Arduino resurrects a washing machine that failed for silly reasons
Arduino resurrects a washing machine that failed for silly reasons
Arduino Team — January 20, 2023
The maker movement often focuses on creating, but repair should never be overlooked. In a consumer market increasingly geared towards planned obsolescence, manufacturers often devote no resources to repairing their products. In many cases, spare parts are unavailable or prohibitively expensive. But the manufacturer's skill set can provide a remedy, as Balakrishnan Prashanth's Arduino-based solution for a washing machine's failing timer display demonstrates.
Like many modern washing machines, Prashanth's Whirlpool has a digital display that shows the time remaining in a cycle. It's a handy feature, but not absolutely necessary for washing clothes. Unfortunately, this Whirlpool disagrees. They have designed the control board of this model in such a way that all the functionality of the machine will stop abruptly if the digital display stops working. The control card sends data to the screen and waits for an acknowledgment. If he does not receive this acknowledgment, he will not let the washing machine run a cycle. This is what happened when Prashanth's machine display failed.
Prashanth solved this problem using an Arduino Mega 2560. He determined that the Whirpool's control board is sending data to the display module via I2C and waiting for confirmation from the module. Instead of trying to replicate the full functionality of the display module, Prashanth opted to omit the display altogether - it is, after all, unnecessary. He put the Arduino in the place of the display module and programmed it to simply flash an LED when it receives I2C messages from the control board. It then sends a confirmation back to the control board, prompting it to continue with the normal wash cycle.
Arduino Team — January 20, 2023
The maker movement often focuses on creating, but repair should never be overlooked. In a consumer market increasingly geared towards planned obsolescence, manufacturers often devote no resources to repairing their products. In many cases, spare parts are unavailable or prohibitively expensive. But the manufacturer's skill set can provide a remedy, as Balakrishnan Prashanth's Arduino-based solution for a washing machine's failing timer display demonstrates.
Like many modern washing machines, Prashanth's Whirlpool has a digital display that shows the time remaining in a cycle. It's a handy feature, but not absolutely necessary for washing clothes. Unfortunately, this Whirlpool disagrees. They have designed the control board of this model in such a way that all the functionality of the machine will stop abruptly if the digital display stops working. The control card sends data to the screen and waits for an acknowledgment. If he does not receive this acknowledgment, he will not let the washing machine run a cycle. This is what happened when Prashanth's machine display failed.
Prashanth solved this problem using an Arduino Mega 2560. He determined that the Whirpool's control board is sending data to the display module via I2C and waiting for confirmation from the module. Instead of trying to replicate the full functionality of the display module, Prashanth opted to omit the display altogether - it is, after all, unnecessary. He put the Arduino in the place of the display module and programmed it to simply flash an LED when it receives I2C messages from the control board. It then sends a confirmation back to the control board, prompting it to continue with the normal wash cycle.
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