I really hope this project succeeds. In some small ways I was involved with Gen 1 and Gen 2 and the teams that built those products really cared. I doubt they would have said turn them off.
The "Open Source" page on the dashboard site[0] links to this firmware but nothing about the server side. Firmware for the thermostat itself is a requirement, but without a dashboard it's still not really Free.
Edit: If I read closely I would have seen:
> The firmware images and backend API server code will be open sourced soon, allowing the community to audit, improve, and self-host their own infrastructure.
This person is a PHP programmer according to their LinkedIn profile. They are just using the existing OMAPLoader tool and does not seem to have embedded device programming experience. I am not hopeful they will be able to write custom firmware for the thermostats.
I can't express how much damage Google has done to its reputation in my mind with how they EOL'd the online functionality of these devices. I have 3 of them. I will never buy a Google device of any kind ever again.
Weather comp + low load comp + PID which means your room temperature works at the precision range supported by your temperature sensor. In my case, within 0.02 Celsius. Saves energy and makes your house more comfortable. Operated via home assistant.
I really would want a more clever solution for our heating: district heating that goes int our "legacy" high-temperature old radiators, and also a secondary system with under floor heating but with a limited temperature. The problem is the "secondary" system is much bigger and heats most of the house, but is more or less unable to change its temperature since its always "capped" at the max since its driven from a high-temperature system, the shunt can not lower the temperature, also its a dumb one. So we have bang-bang thermostats everywhere for the floors which works, but is not at all optimal.
Very cool. Was thinking about working onthis myself after moving in a house 4 months ago with these to all of a sudden ahve to replace them for no good reason.
It is pretty outrageous that a company who purports to care about the environment turned this into a pile of garbage for the average user to save on some cloud hosting or devops. Or even worse, to sell the next generation.
The original Nest thermostat and app has been abandonware since 2017, as far as I can tell. We got one in 2014, and I can only remember one change. A couple years into my use of it, the iPhone X came out, with the notch and taller screen. The Nest app eventually got updated to fill the whole screen, and that's it.
"We are committed to transparency and the right-to-repair movement. The firmware images and backend API server code will be open sourced soon, allowing the community to audit, improve, and self-host their own infrastructure."
So, trade the "evil" Google for the totally not evil trust-me-bro "nolongervil Corp"?
Don't get me wrong, I love to see things like this, but just go all the way and allow folks to set their own URLs (maybe to servers they own in their own home).
Right now it's just a blob that you flash to your device to make it talk to a proprietary service. It is not yet "giving me complete control over my device data and settings." I can't change where it comnects to etc.
In fact - I don't even see a privacy policy on nolongerevil.com!
Hey, I can login at nolongerevil.com using my Microsoft-owned github login! And there's yet another company involved: clerk.com - yay?
"We are committed to transparency and the right-to-repair movement. The firmware images and backend API server code will be open sourced soon, allowing the community to audit, improve, and self-host their own infrastructure."
I look forward to it.
PS: Sorry for being so negative... perhaps the release should have been delayed until all of this is opened up.
What's the go-to recommendation for smart thermostats with local control (no cloud) + Home Assistant these days? Claude suggests Ecobee + Homekit. Z-Wave seems to be another popular option. What are people using?
I'm a little confused, because this looks like you're just swapping one proprietary service (Google) for another (NoLongerEvil).
Despite their name, we have no idea if NoLongerEvil is evil or not. Why should I trust them? I don't know them at all. Why will they be immune to the regular economic pressures surrounding any connected online service? What will stop them from adding tracking or other anti-features? Even if they are a bunch of saints, what will stop them from selling the service to a company that will not respect my privacy?
Google is at least the devil we know, here.
I was expecting a fully open source firmware, with a fully open source backend service that people can host themselves if they so choose.
(I guess they didn't write their own firmware; they hacked Google's firmware so it redirects traffic from Google's servers to their own. So I guess in this model, I'd want to see an open source, self-hostable backend service, and a "build" process for the hacked firmware to set the API URL to the self-hosted backend.)
Edit: looks like they plan to open source the backend and enable self-hosting "soon". Hopefully that comes to pass!
38 comments
[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 48.5 ms ] threadEdit: If I read closely I would have seen:
> The firmware images and backend API server code will be open sourced soon, allowing the community to audit, improve, and self-host their own infrastructure.
[0] https://nolongerevil.com/
LFP
Weather comp + low load comp + PID which means your room temperature works at the precision range supported by your temperature sensor. In my case, within 0.02 Celsius. Saves energy and makes your house more comfortable. Operated via home assistant.
See real time data in Grafana
https://gasboiler.grafana.net/public-dashboards/8d44381aafa9...
Or Emoncms
https://emoncms.org/app/view?name=MyBoilerIdealLogicH24Opent...
Which OpenTherm device would you recommend?
I really would want a more clever solution for our heating: district heating that goes int our "legacy" high-temperature old radiators, and also a secondary system with under floor heating but with a limited temperature. The problem is the "secondary" system is much bigger and heats most of the house, but is more or less unable to change its temperature since its always "capped" at the max since its driven from a high-temperature system, the shunt can not lower the temperature, also its a dumb one. So we have bang-bang thermostats everywhere for the floors which works, but is not at all optimal.
I am hopeful that Cody's exploit lets us write whole new firmware without the extra step of needing the new PCBs, but they are my next best option
I look forward to it!
Don't get me wrong, I love to see things like this, but just go all the way and allow folks to set their own URLs (maybe to servers they own in their own home).
[0] https://bounties.fulu.org/bounties/nest-learning-thermostat-...
[1] https://nolongerevil.com/about#:~:text=What,in.
In fact - I don't even see a privacy policy on nolongerevil.com!
Hey, I can login at nolongerevil.com using my Microsoft-owned github login! And there's yet another company involved: clerk.com - yay?
"We are committed to transparency and the right-to-repair movement. The firmware images and backend API server code will be open sourced soon, allowing the community to audit, improve, and self-host their own infrastructure."
I look forward to it.
PS: Sorry for being so negative... perhaps the release should have been delayed until all of this is opened up.
And, I would really love to wire my nest into home assistant, but getting past the Google house of horrors is even scarier.
Are there any good thermostats that can be used with home assistant? I would really like to start understanding my energy usage in a safe way.
Despite their name, we have no idea if NoLongerEvil is evil or not. Why should I trust them? I don't know them at all. Why will they be immune to the regular economic pressures surrounding any connected online service? What will stop them from adding tracking or other anti-features? Even if they are a bunch of saints, what will stop them from selling the service to a company that will not respect my privacy?
Google is at least the devil we know, here.
I was expecting a fully open source firmware, with a fully open source backend service that people can host themselves if they so choose.
(I guess they didn't write their own firmware; they hacked Google's firmware so it redirects traffic from Google's servers to their own. So I guess in this model, I'd want to see an open source, self-hostable backend service, and a "build" process for the hacked firmware to set the API URL to the self-hosted backend.)
Edit: looks like they plan to open source the backend and enable self-hosting "soon". Hopefully that comes to pass!