So the washing machine died… it had been getting more and more noisy and this morning whilst I was performing my domestic duties it started doing that really really catastrophic noisy thing and massive movement which indicates this is the last spin cycle it will ever do.
Clearly a Washing Machine is kind of critical especially with two small boys, and my travel schedule. So thanks to The Internet, a new washing machine will arrive Tuesday – crisis over. And I think we will be able to keep the old one, which will provide a weekend’s worth of entertainment and education for the Boys as we talk it apart – and a very happy colleague who will get the bits for his Heath Robinson projects.
But this got me thinking – I want one with a network connection. Which I mentioned on Facebook and someone quite rightly asked “Why”.
This is what I expect my washing machine to provide:
- SNMP for
- Status (stage of washing cycle etc.
- Energy Use
- Water use
- Any other stats (I think they weigh the washing, and measure detergent – that would be interesting)
- Email alerts on events (e.g. finished, error reports)
- Web interface for administration, user’s manual etc.
- A way of pinging it to say “Start” – so I can coordinate with the rest of my household
- Service status, warnings of imminent servicing etc.
Then I can hook my washing machine up to Nagios, etc.
Oh and I want my Dishwasher and Dryer to do this too… and the heating system.
Given the ubiquity of WiFi chips and Microcontrollers – I can’t see this being too far away surely? And it would be exceptionally cool – let’s just hope they provide IPv6 🙂