NoLongerEvil-Thermostat – Nest Generation 1 and 2 Firmware

If your boiler supports OpenTherm then get this thermostat controller https://github.com/Alexwijn/SAT

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...

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!

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.

[0] https://nolongerevil.com/

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.

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.

If you're interested, I went a different route to design new PCBs for the hardware to have 100% firmware control, see for example https://sett.homes/blogs/updates/the-lcd-display-reverse-eng...

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

"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!

Have this be an add-on supported by HomeAssistant and I'm in

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.

Cool to see the recently launched FULU bounty program[0] working as intended[1].

[0] https://bounties.fulu.org/bounties/nest-learning-thermostat-...

[1] https://nolongerevil.com/about#:~:text=What,in.

Are they good options for cloud-freeish thermostats? I have two units (one for upstairs and one for downstairs). We have two nests but they’re so frustrating. I’ve lobotomized the “smart behavior” as much as a I can. I want a thermostat that connects to the home assistant I already have

>Do NOT use this firmware on any thermostat that is critical for your heating or cooling needs.

Also, carefully consider its use with propane or natural gas HVAC units. Many can reach dangerous temperatures very quickly. Many years ago we had a thermostat failure that caused our HVAC to not shut off. While it had an over-heat cut-out, it was for temps above 200F. Because the unit had an oversized blower, it caused our home to reach dangerous temps as we slept, including our kids room which was a good 20F hotter than our bedroom. Luckily we woke up and the kids were okay.

They should match the acronym and call it No Evil Systems Tolerated, or No Evil, Sane Tech firmware (N.E.S.T)

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.

Whoever made this needs to add a license right now with at least some kind of indemnity/no-warranty clause. If something goes wrong, the user can sue you, and likely win. Your nolongerevil.com website also needs a EULA w/indemnification before allowing users to register.

Why does it need to connect to some server at all? Why cant it just work with home assistant or what ever?

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 would want a thermostat that does not connect to the internet or any wireless communication at all (with the possible exception of an outside temperature sensor if it cannot be connected with a wire; the one that the people installed (I did not have a say) does not have an outside temperature sensor), and does not have a lighted display or a colour display. I had thought to use Atmel AVR. However, to do that, I think that, first I would need test cases so that an emulator can be written.

I have a nest thermostat, but the strongly worded warnings are scary.

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.

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.

This isn't a firmware, it just redirects the traffic from your nest. I don't think this should qualify for the bounty.

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.

This reminds me of Ecobee killing their developer portal. Very sad. I hope one day we can flash a custom firmware to those.

I have two Nest E thermostats which I purchased years ago. I wonder how long it will be until they're bricked too.

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).

Seems a good step towards a whole replacement firmware.

No real reason to keep running google's code on these things.

Living in a cold room with an evil presence is better than roasting in hell with an angry wife.

I have a Gen 1 Nest. Is it common for them to brick if you connect them to the internet?

Let's buy a second hand Nest Gen1/2 before people know about this!

That logo is a trademark violation. Should be sanitized out of the repo.

Missed opportunity to call it Thermostat-ForGood

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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.

LFP

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