[mhh__]

Connected devices are a good thing - i.e. I should be able to make the washing machine scriptable from my computer, but I bet these solutions are always crap because they are implemented in a hurry by engineers who don't understand either the hardware or software well enough to make it work, so you end up with quasi-useless boss-pleasers like we have now.

[slver]

The world isn't driven by "I should have all the nice things I can imagine". How are you gonna script the washing machine to take the underwear off your bottom and put it in the drum? You'll have to do that yourself. And when you do it, you might as well "script the washing machine" by pushing the buttons on it.

I'm a programmer and honestly I can't wait for this IoT fad to die down a little. Sure, maybe it's cool to have LAN connected lightbulbs as a novelty product. But this kind of shit will never ever be the norm, simply because it makes no damn sense in terms of value proposition.

[katbyte]

I couldn’t imagine not having smart lights, they are one of the few iot devices that make my life a lot more comfortable- def not a novelty

[dieortin]

What do you use them for that is really helpful? I’m considering getting some Hue lightbulbs, but it seems like a bit of a waste.

[charrondev]

I’ve got hués through the whole house. Primary use cases are:

- Being able to trigger dimming of the lights in the house as sunset approaches. - Being able close all the lights in the house in one go (such as when leaving). - dimming lights when I don’t have dimmers wired in. - being able to adjust colour temperature of the lights (and full colours, I tend to use a mix of oranges, pinks, and purples). - turning off lamps that are not otherwise on the same circuit as the ceiling when I flick a switch.

Things like dimming and controlling lights on the same circuit could be done with electrical work, but I’m renting. The bulbs come with me wherever I move. The electrical work doesn’t. I already was bringing my own lightbulbs wherever I moved anyways (to save electricity).

[katbyte]

Lights turn on and off automatically, I rarely have to do anything and they are how I want them when I want them / and don’t turn on when I’m Not at home and turn on when I arrive home. Turning on in the morning during winter helps a ton and when I do need a light on/off on demand it’s a voice command or the tap of a wireless battery less switch

[mhh__]

YMMV but having the light turn on when my alarm goes off genuinely wakes me up.

[the__alchemist]

Color temp and dimming-without-buzz. And you can put the switch etc wherever you want, and change color temp and brightness automatically before bed.

[mhh__]

What? I want to make the washing machine starting drying after a specific amount of time after the wash stage has finished.

And guess what mr programmer, they didn't bother letting me do that with the front panel...

[slver]

Most (all?) washing machines have a delayed start.

Why would you want your clothes to sit wet, collecting mold, before the drying begins?

See, part of being a good programmer is figuring out a solution using the tools you have. Which includes figuring out how existing machines address your issues without requesting they come with a fully programmable API and wi-fi, just so you can delay the drying cycle.

[mhh__]

I get the best drying if the machine washes, drains for a bit, then starts drying after that.

If I were to do this it would take 4 trips to the washing machine because they didn't think to make it tick over from even washing to drying.

[slver]

What we've learned here is you need to buy a new washing machine, or maybe before that, read carefully the manual of the one you have.

Thinking you can dry your clothes better than the people who engineered the entire machine and wrote its programs is honestly cracking me up. Do you think the vendors were like "you know what, we don't need this washing machine to dry well".

Even more, what kind of a marketing campaign would such a scriptable machine even have?

"Our washing machine dries really poorly, but we hope every stay at home mom can script it to dry better, so we included a web server and a REST API with it".

They'll go bankrupt, man.

[mhh__]

Well they decided not to have any modes that automatically dry after washing at all so I'm going with yes.

And thanks, I'll just spend this months rent on a new washing machine.

[lfowles]

Does it not have a spin cycle? After that runs on mine there's nothing left to drain.

Edit: oh no apparently it's a questionably maintained communal laundry room unit, I'm so sorry

[kiddico]

Connected washing machines continue to make little sense to me. The only benefit I can think of is a notification when it's done. Otherwise all the interactions with it are done in person. (loading/unloading etc)

What would you want to script?

[PeterisP]

The common use case is to want to set the time so that it runs not right now but later - either because for noise reasons, or so that it finishes when you're back home to unload.

Also, of course, there's the "internal scheduling" of various different activities that the machine is doing; you can do that mechanically but IMHO it's simpler now to do that with a cheap microcontroller.

[isbvhodnvemrwvn]

All washing machines I bought in the last decade had delayed start mechanism.

[mhh__]

My washing machine doesn't automatically starting draining or drying after finishing, so I have to go up and down the stairs, and it has a mind of its own as to when it finishes.

An ESP-32 is about 2 quid last time I checked, I have many, and I would happily attach it to the machine if not for the fact that it doesn't belong to me.

[ClumsyPilot]

I have a washing machine from year 2000, and it has that functionality built in. Are you sure you read the manual?

[mhh__]

I don't think so. I can't work out how the washing machine isn't obviously just an example.

Also, the thing that's more annoying is actually that the machine's alarm is extremely quiet and the timer very inconsistent (e.g. I made a Pizza oven that sends me an email, and it wasn't hard to do at all).

[clownpenis_fart]

Aaaaah. Yesss. Finally my dream has come true and I can start laundry by pressing a button on my computer

wait what do you mean I still need to physically walk to the washing machine to load it this is bullshit

[readflaggedcomm]

Without the hardware to script moving wet clothes to a dryer, and possibly folding and sorting dry clothes, is there a point, other than to set an alarm to prevent a moldy forgotten wet load?

[mhh__]

That would be a start (the alarm sounds like a chain smoking mouse)

[tolbish]

Why should you be able to connect to run a script on a washing machine? Don't you need physically be there anyway to move the clothes around?

The only use case I can see is a notification when the cycle is done, but I think there are better ways to go about that than using an SoC.

[mhh__]

My washing machine has maybe about 300 to 600 permutations of options, none of which do exactly what I want.

[slver]

OK, so I need to be able to script my clothes, then.

[techdragon]

I’d argue that on average the engineers working on these things understand things just barely well enough to implement these things in whatever hardware/software combination is selected.

Any more understanding than that would be sub-optimal for shipping consumer products where cost optimisation is a primary concern as the salaries for more competent engineers would cost the company more.

You can see this effect in action with the explosion of “smart home” devices after commoditised internals were made available by the likes of Tuya. Suddenly your company only needed junior engineers who could skin the whitebox turn-key solutions and product designers who could design a moulded plastic enclosure around a standard set of postage stamp sized circuit boards.

[slver]

So your default assumption is that a company whose entire division may be selling washing machines, doesn't give a damn about the programs that make those machines useful.

Great.

[techdragon]

Yes and no, my assumption is that the company only cares about the programs being useful enough to sell the washing machine.

There is no incentive to be any better than that. When the average washing machine lives long enough that the majority of consumers will come back to their next purchase without feeling annoyed about software related issues. Extra frills that pushed them over the line into purchasing a particular model didn't quite work out how they hoped, the iPhone app didn't get updates and looks bad on their new phone, etc ... these things wont factor into their next purchase. It's a psychological time horizon thing, enough water passes under the bridge and the customer stopped caring long enough ago.

So as long as it was otherwise a solid washing machine that didn't have mechanical issues mechanically or wash poorly they aren't likely to hold the manufacturer to account for their poor software quality breaking the "nice to haves".

[mhh__]

Have you ever used Windows...

[azornathogron]

You're the first person I've ever seen who says they want a connected washing machine. I'm curious: what will your washing machine script do?

[mhh__]

Not require me to have to go up and down the stairs about 5-10 times to see how it's getting on, and then switch to dry, then check on its progress, etc.

[sime2009]

Why does it require so much babysitting?

[mhh__]

The timer has a mind of its own (i.e. it displays an estimate of when it thinks it's going to be finished), and the option to automatically start drying after finishing the wash cycle is either not present or extremely well obfuscated (The model that shows up on Google definitely has the option on the rotary encoder, the one I have has no such option).

[dwighttk]

Does this machine both wash and dry clothes?