Ever wonder what's inside a NEST smoker?

[K7SGJ]

Wonder no more. Since Google just bought out NEST, I'm wondering if the wifi will be used not only by the owner for remote control purposes, but reporting information back to Google?

None the less, the insides are most interesting, and I'm glad someone else took the initiative to crack one open for all to see.

https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/nest-protect-teardown?utm_source=SparkFun+Customer+Newsletter&utm_campaign=b83c724b2b-Jan3-10_Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fa5287abaf-b83c724b2b-60599425

[NA4BH]

I have the thermostats and just recently installed the detectors. Then to find out that GOOZLE bought them, shit (that's exactly what I said). The detectors communicate with each other and communicate with the thermostats that communicate information back to what used to be NEST. Big brother is in Da House.

[K7SGJ]

I have the thermostats and just recently installed the detectors. Then to find out that GOOZLE bought them, shit (that's exactly what I said). The detectors communicate with each other and communicate with the thermostats that communicate information back to what used to be NEST. Big brother is in Da House.

Really, I'm still trying to figure out what they will do with the information about what temp you keep the house at, or how often you burning toast kicks off the alarm. I wonder if a covert camera will be going into the new models?


A quick story. Many years ago, I installed an alarm system with 24 hour monitoring in my wife's folks house. As usual, I put rate of rise temp sensors only in the kitchen, and smokers everywhere else, however, my MIL still occasionally managed to generate enough smoke to get to the smoke detectors to set them off. She would call me in a panic, and I would just call the service to tell them to disregard. One day, I got a call from the monitoring service. The lady asked, "Is Betty cooking again?"

Well.........you really had to be there..........................

[NA4BH]

They email us a report each month of total time the system ran and stuff like that

This month you used 51 fewer hours than last month. -51
hrs

September 104 hrs
October 53 hrs

Since October 2011, all Nest Thermostat schedules have saved:

1,111,253,555 kWh

That’s enough energy to cook every Thanksgiving turkey in the US for the next 3 years.

[kb2vxa]

Combined with the "smart" electric meter rats (correct spelling) the utility companies will hit you with variable rates and you will love them controlling your live through your pocket. That for those who don't yet have those meters installed you will label me a conspiracy theorist for this extrapolation. Those who save, more power to you, less actually because you pay for it.

[n6hcm]

what kills me: that google may be the one which makes available a non-fingersticking means to check blood glucose. they announced their work-in-progress: a contact lens which monitors blood glucose. i hate hate hate hate ... the fingersticking nonsense, and using a tool like this would change the quality of my life, but knowing that this data doesn't stop with me is problematic ...

introducing our smart contact lens (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/introducing-our-smart-contact-lens.html)

[W5BRM]

what kills me: that google may be the one which makes available a non-fingersticking means to check blood glucose. they announced their work-in-progress: a contact lens which monitors blood glucose. i hate hate hate hate ... the fingersticking nonsense, and using a tool like this would change the quality of my life, but knowing that this data doesn't stop with me is problematic ...

introducing our smart contact lens (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/introducing-our-smart-contact-lens.html)

I'd rather stick my finger then jab said finger into my eyes everyday. *shudder*

[W9JEF]

.


I wanted to smoke a nest once,
but couldn't find big enough papers.

[kb2vxa]

Well, you could have used a pipe with a really big bowl like the hippies used to smoke banana peels.

If you haven't yet figured out why they're called smart devices, it's because they were developed by utility companies smart enough to think of a better way of draining your pockets aided by their greenie politician friends smart enough to enact a carbon credit trading and carbon tax scheme. Are you smoking more now and enjoying it less?* GO GREEN and still pay through the nose!

* Marketing slogan as usual stolen from an old cigarette ad. (;->)

[n6hcm]

I'd rather stick my finger then jab said finger into my eyes everyday. *shudder*

i used to wear soft contact lenses--i got so good with them that i could put them in while riding a moving city bus. otoh, sticking your finger up to five times a day is crap.

[n0iu]

Hopefully Google® will fire all of the programmers at Nest® and hire competent people to write the firmware!

I have a Nest® thermostat and I never know what version of firmware is on it! Up until just before Thanksgiving of last year, I had v3.5.3 on it and then some rocket surgeon at Nest® decided to force v4.0 on every owner. Unless you set your thermostat to not be connected to the Interweb, you have no choice to opt-out of upgrades. The problem was that v4.0 was a complete and utter disaster! I don't know the specific details, but there was some sort of bug in the WiFi system that drained the battery and when the battery gets below a certain point, it cuts off the WiFi connection... which sort of defeats the purpose of having a Nest® in the first place!

There were enough complaints through their online "community" that they reverted back to v3.5.3. So I look at my thermostat the other day and lo and behold, I am now at v4.0.1 which appears to be stable... for now.

My biggest complaint with Nest® actually isn't in the programming, but they don't communicate with the owners. Part of signing up is giving them your email address so they can send you monthly usage reports so they obviously have the means to contact us but they choose not to. Again, I found out about the sale to Google® by reading the WSJ, not from any sort of communication from Nest®

One of the suggestions made on the Nest® "community" is to give owners the ability to opt out of forced upgrades and to notify us that an upgrade is available so we can upgrade on our schedule, not on theirs. One of the things that made the v4.0 rollout a disaster is they did it a day or two before Thanksgiving which is one of the biggest travel periods in the year. Many people lost the ability to communicate with their thermostat while they were away so there was no way of knowing the state of their HVAC system and being a holiday, "tech support" (and I use the terms loosely) was virtually non-existant.

I actually hope that Google® will pay attention to these concerns and correct them. I am going to hold off getting the smoke detector system for a while and see how Google® handles these things.