[yuye]

Advantage Air doesn't produce ACs. They produce smart home solutions, including AC controllers. They're not winging it on an external control device, they're cheaping out on their main product.

Also, their claim is that they're not outsourcing. If you check their website, it claims everything is designed and manufactured in Australia.

Nevertheless, I'd have given them the benefit of the doubt if it were not for:

1. The only option being a full system replacement.

2. Communication protocol being encrypted.

3. App being locked down to certain hard-coded models.

None of these give me any hope that this is a well-meaning company that just has some issues.

Also, I think a company that sells a product most customers would only buy once or twice in their lives is not a company that expects many repeat customers.

[michaelt]

> Also, their claim is that they're not outsourcing. If you check their website, it claims everything is designed and manufactured in Australia.

Looking at pictures like [1] and [2]

I suppose it's possible they're making their own generic android tablet control panel,

designed and manufactured in Australia

and they just happened to add a camera, side-mounted USB charging connector, a headphone socket, microsd card slot, and a battery charge level indicator, loads of space for a battery that isn't present, a connector named VBAT

and also a chinese-language bootloader

but accidentally forgot to include the power and data connector they need, poking out the back of the device

so they had someone bodge it on afterwards by hand with a soldering iron

but IMHO it's more likely they mean

"manufactured in Australia from components sourced internationally"

and one of those components is a generic android tablet.

[1] https://www.myplacenz.co.nz/are-you-making-the-most-of-your-... [2] https://blog.hopefullyuseful.com/blog/advantage-air-ezone-ta...

[yuye]

Should've added a bit more snark to that line to properly communicate that I absolutely don't believe their claims that everything is designed/made in Australia.

It's very obvious they just went for the cheapest bottom-of-the-barrel tablet Alibaba has to offer on one of their main products. I wouldn't trust this company to do anything competently.

[VBprogrammer]

Locking in the model numbers for me is particularly icky. They are leveraging the Android and therefore Linux and open source communities efforts to make this custom display which would have cost them an arm and a leg to have custom built with half the features - then turning around and sticking two fingers up at those communities.

[yuye]

This is the least surprising things to me, as this happens all the time.

Straight out of Microsoft's playbook.