[kn100]

Y'know what I'd love? For all IoT crap to feature a socketed ESP32 or whatever. The vendor can ship whatever garbage software they want to it, but maybe in the future when Wifi 2.4ghz does eventually die as an example, we could all just swap the controller chip with one that supports 5ghz wifi. This will never happen since the world prefers us to throw all that crap out to buy new crap, but it's nice to imagine!

[brk]

This is impractical for a couple of reasons: 1) Socketed chips add significant cost in a number of ways as compared to CoB or just standard soldered chips 2) This would likely violate most FCC/CE/C-tick/etc. certifications. 3) The whole assembly would need to be designed to be field servicable so you could access the circuit boards, which would also add cost (and possible warranty issues).

In the end, building a product that could properly facilitate this would just wind up costing more than viewing them as disposable units that you toss out when a newer version of something is available. This is optimal from a capitalism standpoint, but suboptimal from a sustainability standpoint.

[yjftsjthsd-h]

> 1) Socketed chips add significant cost in a number of ways as compared to CoB or just standard soldered chips

Yep, that's probably true.

> 2) This would likely violate most FCC/CE/C-tick/etc. certifications.

IANAL but that doesn't seem like it can possibly be necessarily true, since most computers let you replace the motherboard and wifi card.

> 3) The whole assembly would need to be designed to be field servicable so you could access the circuit boards, which would also add cost (and possible warranty issues).

Not all, but most IoT boxes I've seen already are easy enough to take apart, it's just that there's not much to do with it once it is apart. So I don't think this would be a change.

[brk]

I'm not saying any of it is impossible, just that it is costly (based on my direct experience at a number of hardware companies).

For an "IoT box" type of product there would likely be fewer issues with the certifications and swapability.

For IoT devices like light switches, bulbs, smart outlets, or anything else where the 120V/240V power is exposed vs. isolated by a power supply (as in the case of a PC or "IoT box") it would likely be too costly to do in a conformant way. Particularly when the tinkerer consumer base that would actually value this is maybe 5% of the total market.

[gosub100]

Better yet, just require it to publish full source code after some embargo period, maybe 8 years. Managed by an independent accounting firm. Also require a standard programming port.

This would be okay for iot bricks but more useful for laptops. Company gets X years of secrecy and when they abandon support, they open up the secure enclave and let FOSS devs go to town.