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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

#91

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

BeefWellington wrote: post #75
unwind wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But how would that work in practice? You load the machine say in the afternoon/evening after work etc, and then it decides based on historical data that 02:35 is the local minima and starts. You run the quick 1-hour program because it's Good Enough(tm), then the laundry lies wet in the machine from 03:45 until you wake up around 06:00 to start your day hanging it? In my experience, but perhaps this is just local circ…

I've often wondered why no new manufacturer has appeared with a stacked system that can wash clothes in a top washer and then dump them into a bottom dryer, or even an all-in-one frontloader.

Probably because that would much more mechanically complex and therefore expensive and failure-prone, and the market has decided that the existing options are good enough (I'm not defending this, just describing what I see).

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

#92

Post by Wistar »

rileymat2 wrote: post #86
_Wintermute wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every basic washing machine I've owned has had an option to delay the start for an adjustable amount of time.

My schedule is erratic and unpredictable at the beginning of the day, but I can estimate when I have an hour left.

This is also true for me, and, I suspect, for many people.

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

#93

Post by Dragony »

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 actually worked on an App for a company that made home appliances. Originally they made everything local, so direct App to Washing machine communication. They had a really hard time with that approach for a number of reasons.

The first, and most obvious, reason is that getting your phone and (all) your appliances on the same network is non-trivial. Especially for a novice user. Sometimes the washing machine is in the basement and can't connect to your WiFi. Or maybe you're simply outside your house in your car and can't connect to your local network. The cloud approach solves this.

The other, not so obvious reason, is that the manufacturer made a ton of devices. Some of them a decade old, with very rudimentary interfaces. Originally the App had to handle special cases and workarounds for dozens of devices. This became a problem once they tried to port it to multiple platforms. For Android and iPhone they started with a shared C++ library. But that quickly became a problem, once they wanted to interface with popular home network and automation solutions.

To solve all this they decided to build a cloud API that would resolve all these problems in one go. A single, unified API with a modern HTTP interface and available via the internet. That solves the workaround and compatability issues by having a single abstraction layer (instead of one per app). It solves the "on the go" problem when you're not in you local wifi. It enables you to control devices outside your home network in a true IoT sense.

I totally agree with you that, if you're not in an urban environment with good internet and cell coverage, the advantages dwindle away. Also, of course, there is the privacy concern that is very real. At the end of the day the cloud solution is selected for the same reason companies select Electron. It saves development time and is very easy for the average end user to use. At the expense of performance and privacy.

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

#94

Post by fountainofage »

inconceivable wrote: post #89
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…

a few years ago i bought a bluestar platinum range. that's probably the closest you're going to get these days. it's all gas + mechanical, all stainless and iron, works during a power outage, etc. i looked around and didn't see any PCB's, just wiring for the lights, igniters, and convection fans. the broiler is a gas salamander style top grill. ... it was $6000 for a 30" range but it's more powerful than anything oth…

You've reminded me of a friend of mine who reached the point in his life where he was going to furnish his home with new furniture. He boasted how he was only going to buy American and wasn't going to be like everyone else favoring stuff from elsewhere. After one day of furniture shopping exclusively American, he said he couldn't justify spending so much just to buy American. And I was dumbfounded. Like he honestly believed people weren't buying American-made because they actually favored stuff from China. The thought it was a cost issue never crossed his mind until he had to spend his own money.

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

#95

Post by salmonlogs »

actionfromafar wrote: post #36
nonethewiser wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d pay more for NO firmware in my washing machine. This is beyond my desire to just keep things simple. What is the point of washing machine you can control remotely? You have to put clothes in at the start and take them out at the end. It offers no convenience.

The only thing I could agree with is if it started at at time when the spot-price of electricity was low.

Miele already offer this on newer washing machine. They can connect to your inverter too and start a load when there is available local solar/battery/low spot prices.

It’s called “SmartStart”

It works very well in my experience. Load the machine in the morning, and it will start later in the day, then send my phone a notification when the load is done

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

#96

Post by zombielinux »

mft_ wrote: post #66
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.

Try switching your spectrum. I bet that plastic is transparent in UV or Infrared and with some minor camera surgery, you could get some visible light filter in there.

Alternately, try some polarizing filters instead.

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

#97

Post by salmonlogs »

avianlyric wrote: post #74
londons_explore wrote: post #5

It is notable that washing machines lie about remaining time. Specifically, there are parts of the wash cycle that are indeterminate. How long will it take to get all the clothes wet with water - well that will depend on the water pressure and how many clothes are inside. How long will it take for the water to heat - Well that will depend on how hot it was when it came in and the grid AC voltage variation. How long w…

I have done something similar to OP with my Miele washer. Once you start a cycle it begin filling the drum, and analysing how much water your clothes absorb, at which point it re-estimates the wash duration based on the measured load size. Based on the stats I’ve collected, once it done that re-estimate (which is usually reducing the cycle length slightly), the new duration will be spot on nine times out of ten. Occa…

Also own some newer Miele washer/dryer and found the estimated time is almost perfectly accurate

I connected the Wi-fi for the app and I get a push notification to tell me the actual time remaining once its done the measurements

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

#98

Post by 4ggr0 »

eur0pa wrote: post #35

Why is your washing machine connected to the internet?

Notifications when a cycle is done, time-based starting of cycles (put the clothes in the machine when you leave, but only start the cycle so that it's done when you're back, or just manually start a cycle from your phone while you're away), control your washing machine with voice assistants, maybe a few more things.

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

#99

Post by skazazes »

londons_explore wrote: post #46
jemmyw wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a real PITA because the dryer time is fairly consistent. Leave stuff sitting wet in the washing machine too long and it picks up a musty smell, so ideally the dryer is done before the washing machine. But the washing machine is so bad at estimating it's remaining time, and it is dependent on the load.

This suggests you are doing multiple loads back to back... Which in turn suggests you are either seperating whites and coloured clothes (no longer necessary with modern clothing, detergents and low temp wash cycles), or you are underfilling your machine (modern machines can wash about 20 lbs of clothes - 100 tshirts - in one go without wash quality degrading).

In my experience, separating whites (not only so they can be bleached when wanted) from darks from colors is definitely still necessary?

I actually turned a beige sweater that snuck into the wrong load beige-blue just yesterday with a pair of AG Jeans that have been washed every other week since I got them two years ago

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

#100

Post by idatum »

matthew-wegner wrote: post #32

I use a zigbee smart outlet with power monitoring for this. If it's using power for awhile, set to washing. If power has been zero for awhile, and it's washing, set to done (and send text-to-speech event that goes out on all house speakers). This is a little Node-RED flow on top of Home Assistant.

I use CT (current) sensors on the circuits for both washer and dryer and a small XBee ZigBee device using its ADC pins to transmit the current readings. On the server with an XBee coordinator, I use a moving average window to cover points where the washer or dryer use very little current. It's then pretty easy to detect on/off, and even where the current cycle is. The obligatory Home Assistant integration notifies household members.

Plotting the dryer data, you can see how it works. The heating element turns on for a period, then turns off and the humidity is most likely read at that point. The gap between periods of the heating element on increases, and the heating length of time decreases, until if stops spinning. Cool DIY project.

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