Jake staring at the ground and fiddling with a radio while Linus yells Customer Service, is exactly like when your parents are yelling at someone while you're standing by as a kid lol.
It’s a shame it takes a “high profile influencer” like Linus complaining about this for a company to figure it out and improve things, but I’m glad you were able to get them to change their minds
As a side note Linus isn't a “high profile influencer” anymore, that was at his best around the year 2018... he's not even the elephant in the business anymore... he's a part of the jungle already :) he has more coverage than some reputable TV channels have.
@@desert123100 I'm fine with reasonably dumb lighting, but mine has a master off switch (vacancy detection) instead of a "smart" hub so there's that. It's mostly selfmade and hacked to shit together.
When you use shit DIY solutions, it does. Proper solutions from Integrators are usually problem free and set up by someone who does this all the time and ALREADY knows the shortcomings of specific products so you dont have to "Beta test" your own home where things should just ALWAYS WORK.
Wow this is such a win, in 2 weeks they basically open sourced their firmware when they couldn't even give it out due to proprietariness. I can imagine the product managers running around like headless chickens to fix this hell.
I'm a product manager for a large corporation, and this type of situation is my nightmare. But don't get me wrong, the jasco product manager (and jasco at large) deserved every bit of hell that Linus unleashed on them, because they released a bad product with a dogshit support strategy. I love Linus for holding their feet to the fire. That letter at 26:35.... fucking chef's kiss!!!
Firmware isn’t proprietary, it’s integral to the functionality of the hardware you already bought. Not providing firmware means you are ultimately falsely advertising your product, because if it can’t do anything that the firmware enables it to do because you choose not to provide it then you lied to your customer about what they bought. That’s part of why it’s so ridiculous Jasco wouldn’t give it out, because it’s not proprietary and yet they claimed it was.
Project managers??? Fix??? I would wager there was a meeting where everyone collectively threw the most competent and overworked software engineer under the bus and he or she was tasked with gathering and packaging up all the files with a neat little bow that the person "overseeing" the project managers then handed to the VP who handed it back to the same poor engineer with instructions to "dissimulate appropriately." All managers involved then re-applied all the anti-perspirant they sweated off in the meeting while spitballing, shakily crawled into their BMWs, and related their horribly difficult day to their spouse while that one engineer worked late to publish the fix.
I truly can't wait if we ever get to a day where all this "smart home stuff" isn't a nightmare for setup and running. Some automations are amazing, but some devices are such a headache
@@Donnerwamp not really, cause it can give you benefits like saving electricity, automated AC turning on an hour before you come home, Sprinklers so that the grass and such waters itself without being overwatered, etc.
@@OmniKoneko the only thing I fear really is a watchdogs like scenario where if someone hacks into my network they can mess with my stuff just to be a jerk. I recently installed a few smart bulbs to try out ( running through an app) and am liking it. My wifi isn't the most reliable, so I don't trust running anything automated lol.
Isn't it sad that yet again, issues are only addressed when a channel like this highlights the issue. If Linus had not got these switches how long would this have continued?
@@itzKurou yep captain obvious. he means that if not somebody with wide audience behind him did that then the situation wouldnt change like it did in the end
As someone who works in software support this is a prime example of how incredibly difficult it can be to make change occur in medium to large software companies. Good on you guys keeping the pressure on and getting some positive change for the product! The smart home content on this channel is unbeatable.
We need someone like EU to mandate that when company stops actively supporting a product they must open-source their firmware. Otherwise we're going to end up with piles of e-garbage.
Great idea, but companies will push back hard on this, because they know that many people will stick with their older products that have community support, and ignore their newer lines. Plus, competitors (although, that works both ways)
It makes me so mad that when i have a tech issue, the company tells me to kick rocks, and when Linus has an issue 2 weeks later the CEO is dming him. These companies don't care at all about real people, just other brands
oh no they do, you just have to wait for the other 7.7 billion people in the world to adapt before they surely know no one else is around to blow their money on there shitty products they sucker us into purchasing that we dont actually need
this is why people like linus and other respected tech groups are fucking INVALUABLE to the tech community. theyre the ones who listen to us, who make change happen.
Companies are fully aware how it is to live in todays cancel culture. You need to be super quick to get ahead of any crisis like this or it can be the end of your company. But as you say, they actually don't care about the customer, they only care about PR. You as a normal customer do not have the reach to create a cancel avalanche so they don't care.
been waiting on this since it came up on WAN show. This is the greatest tech video of all time...never has there been a greater example of fighting the battle we all love/hate to fight.
Shame he didn't pull out the "I have a 100 of these installed and I'm going to have to see about invoicing you guys for the replacement labor costs, and refund of all units since your advertising on functionality was false"
19:01 the closest we've ever come to seeing Linus lose his freakin mind. Can't say I'd handle it better. I'd be livid tbh. Such a dumb problem with the firmware.
The true measure of a company is not the mistakes they make, but how they react to said mistakes. That being said, I think Jasco ended up doing pretty well in the end. There is however one issue. If Linus wasn't Linus, this would have gone a different direction. There is no way a company like that would have gone through any of this level of resolution for an average consumer.
This. The issue regarding the assigned ID and firmware version numbers would have been found and fixed eventually, if there is no pressure from bad rep in the media, which would case a decrease in profit the firmware would not have been released in a long time.
That’s why you have to appreciate a guy like Linus, whose impatience for bullcrap has on numerous occasions led to these kinds of outcomes. Sucks that the average consumer doesn’t really have much say, but kudos to Linus for getting it done.
@@fnomega Welcome to Customer Service. It sucks being the one yelled at for a shitty company's policies and structure that you have no authority in changing.
It's unfortunate that someone with the status of Linus has to call out Jasko for their service on firmware updates before something structurally changes. I'm glad Jasko followed through and I hope it's a message to other companies that you can't get away with shit like this.
They don't learn from other companies mistakes (i.e. Newegg). They barely learn from their own. As long as they continue to turn a profit CEOs and CFOs don't give a crap.
Yea its pretty bad when you consider that without someone like Linus, who has a high reputation, all of us everyday citizens would be left in the cold and ignored by such a deaf tone response. The woman on the phone also had a poor customer service etiquette and resorted to "I can't help you" instead of " I'm sorry this is an issue for you, although the company stance is this - I will chase this up further internally for you and see what solution we can come up with". It shouldn't take a social media PR manager to pick up the pieces and do the work of a customer service rep.
@@Bazwalt Yup, like I get, when dealing with these support agents that they have no direct power or access to go and email the firmware stuff. But I appreciate when they at least agree that the situation is not good and say they're going to pass that information up at a minimum. Like put it into the pipeline.
@@thekwoka4707 Yea that's it. The agent just had no interest in even trying to find a solution and was not absorbing what Linus was saying. As a customer service representative myself, I never say no. I make an effort to ask or try and meet the customers expectations, if my superior rules me out - fine, at least I tried for the customers sake.
I know everyone else has said this, but thank you for finding an issue and having the influence to call the company out on their bs. Now, if only you could take on ISP's in the US... but hey, small miracles.
A story ripped through our neighborhood once and the Comcast node junction thing on the utility pole was destroyed. Two weeks later everything was fixed except that Comcast doodad. I kept calling support and they had the balls to tell me 1. There was no storm damage. 2. My internet service was not down. "Sir, there was no damaged caused by a storm." "Yes there was! I'm looking right at it!" "No, you're not.."
What? I love getting throttled. I love the random outages every few days. I love having a monthly bandwidth cap. I love that I can't change to a competing ISP because there are none in my area. I love the useless customer support. Why would anyone want any of that to change?
@@Haligonian That's why R0adKill specified US. Just because LTT is based in Canada doesn't mean that they don't have the influence to affect positive change on products/services from non-Canadian companies. That said, US ISPs (and I assume elsewhere, but I lack the experience to comment) are notoriously bad and self-centered with a near-monopoly on their regional markets, so good luck enacting positive change on what has ultimately become a new utility that happens to be equal parts necessity and entertainment.
Phone support, especially computer based, makes me *really, really* mad. I always end up swearing at the computer on the phone. I treat the humans better, but with dumb companies who clearly don't care about their customers, they really setup their customer service agents (CSA) up for failure. Gratefully, it's been quite a few years since I was last a CSA, and more gratefully it was a company that supported us supporting other humans in a human way. Except the obvious, yes, you called our cab service, but we don't serve your area, I almost never had an impoossibly, unfixable situation. One woman who called our service from a city we didn't even cover? I literally drove across the country and ended up at her cross street when I was trying to refind the highway on a road trip. I was laughing so hard, it took a while to make sense telling my wife about it. LOL She was cities away from our service area.
@@DENicholsAutoBravado right! that first line! its like it tells every american how bad their healthcare system is. you have to PAY for healthcare, and you would expect it to be better? then why are you guys down buy 46th well canadian healthcare is up by 12th. ones free. and one you have to go into debt for the rest of your life even if you have your coupon insurance card.
I feel bad for the customer support lady It must be absolute hell to work on her position on a scummy company having to tell frustrated customers things they probably don't want to hear and sometimes get collateral'd from it She acted very professional regardless and hope she and her team are getting paid well nobody should work as a company's customer relations meat shield for pennies knowing it will destroy your emotional stability This includes social media pages people don't understand sometimes that they're talking to the souls of the damned not the devil when "voicing their opinions"
I don't envy her. Not that Linus was in any way out of line, though. It was an incredibly stupid process and chances are she was just as frustrated that she wasn't allowed to do the simple thing that would have resolved the issue. As someone who has worked customer service in places where I basically had to make excuses for poor management/policies to people that were pissed that I couldn't do anything despite the caller and me both knowing exactly what I would need to do if I was allowed to: The closest thing to a silver lining here is that she's probably not even getting paid enough to care about taking it personally. The more flak a company knows it's going to take, the more expendable their first-level support staff is going to be. It's a vicious cycle: A company doesn't invest in good support or communication with their customers, leading to justifiably angry calls, leading to burnout and turnover, leading to a scramble to hire more people for the meat grinder.
he was very tough to say the least but he's never pass the point with her by any second , as a ppl who works with these stuff everyday he must be molding inside , cuz is really dumb politicians , firmware isnt something that u can't block the ppl who buy your things from having it , specially when its not running properly
@@dovid916 She didn't get mad though? Like you could hear in her voice that she was tired of saying this shit but she does it to 40+ customers a day so... Also if you consider that tilted and yourself calm after dealing with worse shit than she is then I envy your temper and patience.
Because modern society is all about dissolution of responsibility when it comes to all that stuff. 90% of the time you're interacting with people who don't know/don't care and hold zero responsibility. So you're told to go seek out this other person/company ad nauseam to solve the problem . I've literally ended up in a complete circle several times.
After years testing various motion switches in many different parts of my house, I can honestly say they're only really useful (even in tandem with more advanced home automation setups) in a very limited set of areas in the home. Otherwise, the programming to get them to not do dumb things is so complicated, you spend more time trying to program them to behave in a useful way (and offend everyone else living in the same space) than it's worth. And I say that as someone who regularly spends way too much time programming dumb things :D I currently have motion switches in parts of my basement (but not the main lights), my office, my garage, and my laundry room.
I wonder if you could just feed the data of the sensors, not limited to motion sensing but also inside light intensity, time, date, your calendar, outside weather data, and possibly even video into a neural net, and penalize it whenever you have to actuate the lights manually, and reward it when it takes an action that has not resulted in a manual action within a set time-frame. Maybe then it would be actually sophisticated enough to be as useful as a person just accompanying you and learning your habits and turning lights on and off, instead of an array ofbazilluons of if-statements
Does it make more sense to have motion detectors that control switches? I think that would be easier to program, and you could use the motion detectors for other scenarios as well. Love your channel BTW!
Yeah. I've done ... something like 150 or so installations of these types of switches for clients out of nearly 1000 since i left the roost and started building on my own. They're really not that useful unless you have a specific need for them. What is useful is using them in reverse. IE, you turn on the light manually (or by motion/other commands) and then after a preset time is spent, and nothing happens, in conjunction with a throwable switch and a smart or dumb system, use the motion system to pop the switch off. That's when they're really useful. The scenario being that you went in the bathroom, turned the light on, you're done, but you didn't close the light cause it's late. So the system takes over, sees no motion for say 20 minutes and pops the switch off. I've even had a program where it would reactivate the switch internally, if within 2 minutes of the throw, there's motion inside. Other than that, raw motion switches are not a good option.
Not only can you "offend" the people your living with but also sometimes the people who are visiting. That's why I have my motion based automations to only activate when my phone's bluetooth is detected.
LTT team, thank you for stepping up on this for everyone, using your influence to solve a anti-consumer scenario. I do not use Jasco products, but is really nice know that you don't do what you do just for the money.
Now if only Lutron saw his reasoning to avoid their light switches and make a move on updating them. I love mine but Linus’ complaints about the switch feel is too true. I’m willing to look past it for the convenience of remote access but man, they feel super cheap for the price.
@@bb-wb8sb he was polite and far less harsh than he should have been. he should have demanded to speak to someone with a brain and actual authority. also should have demanded a partial refund while keeping the product.
Can you *imagine* being an average homeowner or business owner or, worse yet, a veteran electrician who is not computer savvy trying to install implement this kind of thing? Or getting 'certified'?! And pushing hard enough that they eventually tracked down that the firmware had been entered as decimal instead of hexadecimal...brilliance, gang...brilliance! This is why we love everyone at LTT.
It's honestly easy, as an average homeowner I realize thing that connecting everything to internet/bluetooth is just stupid and would simply buy normal switches. Some of those "smart" devices is just putting more tech in to things for the sake of putting more tech.
It's nothing short of amazing that in 2022 the state of home automation is such that the only consumer it appeals too is geeks who would pay extra money for a worse experience.
The number one recommendation that I have is to only buy one or two devices from a single Manufacturer initially, and then test them out for a Month or two before going all in on them. It will help to limit your frustration to couple of devices when you are troubleshooting things and if you still are not able address all the issues, you are not out a lot of money/time if you need to switch out those devices.
@@jupiterjones3789 Building or renovating a home takes time. It's not unreasonable to think ahead, and buy the stuff to test it out before the moment comes where you're gonna install all of it in the house. So I don't know, i think it's still pretty solid advice.
Absolutely. The switches in my house are a mishmash of kinda old silent switches and REALLY old clicky ones. I like the basement switch the best, it gives a solid CLICK and the lights are on or off.
My lights are automated with Wiz lightbulbs (they create really nice natural light). All my switches are dumb switches but you can change the light bulbs mode by clicking them in certain patterns. Best solution I've ever had
There is a beauty and simplicity to traditional 20th century analog devices. Too much lately we have become obsessed with tech for tech's sake, just to have more gadgets. Most of which are 99% unnecessary, the purpose is to provide a source of income for whoever invented it. Is it really that difficult to walk around the room and turn on light switches? Are we really 'so busy' we can't be burdened with the detour, or are we so lazy that having a motion sensing light switch is an ironic waste of money? And to think there was once a day when we had to fashion cylinders of hardened hydrocarbons and burn them for light. (candles)
I'm glad Linus is showing us all this new smart home, wifi lighting stuff. Because it makes it really easy for me to decide that I want normal a$$ everything in my house
I think it really shows everyone that even huge techie with a staff that is PAID to learn and set it up that there are still huge issues. The smart home industry really needs to take a look in the mirror when it comes to updating their products and making them easier to install/setup/use.
@@jeremydale4548 It's like Linus said, they compare risk vs reward, is leaving the bug and dealing with mad people cheaper than fixing it? Many times the answer is yes UNLESS a customer has pull somewhere or an audience. You need to remember that companies are not people, they are there to make money, period. Only the customers can make them change and that usually takes a popular customer.
@@jeremydale4548 What I'm more baffled about is that how in the world did Linus NOT SEE A REVIEW OR DO ANY RESEARCH on the product? I mean the guy is buying 100 switches. 100.
I don't have an issue with epilepsy or anything, but I think the dinging when the light was flickering and then when it stopped was genius. I've always wondered just what the heck people who are at risk of seizures are supposed to do during the warnings when they have no way of knowing once it's safe. Just peek and hope for the best I guess? Smart having the audio cue!
I'm not epileptic either, but I do really hate flashing/strobing lights, so I really appreciate those small but incredibly helpful and thoughtful warnings too. And using the ding to say it's stopped is great.
Most videos actually just show a time when the epilepsy trigger in no longer there. I think the best solution is doing both and let people do what they want
@@andre1396-r1g that's true, I've seen a few that do they; but I also feel I've seen just as many that just do a warning with no indication of when that segment ends. Then there's those that do a blanket thing where the beginning just warns there's flashing lights and I guess epileptics would just avoid the whole video altogether. And lastly there's the few that don't even warn
@@Kitteh.B they may be low quality/effort channels that dont perticularly care but seeing how good YT copyright and how tough demonatization is, to think that they would place the warnings themselfs. Also i dont remember seeing any video where the epilepsy warning didnt have a endpoint, or to be accurate, dont remember so
@@andre1396-r1g that's fair, I like to just think it's people who are unaware, and not just malicious/lazy haha As for ones without an endpoint, I know I've thought "why don't they have a way for people to know when it's over?" Before but it's not something I can think of a direct example of, since it doesn't affect me and was mostly just a fleeting thought :[ That said, what I'm thinking of may have been like "the next scene contains flashing lights" without an exact endpoint and the, let's say... accompanying phaser sounds, might be audio cue ENOUGH to tell when it's over, but it wasn't explicitly said "after you hear the phasers it's safe." That sorta thing, just vague, y'know? Whereas this video was very clear on when to avert your eyes and when it's safe, which I found to be courteous to those who need it :D
why do you think they sabotaged the release of the firmware to the general public that would fix the motion sensors so tape is on all of them and they had an inside "garth" to tell them to put them in manual.
@@maji0 Lectured for what, not speaking up louder when they likely voiced their concerns of these issues? I do hope they take this video/issue in stride and push to update their products though. Accountability for issues like this needs to start somewhere though, even if it's outside of their company.
Yeah the whole withholding firmware thing definitely sounds like a upper management decision. You can’t just open a firmware file and be like hah I got all your secret source code
What I find particularly odd in the modern age of so-called "smart devices" is that they are ridiculously limited in their functionality and tweakability. In the earlier ages of computing and consumer electronics there were far more options to play with (like, all of them).
Back before 2008, proprietary info wasn't as big a issue for GE because they had the resources, the funding, and the logistics to fix their products. Now that they're a fragmented husk of that time, more and more of their products are going without necessary support and the proprietary knowledge still lingers. I wouldn't blame the higher ups for the proprietary crap because they have so many products and limited resources to deal with. I agree, if a company cannot manage firmware, they should be pressured to release it publically.
Yeah. Its the thing that happens when they roll things out to the masses as a standard thing. They have to go lowest common denominator because stupid people get angry and blame tech when they mess up settings
Inovelli Red switches will allow you to keep constant power to that smart Yeelight bulb. Then you can program the Inovelli switch so the physical on/off buttons on the switch can turn the smart bulb on or off. You get the best of both worlds with that. I feel your pain on all this and wish setting up a smart home was easier.
They'll also be releasing a zigbee based switch with similar functionality soon. Actually getting their hardware right now is far from easy right now, though (and in my experience has been hard since well before the pandemic.) Great products, great community involvement, but logistics could use improvement (not entirely their fault.)
@@leebannister3759 that's not even remotely their goal. they aren't here to help the smart home community, or they would have published detailed instructions on how to get the garage door opener up and running.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen Linus legitimately get upset in a video before! There are some things in life I like the tweaky nerd friendly option, and there are some things in life I want something that just works. Not saying I have a hundred switches or anything but I’ve been very happy with my Leviton/Homekit setup. The hardest part was explaining to my electrician why I wanted to use my switches instead of theirs. Homekit is definitely not the tweaker’s option but I think we are still in the early adopter phase. Things will definitely get more fleshed out with time.
Linus reacting to nvidia screwing over Hardware Unboxed. Edit: Had to go back and rewatch it like damn, linus almost looks like he wanted to punch the wall/screen at times
There is a vulnerability in the Z-wave protocol in both S0 and S2 versions. So when you guys include new devices make sure to check if the key on the box or on the device is the same as that shown on the screen. This flaw can be used for example to obtain the S2 access key and open a front door or a garage, so please be careful. I published a research on this some months ago.
I've been out of the custom integration industry since about 2017. I always preferred Zigbee Pro to anything Z-wave. Has there been any Zigbee pro vulnerabilities exposed since then?
@@raymathews6612 There is a similar vulnerability in ZigBee in which the keys are sent in clear text during the inclusion, also there are no certification for smart devices so you cannot be sure that will work well together. One good protocol for the future will be Thread.
@@Alexis-lt3zy yeah, but it could require external cameras for that. it would be better (or at least not more expensive) to use a time pattern with added randomness
I'm disapointed it takes something of this level before a company will even consider something as obvious as providing firmware updates to their customers directly, but I'm glad it worked out.
I love how you can have such an influence on a company and the entire industry just because your channel is so big and popular. They clearly didn’t want too much negative press from their firmware policy.
I really don't like it at all. It's nice Linus and others get them to get off the asses and do things but that's what our regulatory bodies were meant to do, to make sure industry delivers on it's promises or GTFO for someone that will.
ZwaveJS2Mqtt already offers firmware upgrades for z-wave devices in Home Assistant. It's just a new system for them, and HA docs are hit or miss for the most part.
I'm late to this one but It's by far my favorite video on this channel. The frustration is so relatable but the fact that it also made a difference by forcing the company to at least partially correct their mistakes is very rewarding.
I dealt with this kind of issue with a router a few years back. Company wouldn't supply the firmware to customers, they ONLY give it to the ISP to push out to their customers, but the ISP REFUSED to push out updates to people who didn't rent routers from them, so if you owned your own router you couldn't get the firmware to update.
Reminds me that because of the switch here from analogue phones to voip i now can’t replace my modem with a better 3rd party one because telstra refuses to provide customers their password for their voip phone account. At least my current modem actually works my old one had a model wide fault that caused it to overheat and drop connection regularly. Though with the amount of connection outages plus the last big outage when they messed up the NBN node by the road i bit the bullet and installed a cell-fi repeater so i now actually have mobile signal and mobile backup for my modem. “Was a dead zone from the street/fence line because of the hill”.
@@nathnathn nice to see a fellow Australian in the comments of LTT. I share your frustrations with telstra, having similar experiences. Particularly living outside of a major city where they're often the only reliable option
That is some anti-consumer pro-capitalism behavior to the point of blatant exploitation for profits. The firmware restriction to the ISP should be lifted the moment you buy the router.
I love tech, and for years I wanted to get into home automation especially seeing how inexpensive it's become and how infinitely customizable it looks. But I've seen tons of videos like this and it's made me decide that I'm good with the old and my life isn't worse off because of it.
There are very many reasons I don't bother with "smart home" devices, or any IoT devices of any sort. Config issues and getting different manufacturers to play well with each other - even on supposedly "open" standards - is merely one of the reasons.
Jake uncomfortably staring at the floor and fidgeting with the radio while Linus is on with tech support is so relatable, exactly how I am when I have to sit in on a serious conversation
It's like me when my boss is on the phone to a customer or another worker and I'm sat next to him and I can hear him get angry and frustrated in his voice
9 years ago I installed a smartthings hub and GE z-wave switches for my main level. Not the embrighten ones but the original switches you could have gotten at Lowes when they had their initial smart home kick. I had most of my main floor automated as well as my garage door opener tied to the system. EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF ZWAVE EQUIPMENT PROCEEDED TO BREAK ABOUT 3 YEARS AGO. The garage door opener stopped working because of a known design issue where when the soldered on LED burns out it just faults out. The zwave switches all failed in various states. Most the relay stopped responding in the off position so neither the app or the switch could turn on the light. My dimmer kept working on manual but could never resync to the app. In the end I have one working piece of zwave equipment left. A zwave dual relay I use in my garage to automate a dual switch as there never was a good solution from GE or any other provider. I've switched all of my other equipment over to TP-link kasa as the price is roughly a third per switch ($45 vs $15) and the reliability seems to be there. Plus I can just update the firmware in my kasa app. I would have loved to continue to use zwave, but the equipment always felt shoddy and the support was always groups of people like us. While there was a huge selection of z-wave equipment about 10 years ago (hell monoprice even had a good line) everyone seems to have abandoned the protocol other than GE. Monoprice only has a door / window sensor left in their zwave range. It's a sad for the protocol. Linus, here's a video idea for you. How did z-wave fall so damn fast? It can't be just that wifi devices became an alternative.
I'm so glad this video addresses the utter and pure pain experienced when things you buy and pay hard-earned money for straight-up DON'T work. And it's getting harder and harder to talk to actual human beings behind these products, so most of the time you are just literally screwed. This should be addressed more and I'm so glad Linus did that in this video in a way that voiced ALL our frustrations with situations like these. Well done man, glad you use your platform to address these things and urge companies to do better. Loved the video!
Indeed. I feel these days companies more and more don't care about me as a customer but all they care about is my money and once they have gotten it, I can go f myself or whatever I please to do, they don't care. It's so furiating and frustrating that the brand new thing you just bought doesn't work in any other scenario than just one very specific one and that one very specific scenario is not the one which you experience every single day.
At the same time, don't get frustrated with the entry-level customer support or service workers, get frustrated with the company instead. This mentality that it's okay to have a tantrum because you spent money is incredibly immature and stupid, blame the companies and purchase from a different source next time, get a refund, and DO NOT BLAME the support workers whom often deal with the same information you have.
@@MrBrander that’s why for some things I just find it easier and cheaper the old way. Sometimes making things smarter just makes them more of a complicated pain.
@@SuperJWATT You don't get an entry level job for how useful it is, you get it because someone will pay you for it. That lady would probably have lost her job if she gave him the files he wanted, might not have had access to someone with the authority to make that decision and still handled Linus's anger in a very reserved and professional way. Not to mention she probably informed management about the call she had with him which is probably helped convince them to talk to Linus about changing their policy and provide the firmware for their products to the public; So since she enacted real positive change in that company I'd say she ended up being a pretty useful member of the team, no?
I've been keeping up with this issue since you first ranted about it on the WAN show. Its great that Jasco finally made the firmware available publicly, but I'd call it "Too little too late", and I would actively avoid any Jasco product I see in the future. This is for 2 simple reasons. 1: The fact that even with the latest firmware you are still unable to get expected behavior, meaning this drawback can likely be expected on most other Jasco devices, and 2: We all know that if it wasn't YOU (Or someone else with a social megaphone), it is guaranteed they would definitely NOT have made the firmware available publicly. Thx for updating us on this!
The problem is that every company has some kind of failure of some kind, so if you boycott them all, you'll never be able to buy anything. At least they've learned from their mistake.
@@TimBoundy if they really fix their problem, no one will boycott it man. My question is, did they really need a social backlash first to do their job? If you as customer report the same thing as Linus but you're a nobody, avarage joe without status to back your words, they'll ignore you. Linus isn't the first people to face this problem,and they did change after some social pressure, their social media dept saw things may go wrong and escalate the problem to upper management.
Fellow Home Assistant and ZWave Jasco switch user here and I feel your pain. You should look into millimeter waze sensors if you decide to go the multisensor route. That is what I plan to do next.
I never realized Linus and I had so much in common when it comes reacting to stupid stuff not working the way it should. As for Jasco, it really does sound like too little too late in my opinion. If you need an influencer to get support, who knows how reliable it will be in the future.
I mean yeah the fix was too late but they've genuinely seem to change as a company which is seriously weird, I thought it was a marketing stunt at first but no they seem to be doing things right.
Yes but thats just how it works, it wouldn't surprise me if this just wasn't that big of an issue for most people. Linus put a lot of eyes on it and the company implemented changes and quickly which is pretty cool :)
A few years ago I had this exact issue. I called, chatted online, emailed, etc to try to find something. I even tried to dump the firmware and reverse engineer it. Eventually my wife told me to just stop. I ended up buying multi sensors and use them for for triggering automations. I love the extra info like temperature, light level, and humidity on top of motion. I did dump the firmware but never did anything else since the multi sensors were great. I have also replaced the switches to just not deal with that nonsense.
I love how when Linus is chewing out the lady on the phone, Jake is just face down looking like a child when their mother is arguing at the grocery store LOL!
@@herrpez What do you mean? Linus had every right to be upset and he didn’t attack the lady on the phone personally. If that’s who Jasco puts on the phone for customer support, that’s the only person he can talk to.
@@macse7en He has every right to be angry. He has no right to take his anger out on someone who has nothing to do with how the firmware is distributed.
@@macse7en Yeah but that's still a real person who probably has no power to do anything about it. She didn't make the decision. Get mad at the people who make the decision, not the messenger.
Wow this is amazing, I usually do installs of smart switches for churches, so I’ve installed a couple hundred of them. I’m really glad I went with Kasa Smart from the beginning. I can only imagine the absolute pain you guys went through
Screw these kind of companies. A Firmware Downloads page should be the bare minimum. A good company should provide the source code for the firmware so that customers can make whatever changes they want on their OWN devices.
Exactly, getting companies to agree to allow you to fully own hardware you have purchased is hard though. But when companies DO allow it, it's always a huge win. Look at DD-WRT for an example. It started off as an open-source replacement firmware for a specific Linksys router. It was far better than the stock firmware, and was such a success that other router manufacturers even started shipping their routers with DD-WRT as the default firmware. Hardware manufacturers need to stop the closed garden mentality and allow the open source community to make their products truly shine.
@@shartnerd you mean : farm out even more responsibility to 3rd parties that you cannot contact when excrement hits the spinning blade ? No.(period) Things need to work as advertised from day 1. If they don't then *THEY* need to fix it. They need to be absolutely crystal clear on WHEN the product goes end-of-life and it should be something hidden somewhere on the interwebs. And when they declare something 'end of life' that is when they need to provide all the info needed so someone else can continue support if need be. That way non geeks can decide what to do when the support ends. Open source is not a solution, but a stop gap to mask the lack of responsibility by manufacturers. Proper lifetime support is the only solution customers can rely on.
I have a system in my house where I just press the light switches on or off to control the lights. It seems to be a lot less hassle than this approach...
Came here to post the same comment. 10k for smart switches that seem to cause a lot of hassle. How hard is it to just manually flip a switch when you enter or leave a space...
@@sonalita_ Linus says he prefers it that way too. He's doing this as partially a way to trial and make content about smart home automation, and partially as his own experiment to see how much this kind of home automation can save you over a long time. He literally gave up on one brand because the switches felt bad.
Brilliant Video, firmware updates have been an issue for many of us users. I use Zigbee with Home assistant for most of my stuff and its been very reliable. I'm now moving towards a hybrid of motion sensors and occupancy sensors to tell if a room is still occupied AFTER motion has stopped. All the logic is performed in Homeassistant and Nodered to give complete control.
As an electrician in Canada welcome to the nightmare of "smart" devices. We deal with this insane back and forth with company's screwing each other by making things not work with each other and not user friendly. I personally only use LUTRON cassetta devices as they seem to be the easiest to use and set up.
I used to use LIFX bulbs and had a ton of problems. I remolded my home last year and used Lutron casseta for my kitchen and dinning room. I was so impressed, I converted all my switches to them. The switches are expensive but I feel well worth the money.
I stumbled onto Lutron when I bought one of the lamp dimmers for the remote control functionality. Once I learned about the hub and what I could do I slowly replaced most of the switches in my house. The only issues I have is they are kind of pricey in Canada, and I am pretty limited to available bulbs that work well with the dimmer functionality in my market. Other than that they have been great, sync easily with Nest Home and Alexa, and the app really functional. I should mention I was really happy with the customer service as well. I do wish they had consumer grade outlets or smart plugs available for the system though.
This is an easy fix. Use a smart switch with no motion detector AND get a smart motion device. You can disable the smart motion device automatically if you want.
Watching Linus lose his s**t was the funniest thing ive seen in a while, But a well deserved rant. great for getting a U-turn on the firmware for mortal humans. Great content as always
@@chrisbendel4940 True, but they _will_ add to the frustration with their standard answers. They at that point are the representative of the company. If you have a product that has known flaws, train your support to handle frustrated customers that you can't help. Or just make a better product. *That doesn't mean people should be rude. But they should be able to vent some frustration.
@@CJonestheSteam72 Oh I get that I really do.. but I think and this is just my opinion so really doesn't count for much. I think the bad press will force them to do something about it or lose out to competitors. Just my take
As a technology integrator in the home setting I have encountered this type of issue more times than I can count. This video made me bust out laughing witnessing the pure rage that befell Linus because of these product shortcomings. I’ve worked with all levels of Lutron and everybody’s got their own set of quirks to work around. Best of luck always love the content!
In regards to the dimming/ soft on “feature” one thing I found is a solution is to compensate for the pwm signal by using an automotive relay and signal smoother (usually just a capacitor in series) to bypass the rapid on/off pulsing these devices use to dim things like led lights. Not saying this is a solution as it would involve buying 150 of these and wiring them all up to each switch - but if someone is really desperate it might help stop reset all the smart bulbs?
@@angelo3926 Or the manufacturer could just stop pretending that their standards compliant lightswitch is special and just publish the firmware or even firmware source code. I personally will always go with open source solution if one is available. I've seen too many poorly designed devices crippled with bad software alone.
I'm excited to follow up on how this turns out. I'm moving in 3 months and plan on doing a smart home set up like yours. I've always trusted your judgment and will go with what ever works best for you.
IMO the perfect "smart switch" is one that works exactly like a dumb switch until its brains tell it to do something different. This would mean that a loss of connectivity would not render the switches useless, just dumb switches instead. This would also be a huge boon for resale-ability given the low adoption rate of smart home tech at this time.
Ive been using the Philips hue kenetic switches for years with no issues. They don't have a constant connection since they have no power source but react instantly when you tap them. They're customizable and have multiple (4) buttons that can all control different lights or groups of lights.
I really like that editors nowadays (on multiple channels) are putting in indicators as to when loud volume or seizure ends along with the usual warnings. Great stuff.
@@TheLongDon yes cos people that are prone to flashing lights just shouldn't watch videos, what next your gonna turn round and say they shouldn't fucking live? Hinestly sort yourself out
This looks way more complicated than it needs to be. In my home I have some motion sensing switches, smart switches, and smart bulbs, but only where it makes sense. Motion sensing switches work well in bathrooms and entryways. You don't have to fiddle with finding the switch to turn on the light and it turns off when no one is present. I have smart switches in bedrooms and in the game room. You might be present but want the lights off there, but you can talk to Google to control them and you can set a schedule to turn them off as a failsafe to someone forgetting to turn the lights off and leaving them on for days. I use smart bulbs for my outdoor lighting and have them turn on and off at sunrise/sunset, which changes by day. For those I just leave the light switches on at all times. I never spent more than 10 minutes configuring any of my switches.
This whole video was so ridiculous to me Like it just keeps getting more and more complicated, and even more frustrating. Meanwhile I'm sitting here with my normal light switch. Works just fine.
@@skeptic_lemon I don't get the thing with switches either. Just get off your butt and press it yourself. I can sort of get switches controller through an app and maybe motion sensors in front of the house, in hallways etc. But why in regular rooms?
The best thing about this is that in the 90's, my Grandmother had motion switches everywhere in her house that where only automatic when the switch was on. When the switch was off, it was just always off. They where only connected to the regular switch leads in the wall, no smart home garbage to deal with. They worked perfectly and pretty much how you are trying to set these up. XD
i also had them at my house as a kid I'm in my 30s now when my friends would come over they were so blown away by lights that turned on automatically but its all I ever knew
Yeah I feel Linus over complicated things, you hit it dead on. As I realized all the issues Linus was facing it cause it more advance. Sometimes it better to take a step back and see that if you do it analog it can be better
These smart home videos are awesome. I've had smart home bulbs and outlets, and I'm starting to look at more full featured setups now. I never knew about Home Assistant before, but it's definitely going to be a part of my next smart home setup. Keep covering powerful open source software like Home Assistant, I like learning about them!
It would be cool to have switches act in a “home vacancy mode” where switches would turn on and off almost randomly at night. Real estate companies would leave a light on at night to make it seem that someone is home so no one would break in and occupy the house unknowingly. This would be particularly useful for vacations as well so it would seem like your home when your not.
Home assistant has an excellent plugin that will learn the different things you do over a period of time, and emulate that kind of behaviour. E.g. I know I have a particular bed time routine, that can expect certain lights to come on and off, but that can vary by 20-30 minutes most nights, 1-2 hours a few nights out of a month.
90% of the time home automation is an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” scenario. You spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars to smartify your home, just to find yourself with more inconvenience than convenience.
Also people where using lights with photosensors in their homes and outside decades ago, even before internet and "smart" devices existed. And it was never as dumb and convoluted as it is today. In some ways we go technologically backwards - ironically sometimes even in automation...
@@Technosis100 a combo of the old way and smart plugs might be the best especially if they don't need a hub but even then it's kind a pain I got them set up for my room and I want to kill Alexa from time to time
The only thing ive done in the way of smart home stuff is added cheap wifi light bulbs, changing the switch is way too much hassle for the problems like Linus had, plus with bulbs you can turn them off with A real switch and change them when ever you want, the only reason i got wifi bulbs is so i can dim and turn them on and off easily as I'm disabled and have issues with my eyes, so yeah, I love my old school switches 😁 and it shouldnt take A high profile youtuber to get things done to help the customer.
“They’re both flat now” is when you know shit has really hit the fan. I feel your pain! I had 18 Lutron switches and 40+ Hue lights at one point and have slowly phased everything out due to unreliability and inflexibility, even when running Home Assistant. The ecosystem just isn’t reliable and easy enough yet. :(
every company in the consumer space treats firmware files like this, and it really makes no sense when you think about it. Do they think some no-name knockoff manufacturer is going to clone their circuit by looking at the board and has the production capacity and marketing connections already ready to go to take down an established brand with cheaper compatible devices, and all they need is a firmware image they can't extract or recreate themselves? Or did they come up with some groundbreaking secret new algorithms (that they didn't patent) that give them a huge competitive advantage to control... a fucking light switch? really?
@@ailivac Sure... they know that their hardware is being produced in a factory used for thousands of other PCBs somewhere in Shenzhen out of off-the-shelf parts and the design of the PCB is insecure. There are probably thousands of factory seconds on Aliexpress already. The job security of everyone at their company relies on the work product of the software engineers in Kentucky and, as such, they want to protect that work product. That doesn't justify their previous unwillingness to provide the firmware updates to an end-user ("You need to get it from the manufacturer of your hub" "But I'm the manufacturer of my hub"), but from the corporate perspective the switch itself provides relatively little value.
The problem is that each of these pieces of tech work fine on their own, but when you start mixing and matching them with existing installs, everything goes to hell. It's really difficult to design a difficult situation to test these things in due to the enormous selection of home automation products. Additionally, many issues don't start until you've used them for a bit and the devil starts leaking out.
Rewatched this today after it popped up in my feed. Did anyone else realise the part with Linus talking to Jasco 1-for-1 mirrors the Patrick's Wallet meme? Linus: This is Jasco, right? Man-Ray: Aren't you Patrick Star? Jasco: That is correct. Patrick: Yup. L: So, you guys made the switch for GE? MR: And this is your ID? J: That is correct. P: Yup. L: Including the firmware? MR: I found this ID in this wallet. And if that's the J: That is correct. case, this must be your wallet. L: Okay, so that firmware? I need it! P: Makes sense to me. J: Again, unfortunately we don't have that- MR: Then take it! Linus and Jake: *anime-fall* P: It's not my wallet!
Linus embodies what everyone feels and has to go through when companies proceed in a way that only benefits themselves instead of the consumer. This video was my favorites from you guys-it reminded me of every customer support interaction I have ever had with Comcast-xfinity. Great job Linus and team on making them change their approach.
Yeah agreed. But for how long? Problem is, that these companies now bend just because of Damage Control, but go back to their old shitty habits in no-time and start scr*wing customers again to maximize profit. There should be laws against this. Here in the EU they finally see this and laws have been made. Hopefully canada follows quickly!
@@mrducky179 its all based on your use-case. I have motion sensors in a few closets and the bathrooms because its just easier than trying to find a switch in the dark. You don't realise how useful something is until you have it set up and working, even the smallest things make a big difference.
If you do decide to pull them out, a benefit of Innovelli is that you can set the switch to always supply full power to the socket, and have the paddle and dimmer control smart bulbs on the same network.
This is the best episode ever! Some companies in the IT Industry really don't know what there doing and or don't listen to customer feedback. I can just imagine their panic when they realized that you were giving feedback on their product. I'm glad it sort of worked out in the end. Let's see if the firmware gets updated for dimming and manual control. I never post to your videos, but I was just as annoyed as you were and it's not even my house.
Yeah really felt the pain here. It's infuriating when you know more than the customer service rep/know exactly what you need but they refuse to give it to you. Happens way too often.
@@fastgecko5799 yeah, it's kinda ironic that their job is customer service yet half the time they don't know the solutions to help you, these companies should train them better or have better protocols in place
did make a script or ai that automatically picks the videos to make and uploads then i get how you have so many subs and views but cuase of your vids but holy crap im so confused
Great to see they followed through and published the firmware, there's no reason any company should not provide reasonable updates to their customers. By all means encrypt it, obfuscate it, do what they want if it holds trade secrets but just give customers the flexibility to at least install them. As for your future videos on this topic, it would be great to see these switches do what you want them to do, but I'd also love to see the multi sensors that you mention and see what you can achieve with those
This jasco situation goes beyond "Right" this goes into false advertising, scamming, and legal issue troubles. They are releasing a product with supposed features that none of them work. Edit: I'm glad Jasco is starting to make changes and figuring out the issues. But regardless of if it's an issue with your product specifically, the archaic design they were built on, or whatever, the product still doesn't work as advertised.
Not to mention its taking a UA-camr with millions of subs to prove that some things like home automation just isn't ready and isn't worth it for most people who can't burn money like Linus can.
Oh man, I was waiting for this. Absolutely stunning. Can’t believe you actually caused real change! Well done. Good luck on the switches, they’re all a nightmare in my experience…
Thank you for getting Jasco to publicly post their firmware files, as a long time user of their switches I greatly appreciate this even if there are not a ton of firmware changes. Some things to note on your issues, first of all Z-Wave JS is basically bleeding edge it has been rapidly developed and is frankly amazing what they've accomplished in such a short time, if you shot this video say 6 months to a year ago it would be extremely different the only Z-Wave integration in HA was OZW (Open Z-Wave) and that developer had real life issues and abandoned the project. All Jasco switches have some manual (non-hub, at the switch) shortcuts. For example if you fast tap on three times then off once I believe that disables the blue led light. I believe you can find most of these shortcuts without having to use a hub/HA to configure properties/parameters. There is usually a manual shortcut for each parameter, which is how I was able to setup my motion switch. Configuring properties/parameters in HA (at least in OZW) was always painful and rarely "stuck", these issues are nothing new. I believe some even had that hex/dec issue you were referring to in the FW version. I recall editing an XML parameter to have the right number so that the parameter would actually update. You should ditch the Pi while you can, since you will be relying on HA I would suggest you move this to an unRaid VM, i've switched to unRaid based on your advice and it's been amazing. Pi will have it's limits, mainly SD card failures which are extremely common in this application. An added benefit of using a VM/unRaid is if you are having Z-Wave issues, you can pass the Z-Wave stick to a Windows VM where you can run an application like "zensys-tools" to perform advanced Z-Wave commands that might not be supported by Z-Wave JS i.e. setting up a secondary SIS/SUC controller (including a secondary hub like smart things, etc). This will not mess up your network as all your devices are paired to the stick, the stick itself can be used anywhere it's saved my bacon a few times.
This video highlights the importance on THE LAB Linus is creating to test whatever he decides to test. The Collection of Linus' channels actually reach the higher up at companies that easily ignore the common person without a platform like his. For most companies, tech issues are lumped into their "OTHER" category and rarely get addressed, because it requieres a big time commitment from the costumer to even get to this "OTHER" category option and thus only a fraction of the people having the issue actually report it, giving up.
Elechicken here: For occupancy sensing WattStopper is the end all be all of set it and forget it. Their self-learning is amazing and the lack of issues I have from them says everything. (They have a minute delay to start). For whole home smart systems, there is nothing better than Lutron Homeworks right now. Square D Clipsal is nice, but not as adaptable and as well supported. There is a key thing here though, in that you NEVER put occupancy sensors in a bedroom! They work great for bathrooms, garages, mech rooms, etc. Don't use them in your normal living spaces or you will be driven insane. You're trying to use tech solutions that are not well thought out from small companies with no real R&D budget and lots of open source software. There's a reason Lutron charges so much for their systems. They are well done, reliable, and have a huge R&D budget behind the development to avoid all these annoyances.
Two thing about this video. 1. You guys should definitely work with that company to develop a motion switch, because it would be a solution available to a large number of consumers. I know personally I've tried to setup similar systems in my own home to be met with some of the same problem you are dealing with. 2. As glad as I am that this issue got resolved, and that Jasco was willing to provide their firmware to the community.... I was really hoping for a video of linus storming down to some office and throwing a giant box of un-updatable lightswitches on their lobby floor.
Very strange that none of the customer service could even know that there was no firmware to update even if they wanted to release it. Like that could be a simple lookup table for support to have when working with products.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to make a switch's firmware. They need to just make it properly and give out firmware. It's not a difficult concept to grasp.
Linus, I think you did really well on the Jasco call - I've been in this sort of position myself - I understand it; the supreme frustration of support staff who are 100%-on-script, won't deviate to agree with the caller on something *they themselves know to be true* - Plus they know it would reduce the number of support calls! Your complaints were all valid, and totally ignored in favour of the script response. And yes - My role was taking the calls [at a hospital]; I used *AGREEING* with callers as a defence mechanism to calm them down. It worked.
This single video watching Linus go through all the stages of rage I go through dealing with anything IOT has made me feel sane for the first time in forever.
I love the home videos. It makes me feel better seeing Linus go through similar greif with technology and renovations. Though he had all the power of the web behind him.
1000% go the inovelli route. I was so happy on the day that I took out my last GE dimmer to replace it with an inovelli one. I've seen how they build their devices with input from their community so I'm confident that you'd be very happy with the end result if they're looking to work with you to design a new motion switch.
I think a separate based motion sensor that activates the lights would be a better idea anyway. And you could use that for other purposes like an alarm. I'd suggest he does their upcoming zigbee, not zwave.
Can second that Inovelli makes great products and has amazing documentation. I still like the idea of separate motion devices or even better look at the new present detection devices using millimeter wave
I have both Inovelli and Jasco switches. I am fighting the same problems with the Jasco switches but I wanted a powered motion sensor in a few select locations (7). Everywhere else I went with Inovelli and love them... except they have been out of stock for over a year now. On Inovelli's recomendation I finished my house with Zooz. I had initially purchased only enough Inovelli for half of what I would eventually need. Too bad they don't have stock or make a combo motion switch.
Im glad that most of the frustration here ended up being ignorance, on both sides, and mostly good-will, on both sides. I understand the minefield that this became.. and I'm glad that you did it before most of us decided to go down a similar path. -- Thank you for your sacriices.
Jake staring at the ground and fiddling with a radio while Linus yells Customer Service, is exactly like when your parents are yelling at someone while you're standing by as a kid lol.
Or when you're at a friends house and their parents are shouting at them and you know they're probably going to tell you to go home.
Make this top comment pls.
"Of course, I don't blame you, Harry dear"
Was about to say the same thing
That is cute af
It’s a shame it takes a “high profile influencer” like Linus complaining about this for a company to figure it out and improve things, but I’m glad you were able to get them to change their minds
See it the other way
Thanks to UA-camrs like Linus, we can actually have a bigger voice in all this BS that companies actually "hear and listen" to
As a side note Linus isn't a “high profile influencer” anymore, that was at his best around the year 2018... he's not even the elephant in the business anymore... he's a part of the jungle already :) he has more coverage than some reputable TV channels have.
shit like this is exactly why i don't get into smart home stuff. it's all buggy and insecure as hell and you can't talk to anyone.
@@unlink1649 you should check out the stuff that Bosch and Philips have here in Germany
Really good quality and customer support
@@vic.enzo.r0 Indeed, but has the level of influence on companies that is needed to make companies want to solve things to avoid bad PR.
It never ceases to amaze me how efficiently home automation can complicate your life.
But this is mostly an issue about design and Jasco has a terrible design and firmware policies.
I'm a firm believer in not adding technology where it does not need to be. Light switches are one of those places.
@@desert123100 I'm fine with reasonably dumb lighting, but mine has a master off switch (vacancy detection) instead of a "smart" hub so there's that. It's mostly selfmade and hacked to shit together.
What on earth is wrong with just normal heckin light switches?
When you use shit DIY solutions, it does. Proper solutions from Integrators are usually problem free and set up by someone who does this all the time and ALREADY knows the shortcomings of specific products so you dont have to "Beta test" your own home where things should just ALWAYS WORK.
Wow this is such a win, in 2 weeks they basically open sourced their firmware when they couldn't even give it out due to proprietariness. I can imagine the product managers running around like headless chickens to fix this hell.
They knew how much bad publicity this would mean for them given the viewership. Its a shame it took someone famous to drive a change.
I'm a product manager for a large corporation, and this type of situation is my nightmare. But don't get me wrong, the jasco product manager (and jasco at large) deserved every bit of hell that Linus unleashed on them, because they released a bad product with a dogshit support strategy. I love Linus for holding their feet to the fire. That letter at 26:35.... fucking chef's kiss!!!
If it takes an influencer to fix the problem, it's still a problem.
Firmware isn’t proprietary, it’s integral to the functionality of the hardware you already bought. Not providing firmware means you are ultimately falsely advertising your product, because if it can’t do anything that the firmware enables it to do because you choose not to provide it then you lied to your customer about what they bought. That’s part of why it’s so ridiculous Jasco wouldn’t give it out, because it’s not proprietary and yet they claimed it was.
Project managers??? Fix??? I would wager there was a meeting where everyone collectively threw the most competent and overworked software engineer under the bus and he or she was tasked with gathering and packaging up all the files with a neat little bow that the person "overseeing" the project managers then handed to the VP who handed it back to the same poor engineer with instructions to "dissimulate appropriately." All managers involved then re-applied all the anti-perspirant they sweated off in the meeting while spitballing, shakily crawled into their BMWs, and related their horribly difficult day to their spouse while that one engineer worked late to publish the fix.
Five stages of grief
14:26 Denial
19:00 Anger
19:46 Bargaining
23:29 Depression
25:43 Acceptance
Why is this so scarely accurate.
DABDA = Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance
@@wetenschap123 because Linus is human, lol.
And the sixth was success.
I feel this.... So many painful tech support calls
I truly can't wait if we ever get to a day where all this "smart home stuff" isn't a nightmare for setup and running. Some automations are amazing, but some devices are such a headache
Not just a headache, they're most of the time a unnecessary headache that shouldn't be a headache!
@@Donnerwamp not really, cause it can give you benefits like saving electricity, automated AC turning on an hour before you come home, Sprinklers so that the grass and such waters itself without being overwatered, etc.
There are good solutions, like KNX, but it costs a bit more, and people don't want to pay for higher quality open protocols.
@@OmniKoneko I think what he's saying is that the 'features' that cause headaches are completely unnecessary
@@OmniKoneko the only thing I fear really is a watchdogs like scenario where if someone hacks into my network they can mess with my stuff just to be a jerk. I recently installed a few smart bulbs to try out ( running through an app) and am liking it. My wifi isn't the most reliable, so I don't trust running anything automated lol.
Isn't it sad that yet again, issues are only addressed when a channel like this highlights the issue. If Linus had not got these switches how long would this have continued?
Because he has way more attention than anyone else ?
Yes, very. forever!
@@itzKurou yep captain obvious. he means that if not somebody with wide audience behind him did that then the situation wouldnt change like it did in the end
@@ShotokanEditor lol... pot, meet kettle
@@randomlibrarian3810 Not really lol. Not obvious to PlasmaOW apparently.
As someone who works in software support this is a prime example of how incredibly difficult it can be to make change occur in medium to large software companies. Good on you guys keeping the pressure on and getting some positive change for the product! The smart home content on this channel is unbeatable.
Jake is like their oldest kid, any house video - he's there.
He came with the house
He's probably living there, and honestly I understand why. It's like Disneyland for nerd
that used to be luke. but that big boi went off to college
I could use Jake at our house for a month.
@@SquintyGears Did he actually go back to college? I thought he just switched over to Floatplane because he already knew how to code.
We need someone like EU to mandate that when company stops actively supporting a product they must open-source their firmware. Otherwise we're going to end up with piles of e-garbage.
this is a great idea
for sure!!!!
Matter solves this because the firmware is open source from the get go.
Great idea, but companies will push back hard on this, because they know that many people will stick with their older products that have community support, and ignore their newer lines.
Plus, competitors (although, that works both ways)
the EU? give me a break hahaha!
It makes me so mad that when i have a tech issue, the company tells me to kick rocks, and when Linus has an issue 2 weeks later the CEO is dming him. These companies don't care at all about real people, just other brands
oh no they do, you just have to wait for the other 7.7 billion people in the world to adapt before they surely know no one else is around to blow their money on there shitty products they sucker us into purchasing that we dont actually need
They care about money
this is why people like linus and other respected tech groups are fucking INVALUABLE to the tech community. theyre the ones who listen to us, who make change happen.
They would respond if you had a verified Twitter profile lol
Companies are fully aware how it is to live in todays cancel culture. You need to be super quick to get ahead of any crisis like this or it can be the end of your company. But as you say, they actually don't care about the customer, they only care about PR. You as a normal customer do not have the reach to create a cancel avalanche so they don't care.
I hate that it takes a blow to a company’s credibility to change an awful choice that they did.
thats how all companies work.
@@Firnienarya It really isn't. It's just the ones that have almost complete monopolies.
Boy that sure is a pertinent statement now.
@@xession It really isn't if you pay attention to what was actually said.
Logitech still does not give a shit tho lol
been waiting on this since it came up on WAN show. This is the greatest tech video of all time...never has there been a greater example of fighting the battle we all love/hate to fight.
Shame he didn't pull out the "I have a 100 of these installed and I'm going to have to see about invoicing you guys for the replacement labor costs, and refund of all units since your advertising on functionality was false"
19:01 the closest we've ever come to seeing Linus lose his freakin mind. Can't say I'd handle it better. I'd be livid tbh. Such a dumb problem with the firmware.
im getting frustrated watching this idk how hes so calm!
I feel his pain. I hate blowing up on customer service reps, but when you've gone through everything to get to the point they did... I'd be furious.
i'm thinking of paying floatplane, because i'm sure there is the where the mind goes boom
that face mate I'm crying hahahahaha
@@SlevinKalevera I would be fine until the monotone "That is correct"
The true measure of a company is not the mistakes they make, but how they react to said mistakes. That being said, I think Jasco ended up doing pretty well in the end. There is however one issue. If Linus wasn't Linus, this would have gone a different direction. There is no way a company like that would have gone through any of this level of resolution for an average consumer.
This. The issue regarding the assigned ID and firmware version numbers would have been found and fixed eventually, if there is no pressure from bad rep in the media, which would case a decrease in profit the firmware would not have been released in a long time.
That’s why you have to appreciate a guy like Linus, whose impatience for bullcrap has on numerous occasions led to these kinds of outcomes. Sucks that the average consumer doesn’t really have much say, but kudos to Linus for getting it done.
Yeah this would end with "that is correct" "that is correct" "that is correct" as it almost always does.
Yeah but it's not like they would trive as company in the end having bad products, especially this type of a product.
as far as I can see they didn’t do shit until a youtube giant like LTT made a fuss about it
Anybody else just love Linus and jakes friendship, I absolutely love watching them bounce ideas back and forth and just joke around
Update: Linus on the phone talking like an angry dad, honestly I’d be scared to be on the other side of that phone
@@fnomega Welcome to Customer Service. It sucks being the one yelled at for a shitty company's policies and structure that you have no authority in changing.
It's unfortunate that someone with the status of Linus has to call out Jasko for their service on firmware updates before something structurally changes. I'm glad Jasko followed through and I hope it's a message to other companies that you can't get away with shit like this.
They don't learn from other companies mistakes (i.e. Newegg). They barely learn from their own. As long as they continue to turn a profit CEOs and CFOs don't give a crap.
Yea its pretty bad when you consider that without someone like Linus, who has a high reputation, all of us everyday citizens would be left in the cold and ignored by such a deaf tone response. The woman on the phone also had a poor customer service etiquette and resorted to "I can't help you" instead of " I'm sorry this is an issue for you, although the company stance is this - I will chase this up further internally for you and see what solution we can come up with". It shouldn't take a social media PR manager to pick up the pieces and do the work of a customer service rep.
They were shamed into doing the right thing to avoid negative publicity. If it were you or I they wouldn't care.
@@Bazwalt Yup, like I get, when dealing with these support agents that they have no direct power or access to go and email the firmware stuff.
But I appreciate when they at least agree that the situation is not good and say they're going to pass that information up at a minimum. Like put it into the pipeline.
@@thekwoka4707 Yea that's it. The agent just had no interest in even trying to find a solution and was not absorbing what Linus was saying. As a customer service representative myself, I never say no. I make an effort to ask or try and meet the customers expectations, if my superior rules me out - fine, at least I tried for the customers sake.
I know everyone else has said this, but thank you for finding an issue and having the influence to call the company out on their bs. Now, if only you could take on ISP's in the US... but hey, small miracles.
Small... That would be monumental task my friend, I don't think he could do it even if he was a US senator
A story ripped through our neighborhood once and the Comcast node junction thing on the utility pole was destroyed. Two weeks later everything was fixed except that Comcast doodad. I kept calling support and they had the balls to tell me
1. There was no storm damage.
2. My internet service was not down.
"Sir, there was no damaged caused by a storm."
"Yes there was! I'm looking right at it!"
"No, you're not.."
He's in Canada
What? I love getting throttled. I love the random outages every few days. I love having a monthly bandwidth cap. I love that I can't change to a competing ISP because there are none in my area. I love the useless customer support. Why would anyone want any of that to change?
@@Haligonian That's why R0adKill specified US. Just because LTT is based in Canada doesn't mean that they don't have the influence to affect positive change on products/services from non-Canadian companies.
That said, US ISPs (and I assume elsewhere, but I lack the experience to comment) are notoriously bad and self-centered with a near-monopoly on their regional markets, so good luck enacting positive change on what has ultimately become a new utility that happens to be equal parts necessity and entertainment.
This is possibly the most relatable content Linus has ever produced.
Phone support, especially computer based, makes me *really, really* mad. I always end up swearing at the computer on the phone.
I treat the humans better, but with dumb companies who clearly don't care about their customers, they really setup their customer service agents (CSA) up for failure.
Gratefully, it's been quite a few years since I was last a CSA, and more gratefully it was a company that supported us supporting other humans in a human way. Except the obvious, yes, you called our cab service, but we don't serve your area, I almost never had an impoossibly, unfixable situation.
One woman who called our service from a city we didn't even cover? I literally drove across the country and ended up at her cross street when I was trying to refind the highway on a road trip. I was laughing so hard, it took a while to make sense telling my wife about it. LOL She was cities away from our service area.
@@DENicholsAutoBravado right! that first line! its like it tells every american how bad their healthcare system is. you have to PAY for healthcare, and you would expect it to be better? then why are you guys down buy 46th well canadian healthcare is up by 12th. ones free. and one you have to go into debt for the rest of your life even if you have your coupon insurance card.
ESPECIALLY about the hold-music that is interrupted by a pre-recorded voice telling you have to wait longer
I also relate into spending 10k into light switches.
I dont really see where it helps anyone besides their own issues?. it doesnt show how they solve the problems?
I feel bad for the customer support lady
It must be absolute hell to work on her position on a scummy company having to tell frustrated customers things they probably don't want to hear and sometimes get collateral'd from it
She acted very professional regardless and hope she and her team are getting paid well nobody should work as a company's customer relations meat shield for pennies knowing it will destroy your emotional stability
This includes social media pages people don't understand sometimes that they're talking to the souls of the damned not the devil when "voicing their opinions"
true, and companies intentionally keep these people on the frontlines to bear the brunt of most of customer remorse. Like a meat shield.
I don't envy her. Not that Linus was in any way out of line, though. It was an incredibly stupid process and chances are she was just as frustrated that she wasn't allowed to do the simple thing that would have resolved the issue. As someone who has worked customer service in places where I basically had to make excuses for poor management/policies to people that were pissed that I couldn't do anything despite the caller and me both knowing exactly what I would need to do if I was allowed to: The closest thing to a silver lining here is that she's probably not even getting paid enough to care about taking it personally. The more flak a company knows it's going to take, the more expendable their first-level support staff is going to be. It's a vicious cycle: A company doesn't invest in good support or communication with their customers, leading to justifiably angry calls, leading to burnout and turnover, leading to a scramble to hire more people for the meat grinder.
he was very tough to say the least but he's never pass the point with her by any second , as a ppl who works with these stuff everyday he must be molding inside , cuz is really dumb politicians , firmware isnt something that u can't block the ppl who buy your things from having it , specially when its not running properly
@@dovid916 She didn't get mad though? Like you could hear in her voice that she was tired of saying this shit but she does it to 40+ customers a day so...
Also if you consider that tilted and yourself calm after dealing with worse shit than she is then I envy your temper and patience.
Because modern society is all about dissolution of responsibility when it comes to all that stuff. 90% of the time you're interacting with people who don't know/don't care and hold zero responsibility. So you're told to go seek out this other person/company ad nauseam to solve the problem . I've literally ended up in a complete circle several times.
After years testing various motion switches in many different parts of my house, I can honestly say they're only really useful (even in tandem with more advanced home automation setups) in a very limited set of areas in the home.
Otherwise, the programming to get them to not do dumb things is so complicated, you spend more time trying to program them to behave in a useful way (and offend everyone else living in the same space) than it's worth. And I say that as someone who regularly spends way too much time programming dumb things :D
I currently have motion switches in parts of my basement (but not the main lights), my office, my garage, and my laundry room.
Hey its Jeff! Your videos are awesome man
I wonder if you could just feed the data of the sensors, not limited to motion sensing but also inside light intensity, time, date, your calendar, outside weather data, and possibly even video into a neural net, and penalize it whenever you have to actuate the lights manually, and reward it when it takes an action that has not resulted in a manual action within a set time-frame.
Maybe then it would be actually sophisticated enough to be as useful as a person just accompanying you and learning your habits and turning lights on and off, instead of an array ofbazilluons of if-statements
Does it make more sense to have motion detectors that control switches? I think that would be easier to program, and you could use the motion detectors for other scenarios as well. Love your channel BTW!
Yeah. I've done ... something like 150 or so installations of these types of switches for clients out of nearly 1000 since i left the roost and started building on my own. They're really not that useful unless you have a specific need for them.
What is useful is using them in reverse. IE, you turn on the light manually (or by motion/other commands) and then after a preset time is spent, and nothing happens, in conjunction with a throwable switch and a smart or dumb system, use the motion system to pop the switch off. That's when they're really useful. The scenario being that you went in the bathroom, turned the light on, you're done, but you didn't close the light cause it's late. So the system takes over, sees no motion for say 20 minutes and pops the switch off. I've even had a program where it would reactivate the switch internally, if within 2 minutes of the throw, there's motion inside.
Other than that, raw motion switches are not a good option.
Not only can you "offend" the people your living with but also sometimes the people who are visiting.
That's why I have my motion based automations to only activate when my phone's bluetooth is detected.
LTT team, thank you for stepping up on this for everyone, using your influence to solve a anti-consumer scenario. I do not use Jasco products, but is really nice know that you don't do what you do just for the money.
Amen to that
screaming at someone just doing their customer service job was the best part. love that. it will teach her to... to... yeah, learn that lady!
Now if only Lutron saw his reasoning to avoid their light switches and make a move on updating them. I love mine but Linus’ complaints about the switch feel is too true. I’m willing to look past it for the convenience of remote access but man, they feel super cheap for the price.
@Lucas Dillmann when I saw your name here I was like: I know that guy haha
@@bb-wb8sb he was polite and far less harsh than he should have been. he should have demanded to speak to someone with a brain and actual authority. also should have demanded a partial refund while keeping the product.
Can you *imagine* being an average homeowner or business owner or, worse yet, a veteran electrician who is not computer savvy trying to install implement this kind of thing? Or getting 'certified'?! And pushing hard enough that they eventually tracked down that the firmware had been entered as decimal instead of hexadecimal...brilliance, gang...brilliance! This is why we love everyone at LTT.
It's honestly easy, as an average homeowner I realize thing that connecting everything to internet/bluetooth is just stupid and would simply buy normal switches. Some of those "smart" devices is just putting more tech in to things for the sake of putting more tech.
It's nothing short of amazing that in 2022 the state of home automation is such that the only consumer it appeals too is geeks who would pay extra money for a worse experience.
In too many cases with this smart tech craze, "automating" can literally boil down to "auto" = "self" and "mating" = "screwing".
I work as a carpenter and we subcontract out electrical work, and our go to electrician literally warns people to not use these because of this shite.
@@artur6912 Exactly. "Home automation" is idiotic.
The number one recommendation that I have is to only buy one or two devices from a single Manufacturer initially, and then test them out for a Month or two before going all in on them. It will help to limit your frustration to couple of devices when you are troubleshooting things and if you still are not able address all the issues, you are not out a lot of money/time if you need to switch out those devices.
Most times I agree with this, but it is quite hard when you built a new home or renovate an existing one
@@jupiterjones3789 lol right? "k everyone we're only gonna have working lights in 2 rooms for a month"
@@TheNatos 🤣🤣🤣
But this way he can add more drama in the video.
@@jupiterjones3789 Building or renovating a home takes time. It's not unreasonable to think ahead, and buy the stuff to test it out before the moment comes where you're gonna install all of it in the house. So I don't know, i think it's still pretty solid advice.
Watching this I'm reminded why I love normal light switches that just turn on and off and don't require firmware updates.
Absolutely. The switches in my house are a mishmash of kinda old silent switches and REALLY old clicky ones. I like the basement switch the best, it gives a solid CLICK and the lights are on or off.
My lights are automated with Wiz lightbulbs (they create really nice natural light). All my switches are dumb switches but you can change the light bulbs mode by clicking them in certain patterns. Best solution I've ever had
There is a beauty and simplicity to traditional 20th century analog devices.
Too much lately we have become obsessed with tech for tech's sake, just to have more gadgets. Most of which are 99% unnecessary, the purpose is to provide a source of income for whoever invented it.
Is it really that difficult to walk around the room and turn on light switches?
Are we really 'so busy' we can't be burdened with the detour, or are we so lazy that having a motion sensing light switch is an ironic waste of money?
And to think there was once a day when we had to fashion cylinders of hardened hydrocarbons and burn them for light. (candles)
MFW I turn on my light by spin it to right and turn it off by spin it to left
Even better, live that hermit lifestyle and just never turn them on in the first place
I'm glad Linus is showing us all this new smart home, wifi lighting stuff. Because it makes it really easy for me to decide that I want normal a$$ everything in my house
I think it really shows everyone that even huge techie with a staff that is PAID to learn and set it up that there are still huge issues. The smart home industry really needs to take a look in the mirror when it comes to updating their products and making them easier to install/setup/use.
I have to argue the only stopping issue is companies not assisting end users to items they already purchased.
@@ivanho34 It is because they bought shit products. There are good stuff out there.
Linus literally went through the five stages of grief in a single video
15:59 - bargaining
22:20 - anger (for about the 4th time)
23:17 - depression
25:53 - acceptance?
It is impressive the amount of power you guys hold now because of your audience and the scale. Good job team. Entertaining video seriously.
Honestly though, it shouldn’t take an influencer to fix things. Companies should just NOT DO STUPID AND PROBABLY ILLEGAL SHIT LIKE THIS!
@@jeremydale4548 It's like Linus said, they compare risk vs reward, is leaving the bug and dealing with mad people cheaper than fixing it? Many times the answer is yes UNLESS a customer has pull somewhere or an audience. You need to remember that companies are not people, they are there to make money, period. Only the customers can make them change and that usually takes a popular customer.
@@jeremydale4548 What I'm more baffled about is that how in the world did Linus NOT SEE A REVIEW OR DO ANY RESEARCH on the product?
I mean the guy is buying 100 switches. 100.
I don't have an issue with epilepsy or anything, but I think the dinging when the light was flickering and then when it stopped was genius. I've always wondered just what the heck people who are at risk of seizures are supposed to do during the warnings when they have no way of knowing once it's safe. Just peek and hope for the best I guess?
Smart having the audio cue!
I'm not epileptic either, but I do really hate flashing/strobing lights, so I really appreciate those small but incredibly helpful and thoughtful warnings too. And using the ding to say it's stopped is great.
Most videos actually just show a time when the epilepsy trigger in no longer there. I think the best solution is doing both and let people do what they want
@@andre1396-r1g that's true, I've seen a few that do they; but I also feel I've seen just as many that just do a warning with no indication of when that segment ends.
Then there's those that do a blanket thing where the beginning just warns there's flashing lights and I guess epileptics would just avoid the whole video altogether.
And lastly there's the few that don't even warn
@@Kitteh.B they may be low quality/effort channels that dont perticularly care but seeing how good YT copyright and how tough demonatization is, to think that they would place the warnings themselfs. Also i dont remember seeing any video where the epilepsy warning didnt have a endpoint, or to be accurate, dont remember so
@@andre1396-r1g that's fair, I like to just think it's people who are unaware, and not just malicious/lazy haha
As for ones without an endpoint, I know I've thought "why don't they have a way for people to know when it's over?" Before but it's not something I can think of a direct example of, since it doesn't affect me and was mostly just a fleeting thought :[
That said, what I'm thinking of may have been like "the next scene contains flashing lights" without an exact endpoint and the, let's say... accompanying phaser sounds, might be audio cue ENOUGH to tell when it's over, but it wasn't explicitly said "after you hear the phasers it's safe." That sorta thing, just vague, y'know? Whereas this video was very clear on when to avert your eyes and when it's safe, which I found to be courteous to those who need it :D
With motion sensors all around the house, it would be near impossible for Dennis and Ethan to secretly live inside the new house.
why do you think they sabotaged the release of the firmware to the general public that would fix the motion sensors so tape is on all of them and they had an inside "garth" to tell them to put them in manual.
was gonna like the comment but its at 69
They just need Jake as the inside man turning off smart capabilities and creating diversions as the guests are moving about .. performing their tasks
@@aDelPizzarito They're all networked...so Jake don't even need to be Inside haha
I'm just happy for the software engineers at Jasco prolly being heard for the first time in ever by their bosses.
idk, i think they are being lectured by their bosses
@@maji0 Lectured for what, not speaking up louder when they likely voiced their concerns of these issues? I do hope they take this video/issue in stride and push to update their products though. Accountability for issues like this needs to start somewhere though, even if it's outside of their company.
@@Dylesxic Unironically yes, I've seen it happen
nah bosses are always right, right?
Yeah the whole withholding firmware thing definitely sounds like a upper management decision. You can’t just open a firmware file and be like hah I got all your secret source code
What I find particularly odd in the modern age of so-called "smart devices" is that they are ridiculously limited in their functionality and tweakability.
In the earlier ages of computing and consumer electronics there were far more options to play with (like, all of them).
Back before 2008, proprietary info wasn't as big a issue for GE because they had the resources, the funding, and the logistics to fix their products. Now that they're a fragmented husk of that time, more and more of their products are going without necessary support and the proprietary knowledge still lingers. I wouldn't blame the higher ups for the proprietary crap because they have so many products and limited resources to deal with. I agree, if a company cannot manage firmware, they should be pressured to release it publically.
Yeah. Its the thing that happens when they roll things out to the masses as a standard thing. They have to go lowest common denominator because stupid people get angry and blame tech when they mess up settings
Nah he gotta be tweakin
I have yet to see any REAL benefit to all of this "smart house" stuff.
Perhaps if you're handicapped.
Lol, far more options 😂😂
Inovelli Red switches will allow you to keep constant power to that smart Yeelight bulb. Then you can program the Inovelli switch so the physical on/off buttons on the switch can turn the smart bulb on or off. You get the best of both worlds with that.
I feel your pain on all this and wish setting up a smart home was easier.
They'll also be releasing a zigbee based switch with similar functionality soon. Actually getting their hardware right now is far from easy right now, though (and in my experience has been hard since well before the pandemic.) Great products, great community involvement, but logistics could use improvement (not entirely their fault.)
Like a smart person. I watched a bunch of Smart Home Solver videos before buying smart switches to go with my smart lights :)
Linus, please do a video on this. Compare the ecosystems
@@leebannister3759 that's not even remotely their goal. they aren't here to help the smart home community, or they would have published detailed instructions on how to get the garage door opener up and running.
Theres a zwave chip shortage and its almost impossible to get thier switch but they do make the best switches
I don’t think I’ve ever seen Linus legitimately get upset in a video before! There are some things in life I like the tweaky nerd friendly option, and there are some things in life I want something that just works. Not saying I have a hundred switches or anything but I’ve been very happy with my Leviton/Homekit setup. The hardest part was explaining to my electrician why I wanted to use my switches instead of theirs. Homekit is definitely not the tweaker’s option but I think we are still in the early adopter phase. Things will definitely get more fleshed out with time.
He had the angry mouth twitch people get.
When i9-10980XE released... Man.
Linus reacting to nvidia screwing over Hardware Unboxed. Edit: Had to go back and rewatch it like damn, linus almost looks like he wanted to punch the wall/screen at times
Linus got pretty upset over TeamViewer on WAN a while back.
Trying to get consumer smart home stuff to work will do that to anyone.
There is a vulnerability in the Z-wave protocol in both S0 and S2 versions. So when you guys include new devices make sure to check if the key on the box or on the device is the same as that shown on the screen. This flaw can be used for example to obtain the S2 access key and open a front door or a garage, so please be careful. I published a research on this some months ago.
this needs more attention, that is a huge flaw, and security risk.
Good to know hence the reason for releasing the latest firmware publicly to get the security issues addressed.
I've been out of the custom integration industry since about 2017. I always preferred Zigbee Pro to anything Z-wave. Has there been any Zigbee pro vulnerabilities exposed since then?
@@raymathews6612 There is a similar vulnerability in ZigBee in which the keys are sent in clear text during the inclusion, also there are no certification for smart devices so you cannot be sure that will work well together. One good protocol for the future will be Thread.
The vacancy mode is like a "pretending there's people at home so robbers don't know the house is empty"
I was wondering why you would want the lights on when no one is present and this makes sense.
Yeah. You could also set em up to turn on when motion is detected thru outdoor cameras or something like that.
@@Alexis-lt3zy yeah, but it could require external cameras for that. it would be better (or at least not more expensive) to use a time pattern with added randomness
I'm disapointed it takes something of this level before a company will even consider something as obvious as providing firmware updates to their customers directly, but I'm glad it worked out.
I love how you can have such an influence on a company and the entire industry just because your channel is so big and popular. They clearly didn’t want too much negative press from their firmware policy.
This is the better kimd of influencer
@@Malc180s ?
@@Malc180s better than commander in diapers we have right now
@@andrasfauszt1693 He uses his power both for Good and for Awesome
I really don't like it at all. It's nice Linus and others get them to get off the asses and do things but that's what our regulatory bodies were meant to do, to make sure industry delivers on it's promises or GTFO for someone that will.
"We provide the firmware to hub companies, but not you" "Fine, I'm my own hub company" might be a good way to do it.
linus wants change for everyone not just himself for problems like that he sees it as a. bandaid solution
@@Imblitzyboi We can all be hub companies. Think outside the wall box.
ZwaveJS2Mqtt already offers firmware upgrades for z-wave devices in Home Assistant. It's just a new system for them, and HA docs are hit or miss for the most part.
hub companys have to pay big money to the producer aka license fees
I'm late to this one but It's by far my favorite video on this channel. The frustration is so relatable but the fact that it also made a difference by forcing the company to at least partially correct their mistakes is very rewarding.
I dealt with this kind of issue with a router a few years back. Company wouldn't supply the firmware to customers, they ONLY give it to the ISP to push out to their customers, but the ISP REFUSED to push out updates to people who didn't rent routers from them, so if you owned your own router you couldn't get the firmware to update.
Reminds me that because of the switch here from analogue phones to voip i now can’t replace my modem with a better 3rd party one because telstra refuses to provide customers their password for their voip phone account.
At least my current modem actually works my old one had a model wide fault that caused it to overheat and drop connection regularly.
Though with the amount of connection outages plus the last big outage when they messed up the NBN node by the road i bit the bullet and installed a cell-fi repeater so i now actually have mobile signal and mobile backup for my modem. “Was a dead zone from the street/fence line because of the hill”.
This shit needs to be illegal
@@nathnathn nice to see a fellow Australian in the comments of LTT. I share your frustrations with telstra, having similar experiences. Particularly living outside of a major city where they're often the only reliable option
That is some anti-consumer pro-capitalism behavior to the point of blatant exploitation for profits. The firmware restriction to the ISP should be lifted the moment you buy the router.
Australian here also :)
I never thought I'd appreciate a normal old light switch this much.
ikr 😂
I love tech, and for years I wanted to get into home automation especially seeing how inexpensive it's become and how infinitely customizable it looks. But I've seen tons of videos like this and it's made me decide that I'm good with the old and my life isn't worse off because of it.
What do you mean NORMAL? that means smart switches NOT NORMAL? that's pretty Smartswitchphobic dude. 😒
"why are we sitting in the dark?"
"because this is the future and our lights needs a bios flash" :(
There are very many reasons I don't bother with "smart home" devices, or any IoT devices of any sort. Config issues and getting different manufacturers to play well with each other - even on supposedly "open" standards - is merely one of the reasons.
Jake uncomfortably staring at the floor and fidgeting with the radio while Linus is on with tech support is so relatable, exactly how I am when I have to sit in on a serious conversation
orrr he's been around for many of his rants and tantrums and it's his way of shutting down
@@00mandrew That seems unlikely Mr. Psychologist
It reminds me of a child not knowing what to do with themself when their parents are talking to the parents of a bully on the phone :D
It's like me when my boss is on the phone to a customer or another worker and I'm sat next to him and I can hear him get angry and frustrated in his voice
9 years ago I installed a smartthings hub and GE z-wave switches for my main level. Not the embrighten ones but the original switches you could have gotten at Lowes when they had their initial smart home kick. I had most of my main floor automated as well as my garage door opener tied to the system. EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF ZWAVE EQUIPMENT PROCEEDED TO BREAK ABOUT 3 YEARS AGO. The garage door opener stopped working because of a known design issue where when the soldered on LED burns out it just faults out. The zwave switches all failed in various states. Most the relay stopped responding in the off position so neither the app or the switch could turn on the light. My dimmer kept working on manual but could never resync to the app. In the end I have one working piece of zwave equipment left. A zwave dual relay I use in my garage to automate a dual switch as there never was a good solution from GE or any other provider. I've switched all of my other equipment over to TP-link kasa as the price is roughly a third per switch ($45 vs $15) and the reliability seems to be there. Plus I can just update the firmware in my kasa app.
I would have loved to continue to use zwave, but the equipment always felt shoddy and the support was always groups of people like us. While there was a huge selection of z-wave equipment about 10 years ago (hell monoprice even had a good line) everyone seems to have abandoned the protocol other than GE. Monoprice only has a door / window sensor left in their zwave range. It's a sad for the protocol.
Linus, here's a video idea for you. How did z-wave fall so damn fast? It can't be just that wifi devices became an alternative.
I'm so glad this video addresses the utter and pure pain experienced when things you buy and pay hard-earned money for straight-up DON'T work. And it's getting harder and harder to talk to actual human beings behind these products, so most of the time you are just literally screwed. This should be addressed more and I'm so glad Linus did that in this video in a way that voiced ALL our frustrations with situations like these. Well done man, glad you use your platform to address these things and urge companies to do better. Loved the video!
Indeed. I feel these days companies more and more don't care about me as a customer but all they care about is my money and once they have gotten it, I can go f myself or whatever I please to do, they don't care. It's so furiating and frustrating that the brand new thing you just bought doesn't work in any other scenario than just one very specific one and that one very specific scenario is not the one which you experience every single day.
At the same time, don't get frustrated with the entry-level customer support or service workers, get frustrated with the company instead. This mentality that it's okay to have a tantrum because you spent money is incredibly immature and stupid, blame the companies and purchase from a different source next time, get a refund, and DO NOT BLAME the support workers whom often deal with the same information you have.
if support has the same info users have then why work for that company just reiterating what the directions say? kind of a useless position IMO
@@MrBrander that’s why for some things I just find it easier and cheaper the old way. Sometimes making things smarter just makes them more of a complicated pain.
@@SuperJWATT You don't get an entry level job for how useful it is, you get it because someone will pay you for it. That lady would probably have lost her job if she gave him the files he wanted, might not have had access to someone with the authority to make that decision and still handled Linus's anger in a very reserved and professional way.
Not to mention she probably informed management about the call she had with him which is probably helped convince them to talk to Linus about changing their policy and provide the firmware for their products to the public; So since she enacted real positive change in that company I'd say she ended up being a pretty useful member of the team, no?
This feels like every home project ever. Thanks for being a real one Linus.
I've been keeping up with this issue since you first ranted about it on the WAN show. Its great that Jasco finally made the firmware available publicly, but I'd call it "Too little too late", and I would actively avoid any Jasco product I see in the future. This is for 2 simple reasons. 1: The fact that even with the latest firmware you are still unable to get expected behavior, meaning this drawback can likely be expected on most other Jasco devices, and 2: We all know that if it wasn't YOU (Or someone else with a social megaphone), it is guaranteed they would definitely NOT have made the firmware available publicly.
Thx for updating us on this!
Yep, if some company need a social backlash to do their job, you can't expect them to do it properly.
The phrase "THAT IS CORRECT" comes to mind.
The problem is that every company has some kind of failure of some kind, so if you boycott them all, you'll never be able to buy anything. At least they've learned from their mistake.
@@TimBoundy have they? All we know is they put a bandaid on a potentially huge pr problem. We don’t know that they learned from their mistakes
@@TimBoundy if they really fix their problem, no one will boycott it man. My question is, did they really need a social backlash first to do their job? If you as customer report the same thing as Linus but you're a nobody, avarage joe without status to back your words, they'll ignore you. Linus isn't the first people to face this problem,and they did change after some social pressure, their social media dept saw things may go wrong and escalate the problem to upper management.
Fellow Home Assistant and ZWave Jasco switch user here and I feel your pain. You should look into millimeter waze sensors if you decide to go the multisensor route. That is what I plan to do next.
I never realized Linus and I had so much in common when it comes reacting to stupid stuff not working the way it should.
As for Jasco, it really does sound like too little too late in my opinion. If you need an influencer to get support, who knows how reliable it will be in the future.
I mean yeah the fix was too late but they've genuinely seem to change as a company which is seriously weird, I thought it was a marketing stunt at first but no they seem to be doing things right.
Yes but thats just how it works, it wouldn't surprise me if this just wasn't that big of an issue for most people. Linus put a lot of eyes on it and the company implemented changes and quickly which is pretty cool :)
That is correct, That is correct, That is correct, That is correct.
A few years ago I had this exact issue. I called, chatted online, emailed, etc to try to find something. I even tried to dump the firmware and reverse engineer it. Eventually my wife told me to just stop. I ended up buying multi sensors and use them for for triggering automations. I love the extra info like temperature, light level, and humidity on top of motion. I did dump the firmware but never did anything else since the multi sensors were great. I have also replaced the switches to just not deal with that nonsense.
May I ask you what are these multi sensors you use for your automation :) Thanks
@@stephaneneron at the time I bought the Zooz Series 700 4 in 1 sensor. I would probably go with the Aeotec 6 in 1 now.
I love how when Linus is chewing out the lady on the phone, Jake is just face down looking like a child when their mother is arguing at the grocery store LOL!
omg it's so true!
Yeah, it's great how he acts like a spoiled child and spits on the poor person who has no decision making power whatsoever.
@@herrpez What do you mean? Linus had every right to be upset and he didn’t attack the lady on the phone personally. If that’s who Jasco puts on the phone for customer support, that’s the only person he can talk to.
@@macse7en He has every right to be angry. He has no right to take his anger out on someone who has nothing to do with how the firmware is distributed.
@@macse7en Yeah but that's still a real person who probably has no power to do anything about it. She didn't make the decision. Get mad at the people who make the decision, not the messenger.
Wow this is amazing, I usually do installs of smart switches for churches, so I’ve installed a couple hundred of them. I’m really glad I went with Kasa Smart from the beginning. I can only imagine the absolute pain you guys went through
Screw these kind of companies. A Firmware Downloads page should be the bare minimum. A good company should provide the source code for the firmware so that customers can make whatever changes they want on their OWN devices.
Exactly, getting companies to agree to allow you to fully own hardware you have purchased is hard though. But when companies DO allow it, it's always a huge win. Look at DD-WRT for an example. It started off as an open-source replacement firmware for a specific Linksys router. It was far better than the stock firmware, and was such a success that other router manufacturers even started shipping their routers with DD-WRT as the default firmware. Hardware manufacturers need to stop the closed garden mentality and allow the open source community to make their products truly shine.
debatable, about releasing source code, but releasing an update should be fundamental for a 10k product.
@@shartnerd you mean : farm out even more responsibility to 3rd parties that you cannot contact when excrement hits the spinning blade ?
No.(period)
Things need to work as advertised from day 1.
If they don't then *THEY* need to fix it.
They need to be absolutely crystal clear on WHEN the product goes end-of-life and it should be something hidden somewhere on the interwebs.
And when they declare something 'end of life' that is when they need to provide all the info needed so someone else can continue support if need be.
That way non geeks can decide what to do when the support ends.
Open source is not a solution, but a stop gap to mask the lack of responsibility by manufacturers.
Proper lifetime support is the only solution customers can rely on.
Sony should release their software open source?
the entire point of smart systems like this is to con people like linus into becoming a botnet. why would they ever do that?
I have a system in my house where I just press the light switches on or off to control the lights. It seems to be a lot less hassle than this approach...
yeah i have the same bro i think is a allot better
Came here to post the same comment. 10k for smart switches that seem to cause a lot of hassle. How hard is it to just manually flip a switch when you enter or leave a space...
@@sonalita_ Linus says he prefers it that way too. He's doing this as partially a way to trial and make content about smart home automation, and partially as his own experiment to see how much this kind of home automation can save you over a long time. He literally gave up on one brand because the switches felt bad.
Yeah, this is the very definition of overthinking.
lmao
When Linus will sell this house in the future, he will have to write a full manual on how to use it
He'll have to put Jake out on loan so Jake can set it up again as I'd imagine Linus will be taking all his PC stuff with him.
By the time he moves out it'll either be able to relocate itself with it's host family or will at least be able to make its own manual.
These videos are the user manual 😹
Manual as thick as a phone book
Just link the 60 hours of videos :D
Brilliant Video, firmware updates have been an issue for many of us users. I use Zigbee with Home assistant for most of my stuff and its been very reliable. I'm now moving towards a hybrid of motion sensors and occupancy sensors to tell if a room is still occupied AFTER motion has stopped. All the logic is performed in Homeassistant and Nodered to give complete control.
As an electrician in Canada welcome to the nightmare of "smart" devices. We deal with this insane back and forth with company's screwing each other by making things not work with each other and not user friendly. I personally only use LUTRON cassetta devices as they seem to be the easiest to use and set up.
I used to use LIFX bulbs and had a ton of problems. I remolded my home last year and used Lutron casseta for my kitchen and dinning room. I was so impressed, I converted all my switches to them. The switches are expensive but I feel well worth the money.
I stumbled onto Lutron when I bought one of the lamp dimmers for the remote control functionality. Once I learned about the hub and what I could do I slowly replaced most of the switches in my house. The only issues I have is they are kind of pricey in Canada, and I am pretty limited to available bulbs that work well with the dimmer functionality in my market. Other than that they have been great, sync easily with Nest Home and Alexa, and the app really functional. I should mention I was really happy with the customer service as well. I do wish they had consumer grade outlets or smart plugs available for the system though.
yeh there are a lot of bad smart options havent tried LUTRON yet, but PLEJD is a pretty god option as well as really user friendly
Generally we tell customers to buy their own smart stuff as we don't want to be remotely responsible for a bad product.
This is an easy fix. Use a smart switch with no motion detector AND get a smart motion device.
You can disable the smart motion device automatically if you want.
Watching Linus lose his s**t was the funniest thing ive seen in a while, But a well deserved rant. great for getting a U-turn on the firmware for mortal humans. Great content as always
That is correct
But with potentially still no resolution
Treating support people like that when they aren't the ones making decisions on who gets firmware is extremely disrespectful.
@@chrisbendel4940 True, but they _will_ add to the frustration with their standard answers. They at that point are the representative of the company. If you have a product that has known flaws, train your support to handle frustrated customers that you can't help. Or just make a better product.
*That doesn't mean people should be rude. But they should be able to vent some frustration.
@@CJonestheSteam72 Oh I get that I really do.. but I think and this is just my opinion so really doesn't count for much. I think the bad press will force them to do something about it or lose out to competitors. Just my take
As a technology integrator in the home setting I have encountered this type of issue more times than I can count. This video made me bust out laughing witnessing the pure rage that befell Linus because of these product shortcomings. I’ve worked with all levels of Lutron and everybody’s got their own set of quirks to work around. Best of luck always love the content!
In regards to the dimming/ soft on “feature” one thing I found is a solution is to compensate for the pwm signal by using an automotive relay and signal smoother (usually just a capacitor in series) to bypass the rapid on/off pulsing these devices use to dim things like led lights.
Not saying this is a solution as it would involve buying 150 of these and wiring them all up to each switch - but if someone is really desperate it might help stop reset all the smart bulbs?
@@angelo3926 Or the manufacturer could just stop pretending that their standards compliant lightswitch is special and just publish the firmware or even firmware source code.
I personally will always go with open source solution if one is available. I've seen too many poorly designed devices crippled with bad software alone.
I'm excited to follow up on how this turns out. I'm moving in 3 months and plan on doing a smart home set up like yours. I've always trusted your judgment and will go with what ever works best for you.
IMO the perfect "smart switch" is one that works exactly like a dumb switch until its brains tell it to do something different. This would mean that a loss of connectivity would not render the switches useless, just dumb switches instead. This would also be a huge boon for resale-ability given the low adoption rate of smart home tech at this time.
I've always been a huge fan of dumb/simple automation. "If this, then that" NO APPS!
@@KamiCrit lol all home assistant automations are if this, then that. It's just that you can program a lot more ifs and thats.
Ive been using the Philips hue kenetic switches for years with no issues. They don't have a constant connection since they have no power source but react instantly when you tap them. They're customizable and have multiple (4) buttons that can all control different lights or groups of lights.
I have light switches.
@@wholesome.footage3923 Cool! Mine are heavy. :(
This Video is the definition of "modern problems require modern solutions"
“Problems”
We live in a society
More like solutions to problems that don't exist for 99.9% of people.
@@daniyal-syed whoops
I really like that editors nowadays (on multiple channels) are putting in indicators as to when loud volume or seizure ends along with the usual warnings.
Great stuff.
Yes. I love it.
Why? If you are prone to these things you shouldn't be watching videos anyways
@@TheLongDon So rather than accommodate people, those people should just be unable to consume any media and should just live in a cave.
You do not get seizures from flashing lights, grow up please.
@@TheLongDon yes cos people that are prone to flashing lights just shouldn't watch videos, what next your gonna turn round and say they shouldn't fucking live? Hinestly sort yourself out
This looks way more complicated than it needs to be. In my home I have some motion sensing switches, smart switches, and smart bulbs, but only where it makes sense. Motion sensing switches work well in bathrooms and entryways. You don't have to fiddle with finding the switch to turn on the light and it turns off when no one is present. I have smart switches in bedrooms and in the game room. You might be present but want the lights off there, but you can talk to Google to control them and you can set a schedule to turn them off as a failsafe to someone forgetting to turn the lights off and leaving them on for days. I use smart bulbs for my outdoor lighting and have them turn on and off at sunrise/sunset, which changes by day. For those I just leave the light switches on at all times. I never spent more than 10 minutes configuring any of my switches.
Ahh yes. Proprietary software in your light switches. Just what I needed.
This whole video was so ridiculous to me
Like it just keeps getting more and more complicated, and even more frustrating. Meanwhile I'm sitting here with my normal light switch. Works just fine.
@@skeptic_lemon I don't get the thing with switches either. Just get off your butt and press it yourself. I can sort of get switches controller through an app and maybe motion sensors in front of the house, in hallways etc. But why in regular rooms?
@@witebatman Nothing like that, you can't walk 1000km in 10 hours, but you can press a friking button to have light
@@dustojnikhummer I bet you still get up and change the tv without the remote right? No?
@@royce9018 You change the channel and volume on a tv way more than you turn a light on and off.
I legitimately never knew how badly I needed "Mad Linus", but ffs, this was his greatest personality I've ever seen.
Kinda hot TBH. He was so mad but so calm and sharp.
Out of all the videos I have watched over the years I think this is the most pissed I have ever seen him get
@@sneakysquirrel1990 It's an understandable level of pissed.
@@sneakysquirrel1990 Maybe, but there is a certain Intel 10th gen enthusiast CPU launch was Linus even more pissed than this.
@@MarkJaquith bruh what
The best thing about this is that in the 90's, my Grandmother had motion switches everywhere in her house that where only automatic when the switch was on. When the switch was off, it was just always off. They where only connected to the regular switch leads in the wall, no smart home garbage to deal with. They worked perfectly and pretty much how you are trying to set these up. XD
i also had them at my house as a kid I'm in my 30s now when my friends would come over they were so blown away by lights that turned on automatically but its all I ever knew
Yeah I feel Linus over complicated things, you hit it dead on. As I realized all the issues Linus was facing it cause it more advance. Sometimes it better to take a step back and see that if you do it analog it can be better
he wants to also use the motion sensors for other stuff other than lights, and for that he needs an hub capable of aggregating the motion data
yea he will also want to control them into voice control as well like the garage door.
These smart home videos are awesome. I've had smart home bulbs and outlets, and I'm starting to look at more full featured setups now. I never knew about Home Assistant before, but it's definitely going to be a part of my next smart home setup. Keep covering powerful open source software like Home Assistant, I like learning about them!
It would be cool to have switches act in a “home vacancy mode” where switches would turn on and off almost randomly at night. Real estate companies would leave a light on at night to make it seem that someone is home so no one would break in and occupy the house unknowingly. This would be particularly useful for vacations as well so it would seem like your home when your not.
can do it with smart bulbs and timers
Seems like a good idea till some hacks in and your random lights are now synced to the nutcracker suite 🤣
Home assistant has an excellent plugin that will learn the different things you do over a period of time, and emulate that kind of behaviour.
E.g. I know I have a particular bed time routine, that can expect certain lights to come on and off, but that can vary by 20-30 minutes most nights, 1-2 hours a few nights out of a month.
You can do this with Crestron. you know, an actual smart home system.
You can do it with wiz connect too :D
90% of the time home automation is an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” scenario. You spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars to smartify your home, just to find yourself with more inconvenience than convenience.
If you set it up properly and use it sparingly it's more convenient than not.
Also people where using lights with photosensors in their homes and outside decades ago, even before internet and "smart" devices existed. And it was never as dumb and convoluted as it is today. In some ways we go technologically backwards - ironically sometimes even in automation...
I never saw the point of smart homes. Did no one else see that Disney Channel movie Smart House? Totally unnecessary.
@@steadyboost7 Ehhhhhhhhhh that wasn't a good movie at all... in hindsight fucking creepy. And a horrible assumption, -10/0
@@steadyboost7 just watched some of it now for the first time, hasn't aged well lol
Me using old school switches felling like the smartest caveman 😂
The old ways seem so much more simpler.
@@Technosis100 a combo of the old way and smart plugs might be the best especially if they don't need a hub but even then it's kind a pain I got them set up for my room and I want to kill Alexa from time to time
I'm very well versed in automation. Would I ever have this in my home? Over my dead body! If I need light I use an old school switch too ;-)
They're not 'old school' you clown. They're normal, current, and more popular. Linus' switches are new tech.
The only thing ive done in the way of smart home stuff is added cheap wifi light bulbs, changing the switch is way too much hassle for the problems like Linus had, plus with bulbs you can turn them off with A real switch and change them when ever you want, the only reason i got wifi bulbs is so i can dim and turn them on and off easily as I'm disabled and have issues with my eyes, so yeah, I love my old school switches 😁 and it shouldnt take A high profile youtuber to get things done to help the customer.
Thanks for pushing a company to do the right thing guys! never stop being awesome!
“They’re both flat now” is when you know shit has really hit the fan. I feel your pain! I had 18 Lutron switches and 40+ Hue lights at one point and have slowly phased everything out due to unreliability and inflexibility, even when running Home Assistant. The ecosystem just isn’t reliable and easy enough yet. :(
I will never ever make my home or apartment "smart." just seems like a pain in the ass and way more effort than it's worth
I love how they treat firmwares that's basically only there to configure 1 and 0 like some sort of source code to GTA 6.
GTA6? Nah man it has the coveted FGD for Half-Life 3!
@@mfaizsyahmi portal 3
every company in the consumer space treats firmware files like this, and it really makes no sense when you think about it. Do they think some no-name knockoff manufacturer is going to clone their circuit by looking at the board and has the production capacity and marketing connections already ready to go to take down an established brand with cheaper compatible devices, and all they need is a firmware image they can't extract or recreate themselves? Or did they come up with some groundbreaking secret new algorithms (that they didn't patent) that give them a huge competitive advantage to control... a fucking light switch? really?
@@ailivac Sure... they know that their hardware is being produced in a factory used for thousands of other PCBs somewhere in Shenzhen out of off-the-shelf parts and the design of the PCB is insecure. There are probably thousands of factory seconds on Aliexpress already. The job security of everyone at their company relies on the work product of the software engineers in Kentucky and, as such, they want to protect that work product.
That doesn't justify their previous unwillingness to provide the firmware updates to an end-user ("You need to get it from the manufacturer of your hub" "But I'm the manufacturer of my hub"), but from the corporate perspective the switch itself provides relatively little value.
LTT needs to come up with a new series that covers home tech. Maybe a "This Old House" tech edition
This Tech House
This New House
This Smart House
The problem is that each of these pieces of tech work fine on their own, but when you start mixing and matching them with existing installs, everything goes to hell. It's really difficult to design a difficult situation to test these things in due to the enormous selection of home automation products. Additionally, many issues don't start until you've used them for a bit and the devil starts leaking out.
Rewatched this today after it popped up in my feed. Did anyone else realise the part with Linus talking to Jasco 1-for-1 mirrors the Patrick's Wallet meme?
Linus: This is Jasco, right? Man-Ray: Aren't you Patrick Star?
Jasco: That is correct. Patrick: Yup.
L: So, you guys made the switch for GE? MR: And this is your ID?
J: That is correct. P: Yup.
L: Including the firmware? MR: I found this ID in this wallet. And if that's the
J: That is correct. case, this must be your wallet.
L: Okay, so that firmware? I need it! P: Makes sense to me.
J: Again, unfortunately we don't have that- MR: Then take it!
Linus and Jake: *anime-fall* P: It's not my wallet!
Linus embodies what everyone feels and has to go through when companies proceed in a way that only benefits themselves instead of the consumer. This video was my favorites from you guys-it reminded me of every customer support interaction I have ever had with Comcast-xfinity. Great job Linus and team on making them change their approach.
Yeah agreed. But for how long? Problem is, that these companies now bend just because of Damage Control, but go back to their old shitty habits in no-time and start scr*wing customers again to maximize profit. There should be laws against this. Here in the EU they finally see this and laws have been made. Hopefully canada follows quickly!
Welcome to capitalism!
Watching videos like this makes me appreciate the simplicity of a standard light switch.
switch. it goes up, it goes down.
unless it's turned sideways
fr tho i never understood the point of motion lights
@@mrducky179 its all based on your use-case. I have motion sensors in a few closets and the bathrooms because its just easier than trying to find a switch in the dark. You don't realise how useful something is until you have it set up and working, even the smallest things make a big difference.
@@mrducky179 For large companies that run a warehouse, it can save a lot of electricity keeping lights off in areas not being used.
Does anyone else feel like watching Linus and Jake together is like watching a father son working together ?
And never sure which is the father or the son.
whos the adult? :D
Both kids
@@b.buster. this time jake’s definitely the son trying to calm his dad down
No, Jake is more like a bratty little brother.
If you do decide to pull them out, a benefit of Innovelli is that you can set the switch to always supply full power to the socket, and have the paddle and dimmer control smart bulbs on the same network.
This is the best episode ever! Some companies in the IT Industry really don't know what there doing and or don't listen to customer feedback. I can just imagine their panic when they realized that you were giving feedback on their product. I'm glad it sort of worked out in the end. Let's see if the firmware gets updated for dimming and manual control. I never post to your videos, but I was just as annoyed as you were and it's not even my house.
Yeah really felt the pain here. It's infuriating when you know more than the customer service rep/know exactly what you need but they refuse to give it to you. Happens way too often.
@@fastgecko5799 yeah, it's kinda ironic that their job is customer service yet half the time they don't know the solutions to help you, these companies should train them better or have better protocols in place
19:07 Linus going crazy listening to the music...
GE: now we can afford to update the firmware once we claim Linus video for using our music!!!!
how do you have 700000k videos i thought your channel was boted at first how is that even possible do you have a team of like 30 people jesus
@@Imblitzyboi its a bot
Imagine if Linus was cursed by Vecna and someone put that song on instead of his favorite.
did make a script or ai that automatically picks the videos to make and uploads then i get how you have so many subs and views but cuase of your vids but holy crap im so confused
The funny thing is that's just stock hold music provided by the Avaya IP Office PBX.
These days I look forward to Linus house content more than literally anything else
Great to see they followed through and published the firmware, there's no reason any company should not provide reasonable updates to their customers. By all means encrypt it, obfuscate it, do what they want if it holds trade secrets but just give customers the flexibility to at least install them.
As for your future videos on this topic, it would be great to see these switches do what you want them to do, but I'd also love to see the multi sensors that you mention and see what you can achieve with those
It's sad that it takes a UA-camr with millions of follows and views to make a company do what is right. You guys deserve a medal! Lol
At least it didn’t cost a life like with Yelchin.
I mean they have a Linus MEDIA Group.
It is sad, but better than nothing
This jasco situation goes beyond "Right" this goes into false advertising, scamming, and legal issue troubles. They are releasing a product with supposed features that none of them work.
Edit: I'm glad Jasco is starting to make changes and figuring out the issues. But regardless of if it's an issue with your product specifically, the archaic design they were built on, or whatever, the product still doesn't work as advertised.
Not to mention its taking a UA-camr with millions of subs to prove that some things like home automation just isn't ready and isn't worth it for most people who can't burn money like Linus can.
Oh man, I was waiting for this. Absolutely stunning. Can’t believe you actually caused real change! Well done. Good luck on the switches, they’re all a nightmare in my experience…
He should post a video of his good self moaning at youtube on the phone about all the gosh darn numpty bots in the comment section :D
Finally. The light switch video I’ve been waiting for
only took 3 weeks
Haven’t we all? 😏
@@toblerone0124 better late than never
As a home automation technician and programmer I took a special kind of joy in their struggles 😂
i could feel my blood boil, and i don't even have to deal with this. can't imagine what it's like to actually be in Linus' situation.
At the vey least, the problem is paying for itself in content.
Thank you for getting Jasco to publicly post their firmware files, as a long time user of their switches I greatly appreciate this even if there are not a ton of firmware changes.
Some things to note on your issues, first of all Z-Wave JS is basically bleeding edge it has been rapidly developed and is frankly amazing what they've accomplished in such a short time, if you shot this video say 6 months to a year ago it would be extremely different the only Z-Wave integration in HA was OZW (Open Z-Wave) and that developer had real life issues and abandoned the project.
All Jasco switches have some manual (non-hub, at the switch) shortcuts. For example if you fast tap on three times then off once I believe that disables the blue led light. I believe you can find most of these shortcuts without having to use a hub/HA to configure properties/parameters. There is usually a manual shortcut for each parameter, which is how I was able to setup my motion switch.
Configuring properties/parameters in HA (at least in OZW) was always painful and rarely "stuck", these issues are nothing new. I believe some even had that hex/dec issue you were referring to in the FW version. I recall editing an XML parameter to have the right number so that the parameter would actually update.
You should ditch the Pi while you can, since you will be relying on HA I would suggest you move this to an unRaid VM, i've switched to unRaid based on your advice and it's been amazing. Pi will have it's limits, mainly SD card failures which are extremely common in this application.
An added benefit of using a VM/unRaid is if you are having Z-Wave issues, you can pass the Z-Wave stick to a Windows VM where you can run an application like "zensys-tools" to perform advanced Z-Wave commands that might not be supported by Z-Wave JS i.e. setting up a secondary SIS/SUC controller (including a secondary hub like smart things, etc). This will not mess up your network as all your devices are paired to the stick, the stick itself can be used anywhere it's saved my bacon a few times.
this needs way more likes
This video highlights the importance on THE LAB Linus is creating to test whatever he decides to test. The Collection of Linus' channels actually reach the higher up at companies that easily ignore the common person without a platform like his. For most companies, tech issues are lumped into their "OTHER" category and rarely get addressed, because it requieres a big time commitment from the costumer to even get to this "OTHER" category option and thus only a fraction of the people having the issue actually report it, giving up.
Elechicken here:
For occupancy sensing WattStopper is the end all be all of set it and forget it. Their self-learning is amazing and the lack of issues I have from them says everything. (They have a minute delay to start).
For whole home smart systems, there is nothing better than Lutron Homeworks right now. Square D Clipsal is nice, but not as adaptable and as well supported. There is a key thing here though, in that you NEVER put occupancy sensors in a bedroom! They work great for bathrooms, garages, mech rooms, etc. Don't use them in your normal living spaces or you will be driven insane.
You're trying to use tech solutions that are not well thought out from small companies with no real R&D budget and lots of open source software.
There's a reason Lutron charges so much for their systems. They are well done, reliable, and have a huge R&D budget behind the development to avoid all these annoyances.
Two thing about this video.
1. You guys should definitely work with that company to develop a motion switch, because it would be a solution available to a large number of consumers. I know personally I've tried to setup similar systems in my own home to be met with some of the same problem you are dealing with.
2. As glad as I am that this issue got resolved, and that Jasco was willing to provide their firmware to the community.... I was really hoping for a video of linus storming down to some office and throwing a giant box of un-updatable lightswitches on their lobby floor.
There is no need to develop a new motion switch😂 the problem is with the software not the switch itself
Nah just use a motion and IFTTT to switch it on
Very strange that none of the customer service could even know that there was no firmware to update even if they wanted to release it.
Like that could be a simple lookup table for support to have when working with products.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to make a switch's firmware. They need to just make it properly and give out firmware. It's not a difficult concept to grasp.
Honestly i love the series about Linus building his own "Smart" Home. Cause it shows how dumb how our so called smarthome gadgets really are.
Oh gods, the complexity of something as simple as naming things... as a software engineer I FEEL THAT TO MY CORE!
I thought exactly this about naming variables and functions etc 😅 it's gotta be perfect!
"There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things."
-Phil Karlton
Linus, I think you did really well on the Jasco call - I've been in this sort of position myself - I understand it; the supreme frustration of support staff who are 100%-on-script, won't deviate to agree with the caller on something *they themselves know to be true* - Plus they know it would reduce the number of support calls! Your complaints were all valid, and totally ignored in favour of the script response. And yes - My role was taking the calls [at a hospital]; I used *AGREEING* with callers as a defence mechanism to calm them down. It worked.
This single video watching Linus go through all the stages of rage I go through dealing with anything IOT has made me feel sane for the first time in forever.
I love the home videos. It makes me feel better seeing Linus go through similar greif with technology and renovations. Though he had all the power of the web behind him.
The power of the web, tech guys, and MONEY.
1000% go the inovelli route. I was so happy on the day that I took out my last GE dimmer to replace it with an inovelli one. I've seen how they build their devices with input from their community so I'm confident that you'd be very happy with the end result if they're looking to work with you to design a new motion switch.
I think a separate based motion sensor that activates the lights would be a better idea anyway. And you could use that for other purposes like an alarm.
I'd suggest he does their upcoming zigbee, not zwave.
Can second that Inovelli makes great products and has amazing documentation. I still like the idea of separate motion devices or even better look at the new present detection devices using millimeter wave
If they’re willing to work with you and prototype with you then you can maybe get them to put a multi-sensor in the light themselves
i know now GE got so fed up with Jasco Z Wave that they made there own solution and my CYNC which updates via FOTA
I have both Inovelli and Jasco switches. I am fighting the same problems with the Jasco switches but I wanted a powered motion sensor in a few select locations (7). Everywhere else I went with Inovelli and love them... except they have been out of stock for over a year now. On Inovelli's recomendation I finished my house with Zooz. I had initially purchased only enough Inovelli for half of what I would eventually need. Too bad they don't have stock or make a combo motion switch.
Im glad that most of the frustration here ended up being ignorance, on both sides, and mostly good-will, on both sides.
I understand the minefield that this became.. and I'm glad that you did it before most of us decided to go down a similar path. -- Thank you for your sacriices.