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No Longer Evil Thermostat hack strips Google from Nest thermostat to heat your home better — open source project revives sunsetted hardware, gives more precise control
Google’s sunsetted Nest Gen 1 and Gen 2 thermostats have been given a new breath of life by a frustrated developer. The recently released No Longer Evil Thermostat project promises better control, with a “sleek, intuitive interface that rivals the original.” Moreover, it offers the benefit of community-driven software that is free and open source.
Nest Gen 1 and Gen 2 sunsetting backstory
These smart home thermostats were introduced between 2011 and 2014. However, they reached their end of support date on October 25 this year.
The impact of hitting the end of the support date is rather drastic for smart home proponents. With the passing of that date, the devices don’t just get shut off from firmware/software updates. They were also unpaired from the Nest and Google Home apps. That means the granular remote control and scheduling functionality evaporates. They still work as ‘dumb’ thermostats, though, on-site, with a click-wheel interface for heating adjustments.
Arizona-based security researcher and developer Cody Kociemba, part of the Hack House collaborative group, saw red when he became aware of Google’s plans to abandon the Nest Gen 1 and Gen 2 thermostats. Oiling the wheels of his hacking efforts somewhat was also the chance of a ~$15,000 bounty payment from the FULU Foundation. This organization basically crowdfunds financial rewards for devs who help liberate devices from corporate restrictions. Thus, he began to work on the open-source No Longer Evil Thermostat.
Kociemba says he is “passionate about hardware hacking, reverse engineering, and fighting corporate control,” so this project sounds like a great fit. A GitHub repository, which went live this week, provides all the tools and firmware those with abandoned Nest thermostats will need.
That link includes step-by-step instructions for getting the No Longer Evil Thermostat system up and running. If/when the process completes successfully, you will see the Nest boot and the “now made with 100% less evil!” welcome screen.
From this point on, you can use the No Longer Evil-infused thermostat with a local web interface, which uses an original Nest-a-like UI for temperature control, scheduling, and settings, etc. You can also integrate it with Home Assistant, if you wish, using MQTT or REST APIs. The option is also there to write a custom mobile wrapper for the UI.
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Before we go, we’d like to underline the No Longer Evil project developer's warning that, while this work offers the potential to “breathe new life into bricked and outdated Nest Generation 1 & 2 thermostats” and more, it is still in testing, and flashing this experimental firmware could brick your device. Please test this project only if you have a backup thermostat or heating system and can cope with a non-functioning device if things go wrong.
Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.
