DIY Smart Dry Laundry Sensor

[@deadly_dave]

This is a great idea but I think you have approached it wrong. You should make the clothes horse be the moisture sensor that way it can be 'permanent' and you just throw clothes on it.

[@juanmacias5922]

I was thinking about this as well, it would be way more convenient as well.

[@Dsk001]

I came to suggest the same thing. You can place the copper tape on the hanging rods cover the whole rod except for a split in the middle. This would give you a large surface area of the clothes touching the tape and hopefully you won't need a clamping force then

[@azyfloof]

I was also thinking this :D Two stainless steel rods running in parallel across the tops of each rail, such that the clothes hanging over them make contact :D

[@rickoneill4343]

I would clip them to the bottom of the clothing as most of the water will move down with gravity over time. So the legs bottoms of pants will take longer to dry.

[@bryanb7918]

You stole the words out of all our minds, but great minds think alike!

[@cro2cl267]

I will from now on think of you as the "laundrytuber" and you cannot do anything about it. Great content, keep up the laundrytubing

[@nikscha]

I love that you use the fridge as a white board. Very creative!

[@welshdave5263]

I've been searching (hoping to randomly find one at the roadside) for a dead fridge with a nice flat white door for ages to use as a whiteboard for videos. So glad I'm not the only one that likes the idea.

[@TechTinkerWorks]

Did you dox your wifi at 7:02 ?

[@Mellow_labs]

Thank you I am aware of it, it’s from about four years ago 😂

[@WoLpH]

As an alternative, which will help with drying as well. Use a humidity sensor and a fan (to make sure you have enough circulating air) and measure how the humidity changes over time. Add a button which indicates that your drying cycle starts (which could also start the fan) and take a simple derivative to detect when the moisture level in the air stops decreasing. If you do want to stay with the clamp solution, don't forget to put the clamps near the bottom of the clothes. In my experience the top of the clothes can feel perfectly dry while the bottom is still very wet.

[@wagnerfontes2]

Interesting idea! Maybe this version with a humidity sensor could also be used inside a dryer?

[@ozzyd971]

This is exactly what I do, humidity sensor and WiFi switched fan.

[@domramsey]

This is great. For the next version, I'd suggest either having everything built in to the drying rack, or make individual battery powered clothes pegs. Ditch the wires entirely if you can. I think going wire-free is more important than worrying about having a single ESP32 per peg. Also, standard clothes pegs are probably the best option. There's a reason we've been using the same design of peg for about a hundred years. :)

[@edsavill8947]

Your channel is so underrated! I have loved all of your videos, keep them coming 🎉

[@nikscha]

Instead of multiplexing the leds you could use a few neopixels

[@Mika_3c33]

Awesome project! Another way you could do it is by looking at the humidity, because that would be a lot higher around wet clothing. If you have a puck of sorts, with a humidity sensor inside close to the clothing, and another humidity sensor in the control box, you can compare the two, and based on how big that difference is know how far along your clothing is!

[@niaimack]

The electrodes would be slowly corroding due to electrolysis?

[@georgeprout42]

Definitely need to use AC signals for this reason.

[@lopataaable]

Cool idea! I have an improvement idea - wouldnt it be better to wrap the copper tape around the hanger "sticks"? In my head it would be two concentric spirals wrapping around the "sticks" but never touching and the resistance would be coming from the clothes hanging of the sticks and touching the tape at multiple points. Also, I think it isn't such a pain to have a hanger plugged in, but the clips seem inherently messy. Anyway, Great vids. Keep it up :)

[@davetreadwell]

9:45 - really love the nozzlecam

[@jumhig]

Great idea. Maybe put the clamp on the lowest part of the hanging garment, as seems that more moisture collects at the bottom (gravity), so it dries last.

[@phoenixnoble]

Addressable LED strip to show status of each item, one led per item same red to green, 1 wire + power?

[@Mellow_labs]

100% I just have like 200 rgb leds to use i've got to put them somewhere 🤣😂

[@PeritusGamingTV]

Pretty cool concept. Another possible solution would just be to measure the moisture in the air, as the curve of that will be following the wetness of the clothes, rising and then falling again once the clothes dry up.

[@mitchellmnr]

Here's a design idea: Have a look at the springs used for downlight fittings/housings ... they're pretty snappy. If you can build one into a print then it will have some nice grip strength. So, back to the idea. If you make a clip with the circle in the middle, add 2 copper traces. Put that into a rectifier and a charge circuit. Then make a clamp housing where you basically clamp the clamp onto - also with copper. You could use an ESP (not 32) and a small battery on the clamp. So when its removed from the holder, it turns on and starts reporting - it could use ESP mesh to the housing (base) to report. So you know what clamps are removed (in use) and which are not. Also means no wires and easy to just pull off and clip onto clothes and put back. Each one can be labeled by a colour (heatshrink etc) And then the housing can have an LED or light bar to show its state (could use addressable LEDs here - save on pins) When the clamp is returned to the housing, the gnd would flow from the inner copper to one of the 2 tips That can be used for the housing to sense when the clamp is returned. It can then turn off the light and communicate for charging etc... And when unclamped, it can pulse to show waiting, then when the clamp shows any bit of resistance (not nothing) it goes solid colour for the state. That way you can also see what clamps are not clamped well. The holder keeps the devices charged and ready to go as well as shows the state. After a minute or so, the clamp when in use can go into partial sleep - wake up every 5 min to read (so smaller battery = longer off holder) And if the battery gets low, the status led can flash. The holder then is the main reporter of state and just wireless clamps. So when you go to hang up your laundry, you just grab a clamp and clamp it on, the light goes solid and you can easily tell. When its 'dry' the timer could be more than 5 minutes since its nearing the done state. Then when you're going to pickup your laundry, unclamp and clamp onto the holder - and it starts to charge again, ready for the next cycle :)

[@Mellow_labs]

Shockingly that is almost exactly what I was thinking for version 2

[@mitchellmnr]

@@Mellow_labs Keen to see the variant :D (although realistically, I'll have forgotten my idea by then lol)

[@davetreadwell]

3:10 jigglewobble has now replaced jitter in my vocabulary

[@patrickcraenen5163]

Hello Tomasz, Thanks for your video. I think it's a very interesting concept. Very handy when you don't have to feel every hour if the laundry is dry. I've already subscribed to your channel. Cheers

[@gearscodeandfire]

This is genius

[@andy_warb]

btw, check out the recent tour that 3d musketeers did of the Prusa facility. They had this awesome device for sorting screws that could inspire the next iteration of your pill dispenser!

[@222inverter]

Great idea.! you could also introduce a humidity sensor as well ?? but i think you are on to something??...you could even make a automation for home assistant to inform you when they are dry???

[@gunar.kroeger]

what about a weight sensor on the whole rack and measure when evaporation stops (weight stabilizes)? might need some sensitive sensors but would be a scalable solutuon

[@RubenKelevra]

I think it would be cool to wrap the tape around your drying rack in a couple of spots and then have the microcontroller switch between different rows to measure them. So you can get away with less IO inputs. If you increase the voltage, you can certainly make this work. :)

[@Ernzt8]

Nice project again, but I do think you should use the rack to measure the moist. No more tangling wires. Love the 3D printer footage by the way :)

[@mrab4222]

2:10 I think you meant to say that we should see the resistance rising.

[@Obtuse94]

Freaking love this idea!!!

[@cbs1710]

The reason why the "away from radiator" side dried faster IMO would be because the other end is constantly getting "drier", and water - similar to its "physical fluid" (i.e. "gas is fluid") properties - tries to saturate everything by spreading itself "evenly inside the garment (assuming uniform fabric / "space" / identical material, etc.). So, it's constantly being "drawn" towards the drier place, which then either leads to equilibrium (both dry) or one side seeming wetter than the other. Just hypothesizing, though. I wonder what ChatGPT would have said on this matter, first with "loaded question" and then with unloaded (i.e. "predict the drying pattern"). And speaking of drying pattern - extremely important: you should actually put clips vertically and horizontally centered. Upper parts will always dry first and "dryness" will start spreading from top to the bottom, due to: - air circulation ("hot air rises"); - air startification (essentially the same as above, but imagine drying long towels the length almost to the floor; they'd be creating a small high-moisture "microclimate" due to reduced air circulation or it being limited to single direction); - gravity (especially noticable with heavier fabrics [again, like towels], water will slightly "sag" and accumulate in the lowest parts of the garments); - etc. Therefore, clip(s) at the lowest point are probably most relevant, assuming no forced air circulation (a fan set to blow between the lines will do wonders to accelerate the drying). But clipping them there is also unweildy. So, maybe the best solution would be integrating the moisture sensors within the dryer (on the wires, isolated of course), followed by a couple (or quartet) of humidity sensors (potentially placeable on the dryer's foldable legs). But generally, on the topic of this problem, one's (head) cheek is the best sensor, IMO. And if it just feels "dry enough", that is fine, because the rest will dissipate through the fabric, and - if in the closet or drawer - to the air and the rest of the clothes, minisculy rising the humidity, of which all will be taken away since both closets and drawers are usually not made to be really air-sealed. And, if i doubt, leaving the drawers/closet open for an hour or two when able, would eliminate that entirely... although it would get its air exchanged every time you grab a new pair of socks or the next T-shirt.

[@BillsCountrysideAdventures]

You need Lakeland dry soon mate, game changer with dehumidifier

[@RubenKelevra]

1:38 Water is no conductor, at least not in the traditional sense. Water has an extremely low conductivity of 0.055 µS/cm (microsiemens per centimeter). For context, that’s closer to the conductivity of glass, a well-known insulator, than to something like copper, which is a true conductor. To put it simply, water is about 10¹⁵ times less conductive than copper, but only 10⁴ to 10⁶ times more conductive than glass. In fact, water’s conductivity is comparable to that of intrinsic silicon, a semiconductor, rather than any actual conductor like metals. The reason tapwater or seawater seems conductive is due to dissolved substances (like salts and minerals) in the water, which release ions and dramatically increase its conductivity. But if we’re talking about water in its purest form, it’s practically an insulator.

[@Mellow_labs]

Yes and I had a table pointing this out. Somehow I don't think anybody's running a water purifier for their washing machine, So this should still work for most people.

[@RubenKelevra]

@@Mellow_labs well, think about ships :)

[@japanskakaratemuva5309]

Softener should even make it more conductive

[@coreymartin9630]

You could always use digital addressable LEDs, they only take 1 data pin

[@andy_warb]

Could you print the clips with conductive filament (or use conductive paint) instead of copper tape? 🤔

[@Mellow_labs]

Last I checked conductive filament wasn't that great a lot of resistance.

[@randomelectronicsanddispla1765]

You might want to consider a more inert metal as contact. Copper will eventually give nice indelible greenish stains

[@CHECKERCE]

7:20 i hope these are not your real WiFi credentials 💀

[@DocZippit]

For the LEDs you could have used an addressable RGB strip with x amount of LEDs, that way you only have 3 of 4 wires for a handfull of LEDs

[@ajfriesen]

The solution to your pressure problem: Magnets! Then you do not need a strong clamp as well.

[@valzzu]

ooooh, so this u made into a PCB on the stream got it.

[@georgeprout42]

I was considering using a strain gauge/load cell from AliEx to get a measurement essentially the mass of the clothes horse and wet clothes. As the clothes dry, the weight will reduce, so if it hasnt changed in a (10 minute?) period then we're done.

[@mxfxmmuller1778]

Maybe measure the capacitance which will also change with the moisture Level. Then filter the data to remove noise and only keep the slow „drying“ information . Check until the value stops changeing. Use digital IO and measure time of Pulses for the capacitance to allow for more Channels

[@Madgod112]

this would also significantly delay the corrosion of the copper contacts, as you could cover it with something insulating, e.g. insert into a slot on the printed clamp or even just paint on some solder mask

[@mrab4222]

Does that ESP32 board have touch sensors? Don't those measure capacitance?

[@daviniusb6798]

You are only measuring the moisture getting pulled down your towel by gravity! The Sensor has to go on the other end ;) Great project idea, though!

[@herwigg3327]

instead of the LEDs - how about the ws2812? - no multiplexer and RGB ...

[@BlackDreaded]

"I need to plug in/charge up my drying rack" - Some Guy in 2024

[@Mellow_labs]

My drying rack also needs updates now 😂😂

[@ericclone]

The whole time I am just thinking when will the dishes get washed.

[@riccardoiacob4560]

Great idea, but why not go with the capacitive approach? It would be more accurate for moisture sensing. Resistive is inaccurate, has poor contact, poor linearity, ALSO prone to electrolysis (could damage cloth and wires).

[@BLOCKsignallingUK]

Jiggle wobble = human body resistance

[@PriyankBolia]

Didn't know this is a problem to be solved. Seriously.

[@Mellow_labs]

You must be new here, please take a seat watch a couple more!

[@thomasvnl]

Toedeloe is a joke that is only suited to us Dutch and German folk I think ;)

[@ludwichs8923]

did you have no "green" (cooper) dots on your clothes?