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Comment by alufers | Hacker News Reader

I personally just flash everything possible with open-source software. All my light switches and Wi-Fi lightbulbs run Tasmota, which I password protect and semi- regularly update. The one odball is my Gree AC unit, which is on a separate WiFi network and subnet (I just run hostapd on my RPi since it's close-by). But it's more to protect it from the outside, not the other way, because it's controlled with JSON sent over UDP, and if you send a malformed packet the microcontroller inside crashes. When this happens and the compressor is engaged it will freeze up, possibly destroying itself and start flooding the floor, because the condensation pump won't turn on.

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> But it's more to protect it from the outside, not the other way, because it's controlled with JSON sent over UDP, and if you send a malformed packet the microcontroller inside crashes. When this happens and the compressor is engaged it will freeze up, possibly destroying itself and start flooding the floor, because the condensation pump won't turn on.

Wow, the future is truly here folks!

>> When this happens and the compressor is engaged it will freeze up, possibly destroying itself and start flooding the floor, because the condensation pump won't turn on.

Do not buy Gree. Check.

Or maybe not automate destructive devices. Might be simpler and more responsible anyway, since equivalent harm can be had if your kids ask Siri to warm up the house...

Automation bugs are dangerous on any home device. I once accidentally programmed an infinite recursive loop on all the lights in the house so had on and off signals being sent nearly simultaneously. Scary and not a good thing but easy to do particularly with wifi and mqtt messaging. Had to shut main power off. Luckily only one light switch broke.

What lightbulbs do you find are best for running tasmota? I'd prefer not to have to setup a zigbee setup in addition to my zwave.

Smart lightbulbs are crappy, since If you turn them off using a light switch, you can't turn them back on via Wi-Fi. I've installed smart relays (Sonoff mini) behind light switches, which means I can control them localy and remotely at the same time.

That being said, anything that can be flashed using tuya-convert will be good. But beware, because not all Tuya lightbulbs hava an ESP chip inside and they have patched the exploit tuya-convert uses in newer firmwares. So check your model on google.

How did you find that out? You mean random UDP packet can destroy AC?

/me having a Gree unit that is to be installed

Before I got a Raspberry Pi with home assistant, I was trying to write a simple client for this protocol in C so I could host it on my OpenWRT router. Of course my client bugged and sent some random junk which caused the unit to completely lock up, it displayed 88 on it;s display and didn't respond to the IR remote. After this I had to reset it via the circuit breaker.

If I recall correctly, the data was encrypted using a static AES key, and I think the unit checked if the data decrypted correctly, but don't quote me on that.

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