View Single Post
Old 10-13-17, 07:22 AM   #8
jeff5may
Supreme EcoRenovator
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: elizabethtown, ky, USA
Posts: 2,428
Thanks: 431
Thanked 619 Times in 517 Posts
Send a message via Yahoo to jeff5may
Default

a little update on the washer motor idea:

I have been playing around with the front load units while I have been fixing them up. I couldn't get the serial interface working on the motor control board that isn't communicating (yet), so I ordered a replacement. When I get the replacement board, I'm going to attempt to repair the broken one. It looks as if the power and speed control sections are OK, but the transmit and receive section for the serial interface is either dead or not functioning well enough to operate. Since schematics and block diagrams for these things are pretty much nonexistent to me, I'm going to have to have one that works in front of me to compare with the one that is broken to fix it.

Before I ordered a replacement , I wanted to verify that replacing the motor control board would indeed fix the washer. I picked up another similar washer off the interweb for less than the price of a refurbished or working pull board, and transplanted the (not identical) motor control into the malfunctioning washer. The board communicated with the brain, and did just about everything it was supposed to. However, the transplanted motor control must not interpret ALL of the instructions the same, because it always spins at the same speed. Forward wash, reverse wash, and spin functions do what they are supposed to, but apparently the microprocessor doesn't know what to do with the odd spin speed instructions.

The one unit is a Kenmore HE2 Plus and the other a Whirlpool Duet Sport. Evidently, the models are mechanically close enough in design to swap most of the working parts with each other, but the electronics are programmed different enough that they won't just swap out and work perfectly. This is common among most consumer electronic equipment in general. If the units all had the same firmware in them, then the supply houses and manufacturers would not have to stock a jillion different service parts, and the stuff they did stock would not command a higher price due to scarcity. Gotta love the capitalist sales model.

I have a little TTL to USB serial adapter that I purchased to read codes and log live data out of OBD1 vehicles that should work to sniff packets of data from this washer I have now. Once I get it operating, I will rig it to it and analyze the data stream to see how the interface does what it does to and from the motor control. Since I have spare parts (and hopefully a working motor control board soon), I can do a bench setup with one of these motor sets and an automotive a/c compressor with a belt drive. If I'm lucky, I can control the setup like the guy in the video with my little TTL to USB adapter.
jeff5may is offline   Reply With Quote