Appliance (tumble dryer) monitor

[daveh]

I live in a rented house where there is a garage at the bottom of the garden around 30ft away. I run an extension lead down there and run a tumble dryer in there. The missus would like a way of telling when the dryer has finished.

Preferably non-invasive and the wife gets annoyed when I take things to pieces.

I've had a couple of ideas already;
* some kind of cable-clamp current monitor
* an LDR taped to the dryer lights and an RF link

Any suggestions for hacks to build something to give an indication of when its finished? Anyone have experience of building something like this?

[semicolo]

Your ideas seem good, if it emits a sound, you could use something like a baby monitor.

[daveh]

Cool idea - I might suggest that to the missus.

In the end I went for an LDR strapped to the end indicator light on the dryer. When the light come on it turns some bright LEDs on via a transistor. It's bright enough that I can see it from the window it works well as we often use it at night.

[TheZuke!]

You could also wire up the buzzer (if it has one) to a small 20KHz oscillator, to a small amp and a HiFi tweeter. When the neighbors dog(s) start barking, the load is dry!