It was a mystery buried deep inside a Fisher & Paykel washing machines, but former staff have come clean.
Last week Stuff reported how machines with ‘SmartDrive’ technology could play several national anthems including God Defend New Zealand.
The company confirmed that an unnamed software engineer programmed a popular movie theme song into the code. That unnamed theme remains buried deep within the software, ‘‘dormant and inaccessible to the user’’, according to Neil Cheyne, Fisher & Paykel reliability and compliance general manager.
Dormant and inaccessible, but no longer a secret.
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A previous story suggested the hidden tune was a science fiction theme from the 80s, another Reddit post said it was the 2009 hit Crazy Frog by Axel F, while one reader claimed it played Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon.
Former Fisher & Paykel software engineer, Adam Darby, said he was part of a small team who wrote code for SmartDrive washing machines, ‘’when this legend was started by a team-mate, who wishes to remain anonymous’’.
The work by the six strong washer electronics development team included coding Axel F the theme tune to Beverly Hills Cop, by German musician Harold Faltermeier.
As an aside that tune was later sampled for Crazy Frog.
Hamish McNeilly/Stuff
This Fisher and Paykel washing machine holds a few secrets.
That was secretly included on one of early 90s SmartDrive models, ‘’without telling anyone how to access it’’.
‘’Management loved the idea, but wanted something that wouldn’t get us in trouble over music rights, so we decided to change the tune to the national anthem of whatever country the particular washer was being exported to.’’
Darby said the Auckland factory, which was based in East Tamaki was very advanced and automated, exporting to the United States and Australia, and throughout New Zealand.
That led to the production line control systems defaulting the coded tune to that of the country of export, enabling the respective anthem to be played in the retail store of that country, and: ‘’The dealers loved it’’.
‘’Later on we even figured out how to play tunes with the actual motor itself.
‘’[We] didn’t release that idea though.’’
Darby said he and his fellow workers remained proud of the SmartDrive washing machines, which were innovative, successful, and ‘’All designed by our little team in Auckland’’.,
The Fisher & Paykel direct drive system had since been replicated by many major international manufacturers, while there were ‘’many patents covering the design of this washer’’.
Darby, who specialises in advanced motor control systems, has one of the prototype SmartDrive machines at his house, which was still washing clothes daily, ‘’over 20 years later, still going strong’’.
Hamish McNeilly/Stuff
Pressing buttons to put a Fisher and Paykel washing machine into demonstration mode.
The machines were much more than just the hidden tunes they could play, with the SmartDrive development ‘’an amazing Kiwi success story’’.
The core design of that technology was essentially unchanged to this day, he said.
The only thing that had changed was the manufacturing plants had gone offshore, while the R&D team for laundry and refrigeration was still based in Auckland, and the company’s oven and dishwasher R&D team were based in Dunedin.
