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ThomDietrich / SenseoWifi

Wifi'ify the Senseo coffee maker. Circuit and firmware for an internal Senseo hack to monitor and control the daily coffee brew (via MQTT) ☕️📶
GNU General Public License v3.0
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Feature request: Toggle cup detection sensor #18

Closed fredericdepuydt closed 4 years ago

fredericdepuydt commented 5 years ago

Hi,

A recently started creating this project myself, and was wondering how to minimize the power consumption. I'm suspecting the cup detection will be lit 24/7, but the actual detection only needs milliseconds to determine if there's a cup or not.

Wouldn't it be interesting to have a digital output pin controlling the input voltage of the TCRT5000 module?

Kind regards, Frederic

ThomDietrich commented 5 years ago

Hey Frederic, did you measure the current on the module? Even with the LED it's probably just a few milliamps and would cost you literally cents :) To be fair I never measured the consumption of the whole setup. Would be interesting to know which difference the added components make relative to the normal standby consumption of the Senseo. Regarding the LEDs: Did you consider disconnecting it?

fredericdepuydt commented 5 years ago

Hey Frederic, did you measure the current on the module? Even with the LED it's probably just a few milliamps and would cost you literally cents :) To be fair I never measured the consumption of the whole setup. Would be interesting to know which difference the added components make relative to the normal standby consumption of the Senseo. Regarding the LEDs: Did you consider disconnecting it?

I haven't measured it yet, I'll do some measurements when my project is finished ;) I'll be using an IR led with a transistor and an IR sensor with a transistor. This allows me to first measure the ambient light, and afterwards compare the value when the IR led is turned on.

This measurement would only take several milli seconds, and during idle times both transistors would be turned off. I'll share the schematics and code when it's finished.

ThomDietrich commented 5 years ago

I haven't measured it yet, I'll do some measurements when my project is finished ;) I'll be using an IR led with a transistor and an IR sensor with a transistor. This allows me to first measure the ambient light, and afterwards compare the value when the IR led is turned on.

The TCRT5000 also has an analog out, giving you a comparable measurement. Then you can simply check for differences and thereby identify the cup. I won't stop you, not sure if it's worth it :) If you want to improve something it would be interesting to learn about a solution that is more easier to install and maintain. Cutting the hole for the two LEDs and keeping them clean is not easy. I would love a sensor that is e.g. housed in one round shape and flush with the senseo surface...

In any case: Yes definitely share your findings! :)

mboremski commented 5 years ago

I have been corius and measured the current of the TCRT5000: Without cup: 25.7mA With cup: 28.9mA

So the Sensor is taking approx. 145mW continuously. This leads to 1.27kWh per year. That is in germany around 0,4€/year. ;-)

And: The whole PCB is taking around 110mA (including TCRT5000)

ThomDietrich commented 5 years ago

Thanks @mboremski !!

The whole PCB is taking around 110mA (including TCRT5000)

would you like to add this to our README? I can see others raising similar questions.

ThomDietrich commented 4 years ago

Even if measurements by @mboremski are not correct, I guess it is safe to assume that this is not a real issue. I've added a note to the README. https://github.com/ThomDietrich/SenseoWifi/commit/fc12187822dca027e2fcc0dc260cb7dc9552dedc