[ianferrel]

The author of this article:

1. Has the technical skills to disassemble this device, trace circuit boards, design his own boards and custom software to interface with components to substantially reverse engineer this device.

2. Is totally mystified when his internet connected device stops working after he blocks its communication, and rather than try unblocking it and seeing if it works again, sends it out for repair repeatedly.

Something here doesn't add up. Tastes like bullshit to me.

[danpalmer]

It sounds like the re-flashing was an important step in fixing it, and that just unblocking the IP would not have fixed it if the bricking command had been sent. After all, this was happening sufficiently early in startup that the device appeared to not turn on (rather than boot loop, or turn off after connecting).

[ianferrel]

That is a good point I hadn't considered.

I think, charitably, what might have happened here is:

1. Author left out the diagnostic step that restoring the connectivity didn't fix the robot, because it didn't work.

2. Author did the technical analysis mentioned (there is a repository attached. I haven't verified that it actually has the level of technical analysis indicated).

3. Author took some creative liberties (possibly involving some AI-assisted punching-up) when writing the blog post story to make it more compelling in a way that made it feel a bit off and left me and others questioning its veracity.

[danpalmer]

Yeah I agree this seems most likely. I get the impression the author is not a frequent writer, so "hey LLM turn this draft into a blog post" seems the most likely scenario.

Skimming the post and skipping past the fluff, I thought it was an interesting situation and bit of debugging.

[theamk]

Well, the device _did_ turn on, at least enough that author could adb into, SSH into it, examine files, read the logs.

The post really makes it unclear how permanent the disablement was, or how exactly "one script had been modified to prevent the main application from launching". Would really love to see some details here. Could author undo that change? Did they try to?

[metalcrow]

This also really looks like a chat GPT written article. Lot of keywords and specific phrases to that effect. It might be totally made up

[pinkmuffinere]

Just meaning this as feedback -- I hate these kinds of comments. Unless there is something concretely failing that you can point out, it's not very useful to say "it seems like chatgpt". I hate inaccurate articles as much as the next person, but "seems like chatgpt" is a criticism that can be lobbied at _every article_, and therefore loses value. For instance, I could very well claim that your comment looks like it's written by ChatGPT, and thus should be disregarded. And you could claim the same about this comment.

[metalcrow]

Fair, yeah. There's a few concrete points: the ai generated header image is a start, but "I had recently bought an iLife A11 smart vacuum—a sleek, affordable, and technologically advanced robot promising effortless cleaning and intelligent navigation." sounds like an advertisement or marketing fluff. Extremely frequent use of em-dashes. Frequent use of "It was X, but also Y" sentences. "In seconds, I had full root access. No hacks, no exploits. Just plug and play." is such hokey writing. That's just the first 3rd.

[andy99]

I agree with the grandparent comment and wanted to say something similar. I’m allergic to AI written drivel and at the first “it wasn’t just” I had to close the article.

Whether or not the author used AI to write it, it’s a valid criticism that it sounds like it, it makes people not want to read it and the author should consider a less offputting style if they want more engagement.

Edit to add, it’s worth flagging AI articles if you don’t want to see them, just commenting on it ends up making for a poor discussion - this thread is littered with talk about how it’s AI written. Better just to vote for it to flagged/dead.

[codetiger]

Author here, and yes I used a few different LLMs to improve my initial write up. Am not a frequent writer and writing was never a skill that I focused on. I shall consider writing myself from my next article, even though it might be worse. However, I did ensure non of the information in the article was exaggerated.

[thfuran]

>I began to feel like I was losing my mind. How could a simple IP block disable a vacuum cleaner that is supposed to work offline as well?

It sure sounds like they were aware of the relation, just not how or why one thing led to the other.

[BoredPositron]

You are right the logical conclusion would be to send it for repair repeatedly.

[akerl_]

Yea, I feel like this is the kind of thing that makes manufacturers resistant to open/hackable devices.

I've done restrictive or invasive things to a variety of devices I own. But if something isn't working the way it should, "reset back to a clean default state and test again" always comes before trying to engage a warranty service process.

[hakfoo]

There's two possibilities there:

The device might not be designed with a publicized tool to restore to a "clean state", and there's also the business signaling factor of "the device stopped working, so I will make sure sure it costs them money to handle a warranty claim".

[varenc]

I had the same thought... if an intentional manually sent kill command was sent to the vacuum to disable it, surely it'd be clear that blocking its access to the internet entirely, not just the logging servers, would prevent this? I don't know why you wouldn't force it to be fully offline in the first place. Possible that by default that also causes it to brick itself.

Also the very frequent use of `—` gives me ChatGPT vibes, but may just be for editing or a personal style. Still enjoyed reading it.

[codetiger]

I am the author of this article. And I tried unblocking every time it went down. But my experience was, once it got bricked, it never started. So flashing was necessary to get it up and running. I missed adding that info in the article.

[akerl_]

Yea; it’s wild to me that they just kept sending the thing back for repairs.

Were they even able to see what was inside the traffic they blocked? Or are they just assuming it’s telemetry?

[xnzakg]

> Tastes like bullshit to me.

Does it really? In my opinion, if it stops working and it's under warranty, why not send it out for repair? They did no changes to the actual device, and apparently it was working fine for a few days without network connection, so if it suddenly stops working and it's under warranty that's the manufacturer's/store's problem, not theirs. Trying to fix it/reverse engineer it takes time, and I can see someone with these kinds of skills wanting to spend it on something else than trying to figure out how the manufacturer bricked their vacuum.

In addition, _someone_ is paying for the repairs under warranty, so if enough people were to do it, hopefully it would disincentivize completely blocking devices just because they can't reach a server.

[codetiger]

Author here: I did send it send the device for repair repeatedly like 4 times until the warranty ended and the company charged me huge. So decided to spend time on it. I am usually interested in knowing how my devices work so I couldn't resist. Leaving a bricked device at home was one option, learn from it was another, so I picked the second.

[hilbert42]

"Something here doesn't add up. Tastes like bullshit to me."

Perhaps so, but it's easily confirmed by another owner of said device going through the same or similar procedure.

If there's any truth to this then everyone should know about it. (Frankly, from what I've seen lately I'd not be a bit surprised that manufacturers would stoop so low).

[ianferrel]

To be clear, I'm not suggesting that every part of this story is fake. Just that as told, the details don't seem to hang together. Something feels embellished or exaggerated or missing.

[hilbert42]

Noted. As yet no one has posted a confirmation of the story so your initial conclusion may be correct.

That said, given the comparatively small number of readers here on HN the chances of another experiencing the same issue would be small. As the story will have alerted everyone the truth will eventually out itself.