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xkcd #3109: Dehumidifier
(imgs.xkcd.com)
Title text:
It's important for devices to have internet connectivity so the manufacturer can patch remote exploits.
Transcript:
[A store salesman, Hairy, is showing Cueball a dehumidifier, with a "SALE" label on it. Several other unidentified devices, possibly other dehumidifier models, are shown in the store as well.]
Salesman: This dehumidifier model features built-in WiFi for remote updates.
Cueball: Great! That will be really useful if they discover a new kind of water.
Source: https://xkcd.com/3109/
Yeah, or the manufacturer bricks the device bcz they want to sell you a new one.
That's why projects like this are great: https://github.com/Hypfer/esp8266-midea-dehumidifier
My Midea Cube dehumidifier can never be bricked and will never send data outside of my home. It talks to Home Assistant via MQTT and nothing else.
A dehumidifier that doesn't have any wifi can't be bricked either.
Yeah but I want to control it with the average humidity from sensors across my house
It's almost like you can just set the dehumidifier to a certain humidity level and fan speed and then never touch the settings again. That's what I did with my humidifier. It's as dumb as a box of rocks, but it quits working during the summer when the humidity goes up and then turns back on the rest of the year with zero interaction besides adding more water
You can, but it only measures the humidity at the (de)humidifier. I want it to account for the state of the whole house.
1st world problems
Ones that have first world solutions
Wahhh
Lmao
???
Now you're just not making sense
I mean, yeah. I wouldn't have found that project and gone to the effort of using it if a simple dehu was all I needed. I wanted something I could control with my local home assistant install, and you can't just hard power cycle a dehumidifier, it kills them.
Ok
What is "hard power cycle" a dehumidifier? Have you never used a normal dehumidifier before or something?
Literally nobody is doing this shit.
"Nobody" like in "SONOS literally bricking its old devices and telling you to buy a new one"? https://www.whathifi.com/news/sonos-explains-why-recycle-mode-bricks-old-speakers
They didn’t brick anything. They gave a button for you to get a discount if you did it yourself
But they can close their server and render the device inoperable, just like what happened to a water sensor I had.
That's why it's important to make sure the device can also run purely locally (e.g. via HomeAssistant).
(Not meant as a rebuke, just good advice for the future)
Exactly this. The device either needs to be open enough that it can easily integrate to HA without internet access.
Or dumb enough that I can mod it with an ESP.
Anything that has to go through the manufacturer's servers goes in the bin, the risks of data theft/rent seeking are too damned high.
Literally false and you’re retarded.
Hey bud, no need to attack someone's intelligence. You can pick apart their argument with sources like a big kid but nobody logged in to see you be a butthead online today.
Bullshit asymmetry principle, been there done that. Name-calling serves a small but real purpose in the right contexts.
Doofus.
Hey bud, no need to attack someone's intelligence. You can pick apart their argument with sources like a big kid but nobody logged in to see you be a butthead online today.
Don't worry! My name-calling served a small but real purpose in this context
:3