Motor diagnostics and electronic control for a clothes dryer

A method of detecting an unusual loading of an AC motor driving a horizontal dryer drum, said method comprising rotating said drum;

• periodically generating a velocity representation comprising tumble numbers representative of the time averaged motion of the drum through a portion of the rotation of the drum, said generating step further comprising the consecutive steps of:
• repeatedly generating a phase angle representation of the AC power through the motor winding;
• wherein said phase angle representation of the AC power through the motor winding is obtained comprises:
• generating a first signal upon each occurrence of a polarity change in said motor winding;
• generating a series of first pulses each having a duration determined by the level of voltage supplied to said motor;
• generating a series of second pulses each having a duration from a leading edge of one of said first pulses to a current polarity change immediately following said leading edge;
• and
• processing said first pulses and said second pulses to generate phase angle number representing output torque of said motor, said phase angle number being said phase angle representation;
• repeatedly summing a predetermined number of consecutive phase angle representations;
• and
• generating a clothes tumble number by summing an absolute difference between given sums of consecutive phase angle representations, said clothes tumble number being said velocity representation;
• and detecting for a predetermined period of time the absence of changes in said clothes tumble number indicative of the presence of a drum loaded with tumbling clothes.