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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

#191

Post by lintfordpickle »

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.

I don't think the problem is necessarily space, but rather write-limits being used by superfluous logging

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

#192

Post by radicalbyte »

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.

Reading the original post, wouldn't be a super cool idea to make a little ESP or RPI based system which acted as a controller for the airco and a network bridge? Then literally anything could interface with it. You wouldn't even need to wire it up. No need to install some shitty app from a company who are quite clearly c*ts.

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

#193

Post by radicalbyte »

iknowstuff wrote: post #175
marcus_holmes wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Barely 11PM in California, prime reading time

It's that golden hour where AU/NZ are up, Californian nerds are up and chilling and EU/UK are getting their first (or second) dose of caffeine. Just missing our East-Coast buddies :-)

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

#194

Post by marcus_holmes »

arrowsmith wrote: post #179
marcus_holmes wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

larrikin : 1. (Australia, New Zealand, slang, dated) A brash and impertinent, possibly violent, troublemaker, especially a youth; a hooligan. 2. (Australia, slang) A high-spirited person who playfully rebels against authority and conventional norms. Today I learned a new word.

check out "Wowser" - the Larrikin's mortal enemy.

The Wowsers are winning :(

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

#195

Post by lawgimenez »

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.

They would have to put the condition inside shared library .so and use Android JNI. Make it complicated and hide the string tablet model throughout the code, just enough time to frustrate whoever is decompiling the so file.

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

#196

Post by robk »

byb wrote: post #121

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 deci…

At least in the UK some enterprising soul has faikins on Amazon selling quite well. I got a couple just to stash if ever needed but for now daikins app is okay and works w home assistant. For now.

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

#197

Post by jamesholden »

FLT8 wrote: post #151
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.

I've got one of these systems too. Mine hasn't died yet, touch wood, but I was concerned enough about the possibility that I went as far as documenting the comms protocol and starting to design a pi hat to talk to the main control board. I should really write that up at some point too.

Do it! I don't live in Australia or have on of these systems, but I was intrigued by how the OP had gone around the company to save themselves 1500! I'm curious to see how people are resolving things like this, so that if I have issues myself sometime, I have ideas on where to start or what is necessary :)

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

#198

Post by jamesholden »

dclowd9901 wrote: post #149
redact207 wrote: post #6

I love that this man resurrected his blog after 10 years just to write this. Anger and spite are strong motivators.

I made my daughter’s bed from scratch out of anger and spite toward IKEA.

I have some freak brain (and IKEA experience) which usually let's me do IKEA pretty well. What was it that happened in your case? I'm curious what brought you to that point.

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

#199

Post by ranebo »

Nursie wrote: post #185
ranebo wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is all fantastic info. I have included the details and a link to these comments at the bottom of the post. Great work!

Hey - As the owner of a similar system I have a question for you - do you use their phone app to control your system from your phone in/out of the house, and did it still work after this?

I use the home assistant plugin with it personally, but I have tried the apps and they still work fine both locally and remote.

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

#200

Post by Nursie »

arrowsmith wrote: post #179
marcus_holmes wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

larrikin : 1. (Australia, New Zealand, slang, dated) A brash and impertinent, possibly violent, troublemaker, especially a youth; a hooligan. 2. (Australia, slang) A high-spirited person who playfully rebels against authority and conventional norms. Today I learned a new word.

See also "Wowser", the opposite side of the coin. At some point it seems the wowsers gained the upper hand.

What's left of larrikinism unfortunately seems to be cooked in the head these days. Australian politics is sorely in need of some decent larrikins, but they seem to be AWOL.

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