Leaving your laundry in the washer can be stressful. Having to rewash your laundry takes even more time out of our busy schedules. Also, having to wait for your laundry to finish washing when in a rush can lead to being late for work, meetings, dinner, etc. We have a solution that will make laundry a lot less stressful.
How it works:
Two roller switches are mounted at the start and end positions of the knob on your washing machine/dryer. One roller switch will initiate the starting of the wash/dry load. The other will indicate when the load has finished. The switches are wired to pins on the photon which is connected to the internet.
When you put your load of laundry in the wash and turn the knob to the start position, it will contact the switch which will start a timer in the washing photon. When your laundry finishes washing, the knob will contact the second switch which ends the timer. The total wash time is then communicated to the dryer photon which publishes the time to thingspeak. A graph is created from the different wash times for each load washed. You then move your laundry to the dryer and turn the knob to the start position. The switch is hit just as in the washing cycle and a timer is started. When the dryer finishes, the second switch is hit and a total dry time is calculated. This dry times is communicated back to the washing photon which publishes the data to thingspeak. And a graph is made for the dry time of each load you wash. The total process allows for communication back and forth between the wash and dry photons.
Improvements in the future:
As of now our project is just a working prototype which could be improved. With more time and funding, our prototype could be designed and coded for more practical use. As of right now are prototype only works for washing machines with knob timers which turn. The prototype also can only work when connected to power via a usb cable. If the photon could be setup to be solar powered, money could be saved. Getting thingspeak to send a text message alert to you when your washing machine/dryer has finished would make the prototype more likely to be used in the future.
The circuit diagrams were the same for each photon used. The circuit simply consisted of two roller switches, jumper wires, and a photon. One switch was wired to ground and to pin D0. The second switch was wired to ground and to pin D2. The photon was also wired to ground. This simple circuit allowed for our photons to read input signals sent in from the roller switches in order to know when the washer/dryer cycles were started or ended.
Dry Time Statistics
This is a screenshot of the graph from thingspeak as the dryer is used multiple times. Allows the user to compare dry times of different size laundry loads. The time is measure in minutes and the horizontal axis shows the date and time when the dryer was used.
Actual Circuit
Wash Time Statistics
Screenshot of the thingspeak graphical UI that keeps track of the total wash time of the user. the vertical axis measures time in minutes and the horizontal axis shows the date and time when the wash cycle was completed.
This code is flashed to the photon connected to the washing machine. It subscribes to the dry time published by the dry time code and publishes it to the console. It takes the time difference between when the two switches were pressed, publishes it to the console, and also sends a notification that the wash cycle has been completed.
intledPin=D1;//utilizes pin D1 with an led for testing purposesintledPin2=D3;//utilizes pin D3 with an led for testing purposesintswitchPin=D0;//utilizes pin D0intswitchPin2=D2;//utilizes pin D2longstart=0UL;//creates a variable called "start" and sets it equal to 0longend=0UL;//creates a variable called "end" and sets it equal to 0longWashTime=0UL;//creates a variable called "WashTime" and sets it equal to 0 charpublishLong[40];//allows the variables above to be published later on in the code voidsetup(){Particle.variable("time",WashTime);pinMode(switchPin,INPUT_PULLUP);pinMode(switchPin2,INPUT_PULLUP);pinMode(ledPin,OUTPUT);pinMode(ledPin2,OUTPUT);Particle.subscribe("drytime",handler,"31001d001447353236343033");//allows one photon to retrieve the published data from the other photon }voidhandler(constchar*drytime,constchar*DryTime){// Trigger the integration Particle.publish("Dry Time",String(DryTime),PRIVATE);//Publishes the data retrieved from line 23 to the console delay(5000);}voidloop(){intbuttonState=digitalRead(switchPin);//creates a variable called "buttonState" and assigns it to a pin on the photon intbuttonState2=digitalRead(switchPin2);//creates a variable called "buttonState2" and assigns it to a pin on the photon if(buttonState==LOW)//initiates code when the first switch is pushed {start=millis();//starts a timerdigitalWrite(ledPin,HIGH);Particle.publish("washer has started");//publishes an initiation message to the console delay(1000);}else{digitalWrite(ledPin,LOW);}if(buttonState2==LOW)//initiates code when the second switch is pressed {end=millis();//starts a seperate timerdigitalWrite(ledPin2,HIGH);//led lights up for testing purposes WashTime=(end-start);//takes the difference between the two timers to establish the time of the process Particle.publish("washtime",String(WashTime));//publishes the time of the process to the console delay(1000);}}
Dry Cycle Code
C/C++
This code is flashed to the photon connected to the dryer. It subscribes to the wash time from the wash cycle code and publishes it to the console. It takes the time difference between when the two switches were pressed, publishes it to the console, and also sends a notification that the dry cycle has been completed.
intledPin=D1;//utilizes pin D1 with an led for testing purposesintledPin2=D3;//utilizes pin D3 with an led for testing purposesintswitchPin=D0;//utilizes pin D0intswitchPin2=D2;//utilizes pin D2longstart=0UL;//creates a variable called "start" and sets it equal to 0 longend=0UL;//creates a variable called "end" and sets it equal to 0 longDryTime=0UL;//creates a variable called "WashTime" and sets it equal to 0 charpublishLong[40];//allows the variables above to be published later on in the code voidsetup(){Particle.variable("time",DryTime);pinMode(switchPin,INPUT_PULLUP);pinMode(switchPin2,INPUT_PULLUP);pinMode(ledPin,OUTPUT);pinMode(ledPin2,OUTPUT);Particle.subscribe("washtime",handler,"2b001b000d47343438323536");//allows one photon to retrieve the published data from the other photon }voidhandler(constchar*washtime,constchar*WashTime){// Trigger the integration Particle.publish("Wash Time",String(WashTime),PRIVATE);//Publishes the data retrieved from line 23 to the console delay(5000);}voidloop(){intbuttonState=digitalRead(switchPin);//creates a variable called "buttonState" and assigns it to a pin on the photon intbuttonState2=digitalRead(switchPin2);//creates a variable called "buttonState2" and assigns it to a pin on the photon if(buttonState==LOW)//initiates code when the first switch is pushed {start=millis();//starts a timer digitalWrite(ledPin,HIGH);Particle.publish("dryer has started");//publishes an initiation message to the console delay(1000);}else{digitalWrite(ledPin,LOW);}if(buttonState2==LOW)//initiates code when the second switch is pressed {end=millis();//starts a seperate timer digitalWrite(ledPin2,HIGH);//led lights up for testing purposes DryTime=(end-start);//takes the difference between the two timers to establish the time of the process Particle.publish("drytime",String(DryTime));//publishes the time of the process to the console delay(1000);}}
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