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Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch

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

#161

Post by hunter2_ »

renewiltord wrote: post #154
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…

There's an even bigger hack: use photoshop to modify the prescription. My wife has been doing it for years. This is helpful since sometimes the prescription is over-specific and points to contacts you don't like.

I considered that of course, but something about the signature on it (as opposed to self entry which has no signature) made me very uneasy. And doesn't the verification phone call (which fails unsafe, luckily) happen either way? Maybe not.

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

#162

Post by MaxikCZ »

amiga-workbench wrote: post #143
Lammy wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

Surely it can't cost much more to go for a larger eMMC chip and have it massively over-provisioned with plenty of space for wear levelling? The underlying flash memory is trash and the controller already does a ton of heavy lifting to keep the data coherent.

But then you are not only making your build price higher, you also have less revenue as year pass. And its hard to market.

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

#163

Post by nehz »

gstar wrote: post #77
gstar wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Incidentally, if you root your tablet you can just change the build.MODEL to "MyAir5" and everything will work on a third party tablet.

Oh, and you just need one of these and a TTL to RS422 converter off aliexpress to replicate the interface: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005918675239.html The connectors on the small RJ45 daughter board are JST-SH 1.0 The yellow lead puts out 4.2v to replicate a Li-Ion battery (as far as I can tell). You can ignore this. Red is positive Black is negative Green is usb d+ Blue is usb d-

Would you have the RJ45 pinout too? Thanks!

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

#164

Post by xg15 »

> Adding a simple “system” chooser to their software applications would give solutions to everyone, while the custom POE connector would ensure they still need their hardware.

Defense in depth, baby! (against customers)

Why have one proprietary component when you can have two...

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

#165

Post by ThatPlayer »

athrun wrote: post #148
paranoidrobot wrote: post #108

I installed AC in my home in the last year. I specifically went for units that were IR controlled rather than any proprietary smart B.S. For the smarts, I used cheap IR blasters from AliExpress and hooked them up to HomeAssistant. I just mounted cheap Lenovo tablets to the wall to do the room-dashboard thing to allow controlling lights/AC without a phone. These kind of horror stories only serve to reinforce my decisi…

I was thinking of doing the same but IR control only allows for unidirectional communication with the unit. Since there's no feedback mechanism, how do you solve for when the state of the unit(s) gets out of sync with HomeAssistant's?

Similar problem here. I've thought of getting IR receivers to also listen for the remote's IR signal, since you have to be able to encode the IR protocol anyways. But even then sometimes the AC unit doesn't get the signal from my remote, so I'm unsure if that's a remote issue or receiver issue.

The completely overkill setup would be to get a different remote control, get my DIY receiver to accept that and convert it to my AC unit's IR code, updating HA while at it. The remote's state would be out of sync still, but it'll keep the units in sync with HA.

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

#166

Post by Krssst »

athrun wrote: post #148
paranoidrobot wrote: post #108

I installed AC in my home in the last year. I specifically went for units that were IR controlled rather than any proprietary smart B.S. For the smarts, I used cheap IR blasters from AliExpress and hooked them up to HomeAssistant. I just mounted cheap Lenovo tablets to the wall to do the room-dashboard thing to allow controlling lights/AC without a phone. These kind of horror stories only serve to reinforce my decisi…

I was thinking of doing the same but IR control only allows for unidirectional communication with the unit. Since there's no feedback mechanism, how do you solve for when the state of the unit(s) gets out of sync with HomeAssistant's?

If the message sent over IR always contains the full state, then it's only a matter of checking that the message was received.

If you are in the room, you'll know soon enough, otherwise I guess it could be possible to rely on the audio feedback (a light beep) that the AC probably emits when it successfully receives a command. (and add a temperature sensor to check that it's working properly)

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

#167

Post by hunter2_ »

ranebo wrote: post #130
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.

Ah, in that case you were free to add any of {"6", "6-EZ", "-EZ"} because the code includes "PIC7KS-EZ" as well; you probably did choose "-EZ" after all!

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

#168

Post by BrandoElFollito »

On a much, much smaller scale - this is why I insisted on having my roller covers driven by a physical button on the wall, instead of some proprietary radio.

Not only the remote would never be where it belongs, but I just had to plug in a shelly to have a full automation connected to my home assistant.

The vendors really wanted me to go for their solution until I met a guy who said sure, this is what he did too.

One of the shellies failed right after two years (warranty time in the EU) and fixing costed 20€ + 1 day. In the meantime my automation was replaced with my finger.

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

#169

Post by chid »

ctippett wrote: post #155

Great write up. Australia has pretty good consumer protection laws.. I feel like the warranty period offered by the manufacturer could/should be superseded by the Consumers Guarantee Act – it seems reasonable to expect an AC unit to operate and work for more than a few years. There is no specific time when the consumer guarantees no longer apply to products. They may apply even after the manufacturer's warranty perio…

I just had look and seems most have a warranty of five years, it doesn't seem there are many outliers to that. Funnily though it seems the AC unit is most likely going to operate many times longer, as the OP points out just the controller isn't working properly, and how long would a consumer be willing to fight this in the summer in Perth.

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

#170

Post by gstar »

nehz wrote: post #163
gstar wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, and you just need one of these and a TTL to RS422 converter off aliexpress to replicate the interface: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005918675239.html The connectors on the small RJ45 daughter board are JST-SH 1.0 The yellow lead puts out 4.2v to replicate a Li-Ion battery (as far as I can tell). You can ignore this. Red is positive Black is negative Green is usb d+ Blue is usb d-

Would you have the RJ45 pinout too? Thanks!

No, sorry - I may be able to buzz one out of the a/c controller later on.

I do, have 2 spare USB-C to JST-SH adapters that suit the round advantage air circuit board if anyone wants one (Perth, Free). Email in profile.

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