It lives !!! (Possible 56k warning)

[Haynzee]

whats the gen anyhow, how come the washing machine had RS232 compatible circuitry anyway? was it as simple as soldering on a 232 plug , or did you need to make an interface inside the machine

[Dom]

Ummm - the machine didnt have any compatible circuitry at all

I started by removing every single wire from the machine and removed the existing controller.

I built a new controller from scratch. It communicates with the PC and via Hyperterminal etc you can send it commands and it responds accordingly. You can also monitor the temperature, drum speed, water level etc with the PC.

My controller uses relays for the capacitor switching of the main motor (to select spin or wash speeds and also to reverse the motor rotation). The motor has a tachometer output which I use to sense the speed of the drum/washing. I use zero crossing detection (i.e. when the AC wave is at zero volts) to time a pulse to the main motor triac. Depending on how soon I fire the triac after the AC has crossed the zero point controls how much power the motor effectively gets (very like a light dimmer circuit). This coupled with the tacho feedback means I can get the drum to spin at exactly the speed I want.

Commands that are sent to the washing machine are in a simple text based format i.e.

#H0 = heater off
#H1 = heater on at 40 degrees
#H2 = heater on at 50 degrees
#H? = response with heater status
#HZ = current reading of thermostat
#F0 = Motor off
#F1 = Motor on speed controlled tumble mode in clockwise direction
#R1 = as above but counter clockwise
#F5 = Motor at 75% power

etc etc etc

All good fun

[Haynzee]

completely pointless but oh so cool. dude you're a certified nutbar.

fancy knocking me up a winxp compatible blender?

[Dom]

lol - I need to concentrate on the car stuff now.

Scarily though, half the code I used for the MFD/TID project I've been working on has ended up in the washing machine !!! (Timing loops, analogue to digital conversion code and communications code)

[Haynzee]

imagine pulling up at a cruise, pop the boot and there would be a neon'ed up washing machine doing a spin cycle.

[0ddball]

whats the rev limit on that puppy.

[Dom]

Rev limit on the drum is 1200rpm mate

I'd derestrict it but its not always perfectly balanced which can lead to the machine going for a walk round my workshop/laundryroom

[Davo]

Originally Posted by ¥

imagine pulling up at a cruise, pop the boot and there would be a neon'ed up washing machine doing a spin cycle.

Trouble is it would end up in the back of some Saxo washing burberry and tracksuit bottoms.

[Haynzee]

Dom - give superchips a ring, they can probably raise the revlimit to 2000

[SimonP]

Originally Posted by ¥

imagine pulling up at a cruise, pop the boot and there would be a neon'ed up washing machine doing a spin cycle.

PMSL!!

[JohnnyDMonic]

thats the most ridiculous thing i've ever seen! fair play

[EasyRob]

Lol.. you're some prodigy electronics ace, yet you still got a 5210 brick of a phone, lol. My best attempt is to control loads of things (eg: curtains, doors, lights etc etc) in my SISTER'S room, via remote control in mine

[toastmonster]

That is seriously impressive.

I can only hope that when i come out of my elec eng degree, that i too will be able to fill my house with such appliances.

[Dom]

Originally Posted by EasyRider

Lol.. you're some prodigy electronics ace, yet you still got a 5210 brick of a phone,

5110 Actually (well a 5146 but its the same phone)

If it makes matters worse I've got two of them - I use my phone so rarely its only for emergency calls. A tenners worth of credit has so far lasted me a year and a half

I'm not a phone freak - I dont need to have the latest of everything (to be honest with you I hate mobile phones).

Now if you're talking cellular packet modems I get interested.

[Colonel K]

dude, respect to you AGAIN!! You are too clever for ya own good!

And also have FAR too much time on your hands! LOL

[Brian_S]

Commutating triacs, eh? Use the snubberless ones ( ST BTA600-41BW ) and use back to back zeners in the gate drive. That will get rid of the commutation all together.

Why use the PC though? You used a PIC demo board anyway, just do a small embedded board, and put an LCD on for the missus to get the hang of it..

[John]

Quality!!
Fancy a go with a old 1980 Sevis Quartz before i bin mine for a newer one!

[LEE69]

Amazing.

[Ghost_Walker]

Dom you have too much time on your hands. hell of a good tho.

[Dom]

Originally Posted by Brian_S

Commutating triacs, eh? Use the snubberless ones ( ST BTA600-41BW ) and use back to back zeners in the gate drive. That will get rid of the commutation all together.

Why use the PC though? You used a PIC demo board anyway, just do a small embedded board, and put an LCD on for the missus to get the hang of it..

The problem wasnt with the triacs Brian - it was with the snubber network itself. I used 200nf/100R X2 epoxy encased networks as that was all I could get my hands on at the time. Once the water inlet valve was activated, the current required to hold it open was virtually nil and the snubbers themselves acted as a very low current path to neutral.

It totally flummoxed me for a while - I had a relay in series with the neutral path of the solenoid which was hooked up to an overpressure switch as a "mechanical" fail safe i.e. if the triac failed short circuit then the relay would cut all power to the solenoid when the water fill level reached a critical point (good old mechanical methods).

The relay was cutting in but the valve stayed open. I ended up wiring in a 60 watt lightbulb much to the amusement of my missus (who told her mates that everytime the washing machine filled up with water it turned on a desk lamp as well) which cured the problem as it drew enough current to turn off the valve again.

Once I removed the snubber it worked perfectly - its actually running straight off the opto-isolator triac at the moment as that doesnt require a snubber.

The Pic Demo board was only used for the MAX232 on it mate - I didnt have time to knock up a seperate board for it so cheated. The actual processor in the machine is a PIC18F1320 running on its own internal oscillator. I've only used up about 1/16 of its memory for the program its got in it at the moment so I could have squeezed the whole lot in there but I was informed we had a new machine on its way before I got any further

[Dom]

Originally Posted by John

Quality!!
Fancy a go with a old 1980 Sevis Quartz before i bin mine for a newer one!

Not going near another Servis machine for a long time mate

The one in the picture is a 4 year old Servis Washer Dryer

[andymartin]

mmmm very very interesting idea there mate. take my hat off to ya!

Funnily enough ive just finished learning about triacs and generating zero crossing pulses to stop the triac turning off on the 0v section of the AC wave.

Good on ya mate.

[Dom]

Originally Posted by andymartin

Funnily enough ive just finished learning about triacs and generating zero crossing pulses to stop the triac turning off on the 0v section of the AC wave.

I used a bridge rectifier with no smoothing and a transistor to directly drive an interrupt pin on the microprocessor. The interrupt in turn reset an internal timer that was used to generate the firing pulses for the triac depending on what part of the cycle it was required to fire on.

[EasyRob]

Originally Posted by Dom

The problem wasnt with the triacs Brian - it was with the snubber network itself. I used 200nf/100R X2 epoxy encased networks as that was all I could get my hands on at the time. Once the water inlet valve was activated, the current required to hold it open was virtually nil and the snubbers themselves acted as a very low current path to neutral.

It totally flummoxed me for a while - I had a relay in series with the neutral path of the solenoid which was hooked up to an overpressure switch as a "mechanical" fail safe i.e. if the triac failed short circuit then the relay would cut all power to the solenoid when the water fill level reached a critical point (good old mechanical methods).

The relay was cutting in but the valve stayed open. I ended up wiring in a 60 watt lightbulb much to the amusement of my missus (who told her mates that everytime the washing machine filled up with water it turned on a desk lamp as well) which cured the problem as it drew enough current to turn off the valve again.

Once I removed the snubber it worked perfectly - its actually running straight off the opto-isolator triac at the moment as that doesnt require a snubber.

The Pic Demo board was only used for the MAX232 on it mate - I didnt have time to knock up a seperate board for it so cheated. The actual processor in the machine is a PIC18F1320 running on its own internal oscillator. I've only used up about 1/16 of its memory for the program its got in it at the moment so I could have squeezed the whole lot in there but I was informed we had a new machine on its way before I got any further

I'm sure most other readers are thinking... what the ***K is going on?! Sounds impressive though lol, even everyone except Brian is just clueless.

What would it look like if you disconnected the water hose and did a dry-wash, but put some tyre-flies on inside of the drum?! That would be something worth paying to see

[Dom]

Lol - no need to disconnect the hose - I have full control over what that machine does now.

Bit of a downer though - the missus has just rung Comet and they are delivering the new machine on Friday I'll have to strip all the bits I've put on this one now as they are taking it away