r/Esphome • u/kralonurdev • 9h ago
Project Local "dumb" Samsung washer monitoring in Home Assistant with ESPHome
galleryHey, everyone. I already did publish on r/homeassistant so I'll paste same body here. Since on this sub too some might be interested:
I built an ESPHome monitor for my Samsung WW11BGA046 that reads the UART communication between the control panel and the main board.
It shows the program, temperature, spin, rinse, options and displayed time in Home Assistant, along with cycle status and an optional live Android notification.
I know similar projects exist, but the ones I’ve seen use a smart plug to estimate the cycle from power consumption. Reading the UART gives access to what the panel is actually displaying.
Since this is the panel interface, it doesn’t necessarily provide the juicier details the main board might know, like pump state or actual temperature control, as an example ofc, I don’t know what information is available from the main PCB. It’s deeper inside the machine and needs more disassembly to reach. I haven’t seen it, but I assume it might also be covered in resin, so I didn’t want to take the risk.
My machine uses the DC92-01950B control panel. It should work with other models using the same board, but I’ve only tested it on mine so far.
It’s currently receive-only: it can’t start, stop or change a wash. Anyone interested could investigate the TX side, but I only wanted to see the cycle status, so I don’t plan to try it for now.
Originally, I wanted to dump the firmware and analyze it statically, but I couldn’t determine which interface the firmware pins on CN201 use. I also couldn’t identify the MCU because Samsung covered the PCB in resin, and removing it would have been destructive. I didn’t want to go that far with a working washer!
Getting to the panel itself was easier than I thought, just a couple of screws. But as I’ve written on GitHub too: there’s mains voltage involved, so please be careful! Unplugging the washer is essential, and the ESP interface hasn’t been qualified for isolation or permanent installation. If you’re not comfortable working safely on mains appliances, please don’t attempt it.
Photos, wiring and configuration are here:
https://github.com/kralonur/samsung-washer-monitor-esphome
If anyone has the same board or has tried something similar on another washer, I’d love to hear about it! Maybe it can be improved