Show notes
Mrs EEVblog inadvertently ordered an IoT dishwasher. It has not been allowed to phone home. Dave hadn't heard of Wireshark, which is a diagnostic tool that lets you watch network traffic. Jon Oxer talks about hard wiring lightswitches with CAT5 Amazon key is a new device that will let the couriers (delivery drivers) into your home. No thanks! Chris has finally been playing with MQTT. This was after watching a talk by Elliot Williams, who had posted a series of articles on Hackaday in the past about the service. Chris was at Superconference last weekend (see the streamed talks here). Dave thought Jeri looked sad in a picture Chris tweeted and implored him to give her a hug. The badge turned out great (discussed in past episodes). Badge hacking was even more intense this year. Discussions about app development for the 121GW meter. How many people will use the app? Dave needs to launch his kickstarter to hit his delivery date! Telephone protocols/bandwidth Schottky diode cross section! The electronupdate channel has a couple cross section videos. Quake (the video game) redrawn on an oscilloscope. Todd Bailey told us about his project that did something similar. TechShop has shut down. They have details on their site as a PDF as well. Is it possible to compare a makerspace to a (physical) gym? How I built this podcast with Chipotle founder. "Don't be so open-minded that your brains fall out" When Gerry Roston (Civionics) that was on the show, he was a big proponent of Steve Blank who says you need to 'Get out of the building'. Thank you to Wikipedia for the picture of the taser Transcript! (new) Chris Gammell: This is the Amp Hour Podcast, released November 19th, 2017, episode 368, the EEVblog spark gap generator. Dave Jones: Welcome to the Amp Hour. I’m Dave Jones from the EEVblog. Chris Gammell: I’m Chris Gammell of Contextual Electronics. Dave Jones: It happened. Chris Gammell: What happened? Dave Jones: My home got invaded by an Internet of Things’ appliance. Chris Gammell: I saw your tweet of that. Is it Miele, [Mila 00:00:45]? How do you say that? Dave Jones: [Milay 00:00:47], that’s how you pronounce it here, I don’t know. [Milay 00:00:49]. Chris Gammell: I know they make vacuums. What did you get? Dave Jones: It’s a German company. I got a dishwasher. Obviously it wasn’t me. It was Mrs. EEVblog got a new dishwasher. She just, like the other one, she was fed up with it just completely. We had it for 10 years. Chris Gammell: It’s the replacement cycles. Here’s the real question. Was it even an option to get something without internet connection these days, like high-end? Dave Jones: I don’t know because I didn’t go shopping for it. She didn’t even go shopping. She just ordered it online. Chris Gammell: Really? Dave Jones: Yeah. I just came home yesterday and here was a new dishwasher, “Please install it.” Chris Gammell: I was going to say, a dishwasher that greeted you once you entered the house? Dave Jones: Yeah, “Welcome home, Dave.” Chris Gammell: “I’m sorry Dave, I can’t clean that dish.” “Open the dishwasher door Hal.” Dave Jones: It does. It opens on its own. It pops the door open after it’s finished. It’s got a little actuator that opens the door. Chris Gammell: One of these days you’re going to be recording and you’re going to be like, “My bank account’s empty, what happened? My dishwasher stole all my online currencies.” Dave Jones: Laundered it. It’s not a laundry but that would have been fun there if it was a washing machine. Chris Gammell: Tell me about it. What does it do? Dave Jones: I don’t want to know. I was installing it. There’s an install process where you can set for water hardness, the hardness of the water and there were all sorts of time and date and everything just because of the timer. Then I popped up with Miele at home and then I instantly knew what that means. I went, “This thing has Wi-Fi access doesn’t it?” She went, “Uh-huh (Affirmative),” as in, uh-huh (Affirmative). Chris Gammell: It’s a feature. The crazy thing folks is the dishwasher said, “Uh-huh (Affirmative).” A brave new world here, buddy. Here’s a product idea for you, Mr. Product Design Company. You could sell it with every IoT device, the EEVblog Spark Gap Generator. Instantly block all RF in your house by flooding the spectrum. Dave Jones: It just applies that directly to the RF output transistor, boom, poof, magic smoke, magic smoke mode. Chris Gammell: Is it like you just don’t put it on your network then? Had you even tried it? Dave Jones: No, I didn’t even try it. I didn’t want to try it just out of principle. Chris Gammell: I was going to say you should get a Mi-Fi or a controlled attack surface like a cellular to Wi-Fi modem thing. Then just hook it up to that and then just put a Wireshark on there too and see what it’s doing. I would be very interested. Dave Jones: Wireshark? Chris Gammell: Yeah, Wireshark. Dave Jones: I can imagine what it is. It’s a little device that sniffs Wi-Fi RF stuff. Chris Gammell: Technically it used to do it on Ethernet. I’m pretty sure it works on Wi-Fi as well but it just watches all the raw traffic going through. Dave Jones: Is this a commercial product, open source product? Chris Gammell: I don’t think it’s open source but I think it is free. The last time I used it, it was free. Let’s see. Dave Jones: It’s just an app, is it? Chris Gammell: Yeah. I think it’s maybe a premium thing or no, it says GPL so yeah. Dave Jones: You stick it on your phone or your modem? Chris Gammell: There you go. There’s your video for the day. You can just watch what it does. Basically, it’s really good for troubleshooting. I was working on an Ethernet product and I learned about it from our friend who wanted to just troubleshoot as we were trying to negotiate network traffic and stuff like that. Dave Jones: It’s a network protocol analyzer, cool. Chris Gammell: Exactly but it’s an entire level. You’ll see handshakes and stuff like that going down. Dave Jones: It’s got a graph. Is that a spec? No, what is that? No, that’s something else. Chris Gammell: I think it’s just statistical. Dave Jones: I’m sorry I thought that was an RF spectrum, I was going to get very excited. Chris Gammell: I think it shows how many pings are happening so you can just see what’s going through. Dave Jones: That’s pretty cool. It’s got its own, what’s an AirPcap NX USB dongle? Chris Gammell: It looks like that’s for doing the Wi-Fi stuff. Dave Jones: If you’ve already got your Wi-Fi built into your notebook or whatever, you can just run it over. Chris Gammell: I’m not sure. I don’t know. It might need special queuing for that stuff, either way it’s great for that stuff. Maybe take a look, see if it’s calling home. Did you read the brochure at least? Dave Jones: I didn’t. I haven’t read it, no. I’m sorry. Chris Gammell: I imagine that you get a notification when your dishes are done. Dave Jones: Your phone or you can maybe remotely start and stop it or check the progress on your phone. Chris Gammell: All things that are not necessary. Dave Jones: It’s totally not necessary. Chris Gammell: A lot of things can be handled with timers. Dave Jones: It does have a timer on it. Start the dishwasher during the day. We do this. We start it during the day. We use our solar power. Chris Gammell: When you got low power rates? Dave Jones: Yeah because we’ve got that extra solar. Chris Gammell: I used to do that at night. I would do it at night when it was lower rates too. Dave Jones: For us, it’s the opposite because during the day when we piecing away the solar. If we don’t use it we lose it almost because we get paid. Chris Gammell: The feed-in tariff? Dave Jones: The feed-in tariff, we get paid. I really have to investigate again the battery solutions for solar battery solutions because apparently they’ve halved in price in the last year since I last looked. [Crosstalk 00:06:26] because they were very expensive. I’m sure they still are but they’ve come down a lot. Chris Gammell: We talked about that. Maybe we talked about the DIY powerwall and then there was a response video that was very funny to that. I do follow, as a result of that whole thing, I started following a couple YouTube channels out there that are focused on that stuff. It’s a good way to research out there. Dave Jones: A tip for people, if you’re going to do response videos, I haven’t watched the whole thing but we just rant this stuff off the top of our head. None of this is prepared. It’s not like we’ve done our research and this is the final word in power. Chris Gammell: I got another one of those this week too. I was like, “We just do our thing.” This is me and Dave having coffee or just hanging out by the water cooler. This is me and Dave catching up for the week. Dave Jones: I literally rode my bike in, walked into the office. Chris Gammell: Healthy. Dave Jones: Turned on the computer and pressed record. Chris Gammell: He’s a sweaty mess right now folks. Dave Jones: I am, so much so I had to leave the air-con on even though [Crosstalk 00:07:37]. Chris Gammell: Back to your IoT device that’s going to kill you. I guess the real question is, is there a real device in your mind that would be worth having connected like that? Dave Jones: A home appliance you’re talking about? Chris Gammell: Sure. Yeah. Dave Jones: It’s got to be a white good? Chris Gammell: Yeah. That’s a good way to classify them. Dave Jones: White goods, I can’t think of it. Chris Gammell: Your solar tracker is or is not? Dave Jones: No. It’s connected to the internet. I’ve done a video but it’s not connected to my Wi-Fi at all. It’s just got a 3G GSM automatically to the website. That I don’t mind because I never have to touch it and I don’t have to worry about my Wi-Fi going down or locking up or doing whatever. Chris Gammell: Cellular solutions are the best solutions. Dave Jones: Says the man who works for … Chris Gammell: Yeah. That makes sense. Not that that’s not a thing to see what’s going on with you. Dave Jones: No but that is purpose design. That is all taught. Solar monitoring, you’ve got to do it somehow whether or not you connect, you have a dedicated computer right next door that logs it via USB or whatever or whether or not you connect to your home Wi-Fi. Whether or not you were doing that like Blue Cheese like I was before, every week it keeps the data for a couple of weeks, I’d login with my Blue Cheese app on my phone. I’d suck down the data and then upload it. Chris Gammell: A cable replacement solution at a certain point. Dave Jones: A cable replacement solution almost, yeah. It’s just a matter of where you store the data and this one automatically stores it on the solar analytics’ website which went down the other day by the way. It’s been down for a week. Chris Gammell: The sun still worked, right? Dave Jones: It still goes but yeah, it went down for a week. Chris Gammell: That will be really interesting to hear as you do that. Dave Jones: Apparently it didn’t lose data. They’re saying, “We’re having issues with our data but the data’s been saved. Trust us.” Chris Gammell: Trust us? Yes. Dave Jones: I haven’t checked since. I should check after the show if it’s come back on yet. Anyway, the answer is no. Let’s go through the list. Lights, no, I’m sick of that crap. A dishwasher, no. Chris Gammell: What’s it called, Jon from SuperHouse, he just posted a good video about that but that’s all DIY as well and it’s internal, right? Dave Jones: Yeah. Chris Gammell: That’s the real question. I guess it’s what escapes your house, right? Dave Jones: Right, yup. He’s done videos on you shouldn’t rely on the internet. He’s into home automation but not remote home automation unless he’s changed his stance on that. Chris Gammell: No, I don’t think so. If people didn’t see, Jon’s been on the show before. He doe’s SuperHouse now. He also does free … Dave Jones: He’s always done SuperHouse TV. He’s been doing it for … Chris Gammell: I mean it’s his fulltime thing now because that is a company. He has a video where he was just showing how he wires up the, it was all Ethernet based though which was interesting. Dave Jones: Yeah because it’s bloody reliable. Chris Gammell: Right, exactly. Dave Jones: You can get cable any day of the week. Chris Gammell: I agree. I’m sorry, keep going. Lights, no? Dave Jones: No. Chris Gammell: Dishwasher, no? Dave Jones: Dishwasher, no. I don’t see the point. Washing machine, no. A dryer, no. A fridge, everyone craps on about it, “All fridges will be internet connected because you’re going to reorder your food from bloody Amazon or whoever.” Chris Gammell: If you happened to store all your search code on the fridge then you could really save your ass. I don’t know if you’ve seen the last season of Silicon Valley. Dave Jones: No, I haven’t. Chris Gammell: You’ve got to watch it. Dave Jones: I’ve got to watch it, I know. Chris Gammell: Season four, it was good. Dave Jones: All right. Chris Gammell: Fridge, no? Dave Jones: No. Chris Gammell: Oven, no? Dave Jones: No. Chris Gammell: Was it June? What was that really expensive toaster oven? Is it June or something else? No, June’s the door lock. Dave Jones: There’s another one. Juicer, no. Chris Gammell: Juicer, tea infuser? Dave Jones: Tea infuser, that’s right. We talked about that one last week. I would have to say that if anything. Chris Gammell: He’s apoplectic here folks. Dave Jones: If anything, it would probably be the fridge. I wouldn’t personally but if things are going to be internet connected, probably the fridge and the reorder thing because people are such lazy bastards. Chris Gammell: How about a security monitor? Dave Jones: I have a security system. You can. Chris Gammell: It’s like what Nest is getting into, right? Dave Jones: Yeah and Amazon with the let the couriers in. Chris Gammell: We didn’t talk about that didn’t we? Dave Jones: The survey is that 50% of Americans think that that’s not a bad idea, I’d give that a try. Chris Gammell: Money back guarantee. Dave Jones: Yeah, a security system. Anyways, security systems and all that, security systems’ back to base has been a big thing for 40 years, 30 years or whatever since dialup phone lines. Chris Gammell: I saw a commercial for a Honeywell system that’s like the August Smart Lock. The ring, there’s a doorbell and all these things that are camera based but then what’s it called? Honeywell came out with one where it’s a security system but it’s literally filming inside your house. I’m okay with external. I had a friend or I was talking to my coworkers about this when we stayed in an Airbnb. I’m okay with an external facing camera. Maybe not the safest thing but at least has a practical purpose. Whose at the door and blah, blah, blah? Dave Jones: Right and to check who’s up the alleyway or whatever. Chris Gammell: Check if your package is safe and all that stuff. It’s a big thing. Internal cameras, I am staring at my webcam right now and there’s a piece. There is an old Amp Hour business card covering it. Yes, there are microphones. Dave Jones: Who have we had on the show that covers up the mic? Chris Gammell: Mike Osman unplugs the TV. Dave Jones: Mike Osman is the one? Yeah, I thought it was. Chris Gammell: Yeah or maybe who else was that? I think maybe Joe Fitz also talked about that. Dave Jones: When security researchers start covering up their webcams. Chris Gammell: I think this is just a matter. I mean it just creeps me out. Cameras in a home really creep me out. Even phones sometimes. That’s a convenient thing I think but yeah. Dave Jones: Says the man who has had a webcam in his lab. Chris Gammell: Exactly. You can watch Dave right now folks. I don’t know. I was at Supercon this weekend and there was a very good talk by Elliot Williams, one of the editors at Hackaday. He was just talking about basically doing everything we’re talking about here, he was talking about doing it himself but he…
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