5 ms·

Lighting controlled by a OralB Bluetooth toothbrush

77 points by imduffy15 6y ago

the_pwner224 6y ago
When I saw the title I was prepared for a great hack. Something that truly belonged on Hacker News. But this seems a lot more lame. "I made lighting controlled by a ESP32, then put it inside the brush and connected the button to it." But reading the twitter replies further down the chain, it seems the toothbrush sends data to the charging base, and the ESP resides there and analyzes the signals sent to the base? Much more interesting. Twitter's character limit really killed this post. Unrelated, all the hashtags and @s make Twitter quite hard to read. The @ and # characters should be hidden for readers.
- imduffy15 6y ago
  Can help fill in some of the blanks for you. The toothbrush has bluetooth. Its bluetooth advertisement contains information about its operating state (running, idle, etc.), mode (brush, daily clean, etc.), pressure and some other things. The ESP32 chip scans bluetooth, detectes these advertisements, parses them and extras the data. It then sends it over to home-assistant.io which can use the data to trigger actions on any other connected device.
  - imduffy15 6y ago
    Code can be seen on this commit https://github.com/imduffy15/esphome/commit/90c3cb62b37e9ce308ed0c9d510f54ff95c2dfec https://github.com/imduffy15/esphome/commit/90c3cb62b37e9ce3... there are likely bugs :D
  - RyJones 6y ago
    We had some great demos of AllJoyn[0] at CES doing stuff like this. It would have been great, had it lived. As I recall, Philips had a smart toothbrush that gamified brushing for kids. We had it integrated with Xbox and a home grown smart mirror. [0]: https://github.com/alljoyn https://github.com/alljoyn
- SlowRobotAhead 6y ago
  Right, he didn’t modify the toothbrush to do anything. Just picked up the BLE message going out and used that to trigger his lights which itself is just sending out a different BLE message as I understood it.
paypalcust83 6y ago
Coincidentally, I bought an ESP32 (ESP-WROOM-32 Rev1)[0] last month, and have a bluetooth toothbrush and a couple of Amazon Smart Plugs. I guess you could make your own brushing compliance system with an alarm, and add a camera plus CV to detect an absence of motion to prevent basic cheating. 0. https://www.ebay.com/itm/262809348271 https://www.ebay.com/itm/262809348271 It's probably not the best or cheapest available.
- imduffy15 6y ago
  Used https://m5stack.com/products/stick-c https://m5stack.com/products/stick-c myself
- netsharc 6y ago
  Camera in bathroom.. let's hope you don't get a lot of visitors.
  - paypalcust83 6y ago
    Troll elsewhere, thanks.
jadzia-dev 6y ago
just... why?... I was expecting something silly like Siri Shortcuts... tbh
- egypturnash 6y ago
  "because I am stuck at home and bored out of my mind" is a plausible theory to me, though really, I find myself asking the same question about why the hell a toothbrush needs to connect to anything but power in the first place. The toothbrush company's page on the virtues of their Bluetooth toothbrush is not very compelling IMHO: https://oralb.com/en-us/why-switch/ https://oralb.com/en-us/why-switch/
  - maxerickson 6y ago
    Of course it doesn't. They've saturated the market though, so it gives them something to sell to people who already have a power toothbrush.
  - gumby 6y ago
    I bought one out of curiosity as to what it might add. It’s sort of like a management consultant: The bluetooth allows my phone to tell me when I’m brushing my teeth. So I paid big bucks to find out something I already know.
- masto 6y ago
  Sometimes people do things for fun.
- imduffy15 6y ago
  The demod used case is a silly one that makes zero sense, but instead of asking why, think, what else is possible. For most peoeple the act of brushing their teeth marks waking up or going to bed. With such data exposed and combined with timing data you could trigger morning or night time routines. For example, the toothbrush transitioning from running -> idle after 8pm and before 4am could cause the bedroom to go into sleep lighting (gold at 40% fading out over 15 minutes), all other lights to be turned off, all smart plugs turned off, house alarm set to armed, heating turned off and so on..... or I could just continue to be silly and turn it into a TV controller https://twitter.com/imduffy15/status/1256954852996939777 https://twitter.com/imduffy15/status/1256954852996939777
lmilcin 6y ago
My espresso machine turns on my coffee grinder. No wifi/bluetooth/etc. Just bad EMI immunity.
- gumby 6y ago
  Your comment rewritten for our modern world: “Life Hack: My espresso machine automatically wirelessly controls third party accessories like my coffee grinder”
- azinman2 6y ago
  Can this really be true? Can you explain more about what exactly is going on? Your grinder must be controlled via a microcontroller (and your espresso machine must make the FCC cry?)? My grinder is a simple physical on/off switch that’s directly wired to the motor.
  - AdrianB1 6y ago
    Lots of home appliances make FCC cry, the Chinese brothers that build these figured it's cheaper to write FCC approval on the label than to implement any meaningful protection.
  - lmilcin 6y ago
    The grinder is Baratza Sette 270W. The espresso machine is Rancilio Silvia. The espresso machine has no low voltage electronics, it is basically just switches, thermostats, a heater, a pump and and a valve. It has two inductive components, a pump and a solenoid valve with no protection. This is a recipe for huge amount of EMI when the devices are turned off (when inductive component is turned off at a right time the voltage rises and can cause spark and high voltage that is applied to the outlet). Since the grinder is connected to an outlet close by it is subject to EMI. I have not looked inside the grinder but there there are components like thyristors and triacs which are used to keep a device turned on until it decides otherwise, that can get turned on by EMI. Generating enough voltage can cause a thyristor or triac to turn on by itself which is then enough to keep it turned on and cause the device to wake itself up without the user pressing the button. I will also add that I have two versions of the grinder. Only the older one is affected by the problem. I find it likely somebody spotted and fixed the problem (it is extremely easy to fix just as it is extremely easy to overlook).
itsajoke 6y ago
I wish it could work in reverse. I want my lighting to control my toothbrush.

77 points by imduffy15 6y ago

When I saw the title I was prepared for a great hack. Something that truly belonged on Hacker News. But this seems a lot more lame. "I made lighting controlled by a ESP32, then put it inside the brush and connected the button to it." But reading the twitter replies further down the chain, it seems the toothbrush sends data to the charging base, and the ESP resides there and analyzes the signals sent to the base? Much more interesting. Twitter's character limit really killed this post. Unrelated, all the hashtags and @s make Twitter quite hard to read. The @ and # characters should be hidden for readers.

imduffy15 6y ago
Can help fill in some of the blanks for you. The toothbrush has bluetooth. Its bluetooth advertisement contains information about its operating state (running, idle, etc.), mode (brush, daily clean, etc.), pressure and some other things. The ESP32 chip scans bluetooth, detectes these advertisements, parses them and extras the data. It then sends it over to home-assistant.io which can use the data to trigger actions on any other connected device.
- imduffy15 6y ago
  Code can be seen on this commit https://github.com/imduffy15/esphome/commit/90c3cb62b37e9ce308ed0c9d510f54ff95c2dfec https://github.com/imduffy15/esphome/commit/90c3cb62b37e9ce3... there are likely bugs :D
- RyJones 6y ago
  We had some great demos of AllJoyn[0] at CES doing stuff like this. It would have been great, had it lived. As I recall, Philips had a smart toothbrush that gamified brushing for kids. We had it integrated with Xbox and a home grown smart mirror. [0]: https://github.com/alljoyn https://github.com/alljoyn
SlowRobotAhead 6y ago
Right, he didn’t modify the toothbrush to do anything. Just picked up the BLE message going out and used that to trigger his lights which itself is just sending out a different BLE message as I understood it.

paypalcust83 6y ago

Coincidentally, I bought an ESP32 (ESP-WROOM-32 Rev1)[0] last month, and have a bluetooth toothbrush and a couple of Amazon Smart Plugs. I guess you could make your own brushing compliance system with an alarm, and add a camera plus CV to detect an absence of motion to prevent basic cheating. 0. https://www.ebay.com/itm/262809348271 https://www.ebay.com/itm/262809348271 It's probably not the best or cheapest available.

imduffy15 6y ago
Used https://m5stack.com/products/stick-c https://m5stack.com/products/stick-c myself
netsharc 6y ago
Camera in bathroom.. let's hope you don't get a lot of visitors.
- paypalcust83 6y ago
  Troll elsewhere, thanks.

jadzia-dev 6y ago

just... why?... I was expecting something silly like Siri Shortcuts... tbh

egypturnash 6y ago
"because I am stuck at home and bored out of my mind" is a plausible theory to me, though really, I find myself asking the same question about why the hell a toothbrush needs to connect to anything but power in the first place. The toothbrush company's page on the virtues of their Bluetooth toothbrush is not very compelling IMHO: https://oralb.com/en-us/why-switch/ https://oralb.com/en-us/why-switch/
- maxerickson 6y ago
  Of course it doesn't. They've saturated the market though, so it gives them something to sell to people who already have a power toothbrush.
- gumby 6y ago
  I bought one out of curiosity as to what it might add. It’s sort of like a management consultant: The bluetooth allows my phone to tell me when I’m brushing my teeth. So I paid big bucks to find out something I already know.
masto 6y ago
Sometimes people do things for fun.
imduffy15 6y ago
The demod used case is a silly one that makes zero sense, but instead of asking why, think, what else is possible. For most peoeple the act of brushing their teeth marks waking up or going to bed. With such data exposed and combined with timing data you could trigger morning or night time routines. For example, the toothbrush transitioning from running -> idle after 8pm and before 4am could cause the bedroom to go into sleep lighting (gold at 40% fading out over 15 minutes), all other lights to be turned off, all smart plugs turned off, house alarm set to armed, heating turned off and so on..... or I could just continue to be silly and turn it into a TV controller https://twitter.com/imduffy15/status/1256954852996939777 https://twitter.com/imduffy15/status/1256954852996939777

lmilcin 6y ago

My espresso machine turns on my coffee grinder. No wifi/bluetooth/etc. Just bad EMI immunity.

gumby 6y ago
Your comment rewritten for our modern world: “Life Hack: My espresso machine automatically wirelessly controls third party accessories like my coffee grinder”
azinman2 6y ago
Can this really be true? Can you explain more about what exactly is going on? Your grinder must be controlled via a microcontroller (and your espresso machine must make the FCC cry?)? My grinder is a simple physical on/off switch that’s directly wired to the motor.
- AdrianB1 6y ago
  Lots of home appliances make FCC cry, the Chinese brothers that build these figured it's cheaper to write FCC approval on the label than to implement any meaningful protection.
- lmilcin 6y ago
  The grinder is Baratza Sette 270W. The espresso machine is Rancilio Silvia. The espresso machine has no low voltage electronics, it is basically just switches, thermostats, a heater, a pump and and a valve. It has two inductive components, a pump and a solenoid valve with no protection. This is a recipe for huge amount of EMI when the devices are turned off (when inductive component is turned off at a right time the voltage rises and can cause spark and high voltage that is applied to the outlet). Since the grinder is connected to an outlet close by it is subject to EMI. I have not looked inside the grinder but there there are components like thyristors and triacs which are used to keep a device turned on until it decides otherwise, that can get turned on by EMI. Generating enough voltage can cause a thyristor or triac to turn on by itself which is then enough to keep it turned on and cause the device to wake itself up without the user pressing the button. I will also add that I have two versions of the grinder. Only the older one is affected by the problem. I find it likely somebody spotted and fixed the problem (it is extremely easy to fix just as it is extremely easy to overlook).

itsajoke 6y ago

I wish it could work in reverse. I want my lighting to control my toothbrush.