The optical communication for the Miele was pretty interesting too. I'm assuming it's to prevent moisture from corroding a port of some kind. Does anyone know of other devices this is used in or other benefits to this?

  As an example, imagine a microprocessor-controlled washing 
  machine programmed in Forth. The ultimate command in your 
  example is named WASHER. Here is the definition of WASHER, 
  as written in Forth:

    : WASHER  WASH SPIN RINSE SPIN ;

Now I have to worry about passing drones using blinkenlights to Stuxnet my wool wash and shrink my merino socks? Brilliant. Bloody brilliant.

It’s like the most banal version of Battlestar Galactica ever but instead of an alien intelligence leveraging computer integration to attack mankind from within, it’s a guy in a t-shirt in a sweaty bunker filling my dishwasher to the brim with cold water then laughing at me via my Ring camera as he watches me flood my kitchen.

[Very cool talk, thanks for sharing :) ]

The WiFi implementation was interesting to me, I am glad that it is reasonably safe. I understand much of the skepticism around these kinds of features, but I also see the value in many settings. As long as they remain optional, I think the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. Kudos for BSH having good developer documentation and a local mode. I feel like a local mode should be mandatory, for safety and support reasons

It has been working for 25 years with no servicing, except when it "broke" once about 5 years ago. So I just opened it, stared at it for a while, and after considering the symptoms (no click in the door locking mechanism but power indicator light turning on), I realized the issue will be with something very early on in the fixed washing cycle, before the timing motor gets activated, and there will be no serious electrical damage elsewhere (fuse intact). So I looked at the door locking mechanism (bi-metalic thing) and noticed that the cable connector leading to it was slightly shifted. Re-seated the connector, and the machine started working again.

While it was open, I didn't notice anything horrible (corrosion, leaks, nothing). Probably the next thing that will "break" will be when the motor's carbon brushes will "run out". :)

You can understand and diagnose these things even without knowing too much. That's how obvious, simple, and accessible the electro-mechanical design is.

A few other interesting tasks I was involved back then were:

- smashing an oven's door until the hinges would give up - testing new heating elements in the open (basically, building a gigantic grill) - appliance transport packaging tests - cooking and baking on a daily basis to make sure food turns out as expected

Overall, home appliances are a great product as an engineer to work on. It is a product you usually use multiple times a day. And if you love cooking yourself, even better :-)

In the meantime, I'll leave this here:

https://github.com/medusalix/FreeMDU