Wash is done

[ty1911]

Hey guys,
Here is my project:
My washer and dryer are located downstairs outside and it is very hard to hear when their are finished.
For many years (this is not an obsession, but I have always wanted to do this) I have been looking into different microcontrollers (MC) (hell I even tried an Amazon button), but the thing that kept getting in the way was the way the MC was going to alert me.  I tried Twitter (yes, @Laundry_Done) and SMS to mention a few.  I was a contributor for the Digispark campaign and when Oak was announced I thought with built-in wifi and the low cost, sure sign me up...
So this does not go on even further....
I finally got my Oak up and communicating and the some semblance of code in there. So my coding skills suck, but I did manage to get it to work.
The process is this:
A button press triggers the Oak to publish on Particle.  When Particle gets the notification, it tells IFTTT to send an email.
If anyone can help me clean it up or have any other ideas to make it better, please PM me.
I use 2 Oaks, one to be installed in the washer and one will be installed in the dryer.
The built-in LED (pin 1) is just a visual for me during testing.
Here is my code:

Code: [Select]

#define BUTTON_PIN 6
#define LED_PIN 1

void setup() {
 Particle.begin();
 pinMode(BUTTON_PIN, INPUT);
 pinMode(LED_PIN, OUTPUT);
}
void loop() {
 if (digitalRead(BUTTON_PIN) == HIGH) {
   Particle.publish("WASHER_DONE", "Washer Done");
   digitalWrite(LED_PIN, HIGH);
 } else {
   digitalWrite(LED_PIN, LOW);
 }
}

Thanks everyone and sorry for the long post.
Alan

[exeng]

Who's pushing the button when the wash is done? Perhaps they can yell, "The wash is done". No seriously, how are the machines and the Oak connected to indicate done?

[ty1911]

Hi Exeng,
Sorry, I plan on hooking up a relay inside the washer/dryer that will pick up when the finish alert sounds.
To me, this is the easy part.  I just want to get the software side taken care of.

Thanks for the follow-up,
Alan

[exeng]

Perhaps you could add a tilt switch to the washer side for those times when the load is out of balance and the machine shakes violently. Or does that not happen with modern washing machines?

[ty1911]

Interesting idea.
It happened once in the two years we had the washer.

[rkinnett]

Hey Alan, sorry for replying 2 months late.  How's the project going?  Any luck?  Still looking for help?

Was thinking, if you use a smart phone, then install the IFTTT app and set up your recipes to notify you from the app when the laundry is done, rather than email, unless email is more convenient for you.  That works great for my garage door project; both I and my wife receive notifications when either of us opens the garage or when we've left it open for a long time.

As far as sensing when the load is done, there is a nice writeup on a similar project on instructables.com, using an accelerometer to sense vibration.  Another option would be to sense the current through the AC power chord, using a non-invasive current sensor like this one on Sparkfun.  Let me know if you need a hand with the code.

-Ryan