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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

#111

Post by nemo44x »

temporal828 wrote: post #102
nemo44x wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s interesting because although not unimportant, the outcome I’m looking for when buying a washing machine is how well it cleans clothing. Of course price, speed, and efficiency cone into play. But I think many efficient machines do a poor job at cleaning. Of course different people have different requirements. If you rarely have soiled clothing maybe it doesn’t matter. If you have kids and jobs/hobbies that soil c…

> But I think many efficient machines do a poor job at cleaning. Not in my experience. A good high efficiency front loader tends to get the clothes cleaner - and notably with much less wear than conventional top loaders. The money savings also come from clothing replacement as well. Water use aside it's just better technology. Complexity is an issue, but I've had good luck by staying brands and models proven for reli…

The problem with front loaders, and it's a fatal flaw unfortunately, is they unavoidably have mold and mildew problems due to the design. This makes them an invalid option in my opinion as I don't want mold and mildew spores in my home. They also begin to stink and your clothing can pick it up over time as it gets worse.

The other problem is many top loaders today are garbage. In order to be effective they do need a good agitator and they do need use a lot of water. The water part doesn't really matter to me though as tap water is so cheap we're talking a few cents per load.

Also speed. A front loader takes a long time. A good top loader (like Speed Queen) is done in 30m.

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

#112

Post by michaelt »

fountainofage wrote: post #94
inconceivable wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 b…

> Like he honestly believed people weren't buying American-made because they actually favored stuff from China.

Perhaps he imagined American-made carried a 30% price premium over Chinese-made, but instead found it was more of a 300% price premium.

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

#113

Post by titzer »

dicknuckle wrote: post #60
Dead_Lemon wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A mechanical controlled washing machine with a mechanical timer on the plug would, reliably, achieve the same thing. no need for networks and external servers. A timed controlled smart plug, with current monitoring, would be able to achieve the IOT aspect of the problem.

It would need to be a very specific kind of washing machine (that hopefully probably exists) to make your idea work. A fully analog/mechanical washing machine is just a big mechanical timer controlled relay behind the knob like a toaster oven. If you set it without power, it just runs through the timer without doing anything. The machine would need to have a timer mechanism that is turned by an electric clock motor,…

> A fully analog/mechanical washing machine is just a big mechanical timer controlled relay behind the knob like a toaster oven. If you set it without power, it just runs through the timer without doing anything.

My washer has dials to select the modes and then a final push button that activates an internal relay (guessing from the loud mechanical switching sound it makes when it goes on). If all you need to do is complete the circuit of the push button. You can just unmount that push button and hook its wires up to your timer mechanism which completes the circuit when the timer expires.

The dryer on the other hand does have a mechanical timer. But that doesn't activate until you turn the dryer on with the push button. So you could set the time of the dryer and not turn it on either, and use the same mechanism as above.

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

#114

Post by aabdelhafez »

ubergesundheit wrote: post #11

I've done a similar thing with a "dumb" washing machine using a Arduino with an attached LDR (light-dependent resistor) taped to the "door open" LED. The Arduino sends the value of the LDR over serial port to a laptop which sends changes to the "door open" over Signal to my phone

Side question: you can use Signal programmatically?

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

#115

Post by rocket_surgeron »

Dead_Lemon wrote: post #57
rileymat2 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. I would like a machine that I could start when I want, I don't like when I start a load before leaving the day then having it sit in the damp until I get home to put it in the dryer. I would prefer to be able to start it an hour before I was going home so it would be ready for transfer to the dryer then. I also would like phone notifications, it is sort of in a corner of the basement so I don't hear the a…

A mechanical controlled washing machine with a mechanical timer on the plug would, reliably, achieve the same thing. no need for networks and external servers. A timed controlled smart plug, with current monitoring, would be able to achieve the IOT aspect of the problem.

I highly doubt a mechanical timer would be more reliable than a micro and some buttons.

I can't think of a single mechanical device that is more reliable than an equivalent solid-state version of that same device.

Solid state relay vs electromechanical relay. Timex quartz watch vs. an automatic or manual watch.

Laundry rooms can be both hot and cold, are almost always humid, are often home to caustic chemicals, and a dryer's components are constantly exposed to dust in the form of lint: the perfect use case for solid state.

Spraying a pcb with a coating is much cheaper and more reliable than sealing a mechanical mechanism.

Instead of resisting, the smart move is to agitate for and promote secure, open, standards.

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

#116

Post by quijoteuniv »

I can wait to buy an open source machine where i can customise. I find the interface with all my last couple of AEG machines ridicolous. The only way to get the machine to work the way you want is turn it off and start again. I really find myself wishing to have a chat with the engineer that programmed this. Very frustrating to have to change machines because they do not have service manuals available. (Wife could not wait me figuring it out). CLI TO MY WASCHINE NOW!!

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

#117

Post by michaelt »

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 diffuse lighting - the classic option is a light pointing at a white shower curtain. That should cut down on the specular reflections.

Alternately, get yourself a movable light, a live view through the camera, and move the light around until you find a position that gives you a good image.

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

#118

Post by joaonmatos »

MisterTea wrote: post #107
Dragony wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 t…

> The first, and most obvious, reason is that getting your phone and (all) your appliances on the same network is non-trivial. What other networks do homes have? Every WiFi ISP router I have used provides a single network and DHCP server. Perhaps some routers provide both a public and private WiFi and the consumer doesn't understand which one they should pick but that is the fault of the ISP. > Sometimes the washing…

Many cases I knew, people would have several repeaters and extra routers to extend coverage in big houses, and not set it up correctly in PA/Bridge mode, so peripheral network devices would be locked behind in a separate NAT’ed subnet.

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

#119

Post by eur0pa »

4ggr0 wrote: post #98
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.

That sounds like something a simple timer would be able to achieve. To each their own, but the only thing that is connected to the internet in my home is the phone, and the PCs.

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

#120

Post by mavhc »

Dragony wrote: post #93
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 t…

How does the cloud solve the Washing machine not connecting to wifi?
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