Yow, that was me and a friend that did this! It was way back in 1995, and was a kluge and a half. We used the head actuator from a full-height 5.25" hard drive to yank the flapper in the toilet. That head actuator is a real nice, strong electromagnet if you pulse it with 12VDC or so.
This was done along with the VT100 and music-on-demand system in the bathroom so you could listen to music (realize that this was long before the MP3 age) while showering, or you could log into your machine while you were logging into the toilet. Unfortunately not just anyone could telnet to the toilet (we DO have to pay for water, ya know) but you could telnet to the control computer if you had an account, and yes, you could flush the toilet remotely, or play music in the bathroom remotely, from anywhere in the world.
Here's a picture of the control keypad that let you choose music and flush the toilet.
We later got rid of the hard drive (it kept falling off the wall into the toilet) and replaced it with an extra printer screwed to the wall. We attached a cable from the printhead to the flapper in the toilet, so that when you sent data and did a carriage return, it would flush. Unfortunately the high humidity in the bathroom made the printer rust and seize up within a week. Eit!
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This was done along with the VT100 and music-on-demand system in the bathroom so you could listen to music (realize that this was long before the MP3 age) while showering, or you could log into your machine while you were logging into the toilet. Unfortunately not just anyone could telnet to the toilet (we DO have to pay for water, ya know) but you could telnet to the control computer if you had an account, and yes, you could flush the toilet remotely, or play music in the bathroom remotely, from anywhere in the world.
Here's a picture of the control keypad that let you choose music and flush the toilet.
We later got rid of the hard drive (it kept falling off the wall into the toilet) and replaced it with an extra printer screwed to the wall. We attached a cable from the printhead to the flapper in the toilet, so that when you sent data and did a carriage return, it would flush. Unfortunately the high humidity in the bathroom made the printer rust and seize up within a week. Eit!