Spectrism
19th May 2013, 12:20 PM
Just a little rant...
My old (20+ years) Whirlpool washer finally had some pieces break in the tub and besides the plastic center knob, the whole tub seemed locked up. OK... gotta break down and get a new one.
A quick survey of what is out there... and I recall a couple years ago I was almost pushed into getting one of the new front loaders with all the fancy buttons and super fast spin cycle that reduces dryer time... yada yada.... and I saw most washers (if not all) are now electronically controlled. I liked my old mechanical timer. I could open it during a wash cycle and add clothes or soap. I could see if the medium load size provided enough water for that load.
I bought a $400 Roper model. Never heard of them but I noticed all the machines had similar control buttons. If they were not made in the same factory then at least they all bought parts from the same factory. Turns out Roper is part of Whirlpool. The customer reports are now all complaining about the fancy new machines and how they break down within a couple years. LOL.... I could have been one of those suckers who spent $1000 and had to replace the cheap crap already.
But the cheap crap I did buy had one major flaw. It has a door lock to prevent the stupid people from crawling into their machines when they are running. Or maybe it is to stop morons from trying to use it to wash their long hair- a problem I will never have. Or maybe some lowlife ghetto parents are trying to wash their babies' behinds in these. If you want to do that, you will need to throw your baby in at the beginning of the cycle and wait until the internal action is done.
My piece of crap seemed to like keeping the door locked. At times even after the cycle finished, it stayed locked. Pull the plug to reset it... still locked. Friggin AY! What do I have to do? Finally it would open. Not sure if it was my banging or kicking that made it finally relent.
I decided to dumb down my smart machine. I noticed the latch had a magnet on it. Aha! I thought. It is just a reed relay sensor. I snapped off the hook with the magnet on the door-lid and replaced it with a rectangular magnet and same polarity down in the receptacle slot. It didn't work. Deeee-ammm!
I figured I could just trace back the wires and jumper them closed to simulate a closed reed relay. Then I saw taped inside the front of the washer the technicians manual. LOL... it showed the exact jumper on the circuit board for the common and the lid sensor. Now all I have to do is pull off the control top. I had done that on the old one that they took away.... so I could remove anything of value- including the motor.... copper in there had to be worth at least $30.
But this new piece of crap did not have the mounting screws like the old heavy machine. I fiddled for an hour trying to figure out how to release the blasted snap springs holding the top in place. Blood (scraped knuckle), sweat and curses later- it was a simple push of the screw driver on the side I had not tried and bam, off it came. I located the electrical connector (machine unplugged of course) and inserted a jumper wire across the two points a reed relay would close. Test..... it worked..... but stopped! Deee-ammm! Again. The solenoid that holds the latch secure was clicking but there must be ANOTHER friggin sensor to prove the latch really is there.
The actual latch is a molded piece of plastic in a funny L shape with a bar magnet moded into it. I took care of the magnet part and now I need to cover the space or mechanical displacement that happens when the solenoid pulls the patch in. I saw another mechanical switch mechanism that I probably could have also jumpered. This time I will use a mechanical dummy. By now I am feeling like a mechanical dummy and with two german beers down- the buzz is starting to kick in. If this doesn't work, I will need to admit defeat and let the machine be smarter than me.
I took a piece of aluminum sheet and cut it for width, bent it to double thickness and then bent it to an L shape similar to the latch. I cut off extra and hammered flat what was not bent all the way. I fit it into the slot where the latch would go from the closed door, and duct taped it into place. Now the test....
The now dumbed-down machine worked with the lid open! It worked, and my fragile ego will be saved.
Robots are a menace to your future existence. Fight the spread of "smart" machines. Please sign the petition against smart machines in a dumbed-down society by clicking "thanks". Your click is being recorded by a smart system.
My old (20+ years) Whirlpool washer finally had some pieces break in the tub and besides the plastic center knob, the whole tub seemed locked up. OK... gotta break down and get a new one.
A quick survey of what is out there... and I recall a couple years ago I was almost pushed into getting one of the new front loaders with all the fancy buttons and super fast spin cycle that reduces dryer time... yada yada.... and I saw most washers (if not all) are now electronically controlled. I liked my old mechanical timer. I could open it during a wash cycle and add clothes or soap. I could see if the medium load size provided enough water for that load.
I bought a $400 Roper model. Never heard of them but I noticed all the machines had similar control buttons. If they were not made in the same factory then at least they all bought parts from the same factory. Turns out Roper is part of Whirlpool. The customer reports are now all complaining about the fancy new machines and how they break down within a couple years. LOL.... I could have been one of those suckers who spent $1000 and had to replace the cheap crap already.
But the cheap crap I did buy had one major flaw. It has a door lock to prevent the stupid people from crawling into their machines when they are running. Or maybe it is to stop morons from trying to use it to wash their long hair- a problem I will never have. Or maybe some lowlife ghetto parents are trying to wash their babies' behinds in these. If you want to do that, you will need to throw your baby in at the beginning of the cycle and wait until the internal action is done.
My piece of crap seemed to like keeping the door locked. At times even after the cycle finished, it stayed locked. Pull the plug to reset it... still locked. Friggin AY! What do I have to do? Finally it would open. Not sure if it was my banging or kicking that made it finally relent.
I decided to dumb down my smart machine. I noticed the latch had a magnet on it. Aha! I thought. It is just a reed relay sensor. I snapped off the hook with the magnet on the door-lid and replaced it with a rectangular magnet and same polarity down in the receptacle slot. It didn't work. Deeee-ammm!
I figured I could just trace back the wires and jumper them closed to simulate a closed reed relay. Then I saw taped inside the front of the washer the technicians manual. LOL... it showed the exact jumper on the circuit board for the common and the lid sensor. Now all I have to do is pull off the control top. I had done that on the old one that they took away.... so I could remove anything of value- including the motor.... copper in there had to be worth at least $30.
But this new piece of crap did not have the mounting screws like the old heavy machine. I fiddled for an hour trying to figure out how to release the blasted snap springs holding the top in place. Blood (scraped knuckle), sweat and curses later- it was a simple push of the screw driver on the side I had not tried and bam, off it came. I located the electrical connector (machine unplugged of course) and inserted a jumper wire across the two points a reed relay would close. Test..... it worked..... but stopped! Deee-ammm! Again. The solenoid that holds the latch secure was clicking but there must be ANOTHER friggin sensor to prove the latch really is there.
The actual latch is a molded piece of plastic in a funny L shape with a bar magnet moded into it. I took care of the magnet part and now I need to cover the space or mechanical displacement that happens when the solenoid pulls the patch in. I saw another mechanical switch mechanism that I probably could have also jumpered. This time I will use a mechanical dummy. By now I am feeling like a mechanical dummy and with two german beers down- the buzz is starting to kick in. If this doesn't work, I will need to admit defeat and let the machine be smarter than me.
I took a piece of aluminum sheet and cut it for width, bent it to double thickness and then bent it to an L shape similar to the latch. I cut off extra and hammered flat what was not bent all the way. I fit it into the slot where the latch would go from the closed door, and duct taped it into place. Now the test....
The now dumbed-down machine worked with the lid open! It worked, and my fragile ego will be saved.
Robots are a menace to your future existence. Fight the spread of "smart" machines. Please sign the petition against smart machines in a dumbed-down society by clicking "thanks". Your click is being recorded by a smart system.