Boxnutt

Connected consumer hardware, and what happens to it when the vendor stops answering.

A small round plastic hub on a bare table, one soft light

Postmortems

20122016

A hub that was switched off by its buyer

Revolv shipped a $299 hub with seven radios in it. Nest bought the company in October 2014, announced in April 2016 that the cloud service would end, and on 15 May 2016 every unit stopped working at once. The hardware was fine.

  • Retail, 2012$299
  • Service ended15 May 2016
  • Refund offeredNone
  • Residual valueZero

Photo: Anton / Pexels

Three points on the same line: the first device that phoned home, the year the cloud became the default, and the shelf of hardware it left behind.

The dependency was designed in before anyone asked what would happen when the server left. Twenty-five years later the answer is a resale price.

A 3Com Audrey internet appliance with keyboard sits on a kitchen counter beside utensils and knives1999
Timeline

The first devices that phoned home

Networked consumer appliances appear at the end of the 1990s, and the dependency was in place before anyone asked what happened when the server left.

Server racks labeled Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG) inside a data centre aisle2011
Timeline

The cloud becomes the default

By the early 2010s the vendor cloud was the assumed control path, and local-only operation had to be argued for.

A shelf of identical dark plastic units, one raking lightThe shelf
The bill

What a dead smart device is worth

Resale value collapses when the service ends, which is why lifespan and price should be read together at purchase.

A device that authenticates against a vendor server has a lifespan set by the vendor's business, not by its components.

Why the rest of the site follows

The pairing chip that rejects a genuine part. The glue that costs more to defeat than the part is worth. The open radio layers that keep working across three hub generations. The tonnage at the end of it.

Worth reading first

A hand holds a metal rod against a bench polishing wheel for shaping The bill

Statute arriving after the practice

Repair laws in the EU and several US states now compel parts, tools and documentation, which is a legislative answer to a design decision.

Telegesis ETRX357 wireless module with antenova antenna, shown beside a size scale Protocols

Radios that outlived their hubs

Zigbee and Z-Wave devices keep working across hub generations because the radio layer was specified independently of any one vendor.

Four more, shorter

Accessories that check who made them

Authentication chips in cartridges, batteries and accessories exist to make a third-party part fail rather than to make the product work better.

How long a vendor promises to patch

Stated support windows for connected devices are short relative to the hardware's physical life, and several markets now require the period to be published.

Tonnage that is measured badly

Global e-waste is reported in the tens of millions of tonnes a year, with a documented collection rate far below what is generated.

A message format small enough to last

MQTT was designed for constrained links and remains the practical spine of self-hosted device control two decades on.

All nineteen pieces

Kept going by

Supporters

These are the groups whose interest in what breaks, and why, matches ours.

Six sections, nineteen pieces

Every piece sits in one of them. The whole roster is on the archive.

Small round smart speaker with gray fabric top and white base on a table 01 Postmortems Devices that stopped working on purposeThe server went off; the hardware was fine.3 pieces Close-up of gold contact pads on a memory card's edge connector 02 Lock-in Designed, not accidentalPairing, firmware and the sealed enclosure.3 pieces Telegesis ETRX357 wireless module with antenova antenna, shown beside a size scale 03 Protocols What outlived the productsThe open standards that still work.4 pieces Piles of scrap metal and discarded pipes line a narrow junkyard pathway 04 The bill What the failure costsWaste, repair law and the residual value.3 pieces A black smartphone with a dark screen resting on the edge of a wooden table 05 Numbers Counting itLifespans, e-waste tonnage and repair rates.3 pieces A 3Com Audrey internet appliance with keyboard sits on a kitchen counter beside utensils and knives 06 Timeline How it went, in orderFrom the first tethered device to right-to-repair statute.3 pieces