"I'm all for smart things ..." Root cause found. Cannot fix, pebkac.
Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch
341–350 of 496 posts
Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch
#342Ugh. The whole "smart aircon" industry needs a good-sized asteroid wiping them out of the existence. There is a very real need for modern variable-speed units, and vendors just keep fucking it up by using proprietary protocols locked into their ecosystem. TRANE in the US is similar. And this is really annoying because variable-speed pumps solve all the problems with short cycling and oversized systems.
You think this is bad? Try swimming pool equipment.
I just spent an afternoon recreating the custom threads on a Hayward chlorinator for my dad so I could 3D print a temporary replacement part. These don’t even use standard pipe fitting thread. -_-
Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch
#343> Forcing customers to replace an entire system just because the cheapest component failed might be really profitable Just had to deal with this recently. My gas oven control panel died and one would think to replace the control panel ($300 ish part), but I had my doubts. Pulled everything apart and hooked up a meter to what should be the power coming from the cord, no continuity. Took apart everything on the top two…
> Probably would have been at least $200 from an appliance repair company just for the labor How many hours did you spend taking it apart diagnosing the problem, though? I'm guessing at least 2? $100/hr for that seems pretty reasonable to me. (Granted, I agree with you in that I'd prefer to figure it out and repair it myself, even if it would take me 5x as long as someone trained to do it.)
Had I been able to work on it for an entire day, it probably would have been around 3-4 hours, but took longer because I had about 30-45 mins a night and then had to clean up so the kids didn't get into the mess.
The oven was down for about a week as a result, but you can make do with an air fryer and a toaster oven for quite a bit.
For an experienced tech I assumed at least $50 for the house call and then a few hours for the disassembly and reassembly.
Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch
#344Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
This is pretty simple to solve for. Eg. Have the app provide an ID the customer can quote to the CS rep; Have the app also log this ID, along with the system it's being run on, to the cloud/an interface that pops up an "unsupported system" message to the CS agent on entering the ID.
How does this solve 3b?
Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch
#345Great write up, and good on you for pushing through to make this work.
It's definitely predatory practice by the vendor. I wonder how much it would cost to pay someone with your skillset to do this hack -- probably comparable to what they wanted you to pay, if not more?
This almost merits an angry on-site visit, sheesh.
Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch
#346Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm offering you a different viewpoint: They made the analysis, how long the flash will live and saw, that it will make it out of the warranty period. Thus they did not opt for more durable and expensive flash and/or software change. I've seen this myself before. One process step before release of the control module was a write cycle analysis to make sure the unit will live for at least 10 years (i think) before the…
You're both missing one of the more likely explanation.. that nobody gave much thought about how long the device would last. "It's solid state electronics, it'll probably outlast the warranty anyway".. I can imagine an aircon company puts a lot of effort into analyzing the air-conditioning unit itself to make sure it lasts at least as long as the warranty, with good margin. But I can totally see them winging it on an…
>I don't think actual malicious planned obsolescence is as prevalent as many believe.
Working in the electronics industry, I have never once heard anyone talk about this. Engineers love engineering, and if it was real their would be a whole field devoted to it. But there isn't.
Also, since this board is stacked with software guys...
Planned obsolescence is way easier to implement in software. How many of you have been asked to put a time bomb in a warrantied product?
Planned obsolescence is a term that lay people use to describe unfortunate breaking of things that are sufficiently complex to be considered "a magical black box". In reality it is just another apparition of Murphy's law.
Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch
#347Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Maybe they moved? In my experience, IKEA furniture that isn't solid wood (more and more of it is heading that direction to their credit) tends to not make it more than 1 move. I just got done (mostly) reassembling a wardrobe. It's a bit more wobbly around the edges. I'm not sure if it's because I didn't put the shelves back in the exact spots (wasn't thinking and didn't label them during disassembly) or if it's somet…
This "trend" of furniture being made of composite materials makes no sense to me. They're obviously so much weaker. I've had nightstands that sway like a tree in the summer breeze. Furniture today though doesn't feel much cheaper. Even the "luxury" brands these days, who charge big bucks, sneak in composite.
Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch
#348I 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…
This is the way. I'm buying stupid tech exclusively, and make it smart in my own terms.
Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch
#349Earlier 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)
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...
Jesus Christ are they amateurs? These are steel boxes on wheels and we're dealing with the same issues as shitty 200 dollars android tablets from 10 years ago.
Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch
#350Ugh. The whole "smart aircon" industry needs a good-sized asteroid wiping them out of the existence. There is a very real need for modern variable-speed units, and vendors just keep fucking it up by using proprietary protocols locked into their ecosystem. TRANE in the US is similar. And this is really annoying because variable-speed pumps solve all the problems with short cycling and oversized systems.
No need for an asteroid. Just a few salty lawyers.