461–470 of 496 posts
> The original ezone tablet had been running Android 6.0, this Samsung was still on 5.0 but I didnt think that would cause any issues so I got started on doing what was clearly missing: The required apps. All ezone apps are available both on the Advantage Air website and the apkpure site. I only learned of the apkpure site from a post claiming he had been directed to it by a AA tech support person. Redirecting your c…
The apps are signed, so it's possible to compare signatures against the originals. I haven't seen any reports of signatures not matching from Apkpure, though certainly possible. But more importantly, what's the actual threat vector here? This isn't his personal phone. Just don't connect the tablet to your Wi-Fi. What's it going to do, sneakily increase your temperature by 1 degree?
As I creep closer to retirement, I look forward to spending some of that time contributing to the fight against abusive bullshit like this.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’ve heard of this in the past. Usually the shop will sell to you without a license if you’re affiliated with an HVAC company, because you might be some unlicensed peon picking up parts for the installer or technician down the road. But they often have no way to verify whether you’re a HVAC person for things that don’t require a license vs some clued in homeowner, so you can give them a made up LLC name and say you w…
> Purchasing refrigerant requires an EPA number. Why can I buy as many cans of it that I want for my car then? Is the stuff used in house systems that different?
I think refrigerator and AC repair companies are required to capture and recycle the refrigerant - they don’t seem to have the equipment to capture and measure refrigerant like auto mechanics.
R22 (phased out refrigerant for home AC) has chlorine in it, while R134a doesn’t have chlorine, making it easier on the ozone layer. R134a is being replaced with R1234yf.
The best refrigerant is CO2, but this has the greatest tendency to leak.
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.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting, not sure what's going on there then.. how recently was your system installed? Maybe they have updated the pinout on newer models? I'll go back and check though.
You're right! The serial bus isn't encrypted! I got inspired, and have plugged in my scope, and then an RS422 to serial adapter, and I'm getting XML encoded (weird) CAN messages, which I presume are the same as what's on the CAN bus exposed on some of the control box's ports. I'll get out the can analyser tomorrow and check. Now the trick will be to reverse engineer this protocol. Here's a tiny sample: setCAN 0201000…
<U>Ping</U=db>
...
private static final byte[] f2305f = "getCAN ".getBytes(Charset.defaultCharset());
private static final byte[] g = MyApp.a().getString(R.string.parse_block_tag_ping).getBytes(Charset.defaultCharset());
private static final byte[] h = MyApp.a().getString(R.string.parse_block_tag_startu).getBytes(Charset.defaultCharset());
private static final byte[] i = "Unknown".getBytes(Charset.defaultCharset());
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Advantage Air doesn't produce ACs. They produce smart home solutions, including AC controllers. They're not winging it on an external control device, they're cheaping out on their main product. Also, their claim is that they're not outsourcing. If you check their website, it claims everything is designed and manufactured in Australia. Nevertheless, I'd have given them the benefit of the doubt if it were not for: 1. T…
Locking in the model numbers for me is particularly icky. They are leveraging the Android and therefore Linux and open source communities efforts to make this custom display which would have cost them an arm and a leg to have custom built with half the features - then turning around and sticking two fingers up at those communities.
Straight out of Microsoft's playbook.
People underestimate the economic side. This person probably earns 6 figures (if not, he should). Fixing this himself probably costed more than $1697 in his time. Now imagine a service doing this, with a manager and all the overhead.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.