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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

#401

Post by cameldrv »

gstar wrote: post #88
thrtythreeforty wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What the hell, why does a control system need an AES-secured control channel at all? The only possible intention is to make interop more difficult. If they wanted security then they wouldn't use a hard coded AES key.

It 100% is designed so that you have to use their hardware.

The biggest maker of garage door openers in the U.S. has done the same thing. For a button that goes on the wall to open the door, now it sends an encrypted code instead of just shorting two wires so that you have to use their button instead of a regular doorbell button like people have been doing for decades.

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

#402

Post by jeremyjh »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #190
girvo wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep this is nearly guaranteed. Kills so many IoT things, logging the world and eMMC write limits being garbage.

I feel this may be natural selection at play. With bottom-of-the-barrel (and/or "value add") IoT garbage, hardware suppliers are a commodity, and under competitive pressure, the winners will be ones that can make cheapest hardware that just about outlasts a typical warranty period of their customers' products. Shorter-lived parts will not bring repeat business; longer-lived parts will get value-optimized further. Fai…

I think its worse than that because they don't actually have to log so much. This is choice a developer made, but it would cost nothing (except salary for competent staff) to make the correct choice.

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

#403

Post by jeremyjh »

amiga-workbench wrote: post #237
lintfordpickle wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

That's where the wear levelling comes in, still expose 8GB of space to the host device, but internally have I dunno, twice that in cell capacity that you can move bits to as other cells wear out. Its a shame mobile devices don't have a SMART equivalent, would be nice to have some warning as something approaches the end of its life.

Why do you want to spend money on hardware to solve a software problem? The software doesn't have to write the logs to the SD card.

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

#404

Post by bob1029 »

I had a look at the furnace blower fan motor in my 2023 construction home.

It has some very cheap looking digital controller system with a ridiculous amount of complexity around it. There are 2 separate computers involved somehow. Just for spinning the blower. I was operating under the impression that an induction motor could be powered directly from the AC mains.

The complexity is certainly not adding to any sort of comfort, etc. The overall system is unbelievably noisy. This is all so clearly engineered to require as much maintenance as possible on purpose.

It would take me months of figuring to determine how to take 2 wires and turn them into 40. The easy part is throwing it into the plenum in such a way that the wires hang within millimeters of the rotating assembly.

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

#406

Post by bityard »

unkulunkulu wrote: post #183
dclowd9901 wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

IKEA? Thats a surprise, what happened?

Some IKEA furniture is great, some of it is terrible. 10-15 years ago, it was where you'd go when you needed a great-looking nightstand or coffee table for a fair price and didn't overly care how long it would last. These days, you can expect to pay a premium for the "IKEA aesthetic" and shopping experience.

Personally, the main thing I can't stand is that you have only limited ability to "choose your own adventure" and just go straight to the thing you're there to buy. I don't want to spend 25 minutes wandering through their corporate-curated displays to get to the kitchen faucets.

I think they still have a good price on AA NiMH batteries, though.

Edit: I am speaking to the US stores, I have no idea what IKEA is like closer to their homeland.

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

#407

Post by spikej »

cameldrv wrote: post #401
gstar wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It 100% is designed so that you have to use their hardware.

The biggest maker of garage door openers in the U.S. has done the same thing. For a button that goes on the wall to open the door, now it sends an encrypted code instead of just shorting two wires so that you have to use their button instead of a regular doorbell button like people have been doing for decades.

Which company, and which product did you see this with?

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

#408

Post by bityard »

connicpu wrote: post #396
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 also just got AC last year, and while it doesn't have as many fancy features I'm glad I got one that works with standard 24V HVAC wiring. I built my own thermostat out of an ESP8266, I²C temperature sensor from adafruit, and three TRIAC circuits to control the fan, heat, and ac wires. Connected to MQTT and I can send control commands to it from my Home Assistant instance!

If you have the code for this publicly (or would consider making it so) I would be quite interested in it.

There are a fair number of DIY thermostat projects online, but all that I have found were one-offs by their creators, or were for specific kinds of systems like boilers.

I've been batting around the idea of starting a general-purpose IoT thermostat that only uses cheap, widely-available components that anyone can easily duplicate with a BOM and 3D printer.

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

#409

Post by justmarc »

Congratulations! this is a great fix.

I've had countless of times where simple/cheap part replacements have negated the need of a very expensive fix, or a complete replacement of a device, it's very satisfying.

I can vividly remember one case, almost two decades ago where a 10 cent o-ring (hardware shop price) has saved an old but otherwise fully functional Ice cube maker and has stopped me from having to buy a new one, or invest relatively too much in a workshop retrofitting it with a replacement to an old, no longer produced valve, at least according to said workshop. To top it off, it has been working perfectly ever since.

I wish there were more organized resources, as well as help forums for DIY repairs/retrofits for household appliances and other common devices. Way too much stuff gets thrown away because of simple part failures and that's just no good.

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

#410

Post by reaperducer »

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

I would have used wood and nails. You must have terrifically strong emotions!

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