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Ask Slashdot: Any Dishwasher Hackers Out There?
New submitter writes: I just replaced my dishwasher with a basic, inexpensive Sears model. It works fine, but only has 3 different wash cycles. I'm betting that the code to manage more cycles (as in more-expensive models) is already in the microcontroller and just needs inputs to select it. Is there any information available on this? Beyond dishwashers, have you done any useful hacks to household appliances more generally? I'd probably support a Kickstarter project that adds nice wireless notifications to my oven, clothes washer, and dishwasher.
Often the same firmware is already loaded, and it chooses which feature package by what is plugged in. This if often true where there was a more expensive model of the same brand. I've dealt with that many times by simply unplugging the sensors for a broken part. Then it will work with reduced features until repair is possible. (eg, parts arrive)
Not having the hardware is really the problem. Those extra cycles usually rely on having separate pumps and things on different parts. So each extra cycle probably has a daughter board that is handling the motor controls.
The good DIY solution is to replace the whole firmware with something open, and start separating and layering the logic so that you can share high-level feature programming between different hardware. Then you can have a common firmware that provides features, and device-specific daughter boards for hardware integration.
back porting xbox 360 games to xbone?
Uh, no. They built a software emulator, the hardware is extremely different and there is not a hidden 360 CPU in the XBone.
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
Rigol oscilloscopes. One minor software change and now your 50Mhz scope now magically works at 100Mhz.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
You could do it the Finnish way, where stacking them to dry is also putting them away.
Flashing GPUs with a higher end firmware. Unlocking cores in AMD CPUs......jailbreaking often unlocks hardware that is dormant, like bluetooth on Apple TV gen2 and Nook color tablets. These are just things I have done personally....
Good-bye
Check out a documentary called "The Lightbulb Conspiracy" on planned obsolescence. They find a Canon or Epson printer with a chip inside that counts the number of prints made, and after some arbitrary number will throw an unrecoverable error essentially telling you it's time to buy a new printer. By the end of the movie, they've reset the chip without any hardware modifications and the printer continues printing just fine.
Ok. So cite us some examples of hardware that has been uncrippled EXCLUSIVELY through a software update.
PS4 and XBONE have yielded more memory and CPU to developers to use for games through software updates.
People routinely by 2nd tier CPUs and GPUs and flash the firmware in the hopes of unlocking extra cores or compute units that were disabled during binning.
People used to unlock "locked" CPUs for overclocking with a modified BIOS.
DVD player. It used to only be able to play Region 2 discs, but by entering a short code into the remote it's become Region Free (or any region me - or obviously the manufacturer - wish to lock it to)
Flashing GPUs with a higher end firmware. Unlocking cores in AMD CPUs
These are both pretty bad examples, because those cores are usually disabled because they don't pass all of the tests. With small feature sizes, yields of complex ICs are pretty low. It's common for CPUs and GPUs to be designed with various optional features. If there's a manufacturing defect in one part, then that part is disabled and you can still use the rest. The Cell was a particularly good example of this: very few had 8 working SPUs and so the ones in the PS3 all had 7 SPUs enabled and the ones that managed to pass tests with all 8 SPUs were sold in blades.
Sometimes you're fortunate and the yields are higher than expected, so some chips get put in a cheaper bin in spite of testing well enough to be sold in a more expensive bin.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
http://hackaday.com/2010/03/31...
http://hackaday.com/2013/03/14...
http://hackaday.com/2013/03/18...
http://www.extremetech.com/com...
https://www.avforums.com/threa...
Most any WiFi firmware artificially limits the radio -> http://www.qsl.net/kb9mwr/proj...
http://www.ilounge.com/index.p...
Whoa, your car has hidden features? https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Extra cores on your CPU? No way! http://www.bit-tech.net/hardwa...
Cripple phone features? Oh noes! https://www.techdirt.com/artic... https://www.techdirt.com/artic...
More than one HAM radio have been found to be subject to software tweaking for improvements in scan speed and frequencies covered.-> https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Got a RAID card? Some of them can be crossflashed to gain features BTW. Or you can pay thousands to the manufacturer for some features (*cough*PERC*cough*) http://www.servethehome.com/ib...
Gains can be had by flashing custom firmware to your DVD\BD RW drives but I didn't feel like spending any time past a cursory search to find this. http://binflash.cdfreaks.com/ http://www.rpc1.org/viewtopic.... http://dvrflash.rpc1.org/
Firmware being used in external HDD has also been found to be crippled vs a standard drive, this didn't used to always be the case....
Here's one that's just an upgrade with features the manufacturer didn't include (see also ANY Jailbreaking post ever)
http://lifehacker.com/find-out...
http://lifehacker.com/5942229/...
http://www.digitaltrends.com/p...
Oh look, your camera now supports RAW? Thought that was only for pro cameras not P&S pocket models...
I could go on and on with examples but suffice it to say yeah it DOES happen and it happens fairly often. It happens most often with system that have a full OS, often Linux, where a firmware flash can give you all sorts of features (OpenWRT or Tomato anyone?) but it also happens in cameras, lab bench tools, TVs, stereos, and just about anything else that is driven by software. Want more turbo boost in your car? Software baby! Want that printer to register an empty toner cartridge sooner? No problem!
Tired now, think I've made my point?
Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
That 'unrecoverable' error is telling you the waste ink system is saturated. Sure, you can reset the error if you know the trick. About a hundred or so power cycles later you'll discover that ink is leaking out of your printer and onto your [once] nice desk. They didn't do this to dick you, it is an engineering compromise. They could build in a replaceable waste ink system (as they do in higher end printers) but doing so would put the printer beyond the price point.
Printer companies want you to keep your printer as long as possible. They are not in the printer selling business; they sell their printers at cost or at a loss. They are in the ink selling business. Which printer you buy it for really makes no difference to them.