The Super Direct Drive project

[servis-dream]

drawing a fair bit of inspiration from Robert's Super Unimatic, and my dad's own ambition of making his raspberry Pi do more than just switch some LED's on and off or make something beep, it's time for us both to create something a little odd and interesting

now while none of this genuinely exists yet as a project aside from on paper, here's the idea

with stain removal and a little (legitimately miniscule) bit of water savings in mind

the first part of the cycle is to let the machine run a recirculating Catalyst style spin at low speed starting with around a 1/2 gallon of water in constant recirculation while being heated by a set of flow through heaters (yes, more than 1) until the temperature reaches whatever get's set, it will continue like this for around 5 to 10 minutes depending on the time limit set for the cycle (variable time controls for each step)

the second is the typical fill to wash level with hot, cold, or warm water (up to 60 degrees Celsius) to the level set for agitation to start

an additional feature will be the recirculation pump staying on during the wash portion to allow detergent to become fully infused with the wash water

another good feature to implement will be heating while recirculating the wash or rinse water (up to 90 degrees Celsius)

for spin it's the usual high or low spin, with sprays if i programme them in

for rinses as said above i hope to be able to heat them just because why not

for detergent dispensing, i can add in a dispenser, although the best idea will be automatic detergent dispensing in addition to manual dispensing

all of this will be ran from a Raspberry Pi 5 and a few relay boards

if anyone has any cycle ideas, let me hear you out

 

[thatwasherguy]

Sounds like a neat project!

I particularly like the flow through heater idea. Is the machine going to have a thermostatic hold as well, like a dishwasher? I’ve been convinced of the effectiveness of temperature boost systems in washers ever since I was lucky enough to get to wash my whites in a 240V Bosch Axxis FL. Looking forward to hearing how it turns out!
Good luck,
Thatwasherguy.

 

[combo52]

Sounds like a neat project

I like the idea of a pre-wash at low water level, being recirculated, while the machine spins slowly and gradual heating of the water that could definitely help with stain removal.

When a direct driver is agitating with the pump running in reverse, there is no possibility that even a Drop of detergent doesn’t get mixed into the wash water so it wouldn’t do much good to recirculate as it agitates.

I might also be careful with how hot you heat the wash water. I’m sure the machine can probably stand 140 or 150°, but I’m not sure the outer tub Etc. can take 190 you might have to find out.

It’s too bad you don’t have one of the catalyst models with all the dispensers. It would be easier to modify the machine.

I had thought this number of times of adding an in-line heater to my Calypso washer because it has a nice robust recirculating pump anyway.

I’ll look forward to seeing how this works out.

John

 

[servis-dream]

Hopefully the tub can survive over 190°F