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

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

#281

Post by cr3ative » Thu, Aug 29, 2024, 9:46 AM UTC

hellweaver666 wrote: post #232

I had a similar situation with my shutter blinds. The company wanted €500 to install a "smart hub" to enable voice control instead of their little remote. To hell with that, I ordered a couple of servos and an esp8266 and 3d printed some little fingers that would press the buttons on the remote and added the whole thing to HomeAssistant via ESPHome. Cost me less than €30.

It's really pleasing to me how the "analogue loophole" continues to work. Previously, recording music through the Line Out, or what have you. Now, using a robot to press the supplied remote. It's delightful.

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

#282

Post by cr3ative » Thu, Aug 29, 2024, 9:47 AM UTC

robk wrote: post #196

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.

The seller is revk (AJK) who came up with the Faikin - it's his github :)

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

#283

Post by prmoustache » Thu, Aug 29, 2024, 9:49 AM UTC

gwd wrote: post #245

aledalgrande wrote: post #2

That "not on AA hardware" error from an app running on a plain Android tablet should be criminal.

In defense of this, remember that any random person can download and install this app on any android device. It does make sense to have a clear failure mode in this case. Anyone willing to pull out a soldering iron to attach a new tablet is perfectly capable of working around this.

What is the risk here?

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

#284

Post by nikau » Thu, Aug 29, 2024, 9:54 AM UTC

yuye wrote: post #184

Liquix wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so if the company has established they're willing to go that far to lock customers into their ecosystem and milk for $$$... it's not inconceivable that they also engineered (or chose not to fix) the cheap flash + chatty logging hardware failure for the same purpose.

Seems those tablets die not long after the warranty expires. I'm willing to bet money on that it's planned obsolescence, especially considering their "technology keeps moving forward" bullshit.

I'd guess they just didn't think of flash wear, like Tesla did in the early model s , and they got lucky they failed outside the warranty period.

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

#285

Post by gwd » Thu, Aug 29, 2024, 9:58 AM UTC

prmoustache wrote: post #283

gwd wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In defense of this, remember that any random person can download and install this app on any android device. It does make sense to have a clear failure mode in this case. Anyone willing to pull out a soldering iron to attach a new tablet is perfectly capable of working around this.

What is the risk here?

Consider the following scenario:

1. Someone owns one of these systems which is functioning perfectly well.

2. They stumble across a link allowing them to download the controller app, and so they install it on their normal tablet, expecting to be able to control the system from their tablet

3a. It doesn't work, so they contact technical support. Technical support wastes a bunch of time before figuring out why the app isn't working, only eventually to realize what's going on.

3b. They can't get the app to work, and so slag the system on social media.

Both have costs both to the people who end up downloading it, and to the company -- costs which could be avoided by having a simple error message.

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

#286

Post by kmacdough » Thu, Aug 29, 2024, 10:03 AM UTC

Right. To. Repair.

Companies won't stop fighting it. We mustn't stop fighting for it.

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

#287

Post by selcuka » Thu, Aug 29, 2024, 10:07 AM UTC

saylisteins wrote: post #243

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!

Tiny QOL change without too much work, you could install something like teamviewer on the tablet, and now you're able to control your AC remotely from your PC, your phone, or anywhere!

The MyAir (or e-Zone) app can already be accessed remotely. You install the app on your phone and pair it with your system by connecting to the same LAN. After the initial pairing it can be used from everywhere.

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

#288

Post by cuu508 » Thu, Aug 29, 2024, 10:14 AM UTC

csunbird wrote: post #261

cuu508 wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disassembled one of our gate opener's remotes, and hooked the button contacts to Raspberry Pi Zero's GPIO pins. Pi runs a tiny go webserver and Cloudflare tunnel. I hit an obscure HTTPS URL (via button on a phone's homescreen), gate opens.

I remember someone posting something about their garage opening whenever they open safari, as Safari replays GET requests from open tabs when it is un-suspended, although can't find the post right now. Basically, they had your setup exactly, but they leave the tab open in Safari and whenever they open Safari to browse the internet, the garage door opens.

I didn't dare to hook up Pi with garage opener as well. Our gate auto-closes after a configurable delay, but garage does not. If I trigger the garage opener by accident while I'm not at home, the garage stays open for anybody to come in and take stuff. So I'd need some sort of "is garage currently open" sensor, but I want to keep things simple.

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

#289

Post by Etheryte » Thu, Aug 29, 2024, 10:18 AM UTC

bitcharmer wrote: post #240

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 love it too but this only becomes worthwhile if you manage to promote this post in social media somewhere. If you don't already have a strong social media presence or don't personally know anyone who does you can forget about it. And here on HN you really have to get lucky, post at the right time and hope the flagging gangs don't get you.

This is only the case if you blog for social media clicks and likes. Most people who write blogs don't do it for that reason.

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

#290

Post by f1shy » Thu, Aug 29, 2024, 10:22 AM UTC

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.