Anyone monitoring "fill" status on central vac?

[AnthonyZ]

I would like to start offering existing clients (and possibly for myself in the future) a status on their central vacs. Real info would be cool (a la A/D) but, even just a "Vac Is Full!" type scenario would be cool. I considered photoelectric but thought I'd come here first. Any insight?

 

[electron]

I just got a central vac myself (still need to install it), and was planning on monitoring all the status lights with CdS photocells. This is how I monitor my washer, and it works great. I can't think of a better way.

 

[pete]

my vac unit (Hayden) will go into a pulse mode (on/off) if it senses it needs to be emptied . . unplug it and it resets

 

[ASIHome]

my vac unit (Hayden) will go into a pulse mode (on/off) if it senses it needs to be emptied . . unplug it and it resets

You could always put a "push" type magnetic contact in the bottom of the container and when the bag is full it will depress the contact.

 

[Steve]

I'm looking at the new Airforce II by MD. It is UPB controlled and will monitor everything, send emails, etc. All it needs is the Roomba on the end of the hose to make it fully automatic!

 

[AnthonyZ]

I'm looking at the new Airforce II by MD. It is UPB controlled and will monitor everything, send emails, etc. All it needs is the Roomba on the end of the hose to make it fully automatic!

I am definately looking at this option for future installs. I like the email feature but I still want to display status on TP's.

 

[Mike P]

What is a cds photocell? I have a Nutone system with an led that goes from green to yellow to red as the bag is filled up. I had one bust not to long ago, and to make things worse, I dropped everything when I was changing it(Not Fun). Any ideas for a Nutone?

Mike

 

[WayneW]

What is a cds photocell?

Essentially a photo resistor. The resistance changes based upon the amount of light received. Used in all "automatic" night lights that come on when the room gets dark. It usually looks like a brown squiggly thing under a small glass/plastic bubble.

 

[electron]

Check out this How-To for more information on how to use it.

 

[FrankMc]

Hi Guys

I use my own LED Probes which use an LDR to detect the status of an appliances led....therefore generally the appliances status.....Detecting changes of colour is somewhat harder......

I have a DVD Player which when off a very small led is green and when on its red....I taped an LDR over the status led and monitored the change in resistance when it was green and when it was red...Luckily there was from memory over 100k difference so it was just a matter of adjusted my threshold resistors on my probe pcb and its been working fine now for a few months...

HTH
Frank