What? Old washing machines just use switches and a cam that's on a timer. Anyone who can read a basic schematic can figure out what is wrong with one.

[–] Meowoem@sh.itjust.works 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

That's not really true though, the electronics is pretty complex and requires significant work to use different components - I'm sitting next to a pile of dissembled washing machines so i could talk you through a few of the complexities involved in reworking those if you like

[–] CADmonkey@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

There are washing machines without anything more complex than a switch in them. If you really had a "pile of disassembled washing machines" you'd know that.

[–] Meowoem@sh.itjust.works 2 points 8 months ago

Nothing to control the motor, nothing to control the heater, nothing to do timing or turn on and off water in and out?

Even a really shitty one has door lock sensor, temperature sensor, turbidity sensor..

Which means logic gates and transformers and things to shift voltages or control power flow.

That's before you even get into the logic of controlled programs or advanced features like weight based energy saving.

A micro controller connected to a few relays and sensors could replace all the complex stuff and it'd cost far less, plus it could tell you which sensor is out. Plus it allows you to do otherwise very complex things like reprogram the current job while it's running or to sync with other devices to limit max power load.