How to: Automate Your Laundry Room

By David Powell

Home automation is not just for tech-geeks. There can be benefits for the entire family. Take, for example, my laundry room. My wife came to me and asked if I could make the lights come on automatically when she entered the room so she would not have to do a balancing trick with the laundry basket on her knee. Now, I have to admit that I do not do any laundry. In fact my wife refuses to let me touch the laundry. So when she asked me to automate her personal space I was very excited. To solve the problem. I simply added a motion detector to my Elk alarm system and now when motion is detected I have the Elk turn on the light using an Elk Z-Wave controller.

Let's start with the products you'll need. Keep in mind that many of the system components covered here will let you automate multiple rooms, not just your laundry room. So the cost of automating additional rooms will be minimal. Click here for a matrix of all the products that I will be using along with their pricing.

Hardware Installation

Figure 1: Choosing the mounting location.

Step 1:
Install the Elk M1 alarm system. Elk has done a nice job making the installation of its M1 security system simple. But there is something that will make the installation 10 times smoother. Free (!) video tutorials, compliments of Set-Net. I highly recommend that you visit Interscience International and view all the available videos before even taking the unit out of the box. Why? The videos will take you through everything from connecting the peripheral device to powering up the unit for the first time. After you have watched the videos, choose the location and install the system. I fastened mine to the concrete wall inside my laundry room using a hammer drill and masonry screws (see Figure 1). Just be sure that you will be able to easily run the cable from the room you are automating all the way back unobtrusively to the panel.

Figure 2: Mounting the Elk Z-Wave Controller.

Step 2:
Add the Elk Z-Wave Controller. After you have the M1 mounted, locate and mount the Z-Wave module (see Figure 2). The module is an RF device and comes encased in a somewhat large plastic housing. One of the biggest mistakes people make when installing the module is to remove the circuit board from the plastic enclosure and mount it inside the same metal enclosure as the M1. Please, don't do that. It will reduce your signal strength considerably and cause you many headaches later on. I mounted mine about eight inches above the Elk enclosure but you may want to consider mounting it in a more central part of the home, Z-Wave is a mesh network so each device (light switch, etc.) acts as a repeater. So as long as you are about 75 feet from your first device and there are no device greater than 100 feet away from another device then you should be OK. Again, just make sure that you can run wires from the Z-Wave module to the M1 without killing your WAF (wife appreciation factor).

Step 3:
Enough with the boring stuff. Let's start connecting some wires (see Figure 3). It's time to connect the Z-Wave module to the M1. If you watched the videos in step 1 you should have learned about the data bus and data bus connection terminals. The Z-Wave module uses the RS-485 data bus on the Elk to both supply power and send/receive the communications signal. I will outline the connections between the module and the M1 now and at the end of this tutorial will show you a wiring diagram of the entire setup.

Figure 3: Wiring the Z-Wave controller.

Step 4:
Now install the motion sensor. I picked the wired Honeywell (IS-215T) for a few reasons. The main reason is that it offers adjustable sensitivity. This means that you can have it trigger in three to five steps or almost instantly (two to four steps) as we would want for our application. To set the sensitivity you will need to change two DIP switches labeled one and two. One should be in the ON (up) position and two should be in the OFF (down) position for maximum sensitivity. Before you mount the motion sensor in its final location you are going to need to do some experimenting. Cut a piece of 22 gauge 4 conductor wire which will reach from the Elk M1 to the estimated location and then wire just the power (+12v and Neg) so that the motion sensors LED is illuminated. The connection at the M1 will be made at the J16 terminal on pins 15 and 16 (see Figures 4 and 5).

TIP: Cut the piece of wire long enough so that you can reuse it for your final run.

Now you can locate the sensor in the most effective location (see Figure 6). I found that the best location in my laundry room was just above the door and facing the washer and dryer while slightly tilted down at the floor. You will need to play with the location while taking notice of the LED motion indicator. When the LED is out, no motion is detected. While the LED is lit motion is detected. Later on you will find out that motion does not always need to be present for the lights to remain on. You can use a timer to fine-tune the actions of the motion sensor.

	Figure 5: PIR and Z-Wave to Elk Wiring diagram.

Once you have found the perfect location for your motion detector, route the wire in its permanent location. Remove the cover and circuit board. Drive some small screws through the holes provided in the plastic casing to secure the casing. Then make the connections as documented in Figure 5.

Step 5:
This next step is straightforward but take extreme caution when working with any electricity.

Please note: If you are not comfortable with measuring voltage then you should find an experienced electrician to do it for you.

To complete this task I recommend that you get the following tools

• Large Flash Light
• Phillips Screwdriver
• Flat head Screwdriver
• Current/Voltage Detector
  (Greenlee non-contact voltage detector)
• Voltage Meter

First you'll need to shut off the power to the existing light switch.

TIP: Turn the lights on first so that when you switch the power off at the breaker panel you can have a visual indication that you shut the correct source off.

Figure 6: Locating the PIR mounting position.

Then power up your flashlight and start removing the cover plate with your flat head screwdriver. After the cover is removed you should follow the instructions of your voltage detector and ensure that there is no power inside of the electrical box. If there is no power then you can proceed and take the existing light switch out of the electrical box. Follow the installation instructions (PDF) for the relay switch you purchased. The connections should be as simple as connecting all of the white wires together. Then you will need to distinguish between the load and the source wires. Both load and source wires are typically black. Use your volt meter to determine which set of wires provide 120Vac by measuring the voltage across the black and white pairs of wires.

Now that you know which wire is hot (source) and which is not (load) you can finish making the connections. According to the documentation of my light switch the blue wire from the switch is connected to the load (black) wire and the black wire of the switch is connected to the power source (also black). Make sure you read the installation instructions carefully as installation procedures may vary.

Figure 7: Z-Wave dimmer switch.

Step 6:
Now that you have your switch installed and power restored (see Figure 7), you should be able to control you lights manually. So now it's time to have some real fun. You need to follow the ZTH100 Instructions (PDF) on page 8 (add module to group). The process is as simple as putting your handheld remote control into learning mode and pressing the button on the light switch.

Step 7:
Copy your handheld master controller to the Elk Z-wave module. On page five of the Elk Z-Wave Installation Manual you will find detailed instructions about how to copy the data from your handheld controller to the Elk Z-Wave controller. Then on page six, the instructions explain how to test your work by pressing a few keys on the alarm keypad.

Step 8:
This final step is a fun one. Before you start this step you should have watched all of the videos from step 1 and you should read the Elk Installation and Programming Manual especially Section 4 "PC Programming and Automation Capabilities." Teaching you how to program the Elk is beyond the scope of the tutorial, however, I will teach you about the rules that I am using.

The motion sensor is connected to an alarm zone and that zone is monitored by the Elk system. By establishing rule (1) you simply tell the Elk to turn the laundry room light on as soon as motion is detected.

(1) WHENEVER Laundry Motion [Zn1] BECOMES NOT SECURE THEN TURN Laundry Room [1 (A1)] ON, FADE RATE = 0

Rule (2) is where the real intelligence comes in to play. It basically says that whenever motion is not detected then start a countdown timer. The Elk can control 205 outputs. Output numbers one through 16 come on the main board and all other outputs require an expander. However, you only need an expander if you want to control a device. The outputs offer a feature that lets you turn them on for a specified duration. In order to program the rules of an output the output does not actually have to exist. In other words, I do not have to have an output expander and 100+ actual outputs to use the logic of the outputs. So outputs one through16 actually exist on the main board and outputs 17 through 205 are virtual outputs, which do not exist unless an expander is added. I chose to use the number 100 to start using virtual outputs. This leaves me with room to add 17 through 99 in the future if I find a need to control some devices. There are a few other important notes to make. "Outputs one and two trip when any alarm is activated" and "Outputs five and six are not available from the main board." You should avoid using outputs one through 16 as virtual outputs.

(2) WHENEVER Laundry Motion [Zn1] BECOMES SECURE THEN TURN Output 100 ON FOR 1 MIN, 25 SECS, RESTART TIMER IF RUNNING

Rule (3) simply states that when output 100 is turned off then shut the lights off also. This rule works with rule (2). Rule (2) initially turns the output on and keeps the output on as long as motion is still being detected. After one minute and 25 seconds of no activity the output is shut off and rule (3) is executed turning the lights off.

(3) WHENEVER Output 100 STATE IS TURNED OFF THEN TURN Laundry Room [1 (A1)]OFF, FADE RATE = 0

Using a motion sensor to automate your living space is inexpensive and can be easy to do, but it is not the only device available for detection. Other transducers can be used such as a pressure sensitive mat, or photoelectric invisible beam sensor. Depending on the size and layout of your room you may need more than one motion detector or a combination of motion sensors and other devices.

The good news is that once you buy all of the basic components such as the Elk M1 and Z-Wave devices it's very affordable to add additional sensors and lighting devices as needed. In my home I used wired motion sensors, but you could just as easily used wireless devices that are compatible with the Elk system. Keep in mind also that Z-Wave motion detectors also exist and could offer you additional flexibility.

Check ZWaveWorld.com for future "How-to" articles on automating your home.

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