Haier, the air conditioner maker, takes down open source third-party Home Assistant integration

Dehydrated@lemmy.world to Open Source@lemmy.ml – 647 points –

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/10882099

Thankfully I don't use any of their products, but this really pisses me off. They claim that this open source project "causes significant economic harm to their company"

This is ridiculous. It is truly ridiculous. How can something that enables the user to efficiently control their AC cause "significant economic harm"???

Consider forking the repository or mirroring it to another platform like GitLab, Codeberg or your self-hosted Git server, so the project can continue to exist and someone can maybe fork it and maintain it.

The effected repos are: https://github.com/Andre0512/hOn and https://github.com/Andre0512/pyhOn

If you don't know about Home Assistant, check it out. It's an amazing piece of open-source software, that you can run at home on your own server and use it to control your smart home devices. That way, you don't need to connect them to the manufacturer's (probably insecure) cloud. It gives you sovereignty over your smart home instead of some proprietary vendor-locked garbage. Check out their website and the Lemmy community: !homeassistant@lemmy.world

I also highly recommend Louis Rossmann's video about this: https://youtu.be/RcSnd3cyti0

He makes awesome videos in general, consider subscribing.

As Rossmann said, don't ever buy anything from such a shitty company that doesn't respect their customers. This move by Haier is nothing other than a slap in the face for everyone, who just wants to comfortably control the product they paid for. This company is actively hostile towards their paying customers. Fuck these bastards!

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Seems like I dodged a bullet by recently deciding for another company. Definitely on my permanent do-not-buy list now, thanks for letting us know that you do not want any customers, Haier 😑

Do you use any smart home solution with your AC? Maybe even Home Assistant? Just curious

Not the person you asked, but i have a mitsubishi electric heatpump, which i have hooked up to homeassistant via an esphome library. It has a header on the controller board that you can connect to.

Normally the header is for their $200 controller and app, i spent $10 on the parts.

https://github.com/geoffdavis/esphome-mitsubishiheatpump

I think i better start mirroring the repo...

That's amazing. I love such open source projects! I love the Lemmy, Home Assistant and Open Source community.

I have a diy thermostat project (really a multi-zone hvac setup) that I might pick back up given what's going on.

It kinda fell by the way side after my 3D printer started having issues.

I installed this same system a few months ago. It's been fantastic - responsive and intuitive. The 5V pin in the CN105 connector means no external power or wiring is required. We haven't touched the remote since it was installed.

Yeah, its great. My only complaint is that you cant set the vane positions. And the temp sensors are a bit meaningless due to the height on the wall.

I intend to investigate the vane positioning in the future.

I have a Lennox multistage system with a heat pump, and furnace for when it gets too cold. The best way to run those (according to the installer) is at a low level all the time. So it doesn't benefit much from things like location tracking to turn the system up or down while we're out. Especially since I work from home.

What it does do is make graphs for tracking how it runs the heat pump and furnace each day.

That's cool. Similar to how I use my heating Home Assistant integration.

I use a BroadLink infrared blaster, as you can control all sorts of devices with Home Assistant that use infrared remotes: https://www.amazon.com.au/Broadlink-RM4-pro-Automation-Assistant/dp/B086VBXSDH?th=1

This is cool, I actually such something similar for my old school (~10 year old) AC unit because Infrared is the only way to control it.

The problem with a product like that is that there's nothing stopping them from locking down their API to only work with their app.

Compared to what what and at what relative cost? Given the actions of Haier buying into a product eco system seems like a far more expensive and risky proposition!

The IR blasters can usually be flashed with open firmware like tasmota or esphome. I started with IR as well. The downside for me was that IR was one way. You can tell the unit to turn on, but you cant know if it actually did turn on.

For a cheaper IR option: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004486051086.html

If anyone is in Aus and wants some IR blasters with tasmota, happy to ship my spares :D