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Reverse-Engineering the LCD Display Interface of the Nest 2nd Gen Thermostat

sett.homes

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Re: Reverse-Engineering the LCD Display Interface of the Nest 2nd Gen Thermostat

#11

Post by Hobadee »

I would love to see an open source/Home Assistant native version of the Nest, if the author or anyone else has further ambitions.

IMHO the Nest is hands-down the best thermostat hardware out there. It's a case study in simplicity, elegance, and intuitive UI. I have bought a couple of them, and am likely to buy more in the future should I need another thermostat for any reason.

Google locking it down more and more, and bricking old hardware versions, is a case study in hardware enshitification. For this reason I am very hesitant to buy more.

Re: Reverse-Engineering the LCD Display Interface of the Nest 2nd Gen Thermostat

#13

Post by Karliss »

KPGv2 wrote: post #9
userbinator wrote: post #3

I immediately recognised many of the commands, both their names and byte values, as exactly the same as those of the Philips PCF8833 from 2 decades ago, an extremely common LCD controller for the tiny displays on mobile phones of the time. The displays have 320 x 320px square addressable pixels, but only the circular portion is displayed - that is to say you can draw pixels as though they were there in the lower corn…

> Always thought round LCDs (and rounded corners on displays and now GUI windows) were stupid If you've ever used a Nest thermostat before, you'd understand why a square display would be stupider. It would either: 1. force a larger interface so the square display could have its diagonal fully enclosed by the diameter of the radial control (i.e., oafishly large thermostat too big for a human hand to easily manipulate)…

But Nest is using a square display. They are just hiding the corners behind plastic with round hole, which according to you would mean either 1 or 2.

Re: Reverse-Engineering the LCD Display Interface of the Nest 2nd Gen Thermostat

#14

Post by pabs3 »

hdx19 wrote: post #10
pabs3 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a constant stream of artificially obsolete devices, its a lot of work to keep up with that. Seems like we need a Reverse Engineers Anonymous co-operative to receive hardware and donations and pay people to do the work.

For devices that are connected to internet it should be a best practice at least and probably an obligation to open source the firmware / code that drives the object when the company decides it wants to stop providing security updates.

Copyright law should require source code escrow before the software is protected under the DMCA provisions.

Re: Reverse-Engineering the LCD Display Interface of the Nest 2nd Gen Thermostat

#15

Post by karlgkk »

userbinator wrote: post #3

I immediately recognised many of the commands, both their names and byte values, as exactly the same as those of the Philips PCF8833 from 2 decades ago, an extremely common LCD controller for the tiny displays on mobile phones of the time. The displays have 320 x 320px square addressable pixels, but only the circular portion is displayed - that is to say you can draw pixels as though they were there in the lower corn…

I don't think they're stupid, especially if the application isn't particularly information dense.

Like... this is a thing meant to be operated at arm's length. Some extra pixels aren't going to meaningfully improve how you view the current temperature.

Re: Reverse-Engineering the LCD Display Interface of the Nest 2nd Gen Thermostat

#16

Post by gyomu »

userbinator wrote: post #3

I immediately recognised many of the commands, both their names and byte values, as exactly the same as those of the Philips PCF8833 from 2 decades ago, an extremely common LCD controller for the tiny displays on mobile phones of the time. The displays have 320 x 320px square addressable pixels, but only the circular portion is displayed - that is to say you can draw pixels as though they were there in the lower corn…

Is there some sort of ideological imperative to use every single pixel? If your product design doesn’t call for it because of low information density, who cares.

Re: Reverse-Engineering the LCD Display Interface of the Nest 2nd Gen Thermostat

#17

Post by z3ugma »

Hobadee wrote: post #11

I would love to see an open source/Home Assistant native version of the Nest, if the author or anyone else has further ambitions. IMHO the Nest is hands-down the best thermostat hardware out there. It's a case study in simplicity, elegance, and intuitive UI. I have bought a couple of them, and am likely to buy more in the future should I need another thermostat for any reason. Google locking it down more and more, an…

Yep that’s what we are working on at https://sett.homes - you can pre order the replacement for the Nest 2nd gen.

I agree that I want something aesthetically pleasing if it’s going to be displayed on the walls of my home where I entertain. Nest has always been the best for this, but the software has limited it. Hence, Sett - open source PCBs in the beautiful Nest enclosure

Re: Reverse-Engineering the LCD Display Interface of the Nest 2nd Gen Thermostat

#19

Post by two_handfuls »

Karliss wrote: post #13
KPGv2 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Always thought round LCDs (and rounded corners on displays and now GUI windows) were stupid If you've ever used a Nest thermostat before, you'd understand why a square display would be stupider. It would either: 1. force a larger interface so the square display could have its diagonal fully enclosed by the diameter of the radial control (i.e., oafishly large thermostat too big for a human hand to easily manipulate)…

But Nest is using a square display. They are just hiding the corners behind plastic with round hole, which according to you would mean either 1 or 2.

The article says the display is physically round.

Re: Reverse-Engineering the LCD Display Interface of the Nest 2nd Gen Thermostat

#20

Post by userbinator »

two_handfuls wrote: post #19
Karliss wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But Nest is using a square display. They are just hiding the corners behind plastic with round hole, which according to you would mean either 1 or 2.

The article says the display is physically round.

The pictures tell a different story.
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