Ben's Latest Electrical Escapade Is to Smarten Up an Old Washer with Some Zigbee Sensors
With Zigbee vibration and door sensors, this Python-powered aftermarket upgrade means you'll never forget the washing again.
YouTuber Ben, of Ben's Electrical Escapades, has smartened up an old washing machine — by having vibration and door sensors monitor its status and send alerts over MQTT when it's ready for unloading.
"We've all been there doom scrolling on your phone for 10 minutes past your bedtime [when] suddenly it hits you like a like a toy giraffe in the face: you haven't unloaded the washing machine," Ben says of the problem he set out to solve. "So how do we fix this problem? let's make our dumb washing machine smart and give it a voice so it can tell us when it's finished its load."
There is no shortage of smart Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled washing machines on the market with built-in systems for monitoring the progress of a load, but the majority are locked in to a particular vendor's software ecosystem — and unless you're already looking to replace a broken old washer, buying a new one just for a notification is a little overkill. Ben's solution, then, is a retrofit, bringing smart home integration to any model of washing machine.
Ben's upgraded washing machine features a door sensor and a vibration sensor, both of which communicate their readings via MQTT messages over a Zigbee radio connection to a Raspberry Pi single-board computer acting as the receiving hub. As the washer runs, the vibration sensor monitors the progress — and when no vibration has been detected for a set period of time, it declares the load finished.
The door sensor, meanwhile, serves to avoid false notifications: if the vibrations have been ceased but the door has been opened, no alert is sent. If the door's left alone, though, it triggers an alert to Ben's smartphone so the washing isn't ignored. "What's nice about this," he says, " is that it's going to keep sending you a message until you open the door."
The full project is documented in the video above and on Ben's YouTube channel, which includes other videos going into more detail on working with MQTT in Python.