Wi-Fi Enabled Washing machine

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Serious question, as I just got a call from a client wanting to connect to her 2.4 network for her washing machine. Why do you want/need your washing machine and dryer connected to the internet???

This is what I found regarding wi-fi washing machines. “Wi-Fi Enabled Washing machine – Monitor your laundry remotely with an ingenious smartphone app. You can stop or check the status of your running wash anytime anywhere.”

Edit to add: She couldn’t give me a reason as I asked what the purpose was. “I don’t know just want to see what it does.”

Never Say Never

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Might be really handy for checking on the progress of washing money.
Know when to hold ’em, when to fold ’em, and when to extract ’em. < insert smiley >

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Aren’t we finding out, belatedly, that London – aka The Laundromat – could be described as a “WiFi Enabled Washing Machine”?

Dell E5570 Latitude, Intel Core i5 6440@2.60 GHz, 8.00 GB - Win 10 Pro

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Have a candy of two years ago which has NFC so you can use an app on your phone so  perhaps they’re countering the challenge “what use is that – I have to leave the room”??

What’s even more concerning is they anticipate you might update the firmware. Needless to say I haven’t let ours connect to anything. Given the current trends, if you were to connect a washing machine to the Internet, how would you go about removing Golang derived malware (such as Monero, BotenGo) from a washing machine? Firmware update? or maybe it’ll update on line in which case you could have to have to wait for your washing machine to tell you when it’s safe to turn off! I’ve turned background updates off on most things (TVs mainly) as I pull out the plus for a smaller bill – you can trim 50W by fitting an LED light bulb and waste that leaving a TV on standby.

A previous Hoover model we had needed firmware updates- involved a tech dangling a laptop off the worktop to get a “special” USB to serial (could be microwire or I2C I guess) to reach a connector on the user controls  board (with a sprung wire switch unhooked). Best thing was a year later condensation on the power control PCB (rear back corner of machine against a cold wall) resulted in the HV bridging to the temperature sensor connections and the quote was more than a replacement mainly as we’d already changed the sensor there.. and the firmware update was for a “characteristic” not a fault..)

The candy innards sport two Atmel micros (think Arduino..), one for comms. one controlling the washing hardware as far as I could deduce from the board layout.

Problems? Random error numbers – cause, the common ground for the sensors was the one land on the PCB connector which didn’t get tinned in reflow. Excessive acoustic noise and intermittent fail to spin was due to the carbon brush having managed to somehow melt the side of the carrier locking itself in place. For fun the touch panel is designed so any water in the machine ends up on the printed foil connection, runs down to the panel and randomly activates the panel changing the wash settings and causing a continuous bleeping. For weeks.

What actually stopped it working? – pump out fail, they still don’t think to deliberately kink the hoses to keep loose change out of the pump so it can just slow the flow and trip the error.. and I had to unpack it manually as it seems the filter carrier is designed as  a fit once item (obviously not removable as per the instructions – locking vanes engage the thread in the pump as it is screwed in) and I didn’t fancy my chances.

Overall I’d probably worry more about how adding the washing machine could affect the security of your network as a whole rather than how good it would be to find out it’s finished when you’re not in to put the washing out to dry..

 

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I did have her at least connect to the guest network. I had a client this past Christmas call because his app was failing to turn on his Christmas lights. Told him wait a bit because it was probably an AWS outage. He swore it wasn’t connected to the internet, just his network, even though he could control them from 150 miles away! Called the next day to tell me all wa good as it was AWS. I replied thankfully it wasn’t a smart refrigerator. He got very quiet, thanked me and hung up 🙂

Never Say Never

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Myst

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Well, now she’ll be getting suggestions on her smartphone – like “You really should try (clothing brand name) instead of the inferior brand you’re using”.  Youngsters seem to love this stuff.

Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you recognize a mistake as soon as you make it again.

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Serious question, as I just got a call from a client wanting to connect to her 2.4 network for her washing machine. Why do you want/need your washing machine and dryer connected to the internet???

You don’t, but people are too lazy to go the machine and check on laundry. They figure “hey, I’m paying for internet, let it do the work”, and don’t care about security.

The Washing Machine manufacturers see this as a hook for “added value”, and something they can charge top dollar for when the internet in these things go bad. It’s win/win for them.

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BobbyB, Charlie

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