I think we can all agree that in some cases projects are a bit of a stretch. We rack our brains for something interesting and distinct to bring to the table and end up stretching for that special unusual twist trick or technique that will garner that special kind of admiration from our peers. in that sense it is easy to loose sight of some of the best projects, the easy ones that show you can fix anything anytime anywhere and improve it while you are at it.
This is just such that kind of project, [UnaClocker] had a washer fall victim to its own condensation. instead of shelling out a ton of money for the repair man he took on the job himself, fitting the washer with an Arduino, relays and a breadboard. A little reverse engineering revealed the (notably well labeled) control board, evidently the control signals involved are incredibly easy to interpret. [UnaClocker] also found a temperature sensor to control dish sanitation. At this point he had full control over the dishwasher and was able to design the ideal prewash/wash cycle timings.
Now that a wash cycle is all set [UnaClocker] can now go ahead and embarrass the hell out of the OEM. He plans on adding a real time clock module to time washings and a clean dish indicator, after which we think he ought to get rolling on some wireless/tweet/ethernet/capacitive touch/voice communication. after that he is going to work on buttoning up the design and making it pretty.
Check out the setup in action after the jump!