Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch • Hacker News Board

Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch

#121

Post by byb » Thu, Aug 29, 2024, 4:57 AM UTC

great read.

I have several Daikin split units and installed Faikins on them. https://github.com/revk/ESP32-Faikin

Having the PCBs made, flashing them, sourcing the connectors,and installing them was a bit involved, but setting them up in home assistant was one of the best things this nerd has ever done.

I wish there was an over-arching collective of hackers who would teach the principles, and help collaborate to decipher these protocols and help build software and microcontrollers to replace proprietary systems like the one Advantage Air has. I bet a simple ESP32 could handle this.

Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch

#122

Post by hunter2_ » Thu, Aug 29, 2024, 4:58 AM UTC

labcomputer wrote: post #118

cruffle_duffle wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds too good to be true. Having to get a prescription to get contacts is insane…

But how would you know what to order if you don’t have a prescription? Trial and error? I guess that might work if you have a simple correction (no astigmatism).

Getting a prescription when you don't know what you need makes sense. Getting one just because your last one has expired (1 year) is the off-putting aspect.

Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch

#123

Post by marcus_holmes » Thu, Aug 29, 2024, 4:59 AM UTC

dbetteridge wrote: post #111

gstar wrote: post #70

OMFG; I am in Perth, I have the same system, the very same problem and solved it almost the same way and was in the process of writing it up. The system uses RS422, with a base64 encoded AES key in the aaservice binary, and I was contemplating building an esp32 based open source implementation of the controller. That's a crazy weird coincidence.

For a small place there's a lot of sandgropers on HN somehow

Timezone effect, I think. Just us and the whole of East Asia online now. The Poms and Europeans are just about to wake up, and the Americans have logged off for the night.

Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch

#124

Post by hunter2_ » Thu, Aug 29, 2024, 5:00 AM UTC

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #119

hunter2_ wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's an easy hack for the contact lens (and maybe glasses?) situation. There is a consumer protection law meant to ensure eye doctors can't stop you from using any retailer you want (otherwise they'd essentially make themselves your retailer), and it works like this: You place an order with the retailer (online retailers typically allow you to simply type in your prescription values when adding lenses to your onli…

US based online contact vendors reject orders without a signed prescription. The doctors intentionally don't sign them. The workaround is to order them from Canada

I couldn't find a Canadian (or any foreign) retailer that would ship to the US, but I found tons of US retailers that allow self-entry (as an alternative to uploading a signed prescription) as I described.

Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch

#125

Post by zekrioca » Thu, Aug 29, 2024, 5:01 AM UTC

devsda wrote: post #22

Unfortunately, if/when someone from the manufacturer knows about it their first thought will not be "How do we make it easier for our customers". It will most likely be "How do we restrict this hack" and will eventually get into more restricted/quirky hardware & software.

Yes, which is very sad. Nearly all things go into this direction. I still remember the old days of jail breaking the iPhone, and the cat and mouse chase with Apple.

Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch

#126

Post by marcus_holmes » Thu, Aug 29, 2024, 5:05 AM UTC

jamil7 wrote: post #51

Nursie wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The great thing about Australia is that that is probably illegal here. We've got some pretty fucked up protectionist rules about what you can and can't do in/to your own home. It's nuts. Now, nobody is actually watching most of the time, so you're usually fine, but it's as stupid as being illegal to replace a tap or existing light fitting. Every so often state governments review the rules and get swamped by trade ass…

Australia is definitely one of the most rule-obsessed countries, even in comparison to Germany, where I’ve lived for the last decade or so. Parts of my parent’s house back home are heritage listed, some rules make sense and some are bizarre, especially regarding the garden.

I moved back to Perth from Berlin last year, and yeah, agree completely. Germans have a reputation for being rule-obsessed but they're lax compared to the Aussies, who have a reputation for being larrikins that is almost completely undeserved. It's all "beer & bbq on the beach" until you find out that's illegal and the police will pour out your beer on the sand and fine you for the bbq.

Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch

#127

Post by labcomputer » Thu, Aug 29, 2024, 5:05 AM UTC

SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #89

happyopossum wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Reminds me how, in USA, it’s the only civilized nation I’ve been to where you must have a prescription to purchase contacts and glasses Anecdotally this is far from true. Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, and the UK for example require a prescription for anything more complicated than reading glasses. There are plenty of reasons why, mostly summed up by your comment about “whatever magnification you need” - eyegl…

I am not sure about Canadas situation since that is where I used to order my contacts from before I got LASIK several years ago. I don’t recall having to provide a script then. But Mexico and several other European countries I’ve been to (Sweden as an example) it’s absolutely the case you can just walk into the pharmacy and grab the magnification you need with no prescription. I am actually surprised you were able to…

> it’s absolutely the case you can just walk into the pharmacy and grab the magnification you need with no prescription.

I don’t understand how this could possibly work. Contact lenses have at least three parameters to define the lens. It’s not just “magnification”.

If you have an astigmatism, there are two more, and a further two if you have presbyopia (for a total of up to 7). Almost everyone has presbyopia by the age of 65, so it’s not some rare condition.

Do these pharmacies you speak of just have aisles upon aisles of contact lenses?

Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch

#128

Post by stacktrust » Thu, Aug 29, 2024, 5:06 AM UTC

system2 wrote: post #20

We must have an open-source policy for hardware like this. Billions if not trillions of dollars are being wasted every year because of these shitty companies. I know I am dreaming but maybe in 100 years, humanity will evolve.

awesome-vendor-repairability index?

Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch

#129

Post by rx_tx » Thu, Aug 29, 2024, 5:07 AM UTC

Lammy wrote: post #23

lelandfe wrote: post #4

> For whatever reason (I suspect some sort of storage failure) everyone’s tablets die around the same time. What a fun, completely coincidental quirk that that time appears to fall outside the warranty window, hey?

Very convenient for them and also easy to accomplish by buying the cheapest parts. It's probably eMMC-based and writing a logfile constantly. Source: every Android that has ever died on me in this exact way (four and counting)

It's been a big pain for Tesla as well, where their tiny 8GB emmc on the center screen would fail since they logged to it too much... 134,000 vehicles recalled eventually after they denied it was an issue.

https://www.tesla.com/support/8gb-emmc-recall-frequently-ask...

Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch

#130

Post by ranebo » Thu, Aug 29, 2024, 5:08 AM UTC

hunter2_ wrote: post #69

> My old tablet’s model name was on a sticker on the inside of the case, but looking at the code I saw it needed the -EZ identifier tagged to end. So the string I was to return was “PIC7KS6-EZ”. The code seems to allow for both "PIC7KS6-EZ" and "PIC7KS6" unless I'm misreading it.

You are correct this was actually and error in my re-collection. I remembered when writing that it was missing something but mistakenly thought it was the EZ. In fact the model number on the case was "PIC7KS" without the 6. Good spot.