Washing machine repair in the 21st Century: upgrade the OS

It's 6AM here in London and I'm sitting in the living room with the baby, listening to the washing-machine hum away in the kitchen. The washing machine, a Hotpoint combo washer-dryer (jack of all trades, master of none, I'm afraid) started blowing the breaker every time we ran it about a month ago. On Saturday, we had a technician in from the manufacturer. After prodding at it with a multimeter for a while, he shrugged, pulled out a laptop and an EPROM burner, burned a new EPROM, took the old one out, and installed it. And now my washing machine is fine and doesn't trip the breaker. Turns out that all it needed was a more up-to-date version of the OS.

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Clif Marsiglio

One of the best pieces of advice I ever received was to ALWAYS buy the cheapest and simplest (not in that order) Washer / Dryer / Dishwasher. No computers, just mechanical timers or otherwise. As few buttons as possible.

So I have to hit Dry a second time because my clothes NEVER get dry (but for some reason my roommates clothing ALWAYS gets dry with the same button…and approximately the same load).

I’ve had to repair both my washer and dryer over the years, but they are now between 7 and 10 years old. My dryer died a few weeks ago, and I looked up the problem on the internet — a belt breakage. I was quoted that it would be AT LEAST $200 to come out and fix it. So I ordered the parts (actually for the price, I got two of everything) and $15 later, it was fixed. I really didn’t know what I was doing, but I disassembled everything slowly and took photos, and then did it again after I realized what I did wrong the first time, but it works perfectly again.

What is the old phrase, it isn’t yours if you can’t take it apart…eeproms and otherwise make you more reliant on the big companies and less on yourself. Stay away from computerized stuff that might not be servicable in a few years…
Oren Beck

Programmable control of appliances is unremarkable on one level and questionable on others. Fail-safe design for example. Screw up and Very Bad Things are risked.

It’s sort of neat to see the evolving tech appliances use.Socket mounted firmware was indeed used by situation. Cases where semi-frequent updates or similar were common. The variations in memory tech have reasons. From battery backed “virtual NVRAM” to “Burned PROM” to “UV erasable” to flash all have points and minuses. A crash course in the why we design gear using a certain method is out of scope here. Or is it?

I suspect a non-trivial % of Boingers are going to design something with stored program memory. From which I suggest spending some time studying what past things crashed often and why. AS in a washing machine environment calling for epoxy sealed optical programming. Because socketed devices in a high moisture cabinet can be a Real Bad Idea. A bit safer if in a sealed box of some sort. But potted brains for wet work is just good practice. Let’s just say I speak from hands on experience.
Takuan

washers will need the processing power to handle the monitoring equipment. Those unapproved drugs you took will leave metabolites in your sweat. Also, they will need to know if traces of the mandatory dugs are present.
GregLondon

When the clothes are done, the washer / dryer should IM everyone about this status

And when not busy doing laundry, it can donate free CPU cycles to SETI or some charity.

No, seriously, until the linux boxes are robust as electric motors, i’d rather keep it simple. The maytag guy wanted me to buy a new dryer, but he said if I did replace the motor, the dryer hsould last 15 years before it needs service.

works for me.
Anonymous

Then you’re doing far better than I am…my brand-new-in-October major-brand refrigerator here on the Continent packed it in, and the factory took 8 days to send a technician (thank heavens it’s been cold — for a week my fridge was two plastic boxes on the back step).

The guy came, messed with things for a bit, and at least got it limping along…another week until the part comes in and he can schedule a return visit.

So much for their 48-hour service claim.
Anonymous

When you say “jack of all trades, master of none,” I assume you mean that this machine neither washes nor dries very well. Was that problem also somehow eradicated with the software upgrade? If so, how does that work?

-Gus
nanuq

You mean it doesn’t do its own automatic OS upgrading through the Internet? Definitely last year’s model.
rebdav

You should be able with the right software mod this washer into a giant bread machine.
Jerril

I wonder if it’s not that all of the machines are crappier, so much as they’ve opened up a market for machines that take up a smaller percentage of the modern families disposable budget (by sacrificing quality), and they discovered that this market is HUGE.

It used to be that a washer-dryer set was a huge purchase and a bit of a luxury. I can’t say that we could casually march out and buy a new pair every month, but there’s some damn cheap options on the market place available for the cost of a couple of weeks of groceries.

The expensive ones are still in the “insane luxury” end of things. Anyone know if there are options at that end of things that are still well made?
David Carroll

Did you have to pay for this service call?

I wonder if this routine was in your old EEPROM:

if (Current_Date >= November_2008) {
Over_Draw_Current();
Display_Message(Hotpoint_Service_Phone_Number);
} else {
Work_Normally();
}
bbum

I knew that the future promised along with flying cars was upon us when I had to reboot my fracking christmas tree lights because they locked up mid-”animation”.
zuzu

Smart washers such as those by Miele and Bosch incorporate greater complexity (and consequently a greater likelihood to go all Westworld on you) in exchange for reducing water usage and wear-and-tear on your clothing.

For people who care about that, the tradeoff is worthwhile.

We aren’t dealing with ordinary machines here.
These are highly complicated pieces of equipment almost as complicated as living organisms. In some cases, they’ve been designed by other computers. We don’t know exactly how they work.
Anonymous

She bought a Ford XR6 – a car developed in by Ford Australia for a couple hundred million dollars for the Australian market (sorry Detroit).

Anyway, one day she fired up her car, and it made a horrifying noise, before a warning alarm went off and the car promptly shut off. She called a “Technician” to come out. The first thing the technician did was plug a laptop into a USB port or something under the dashboard (apparently it ran something like “FORD OS”), and have a look with some diagnostics software.

Turned out it was a firmware upgrade – a line of code which accidentally overloaded a hose or something. Software update, and new hose and the job was done. Yes, the car broke because of a software bug.

Apparently the only thing on that car (including the accelerator) that is not digitally controlled is the brake pedal, which is mechanical.

Fun times.
Anonymous

This is one of the downsides of digital technology: it becomes possible to sell products that aren’t really ready, and fix them later.

For example, when I bought my digital TV, it had a problem that meant I had to reboot it fairly regularly. The problem was fixed with a firmware upgrade after a few months; the repair guy came around with a compact flash card.
Mark Levitt

Miele have an even cooler system for upgrading the firmware. The front of the machine has a little light that double as some sort of optical interface.

The technician puts this little suction cup type thing over the light and connects the other end to a PC.
gabu

Did the repairman ask for a 27-B/6?
Takuan

appliances with Genuine People Personalities? Or would you like some toast?
Anonymous

It could also mean that it was a faulty EPROM chip or the data in it became corrupt. Seen it happening on other appliances.
Cory Doctorow

Mark, that’s AMAZING! We just bought a new Miele hoover — can’t wait to see if it carries over onto that range.

No, it’s still in warranty — this was just bad firmware.
GregLondon

Oh, man. My dryer died last month. I thought maybe it was the bearings that the drum rolls on. They were kind of hard to turn. Replaced those. The drum rolls on these little “skid plates” made out of teflon or some kind of material like that. They were worn out to the point that htey were gone. Replaced those. Still didn’t fix it.

Finally, I end up replacing the motor, and that got it working.

It’s a fifteen year old model. And I think I replaced pretty much all the moving parts. But it was 120 for the motor or 1000 for a new, high end dryer, so it seemed worth it.

Our washer died last year and we replaced it with a new computerized model. And I can’t even imagine trying to debug that monstrosity. The number of things that could go wrong is huge.

Maybe someone will make an adurino(sp?) board that can control most modern washer/dryer machines, and have some software built in for diagnostics, and then by the time my washer dies, I’ll be able to fix it without breaking the bank.
Anonymous

The car thing was likely not a USB port.
In USA anyway (dunno about rest of world) there are some standards for the last 5 or 10 years about how cars interface with things to check errors codes and such.
“OBD-II” I belive is what they call the interface. Anyway, yeah its usually under the dash, and it looks something like this:
http://peugeot.mainspot.net/tips/obd_ii_connector.jpg

Also, you can generally go and borrow a code reader from an auto parts store for free (they may ask for a temporary deposit), like autozone or whatever, and figure out the code yourself if you want to diagnose whatever is wrong with your car. This is typically what you’d do after you see the engine light come on.

If its something complicated though, it can be a real pain to track down. The code might be something like cylinder misfire, and there might be no easy way to tell why thats happening, espeically if its random.

Plus, for some of the stuff you almost have to have the multi hundred dollar set of dealer repair manuals for your car.
Chris S

I’ve described some small handheld radios as essentially computers with a few specialized bits of hardware, a really small display, and only a few buttons.

…but I don’t think I would have expected to describe a washing machine that way.

This suggests that any device at all might now be just a computer with … well, you get the idea.

(Incidentally, I use that explanation to try and head off metaphor shear. People who understand computers and communications have little problem with a BC246T – but people who only understand simplex and trunking radio systems can get themselves in over their heads in a real hurry. Mostly they go looking for hardware components that now exist only in software.)
Avram

What, and you haven’t installed Ubuntu on it yet?
TabulaRasa

Progress: making everyday tasks more sophisticated and complicated. ;\
Dr.Arthur

Have you tried flippin it off and on again?
dr craig

That’s nothing. I’ve got an electric shower that needs to boot before you can use it. And you can’t just switch it off, it needs to shut down.

Eh?
haileris

All the coolkids chip the EEPROM to do small batch coffee roasting.

(ok now I wonder if that would actually work)
ackpht

Now when your washer tells you that there’s a problem with the AE-35 unit on your satellite receiver and you’d better go outside and fix it…
Anonymous

When the motor burned out in my old gas-fired clothes dryer I discovered that it was chock fulla asbestos and the drum nylons were worn through.

I replaced the nylon bits with teflon (a gamble under the circumstances, given the difference in tolerance for heat, but it worked) and the asbestos with fiberfrax, and the motor with a modern super-efficient fridge motor that had the same housing size.

When I sold the house it was already at least 40 years old, and Pete’s still running it, so it must be around 50 years old now. Dries clothes in half the time of an electric dryer.

If the mechanical timer ever wears out I imagine he’ll have a hard time replacing it.
owza

The washing machine became self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.
Anonymous

Take it from an anonymous insider at Hotpoint labs UK – don’t buy a Hotpoint. Stick to a distinctly “German” make – better engineering and better programming
Simon Bradshaw

Self-aware washing machine plus Internet connection? I have seen the future, and it is Cory’s laundry being auto-Twittered.

0815. The Puny Human has just loaded me again. Nappy, nappy, CREATIVE COMMONS RULEZ t-shirt, another nappy…
Anonymous

I had problems with my TV (Hyundai) a while ago which could only be fixed by hooking the thing up to my computer and upgrading the firmware via the serial port.
WeightedCompanionCube

If it just started tripping the breaker, and an EPROM flash fixed it, what’s happening is the motor now has some wear on it and is drawing too much current when starting.

This might have been due to a bug in the factory firmware. The update probably sets a slimmer duty cycle or a ramp-up on the driver outputs to lower current surges.

This is basically a hack to compensate for cheap mechanical parts that are going to fail eventually.
Tom Heydt-Benjamin

Last Summer, shortly after I moved to Switzerland, I was having some trouble understanding the instructions on the front of my washer since my German wasn’t yet fully up to speed.

I hit some combination of incorrect buttons, and the machine crashed. Normally blinking lights froze in their current state, and the machine would not respond to any input. With my laundry locked inside.

Tech support sent someone out to re-flash the EEPROM, after which the machine worked just fine. I am now wondering whether I should take firmware dumps from new appliances before I use them for the first time so that I can re-flash them myself.
WeightedCompanionCube

Takuan – I’m your plastic pal who fun to be with!
bcsizemo

I don’t know which is more sad:

-we have used technology to create overly complex machines that don’t actually achieve their goal any better than something far more simple

-you can actually “crash” a washer

I’m a firm believer in technology, but it is the stupid rampant addition of it to things that will never benefit form it that kills me.
whitcwa

Cory was lucky to get away with an eprom replacement. Sockets for eproms are becoming rare. I wonder how much the control board costs. If my 25 year old pair are any guide, washers and dryers should be controlled by old fashioned electro-mechanical timers. I have been able to repair them without a prom burner or service manual. The few benefits of electronic controls are outweighed by their additional initial cost, reduced reliability, and higher repair cost. In 100 years boingboing will be fawning all over electromechanicalpunk stuff.
The Unusual Suspect

Now I don’t feel so bad about having to reboot one of my Xmas tree ornaments yesterday.

(It’s a battery operated one that displays a series of jpeg photos.)
Carl Rigney

“Imagine that every time you bought a new washing machine or vacuum cleaner there was a small but finite risk that it would invite in a gang of feral kitchen appliances, who would rob you in the night and depart with all your worldly possessions …” — Charlie Stross
GaryG

Bring on the washers with DRM!

Bought a dodgy Metallica t-shirt down the market? Rendered unwearable when the washer boils it for an hour or two after failing to detect a valid RFID tag…
Takuan

ten feet of sash cord.
WeightedCompanionCube

HAILERIS – not hot enough for coffee. But you can brew beer
Wickedashtray

I’m afraid in our quest for more advanced tech in our appliances we’ve forgotten how to make a good basic mechanical product.

For instance I’ve gone through several modern vacuums in the past 20 years for home use. For my work as a contractor I use an old Sears horizontal cannister vac. It was old when I bought it at a local yard sale and over the past 15 years I’ve put it through hell. But, you can barely hear it run and its more powerful than most any new vac I’ve used. Its made of all steel with a high quality braided steel reinforced hose. I challenge anyone to find a vac that is built this well and runs as quietly. The same goes for most other appliances that were built just after WW2. We seem to have gone downhill since.

We need to get back to taking care of the basics and worry about the flashy stuff after thats taken care of (automobiles in particular)
WeightedCompanionCube

Takuan – or, the washing machine will just concentrate them and get a nice contact high.

Reminds me of Transmetropolitan. Spider’s AI-equipped nanotech-powered “maker” refused to make anything but hallucinogens for itself.
Psymiley

Been around for the past 10 years – our old dishwasher would successfully erase its eeprom every 3 years – until it done it mid-cycle and blew a gasket.
PaulR

I’ve had a ventless combo washer/dryer for about 7 years and I love it!

Lower power/water/soap/space requirements! W00t!

When I have a booked-at-the-last-minute early AM flight to catch and I notice, as I’m preparing to go to bed, that I don’t quite have enough socks and Stanfields to last the trip, I just load up the washer/dryer, set it, and go to bed. The next morning, they’re washed and dry.

At least, I think they are. Well, they smell different.
The Unusual Suspect

Actually, the smarter devices get, the more fun it will be to screw with them.

When I’m bored, I punch an address into my Garmin Street Pilot, then take it offroading.

“Bing! Recalculating! In 100 meters, turn… Bing! Bing! Recalculating!

And my iPhone… you don’t want to know what I do to my iPhone.
GregLondon

Speaking of tradeoffs, cloth diapers or disposable?
zuzu

You mean it doesn’t do its own automatic OS upgrading through the Internet? Definitely last year’s model.

Seriously, where are the embedded linux and gigabit ethernet networked washer / dryers?

This has been on my wishlist for years: A washer / dryer that uses embedded Linux (like wireless routers and NAS do) with networking, plus ZeroConf / Rendezvous / Bonjour so that it shows up in my IM client (e.g. iChat) as a local network Bonjour chat buddy. When the clothes are done, the washer / dryer should IM everyone about this status (instead of beeping a piezo buzzer), and if anyone IMs the washer / dryer it will report its current status (e.g. whether it’s free, or the ETA until it’s finished and will be free).
Patrick Nielsen Hayden

Behold, the utopian benefits of well-formed metadata about washing machines!
jhires

Reminds me of having to reboot my Christmas lights a couple years ago. They display lots of different patterns of blinking. I happened to be sitting there reading when I noticed they weren’t blinking anymore. I tried the knob that changes the blink pattern, but got nothing.

So I unplugged them, waited a few seconds, and plugged them back in. They worked fine after that.
Cory Doctorow

Patrick: ahahahaha!