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Comment by jankotek | Hacker News Reader

Not so funny with modern IoT, maybe firmware upgrade is needed or restart wireless router :)

People used to laugh that "reboot your phone/car" was humorous, now "reboot your lightbulb" is a real action that has to be taken at times.

One quote from the list of BOFH excuses (of the early 2000s, https://gist.github.com/chuckwagoncomputing/ff980f81482b5894...) was:

> Firmware update in the coffee machine

It isn't funny any more...

> https://support.smarter.am/hc/en-us/articles/115005135369-My...

> In case your Smarter Coffee machine has become stuck while updating, please follow the steps below to manually perform the firmware update...

- Turn product off at the wall.

- Press and hold the 2 left buttons on the control panel.

- Turn the power on at the wall and keep holding the two buttons for 10 seconds.

- The "Update" screen should then appear. (Check this has appeared on the screen, good news if it has!)

- Connect to the "Update" network and wait for it to connect. (Check that the signal bars at the top of the iPhone screen are there, this can take up to 55 seconds)

- Open the Smarter app

- Select "update" firmware either via the 'pop-up' or from the 'About' page

- Select 'next', it will take you to the page where it tells you to connect to update network.

- Close and open the app ONCE.

- Press next

- It should update...

- Once it reaches 100%, the coffee machine screen will say "Loading" while it reboots.

alright, that's it-- can we just burn it all down to the ground and start over?

Regarding that burning - my home wood pellet furnace needed software updates after installation to start fully working. Good luck that I had mobile internet available.

> needed software updates after installation to start fully working

Not too bad, at least it's a one-time job, better than some IoT thermostats that crash randomly in winter midnights and freeze everyone to death (figuratively)...

> https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/14/fashion/nest-thermostat-g...

> Nest Thermostat Glitch Leaves Users in the Cold

> The Nest Learning Thermostat is dead to me, literally. Last week, my once-beloved “smart” thermostat suffered from a mysterious software bug that drained its battery and sent our home into a chill in the middle of the night.

Sometimes you need to factory reset your lightbulb which is a simple process

Quoted from https://support.gelighting.com/hc/en-us/articles/36001580519...

Bulb Reset Sequence:

We recommend counting with Mississippi (1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, 3 Mississippi, etc.).

Start with your bulb off for at least 5 seconds.

    Turn on for 8 seconds 
    Turn off for 2 seconds
    Turn on for 8 seconds
    Turn off for 2 seconds
    Turn on for 8 seconds
    Turn off for 2 seconds
    Turn on for 8 seconds
    Turn off for 2 seconds
    Turn on for 8 seconds
    Turn off for 2 seconds
    Turn on

Bulb will flash on and off 3 times if it has been successfully reset.

TIP: If the factory reset above was unsuccessful, you might have an older version of the C by GE bulb. Please follow the instructions below to reset.

Given the state of modern software, it blows me away that anyone is dumb enough to buy that junk. I work with computers all day, the last thing I want is more of that hassle in my life.

After debugging configuration error for last 7 days, where even logs didn't help because manufacturer decided to use reference clock from different pin which was not documented officially to be able to do this - moder IoT sucks, because chip manufacturers release documentation as confidential and then firmware is implemented by hardware guys. As a programmer who can design some simple digital circuits, I could very mean things about HW guys doing SW/Fw, but I can see how much my HW skills suck and how funny my designs look from the other side.

In IoT only one person is needed to change a light bulb. But it will take 7 days of soldering, debuging and reverse engineering :)

Clean room reverse engineering requires two.

Don’t forget the lawyer required to vet the process.

I have a rubber stamp so I can vet anything myself.

What I’m finding is the components themselves are so cheap ... if you’ve a little knowledge you can rig up your own IOT setup that you actually have control over for pennies. Raspberry Pi is a great place to start.

You are VERY underestimating knowledge required to do this. Most people don't even know what is an ip address (and google wants to even remove url bar). How will they setup a server to control their devices?

I’m not talking most people. I’m saying what little knowledge I have on this topic has saved me hundreds if not thousands on my home setup and I have complete control over it

Oh you get to control your IOT smart lamps with a command line tool and not a proprietary iOS app with a login gate? Fancy.

My house came with a prehistoric Lightwave setup that lets me send commands to my lights over UDP. Glorious stuff.

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