Washing machine / tumble dryer ready

[AshaiRey]

detector.jpg (126.41 KiB) Viewed 17279 times

Another idea born out of fustration. Our washing machine and tumble dryer are on the first floor and when loaded with a new batch it takes an hour or so to finish. However we never knew for sure when it was finished. As a result of several walks upstairs just to find out that they wheren't finished yet this idea was born.
This needs to be improved.
I had a nice circuit from this site (http://www.domotica.famschenk.eu/Led_uitlezing.html) and i gave it a try. Although it worked at first it had some minor issues. Using two DS10 transmitters didn't work very reliable for me. Also each unit consumed two AA batteries and another 9V block for the circuit didn't do good for me either.

So what did i change?
I took a MS13 motion detector and i removed the cover and i trimmed the sides so it would fit into the enclosure. I also removed the LDR and the PIR sensor from it. Since the LM324 chips can be powered at 3V i hooked this one also to the battery of the MS13 motion detector. The lm324 chips is a low power design so this won't drain the batterij so much. The outputs from the circuits that first where going to the DS10's are now connected to the data pin of the PIR sensor and the hot side of where the LDR was located.

I've added the MS13 in HomeSeer and instead of detecting motion and light/dark i let it trigger events that will announce that via speech that the dryer or the washing maschine is ready. (remark: The events have a conditon that the device must be in that state for 1 minute before triggering. This will remove false readings)
Till now there where no false detections. Time will tell.
Please note that this MS10 is one from the US and it was working at 310 Mhz and is refactored to work at 433 Mhz as seen on the image

[gvdham]

Nice done!

[Digit]

Smart thinking!

[soitjes]

Nice idea.

I use a different approach using Plugwise Circles. When electricity consumption falls below a threshold I know the machine is finished and then I play a sound. It does cost one Circle per machine of course.

Soitjes.

[DJF3]

Yeah, I have done the same thing. For about 1 month or so I asked my wife to press a (KAKU) button before washing/drying.
Button1: washer
Button2: dryer
This triggered a script that captured power consumption every 2 minutes into a DB (for approx 2 hrs)

After 1 month I got a pretty detailed 'fingerprint' of the power consumption pattern and duration.. Now I have to turn that info into something where HS knows that it's ready.

[AshaiRey]

While this idea of getting a 'fingerprint' is nice it won't work i my situation due to my solar panels. I can have zero power consumption at the power meter while the dryer is still running.

[AshaiRey]

Nice idea.

I use a different approach using Plugwise Circles. When electricity consumption falls below a threshold I know the machine is finished and then I play a sound. It does cost one Circle per machine of course.

Soitjes.

Hi Soitjes,

I've thought about that one too but i am a bit reluctant to adding another technology to my system just for this. If i would go this path i would take zwave technology because then i can fase out KaKu for lighting control and go for zwave all the way.

Bram

[Bwired]

I have been busy with this also, years back
lots of options:
- If you have a modern drijer/washing machine its has a digital display telling when the job is ready (left time etc.), connecting an Arduino like gives you the best information possible! but complex and not standard.
- Use plugwise circle to see the powerusage. Also not very good in my case, my dryer/washingmachine is stopping lots of time, before rotating other way etc. and then the power drops to zero. you can make a complex script for this handling this all based on every different device way of working. Problem for me is that my dryer keeps rotating and stopping everytime even when job is done.
- check the status of a led or sound (buzzer) to check if job is done.

For me the buzzer would be the best and option, of course i like the arduino one better

[AshaiRey]

I also wanted to hardwire the detection to the leds but that solution isn't very portable when a new machine arrives.
There is also another problem with this. The dryer have a small surface mounted led en the washing machine didn't have a LED but a 220V neon light meaning that i have to work work a relay. I choose for an tiny LDR and i made a few designer multi-layer patches to glue them to the machine. They not only hold the LDR in place but also blocking out diffuse (sun)light that will radiate through the plastic and gives false triggers when sunlight is shining upon the machine.

[pklijnjan]

Hi how do I connect http://www.domotica.famschenk.eu/Led_uitlezing.html)to the MS13. I'm not handy with electronics!
I see 5 arrows on the diagram? What should I to connect the power en wat to de LDR en PIR?
And the potentiometer has 3 connections which must be where? Maybe someone can help me.

[raymonvdm]

I also found this topic and would like to give it a go.

I have a Miele W110 washing maschine (for now) and would like to connect the following leds to the monitoring device "End"and "Control" althought it would be a nifty feature to connect al the leds. These two would be suffiecient for my needs

Picture:


I have a K8055 with five inputs two of them are used and three of them are free. So i think i could use them with the following module
MK125 the same as i`m using to sence outside darkness/light but these modules are quited expensive to use one for each led.

Is there an better alternative to read the leds ?

I want to use the following sensors for reading the actual leds, but i did not find them for sale yet

[AshaiRey]

If there is sunlight shinning on your washing machine/dryer then you can get false trigger. To prevent this you can make the inside where the LED is dark with paint or glueing some dark paper to it. I did the oposite. I used double sided tape to glue a large pad of dark paper on the outside around the location where LED is. (about 8 x 8 cm). Then i placed the LDR on top of the LED, another patch of dark paper and finaly a layer of white paper so it won't stand out that much. Works fine now even in direct sunlight.

[Verkenner]

Gives some inspiration:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPZteCai ... =endscreen

[raymonvdm]

This gave me some inspiration. I can use LDR`s for the status leds but i need something to interface with the server. I think an arduino is to expensive for this. Maybe i can use my raspberry for this using the GPIO header.

Someone did it on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyLEm4Xr2wk

[ZMDK]

I'm new to this (started my first preparations a week ago), so excuse me if i'm wrong.

Isn't easier to connect the status led to a 0-10v input of your system or if you don't have a led like my washing machine, you can connect it to the door-lock mechanisme (with or without extra relay) to a binairy input?

For a clean install you can install a plug/connector (RJ45, RJ11, screw contacts,...) on the back of your machine.