I’m grateful that someone has finally responded to my initial post on this subject. For an insightful read, check out: Hacking My Air Purifier. It’s exciting to see that the website even includes an embedded UUID password generator!
Firstly, I want to express my appreciation for the comprehensive and informative write-up. Understanding how the password generation functions was truly made my day.
Moments like these are what make the internet an incredible place.This is why I love the internet :)!
Secondly, a heartfelt thanks for keeping the Flamingo project going. You might not fully realize it, but the logo means allot to me. <3
Thirdly, the critique:
“Flamingo Tech published a script written by Doegox outlining how the password crack works. Despite the title “This is how they do it!” he fails to explain the code within the post and uses the blog as a call to action to sell his own tags. Normally this sort of thing doesn’t bother me but the comment “This will significantly decrease the waste footprint from a whole filter.. to just a sticker 😀” rubbed me the wrong way. If he really cared about the carbon footprint he would have explained how to update the tag already on the filter you own. However if you want to support his work you can still grab his stickers here.”
I often find myself wishing for the expertise (hence not knowing a way to update the existing stickers with a phone…) to build/make something. With the tools and knowledge I had back then.. this was the best I could do.
My journey with hacking the Xiaomi Air Purifier was extensive, beginning with a hardware modification and eventually leading to a more stable and permanent solution (the stickers).
When I decided to publish this information, I was aware that once released, it would be challenging, if not impossible, to prevent its spread. In fact, that was precisely my intention – why else would I have shared it? However, I also recognize that this action might lead to a ‘David vs. Goliath’ scenario, where an individual like myself, with limited resources, could potentially face off against a powerful corporation.
Immense kudos to you for dedicating your time and effort to unravel and understand how this all functions. I sincerely hope you continue with this kind of work and keep sharing your discoveries. While I may not know you personally, I have a deep respect and appreciation for what you’re doing. Much love and respect ❤️.
I hope I rub way more people if this is the result 😉
Well deserved! Thank you for all this great work!
I’m now running a newly purchased Air Purifier 4 Lite with ESPHome thanks to the ESPHome config available on Github.
I have also several Yeelight ceiling lamps flashed with ESPHome, a Xiaomi desk lamp, two WB3S Tuya microcontroller based Smart Star Projectors and so my smart home hardware setup is close to being complete. Today I ordered a
Mi Smart Standing Fan 2 and I will certainly take a look inside as well and maybe it could be an additional candidate for ESPHome flashing. I couldn’t find any teardowns yet for smart table or standing fans, but also there are almost now smart fans available on the market (and those with Tuya I have no motivation to order because Tuya has done everything they could with the newer chips to make it impossible to get those chips into flash download mode). Another missing piece in my smart home setup is a compact humidifier using evaporative technology. I tried my luck with three Tuya based ones but only one had a chipset (WR3) which was accessible for flashing. But eventually I gave up although at some point I managed to download the original firmware. Maybe I destroyed something on the board afterwards. With humidifiers the situation regarding availability of smart devices is better than with fans but unfortunately the hardware itself is often an issue. Lime is a very non-digital issue for many of these devices and you often need to buy expensive replacement filters which might not be available anymore sooner or later for many of these noname devices. I’ve now ordered a Venta AH510 to take a look at the chipset used therein. The Venta humidifiers are filter-free and seem to offer good long-term experience for humidification and they seem to also manage the lime issue well according to many positive reviews. I had a longer conversation with a representative of Venta this week and I suggested to him they should pro-actively offer an interface to which advanced users could easily connect to using e.g. their own ESP32. They have now released a device with Tuya support but this is unfortunately not really a long-term path to be seen as a quality brand also in the future when you label yourself with a proprietary digital ecosystem which is known to be used in so many cheap/medium to low quality devices on the market + forcing into cloud dependency. The representative didn’t know which chipset the WiFi supported Venta devices use so I’m hoping for a positive ESP32 surprise 😀