On Saturday 19 April 2014 10:15:11 Stuart Stevenson did opine: > This sounds like a job for LinuxCNC. > You would have the washer connected to your network to report > it's progress or alarm status. > You would have it shut the valves when unused. > > How many cycles would you have? As many as deemed necessary. A cycle for > every piece of clothes if you want. > This would put to shame the controls on a current washer.
Absolutely. That old mechanical switch timer only has two cycles, and neither is truly suitable. > Put a VFD on the motor. The usual 1/3 or 1/2 horse induction motor? It does have a gentle speed, so its not quite the usual 1725 rpm, but how they switch the speed is unk. This is a maytag, made over in my old home stomping grounds at the Newton IA Maytag factory, and the only failures have been the plastic balls the lid pivots on, and the lid switch that is supposed to stop it when the lid is raised. Mechanically it will still be running when the rapture occurs. It also weighs about 300 lbs, I had to go get my two wheeler cart to just get it wriggled out of the space last night. Heavy duty hip checks to get it back in, an inch at a time. > Exact water temperature would then be possible. > > You would have full control of every facet of the washer cycle! I have considered buying an arduino just for grins, it would be good practice to learn how to program one of those. ;-) > How fun would this be? Lots, also expensive. And then I'd have to teach the missus, who is computer illiterate, how to run it. I'd like to replace both as the dryer lost one of its two heater coils years ago and no longer gets hot enough to make any of its automatic cycles work. But every time I talk about new ones, (about $2000 these days) I run into a stone wall because these do work yet, for some as yet undefined value of "work". I am allergic to most washing soaps, and dryer sheets are an absolute no-no or I'm getting cortisone shots, so I've been washing my own clothes, with "Free" detergents, a 2nd cycle using cold only & without soap just for rinsing it out, then the dryer, which now takes about an hour to dry one load. This girl does not spend money for the hell of it. Three time in 25 years she has gone to the atm, pulled out 400 to go buy herself a decent winter coat, and twice came home with the same 400 she left with. 10 years ago she did find one with a fox fur collar and hood, only to have Daisy, the nieces Beagle, tear into the fur, but she's still wearing it. Its still warm. How many other guys have women that frugal? Obviously I don't complain because she is getting both retirement and SS, so while my SS is larger, the net result is that the bank hasn't been below $20k in 20 years unless I've just written a check for a new vehicle. Cheers, Gene -- "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene> US V Castleman, SCOTUS, Mar 2014 is grounds for Impeaching SCOTUS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Learn Graph Databases - Download FREE O'Reilly Book "Graph Databases" is the definitive new guide to graph databases and their applications. Written by three acclaimed leaders in the field, this first edition is now available. Download your free book today! http://p.sf.net/sfu/NeoTech _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
