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Displaying My Washing Machine's Remaining Time with Curl, Jq, and Pizauth

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Re: Displaying My Washing Machine's Remaining Time with Curl, Jq, and Pizauth

#61

Post by candiddevmike »

LeanderK wrote: post #22
belugacat wrote: post #6

Great hack, but I’m sure any engineer worth their salt winces at the thought of a machine in their home roundtripping through far away 3rd party servers (I guess they’re the manufacturer’s, but if it’s hardware I own in my house those servers are 3rd party to me) just to notify them of a numerical value when they’re sitting literally 10 meters away (I live in the countryside and experience internet interruptions not…

I have recently come to the conclusion that a major problem is that there is no "local" internet. You either have websites somewhere out of local network or some app-based solution, but there's no "dishwasher.local". And you can't burden consumers with IP addresses.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multicast_DNS should work fine here

Re: Displaying My Washing Machine's Remaining Time with Curl, Jq, and Pizauth

#62

Post by dicknuckle »

zeristor wrote: post #26

I've just had a "Smart" Samsung washing machine installed. It says it is Internet ready. I am not sure what they mean by internet ready, it seems I have to change the name of the WiFi point to have no crazy characters, and just have 2.4 Ghz, turning 5GHz off in order to connect it. But this means my smart scales now need to be set up since the WiFi name has changed. Am I missing a trick, I guess it is possible to set…

You might be able to set up a virtual access point or "guest network" with a different name.

Re: Displaying My Washing Machine's Remaining Time with Curl, Jq, and Pizauth

#63

Post by dicknuckle »

jve wrote: post #7
styxit wrote: post #3

I had the same issue, unfortunately my washing machine does not have an API. I used a raspberry Pi with a camera, using OCR i was able to detect the remaining time from the display. Having an API like this would have been so much easier. I did create an opensource web app so you are able to see your remaining time, laundry history, and get (push/mail) notifications. Since you only need to push the remaining seconds t…

For "I'm done" notification, I use relay with power metering - looking at the power pattern, home assistant can be set up for notification after x time when that graph drops to floor.

Shelly has a few relays with power metering and they offer lots of local-first and open ways of communicating. I use one to control power to my 3d printer.

Re: Displaying My Washing Machine's Remaining Time with Curl, Jq, and Pizauth

#64

Post by mleo »

I have LG ThinQ washer and dryer. A version of ThinQ API uses AWS MQTT for communication. I find it helpful to send TTS notifications and followup reminders to Sonos when the washer is complete, until the door has been opened. The appliance knows when the door is opened/closed yet the API does not include this detail. Had to add separate contact sensors for that purpose.

Re: Displaying My Washing Machine's Remaining Time with Curl, Jq, and Pizauth

#65

Post by foobarbecue »

belugacat wrote: post #6

Great hack, but I’m sure any engineer worth their salt winces at the thought of a machine in their home roundtripping through far away 3rd party servers (I guess they’re the manufacturer’s, but if it’s hardware I own in my house those servers are 3rd party to me) just to notify them of a numerical value when they’re sitting literally 10 meters away (I live in the countryside and experience internet interruptions not…

Me too, and I believe our society could have taken a different trajectory, in which the values you have are norms.

It's normal to want to have control over every detail of where your furniture goes and how your home is decorated, and plants in your garden, without consulting some external source of control. Why isn't it normal to have the same level of control of your appliances and your digital life?

Re: Displaying My Washing Machine's Remaining Time with Curl, Jq, and Pizauth

#66

Post by mft_ »

styxit wrote: post #3

I had the same issue, unfortunately my washing machine does not have an API. I used a raspberry Pi with a camera, using OCR i was able to detect the remaining time from the display. Having an API like this would have been so much easier. I did create an opensource web app so you are able to see your remaining time, laundry history, and get (push/mail) notifications. Since you only need to push the remaining seconds t…

Tangent, but how did you handle lighting for the camera? I'm intermittently working on something similar to read a gas meter, but am struggling to find a way of lighting the digits sufficiently, while not leaving reflections on plastic over the digits. I've tried Pi-controlled LEDs and a smart bulb, with little success, so far.

Re: Displaying My Washing Machine's Remaining Time with Curl, Jq, and Pizauth

#67

Post by fanatic2pope »

A simpler solution might be to use a smart plug to monitor the current being drawn by the appliance and then just notify and turn off when it is done. I do variations of this kind of thing (using sonoff S31's flashed with tasmota) and it works quite well.

Re: Displaying My Washing Machine's Remaining Time with Curl, Jq, and Pizauth

#68

Post by rsynnott »

sdfhbdf wrote: post #51
londons_explore wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most washing machines will use more $ in energy in their lifespan than they cost to buy. That means it is usually worth replacing an old but working one with an energy efficient one merely for the energy savings. A modern EU machine will wash a large (10kg) load of clothes for 0.5 kwh of energy and 50 liters of water (13 gallons). An old 1980's machine might use 4.5 kwh of electricity, and 180 liters of water.

I’m sure it’s just an example but being european I am surprised at the 10kg load. Most people I know hover around ~5-7 kg max capacity for their washing machines. They’re usually placed in bathrooms or kitchens since not a lot of people have space for a separate washing machine room since also not a lot of people have dryers in the EU (at least they’re not standard, they’re considered extra). Not your point but just…

Taking a random appliance vendor's list of machines, there are a good few 9 or 10kg ones, but 6-7kg is also common: https://powercity.ie/groups/view?grp=40&class=01 (the very most expensive one they sell does _18kg_; I had no idea that was a thing...)

Re: Displaying My Washing Machine's Remaining Time with Curl, Jq, and Pizauth

#69

Post by dochtman »

belugacat wrote: post #6

Great hack, but I’m sure any engineer worth their salt winces at the thought of a machine in their home roundtripping through far away 3rd party servers (I guess they’re the manufacturer’s, but if it’s hardware I own in my house those servers are 3rd party to me) just to notify them of a numerical value when they’re sitting literally 10 meters away (I live in the countryside and experience internet interruptions not…

I wonder if the Thread/Matter standards will be able to improve on this once adopted. At least they provide open standards and don't require cloud components for supported devices to communicate with your (pocket and otherwise) computers.

Re: Displaying My Washing Machine's Remaining Time with Curl, Jq, and Pizauth

#70

Post by foobarbecue »

actionfromafar wrote: post #33
belugacat wrote: post #6

Great hack, but I’m sure any engineer worth their salt winces at the thought of a machine in their home roundtripping through far away 3rd party servers (I guess they’re the manufacturer’s, but if it’s hardware I own in my house those servers are 3rd party to me) just to notify them of a numerical value when they’re sitting literally 10 meters away (I live in the countryside and experience internet interruptions not…

I've had the same day dream many times, we might be on to something. I even have this "playbook" about parts and branding and stuff, all while encouraging third party creation of spares. It's hitting a part of the beast (current vendors) they can't defend against, because their sunk costs make it impossible to embrace repair and keep "forever" - tech.

I think we need a big community database website full of instructions for taking control of your appliances. I would take a month off of work to contribute to that and get my devices under my control without needless internet interactions.
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