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Is It Dry Yet?

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Re: Is It Dry Yet?

#121

Post by culebron21 »

msrenee wrote: post #88
reyostallenberg wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Working, but so boring. For some of us it's nice to build needles stuff instead of using a better (but boring) solution ;) I like the needles stuff, you like the mechanical 'easy' solution

I was wondering what was going on in their life that the alert sound from the washer and dryer weren't sufficient for the purpose. My GE dryer sings a happy "laundry's dry" song when it's finished. You're right though, this way is more fun.

A big house, with a separate room for laundry machine, I guess. Or maybe it's in the basement.

Re: Is It Dry Yet?

#122

Post by mewse-hn »

thechao wrote: post #95
NortySpock wrote: post #90

For those wanting this convenience on a dumb washing machine, I used a single smart plug flashed with Tasmota firmware to monitor when the power draw dropped to zero. Notifications through Home Assistant. Not affiliated, just a happy customer of: https://cloudfree.shop/product/cloudfree-smart-plug-runs-tas...

CloudFree is great, but I wish I'd been able to pitch the name 'clearsky' to them. I hate , I do mean loathe , all of these cloudy smart things. So... I'm pretty pleased you posted this. Now, I just gotta figure out what the heck "Tasmota" is.

My experience was Tasmota:

I won some smart plugs at a work event, and I'm not a smart home guy so I brought them home and figured out how to set them up. They required a vendor specific smartphone app. I was less than impressed. I wouldn't be able to set up any automations because this thing had to dial home to some shitty vendor cloud lock-in thing.

I looked into how to load open firmware onto the smart switches, and I discovered I'd basically have to destroy the plastic shell of the device to get access to the circuit board, desolder the wifi control module and solder in a new module that was compatible with Tasmota, which is the standard open source firmware for these devices.

What was much easier was to buy Sonoff S31 smart switches because they are able to be disassembled without cutting and grinding the shell away. Then I reprogrammed them using a 3d printed clip with pogo pins - flashing the Tasmota firmware so that I could do whatever I wanted with them.

Easier still would be to buy smart plugs with Tasmota pre-flashed.

Re: Is It Dry Yet?

#123

Post by msrenee »

culebron21 wrote: post #121
msrenee wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was wondering what was going on in their life that the alert sound from the washer and dryer weren't sufficient for the purpose. My GE dryer sings a happy "laundry's dry" song when it's finished. You're right though, this way is more fun.

A big house, with a separate room for laundry machine, I guess. Or maybe it's in the basement.

Mine's in my basement and I hear it fine. I'm sure plenty of people on this site have bigger houses than mine though.

Re: Is It Dry Yet?

#124

Post by gambiting »

hinkley wrote: post #119
JohnTheNerd wrote: post #102

If you are scared of messing with electricity like I am, instead of using power monitoring, another viable but less reliable option is to use vibration sensors. I picked up a simple Zigbee vibration sensor for less than 20$, taped it on top of the washer/dryer, and connected it to HomeAssistant using Zigbee2MQTT. After creating two automations to detect start/stop based on continuous vibrations over a few minutes, I…

I don’t know about economical but there are devices that sense current flow in a line without a tap, just from the EM fields. People with wood shops use these to automatically turn on the dust collection system when any power tool is turned on. Between small production sizes and the relay there are probably cheaper DIY solutions. OP is just using a smart plug, so no real electronics involved.

The problem with those is that they only work if they are wrapped around a live wire, not live and neutral. So unless you have exposed L/N wires in your cable, it's not going to work at all.

Re: Is It Dry Yet?

#125

Post by chongli »

pixl97 wrote: post #115
chongli wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there are screw terminals they are internal to the machine. The power cable goes directly into the machine with no exposed terminals.

I mean, no not really. Take off the plate where the wire goes into the machine and there is a terminal block at that point. Unless you have some very odd machine I have never (and I've installed quite a few machines) seen one that comes with the wire.

I watched the delivery guys install the machine. They brought it into the laundry room, took the packaging off, hooked up the flexible ventilation duct, and plugged it in. They didn’t do any wiring.

I’m in Canada (as I said at the top of this thread). Are you in the US? Perhaps it’s different there.

Re: Is It Dry Yet?

#126

Post by Scoundreller »

hinkley wrote: post #119
JohnTheNerd wrote: post #102

If you are scared of messing with electricity like I am, instead of using power monitoring, another viable but less reliable option is to use vibration sensors. I picked up a simple Zigbee vibration sensor for less than 20$, taped it on top of the washer/dryer, and connected it to HomeAssistant using Zigbee2MQTT. After creating two automations to detect start/stop based on continuous vibrations over a few minutes, I…

I don’t know about economical but there are devices that sense current flow in a line without a tap, just from the EM fields. People with wood shops use these to automatically turn on the dust collection system when any power tool is turned on. Between small production sizes and the relay there are probably cheaper DIY solutions. OP is just using a smart plug, so no real electronics involved.

These clamp on systems may not work too well on North American 240V circuits like a dryer since the emf will cancel, no? You have two 120V feeds exactly 180 degrees out of phase with eachother. Unless you unravel the wires a bit and just clamp a single conductor.

Or maybe I have this all wrong.

Re: Is It Dry Yet?

#127

Post by deadbunny »

NortySpock wrote: post #90

For those wanting this convenience on a dumb washing machine, I used a single smart plug flashed with Tasmota firmware to monitor when the power draw dropped to zero. Notifications through Home Assistant. Not affiliated, just a happy customer of: https://cloudfree.shop/product/cloudfree-smart-plug-runs-tas...

For the UK folks I've bought some pre-flashes plugs from https://www.mylocalbytes.com/ and been happy.

Re: Is It Dry Yet?

#128

Post by Scoundreller »

chongli wrote: post #105
jchw wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't too big of a deal since at least around here, appliances tend to be wired with screw terminals. So, in a lot of cases there actually is a separate place to measure hot and neutral without any terrible hacks. (Not sure if that applies to my dryer, though: I should check.)

My dryer (I live in Canada) has a 240V plug with a heavy-duty cable, no exposed wires. My dishwasher is wired directly into the mains (I installed it myself) but neither the laundry washer nor the dryer are hard-wired.

> My dishwasher is wired directly into the mains (I installed it myself) but neither the laundry washer nor the dryer are hard-wired.

You probably have an “American” dishwasher like a GE or Whirlpool. If you upgrade to a “European” one like a Bosch or Miele, you’ll need to wire up a socket in an adjacent cabinet and plug it in, or buy their ~$50 junction box.

The Europeans like to move with their appliances instead of leave them in place. It’s another reason for their big kitchen appliances like fridges being smaller: so it’s easier to move and it will fit wherever you move next.

Re: Is It Dry Yet?

#129

Post by dfc »

valicord wrote: post #87

Not to knock other people's hobbies, but our dryer plays a loud jingle when done, no Internet connection required. Do other models not have this feature?

The thing that I am not sure of is why it's so important to know when the dryer finishes? And if it's that important how does it slip your mind that the 45 dryer cycle started at the top of the hour?

Is it a kids thing?

Re: Is It Dry Yet?

#130

Post by jtriangle »

Scoundreller wrote: post #126
hinkley wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know about economical but there are devices that sense current flow in a line without a tap, just from the EM fields. People with wood shops use these to automatically turn on the dust collection system when any power tool is turned on. Between small production sizes and the relay there are probably cheaper DIY solutions. OP is just using a smart plug, so no real electronics involved.

These clamp on systems may not work too well on North American 240V circuits like a dryer since the emf will cancel, no? You have two 120V feeds exactly 180 degrees out of phase with eachother. Unless you unravel the wires a bit and just clamp a single conductor. Or maybe I have this all wrong.

You are correct, current clamps can't read accurately in this situation. All you'll get is any disparity between the phases, which, will be small.

That said, it's probably worth a try, because it's likely that internally the drier's control circuits are only tapping one leg, and you might be able to read that, and it might change reliably enough to trigger an alert.

Usually, you'd use a vibration sensor for this job however. You can also use a thermal sensor on the exhaust air, combined with a time delay (because they run cooldown/dewrinkle cycles), and you're good to go.

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