured to drown me out when I'm having digestive troubles, I think they might need to adjust the bit in the Q&A about it not disturbing my sleeping partner
It seems to have a clock so it doesn't turn on at night?
Correct.
IME, a bathroom fan with good CFM is loud enough to cover sounds.
So, I'll start by saying I love that you have made a thing and shipped. That's great, and the following is intended to be helpful.
I read this and understand what it is. I then went to the site and it says bathroom privacy, tells me it's version two etc.
What on earth is it! Your very first thing you show me as a new person is to tell me it's got better sound than the unknown previous item. Upgraded sound is a feature that is relevant to
1. The 250 people that bought the first one that didn't like the sound
2. Anyone who would have bought the first one, but didn't because of the sound.
Nobody else.
Assume I've not given up by now, but customers are very quick to leave with even just minor delays. I see a little radio like thing in a CGI setup. (note for later, you do have actual pictures and they don't look the same, so I don't know what I will get and that dramatically lowers my trust)
Is it a privacy device? It's for relaxing? I have to charge it every week?
I genuinely have no idea at this point what problem it is solving.
I have to go down further to figure that out.
Here's the question I have as a potential customer.
Why is my phone not enough? Or a radio? The first I already own, and plays any music I want and has speakers and absolutely has the time and the latter is incredibly cheap.
Most of my customers are users who bought the first one or have seen it at a friends home.
When you use your phone you are announcing that you’re going to do something embarrassing. Loodio always plays no matter the intention of the visit.
Does it come with free therapy?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR1m29cNVsc
Looks great! How much optimization (e.g. deep sleep, wake trigger) was needed to get battery life with the ESP32 to where you wanted it? Also curious if the project is running on MicroPython or if you moved to something with less overhead.
Most work was getting the unit power efficient, analog design correct and constructed in a way that’s easily manufactured. It uses microsamps while inactive and runs on Arduino still. We probably need to rewrite it with esp-idf eventually to get access to lower hardware apis and better memory management.
Great idea and congrats on launching v2.
Do you have to certify compliance with safety / EMC regulations to sell a product like this? The thought of that always put me off imagining a hardware startup.
Up front: This is not legal advice.
RF/EMC: definitely. It's an intentional radiator (WiFi) and an unintentional radiator (high-frequency CPU). Using pre-certified COTS modules helps with this quite a bit because they'll, hopefully, pass on their own but they do not relieve you of the certification burden.
Safety: from a legal perspective I don't believe safety certification is mandatory because it runs on low voltage. The wall wart would need to be certified. But... from a liability perspective it might still be necessary. If one of these devices were to catch fire and burn someone's house down the company is going to get sued. Maybe sued by the homeowner, maybe sued by the homeowner's insurance company. The counter to that is to have solid product liability insurance and the insurer may have specific safety certification requirements before they'll even issue an insurance contract, and they may have additional safety certification options that would reduce the premiums.
I got lost investigating the battery claim of a week because this seemed quite low for such minimum specs. But then noticed it has a range of Wifi features? If you're selling a product focused on privacy, isn't it a bit weird that it has WiFi?
The whole story around needing to know the time sounds like feature creep. If I wanted a clock in my bathroom it's trivial to hone, and I'd only have to charge it once a year. If I want a device that detect my literal movements during movements, then I'd really not want it to be hooked up to my Wifi? Worse, be burning power (and increased BoM) to have a wifi-radio and screen to do so.
If this was _just_ a motion detecting device that played nice music it'd likely be an easier sell?
I believe the population that prefers digital privacy is only a small subset of the population that wants toilet privacy
I was really hoping that this toilet-privacy device required an always-on internet connection. I want to broadcast my shits to the entire interwebs
A lot people place Alexas or Pods in the bathroom (which has microphones). Connecting Loodio to WiFi is optional.
Just having wifi doesn't mean a privacy issue. Its what they do with your data and how it's safeguarded that matters.
I like the idea! :) I can't seem to find anything about an IP rating. Does it not need one if it is supposed to live in a damp environment?
Coughs at the right time are simple and free and don’t require all that nonsense.
I remember the first release, many years ago. Happy to see business still operating and growth!
Appreciate it!
Looks like a very polished (no pun intended) device but I never understood why some people bothered about other people hearing them while on the loo. Natural noises like blowing your nose, sneezing or even farting! I know what in Japan for example it's an issue and people continuously flushing the toilets so other people can't hear them. Maybe it's cultural.
It is not unheard of (ha) for women to want noisier bathroom fans. Feminine hygiene products, for some reason, are wrapped in the noisiest plastic that exists.
How do you keep it from turning on when you go into the bathroom to shower or brush your teeth?
It has a large Stop Music button on top of the unit that pauses the music.
So it plays music when I do my stuff? Like in a luxury shopping mall? Cool idea
Right. Thanks!
It's not a device that I personally am interested in having, but I am both interested in, and very impressed with, your having made it - well done!
I'd love to read a full write up of how you designed it, what parts you used / how you designed, prototyped, and built any custom parts, etc.
I know that's a big ask, so wouldn't expect you to do it just for me, but in case writing that were something you've been considering... please know that I for one would be a very keen reader, and I'm confident many others would too. (Or to put a spin on it to help encourage you to do so... it would give you an excuse to post about this here again in a month or two, an extra round of marketing for the low price of your time doing the write-up :P)
Will try to find time for it. Thanks!
Feel free to mail me if you'd either like an interested proofreader, or an editor / partial ghost writer (free, haven't done that sort of thing professionally for many years).
There are a lot of descriptive phrases you can use for taking a shit, but “sacred” isn’t one of them…
s/sacred/profane/p
Pro-tip: when I am somewhere and I'm gonna drop a massive #2, and/or I got 2-3 litres of liquid in me, I run the faucet on the bathroom sink at 10-15% of its max flow to cover the noise. This also helps if the house has two floors/levels, and the pipes run in the open. So I 'mask' when the 'output' starts and ends.
If someone is in the grips of this obscure neurosis, why wouldn't they just use their phone as a sound source?
I could imagine that part of the desire is to make music the default for everyone, no matter what they're doing. Otherwise the person suffering from the embarrassment is going to think "if I turn on my music, they'll know I'm making noises in here."
What embarrassment? Are people going like 'haha SamBam took a shit, what a fucking loser' where you live?
Exactly.
I feel sorry for you in advance, for when you reach product market fit, start getting decent sales, start getting a return on all that time, energy and resources getting the product to market.
And the market is then flooded with much cheaper Chinese knock-offs.
Kevin O'Leary has been talking about this exact scenario many times recently.
I am not worried about bathroom noise privacy, but if I was I have old kitchen radio there that plays music/news with one dial for the volume (doubling as an off switch) and changes music/news with a dial. I need to swap batteries once every few years.
Now every digital radio I ever had is worse in terms of the simplicity of the interface. A radio like this one simply asks two questions: (1) How loud? (2) Should it be something else?
And this is your direct competitor. Your devices interface looks more complicated than that so getting people to grok it is motion activated is probably the key piece of information you need to deliver. The weather and time is a nice touch, but may be a thing most people don't need/want while driving the price up.
If we go to the question style of object-human interaction let me impersonate your device from the perspective of a guest:
(This is ofc humourous exaggeration, but there is some truth in there)It has a large button on top of the unit with lit up text that says ”Stop Music” which pauses music. The other buttons are Volume Up, Volume Down and Next Song.
There used to be an ad on Dutch television back in the 80's from a loo paper manufacturer with the punchline Koning, Keizer, Admiraal - ${brand_of_loo_paper} kennen ze allemaal which translates to King, Emperor, Admiral - they all know this brand of loo paper. We (i.e. my father whom we naturally followed in this respect) turned this into Koning Keizer Admiraal, schijten moeten ze allemaal or ...they all have to shit.
Everybody shits, farts, burps... device or no device. I´d say those who feel the need for a device like this are guilty by association of farting and burping even louder than average, why otherwise get something to mask their clearly obnoxious and dare I say noxious emanations in the privy?
> I´d say those who feel the need for a device like this are guilty by association of farting and burping even louder than average, why otherwise get something to mask their clearly obnoxious and dare I say noxious emanations in the privy?
This seems like a jump. Social etiquette is important. A desire for visitors (or others) not to be subjected to the various sounds emanating from the bathroom is a form of politeness, not cover-up of something more sinister.
How about you just don't listen to those sounds? Even in small apartments the bathroom tends to be separated from the living room/kitchen/bedroom/etc_room so it tends to be quite easy to ignore those sounds by just not hanging around the bathroom door.
Nope, this is taking social sensitivity far too far. By all means keep those farts out of polite company but once you're in the loo feel free to let it fly without feeling ashamed. Everyone farts, everyone pees, everyone does it.
Will this make brief snatches of random music the new farting sound?
> According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the loudest fart ever recorded was a fart of 113 decibels, by Herkimer Chort of Ripley, NY USA, on October 11th, 1972.
What's the audio output of your device? Asking for a friend.
[flagged]
It has been a thing in Japan for ages:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilets_in_Japan#The_Sound_Pri...
[flagged]