Electronic Washing Machine Control circuit provides all the facilities provided by

reputed companies and even more. The circuit has a timer circuit which can be set to
any duration from 0 to 15 minutes and can be extended to any length of time by
merely changing a capacitor. The circuit has switching circuits which run the impeller
in one direction for 25 seconds and stop the motor for five seconds. This cycle
repeats until the time set in the timer has elapsed. An optional switch is provided to
select normal/strong washes. During ‘normal’ washing, the impeller rotates in both
directions alternatively with five second gap between reversals. This type of wash is
suitable for delicate clothes. During ‘strong’ washing, the impeller rotates in one
direction only with five second push after every 25 seconds.

Another switch is provided to select the ‘continuous’ facilities. In this mode, the
impeller rotates in one direction only continuously. This mode is suitable for blankets,
rugs etc.

The heart of the circuit is IC3 which is a CMOS decade counter cum decoder. The IC
provides ten outputs which go high one at a time for every clock pulse applied at pin
14. The clock pulses are obtained by IC1 NE555 wired in as table multivibrator mode.
The second, third, fourth and fifth outputs are OR’ed by four 1N4148 diodes (D1 –
D4). Similarly, the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th outputs are OR,ed by another four 1N4148
diodes (D5 – D8). The first and sixth outputs are left unused.
When IC3 starts counting, the first pulse is not received by any diode, and during that
period transistors T3 and T2 are off and the relays are also off, disabling the motor.
During counts form second to fifth pulse T3 is on and T2 is off. The motor runs in one
direction for four clock pulses. During sixth pulse, once again T3 and T2 are off and
the motor stops. During seventh to tenth pulses, T 3 and T2 are on and the motor runs
in opposite direction due to switching of winding by relay RL1contacts.

The timer is based on IC2 CD4060 which divides by 16384 counters. The timer can
be set by 1M potentiometer. After the set-time T1 switches T2 and T3 off, thus
disabling the motor. The 4060 can be reset by the push-to-on switch provided.

Capacitor C4 is a starting capacitor already fixed to the motor. Relay RL1 and RL2 are
6V, 100 Ω, 6A rated relays.

The circuit can be assembled on the general-purpose PCB. Mains wiring should be
made with high current stranded copper wire. The circuit being fairly simple does not
pose any problem