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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

#91

Post by johnobrien1010 »

My fridge stopped working last year. We called a repair technician, who swapped out the whole PCB and charged us a few hundred dollars. In retrospect, I think it was one bad relay on the board...

Next time it dies I plan to try to find the defective relay, desolder and resolder it myself. Imagine how much better it would be if there was a read out with an error code on a fridge with easily removable relays you could unplug and replace. I know it is not a priority to make these kinds of things repairable, but I wish it was.

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

#93

Post by userbinator »

SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #44
Nursie wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The great thing about Australia is that that is probably illegal here. We've got some pretty fucked up protectionist rules about what you can and can't do in/to your own home. It's nuts. Now, nobody is actually watching most of the time, so you're usually fine, but it's as stupid as being illegal to replace a tap or existing light fitting. Every so often state governments review the rules and get swamped by trade ass…

Reminds me how, in USA, it’s the only civilized nation I’ve been to where you must have a prescription to purchase contacts and glasses. Everywhere else I’ve been will just sell you whatever magnification you need at the pharmacy. Obviously there is some acceptable line here, but I think the States handles this decently well enough. In Austin where I live you can get what is called a “homeowners permit” in a lot of c…

In the US, it's probably more of a "don't ask, don't tell" situation most of the time. Only the idiots get caught when they screw up.

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

#94

Post by Xcelerate »

hunter2_ wrote: post #78
SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me how, in USA, it’s the only civilized nation I’ve been to where you must have a prescription to purchase contacts and glasses. Everywhere else I’ve been will just sell you whatever magnification you need at the pharmacy. Obviously there is some acceptable line here, but I think the States handles this decently well enough. In Austin where I live you can get what is called a “homeowners permit” in a lot of c…

There's an easy hack for the contact lens (and maybe glasses?) situation. There is a consumer protection law meant to ensure eye doctors can't stop you from using any retailer you want (otherwise they'd essentially make themselves your retailer), and it works like this: You place an order with the retailer (online retailers typically allow you to simply type in your prescription values when adding lenses to your onli…

Oh wow... I'm totally going to try this next time just to see if it works

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

#95

Post by mlhpdx »

johnobrien1010 wrote: post #91

My fridge stopped working last year. We called a repair technician, who swapped out the whole PCB and charged us a few hundred dollars. In retrospect, I think it was one bad relay on the board... Next time it dies I plan to try to find the defective relay, desolder and resolder it myself. Imagine how much better it would be if there was a read out with an error code on a fridge with easily removable relays you could…

I wasn’t lucky enough to have a “repairable” refrigerator according to the repair man. An 8 cent capacitor had dried out and failed, which I discovered with a $150 tool.

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

#96

Post by weikju »

maxerickson wrote: post #83
boardwaalk wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are thermostats, among other things, that use standard protocols and still work in a “dumb” way if not connected. You just need to do some homework.

The thing in the article is a thermostat-zone controller system, where the tablet is part of the multi-zone controller, and there aren't really separate thermostats. In the US, it's common that the input to each zone controller is just a open/close contact, so in the worst case you can call for heat by shorting the right wires together. I have a smart thermostat that I use the provided app to control, but one of the…

> (so if they totally ruin the app or turn off the server or whatever, there's a way out)

It's not impossible that when this happens, they'd also first push out an update to disable the http server.

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

#97

Post by [deleted] »

randmeerkat wrote: post #68
ranebo wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have no idea how true this is :). I had to upgrade everything, the old site didn't even have SSL. But this annoyed me so much I wanted others to know how to fix it.

> You have no idea how true this is :). I had to upgrade everything, the old site didn't even have SSL. But this annoyed me so much I wanted others to know how to fix it. People like you are the ones that make the internet worth logging on for.

[deleted]

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

#98

Post by cyberax »

Ugh. 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.

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

#99

Post by bb88 »

johnobrien1010 wrote: post #91

My fridge stopped working last year. We called a repair technician, who swapped out the whole PCB and charged us a few hundred dollars. In retrospect, I think it was one bad relay on the board... Next time it dies I plan to try to find the defective relay, desolder and resolder it myself. Imagine how much better it would be if there was a read out with an error code on a fridge with easily removable relays you could…

The contacts in a socket can oxidize and go bad. Or the relay can get jostled out of the socket during a move.

It would be cheaper to ship a replacement PCB with the fridge.

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

#100

Post by datahack »

cyberax wrote: post #98

Ugh. 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.
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