Summary
Reverse-osmosis (RO) systems are one way to ensure that you get very clean drinking water. The Waterdrop G3P600 variety that [Tomasz Wasilczyk] recently purchased is definitely among the fanciest and ‘smartest’, with the faucet having its own 7-segment display and gaggle of LEDs connected to the actual RO unit with a four-pin connector. This naturally meant that whatever protocol runs on this cable had to be reverse-engineered for science.
The main practical benefit here is to make the system smarter — such as plugging it into a home automation system with ESPHome support, as well as make it play nice with refrigerator lines.
What automation and monitoring options exist here thus depend on what data gets sent between the RO unit and the faucet. Fortunately this turned out to be quite extensive, ranging from filter health, the water quality and pump status as well as air temperature and faucet state.
Unsurprisingly the four-pin connector turned out to be a basic serial link, with 5 V, ground and a 9,600 baud connection. From this it was easy enough to deduce the protocol, and by looking at what lit up on the faucet, a custom PCB wasn’t far behind.
After one blown-up fuse later due to getting 24 V instead of 12 V on the RO unit when tapping off power, the unit popped to life and was able to be connected to Home Assistant, from where the entire functionality and what triggered what could be mapped out. Of course, there’s still more to be discovered and reverse-engineered in the unit, but this seems like a good place to start.
Reverse-osmosis (RO) systems are one way to ensure that you get… dehydrated by drinking water (sic!)
Please explain
This argument.
https://olympianwatertesting.com/is-reverse-osmosis-water-healthy/
Reality is always more nuanced.
The argument is foolish.
The same myth is used against distilled water.
If you drink nothing but reverse osmosis water,
and you consume no food containing any potassium, sodium, magnesium etc
then the clean pure reverse osmosis water or distilled water can strip your body of essential minerals that those who believe everything they read but barely comprehend think their dirty tap water is the only source of.
Impostor! Get your own username!
The public is largely unaware of the dangers of DHMO; it is a dangerous chemical spread throughout our world and can have fatal explore. Read more at
https://dhmo.org/
This is brilliant. I didn’t know this type of filter was an option. I think I found a new appliance for my kitchen. In my area, there is a ton of pollution in the drinking water from PFOA/PFOS/PFAS/GENX.
A low tech gravity filter like Berkey is a solution also
It might just be easier to add your own “smart” features to a “dumb” RO setup. Or at least, it would be a lot more repairable and modular. If you’re on wellwater that already hasn’t got sediment or chlorine (or chloramine) and you just want better drinking water, you don’t need to start anywhere near the price of the smart machine. Either do manual filtration or modify the setup with some controllable valves and sensors to have a perfectly decent DIY version. https://imgur.com/a/cheap-reverse-osmosis-water-dispenser-Y1twQEf