Jake staring at the ground and fiddling with a radio while Linus yells Customer Service, is exactly like when your parents are yelling at someone while you're standing by as a kid lol.

It never ceases to amaze me how efficiently home automation can complicate your life.

Wow this is such a win, in 2 weeks they basically open sourced their firmware when they couldn't even give it out due to proprietariness. I can imagine the product managers running around like headless chickens to fix this hell.

I hate that it takes a blow to a company’s credibility to change an awful choice that they did.

Five stages of grief 14:26 Denial 19:00 Anger 19:46 Bargaining 23:29 Depression 25:43 Acceptance

I truly can't wait if we ever get to a day where all this "smart home stuff" isn't a nightmare for setup and running. Some automations are amazing, but some devices are such a headache

I feel bad for the customer support lady It must be absolute hell to work on her position on a scummy company having to tell frustrated customers things they probably don't want to hear and sometimes get collateral'd from it She acted very professional regardless and hope she and her team are getting paid well nobody should work as a company's customer relations meat shield for pennies knowing it will destroy your emotional stability This includes social media pages people don't understand sometimes that they're talking to the souls of the damned not the devil when "voicing their opinions"

As someone who works in software support this is a prime example of how incredibly difficult it can be to make change occur in medium to large software companies. Good on you guys keeping the pressure on and getting some positive change for the product! The smart home content on this channel is unbeatable.

Isn't it sad that yet again, issues are only addressed when a channel like this highlights the issue. If Linus had not got these switches how long would this have continued?

It’s a shame it takes a “high profile influencer” like Linus complaining about this for a company to figure it out and improve things, but I’m glad you were able to get them to change their minds

Anybody else just love Linus and jakes friendship, I absolutely love watching them bounce ideas back and forth and just joke around

The number one recommendation that I have is to only buy one or two devices from a single Manufacturer initially, and then test them out for a Month or two before going all in on them. It will help to limit your frustration to couple of devices when you are troubleshooting things and if you still are not able address all the issues, you are not out a lot of money/time if you need to switch out those devices.

Jake is like their oldest kid, any house video - he's there.

I love how Jake is just sitting there like a kid helping his dad while Linus has to yell at customer support

What I find particularly odd in the modern age of so-called "smart devices" is that they are ridiculously limited in their functionality and tweakability. In the earlier ages of computing and consumer electronics there were far more options to play with (like, all of them).

I'm an electrician based out in long Island and I've worked with a bunch of different smart switches and honestly haven't seen anyone use these. They seem way more complicated then need be. If a middle class family asked me for a smart home set up I would tell them to use Lutron Casseta switches. If you go with lighting devices the big companies you would want would be Lutron or Leviton. And if you wanna get real fancy and you got some cash to spend but it mostly needs to be done while the house is being built not after sheetrock you could go with Control 4 switches which also control speakers and other smart controls. Radio Ra is another system but it's just an outdated version of control 4. But of course as with all smart devices and homes a lot of this stuff tends to get out dated fairly quick so you wanna make the right choice from the start. I had a client that wanted their houses lights to shut off on there own because he was too lazy to turn the switch off. And I actually used Lutron Casseta switches with a wireless motion on the ceiling and they're very easy to program and set up with the switches

We need someone like EU to mandate that when company stops actively supporting a product they must open-source their firmware. Otherwise we're going to end up with piles of e-garbage.

I'm so glad Linus has this much influence in the Tech community, as he actually knows what the customers need.

The vacancy mode is like a "pretending there's people at home so robbers don't know the house is empty"

It is impressive the amount of power you guys hold now because of your audience and the scale. Good job team. Entertaining video seriously.

It makes me so mad that when i have a tech issue, the company tells me to kick rocks, and when Linus has an issue 2 weeks later the CEO is dming him. These companies don't care at all about real people, just other brands

This is possibly the most relatable content Linus has ever produced.

Thanks for pushing a company to do the right thing guys! never stop being awesome!

Wow this is amazing, I usually do installs of smart switches for churches, so I’ve installed a couple hundred of them. I’m really glad I went with Kasa Smart from the beginning. I can only imagine the absolute pain you guys went through

19:01 the closest we've ever come to seeing Linus lose his freakin mind. Can't say I'd handle it better. I'd be livid tbh. Such a dumb problem with the firmware.

The true measure of a company is not the mistakes they make, but how they react to said mistakes. That being said, I think Jasco ended up doing pretty well in the end. There is however one issue. If Linus wasn't Linus, this would have gone a different direction. There is no way a company like that would have gone through any of this level of resolution for an average consumer.

These smart home videos are awesome. I've had smart home bulbs and outlets, and I'm starting to look at more full featured setups now. I never knew about Home Assistant before, but it's definitely going to be a part of my next smart home setup. Keep covering powerful open source software like Home Assistant, I like learning about them!

Fellow Home Assistant and ZWave Jasco switch user here and I feel your pain. You should look into millimeter waze sensors if you decide to go the multisensor route. That is what I plan to do next.

After years testing various motion switches in many different parts of my house, I can honestly say they're only really useful (even in tandem with more advanced home automation setups) in a very limited set of areas in the home. Otherwise, the programming to get them to not do dumb things is so complicated, you spend more time trying to program them to behave in a useful way (and offend everyone else living in the same space) than it's worth. And I say that as someone who regularly spends way too much time programming dumb things :D I currently have motion switches in parts of my basement (but not the main lights), my office, my garage, and my laundry room.

Linus literally went through the five stages of grief in a single video

I'm late to this one but It's by far my favorite video on this channel. The frustration is so relatable but the fact that it also made a difference by forcing the company to at least partially correct their mistakes is very rewarding.

Linus, Electrician here. Keep in mind there is a difference between a motion sensor and an occupancy sensor. Motion sensors are good for walking through a hallway, but not good if your sitting on the couch.

With motion sensors all around the house, it would be near impossible for Dennis and Ethan to secretly live inside the new house.

I'm just happy for the software engineers at Jasco prolly being heard for the first time in ever by their bosses.

Great to see they followed through and published the firmware, there's no reason any company should not provide reasonable updates to their customers. By all means encrypt it, obfuscate it, do what they want if it holds trade secrets but just give customers the flexibility to at least install them. As for your future videos on this topic, it would be great to see these switches do what you want them to do, but I'd also love to see the multi sensors that you mention and see what you can achieve with those

Having worked in customer support, saying something like "I totally understand you have no part in this decision, but this is a terrible choice for the product / experience for the end user." It really helps ease off what you're saying as being upset at the person on the other end (who just wants a paycheck, probably), and still expressing frustration that can hopefully be communicated internally somehow.

Watching this I'm reminded why I love normal light switches that just turn on and off and don't require firmware updates.

When Linus decided to impregnate his house with a thousand "smart home" devices, I knew this was going to be a gold mine of content and comedy.

I actually totally agree with Linus on the topic of firmware updates and holding on the phone while music (but no other intervention) should be playing. Totally agree with that. Makes my blood boil, as well.

If you do decide to pull them out, a benefit of Innovelli is that you can set the switch to always supply full power to the socket, and have the paddle and dimmer control smart bulbs on the same network.

I have a system in my house where I just press the light switches on or off to control the lights. It seems to be a lot less hassle than this approach...

"We provide the firmware to hub companies, but not you" "Fine, I'm my own hub company" might be a good way to do it.

Brilliant Video, firmware updates have been an issue for many of us users. I use Zigbee with Home assistant for most of my stuff and its been very reliable. I'm now moving towards a hybrid of motion sensors and occupancy sensors to tell if a room is still occupied AFTER motion has stopped. All the logic is performed in Homeassistant and Nodered to give complete control.

This looks way more complicated than it needs to be. In my home I have some motion sensing switches, smart switches, and smart bulbs, but only where it makes sense. Motion sensing switches work well in bathrooms and entryways. You don't have to fiddle with finding the switch to turn on the light and it turns off when no one is present. I have smart switches in bedrooms and in the game room. You might be present but want the lights off there, but you can talk to Google to control them and you can set a schedule to turn them off as a failsafe to someone forgetting to turn the lights off and leaving them on for days. I use smart bulbs for my outdoor lighting and have them turn on and off at sunrise/sunset, which changes by day. For those I just leave the light switches on at all times. I never spent more than 10 minutes configuring any of my switches.

I know everyone else has said this, but thank you for finding an issue and having the influence to call the company out on their bs. Now, if only you could take on ISP's in the US... but hey, small miracles.

Can you *imagine* being an average homeowner or business owner or, worse yet, a veteran electrician who is not computer savvy trying to install implement this kind of thing? Or getting 'certified'?! And pushing hard enough that they eventually tracked down that the firmware had been entered as decimal instead of hexadecimal...brilliance, gang...brilliance! This is why we love everyone at LTT.

I've not had good experiences with smart lighting. I haven't sworn off it but I did learn you can't go cheap. It's such a pleasant experience to have your bedroom light up to full intensity at 3:30am for no reason whatsoever.

9 years ago I installed a smartthings hub and GE z-wave switches for my main level. Not the embrighten ones but the original switches you could have gotten at Lowes when they had their initial smart home kick. I had most of my main floor automated as well as my garage door opener tied to the system. EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF ZWAVE EQUIPMENT PROCEEDED TO BREAK ABOUT 3 YEARS AGO. The garage door opener stopped working because of a known design issue where when the soldered on LED burns out it just faults out. The zwave switches all failed in various states. Most the relay stopped responding in the off position so neither the app or the switch could turn on the light. My dimmer kept working on manual but could never resync to the app. In the end I have one working piece of zwave equipment left. A zwave dual relay I use in my garage to automate a dual switch as there never was a good solution from GE or any other provider. I've switched all of my other equipment over to TP-link kasa as the price is roughly a third per switch ($45 vs $15) and the reliability seems to be there. Plus I can just update the firmware in my kasa app. I would have loved to continue to use zwave, but the equipment always felt shoddy and the support was always groups of people like us. While there was a huge selection of z-wave equipment about 10 years ago (hell monoprice even had a good line) everyone seems to have abandoned the protocol other than GE. Monoprice only has a door / window sensor left in their zwave range. It's a sad for the protocol. Linus, here's a video idea for you. How did z-wave fall so damn fast? It can't be just that wifi devices became an alternative.

Me using old school switches felling like the smartest caveman 😂

LTT team, thank you for stepping up on this for everyone, using your influence to solve a anti-consumer scenario. I do not use Jasco products, but is really nice know that you don't do what you do just for the money.

Electrician here. Linus: @10:30 Your kids light in the room. The problem you are having is you are mixing a smart bulb on a dimmer. Smart bulbs do not like dimmers at all as they dim themselves they are looking for constant full power, unmodified sine wave. Even when your dimmer is set to 100% it still effects the sine wave enough to cause flickering in same cases. Replace that switch with a smart switch (no dimming). Then from here there are 2 things you can do to get the desired effect. I don't know the exact terminology as it changes from brand to brand and software to software. 1. Unbind the load from the switch. There should be an option remove the load from the switch. What this does is more or less disables the switch entirely. However your automation server (HA) in this case will still receive commands from the switch. Pressing the switch on and off will not make the light turn on and off but HA will see that the button has been pressed. so now we can program. 2. Now you can tell HA to send the command directly to the switch to turn on or off the load. Keep in mind the switch should be able to send multiple signals to HA such as, Single tap, Double tap, sometimes tripple tap for on and off as well as hold on and hold off. From here you can do any combination of things. tell ha (arbitratary not real programming to follow) but you will get the idea. while "Kids_Bedroom_Switch_Hold_On" -> "Incease Kids_Bedroom_Bulb_Brightness". and what I was talking about above would look something like. if "Kids_Bedroom_Switch_On" -> "Turn on Kids_Bedroom_Bulb" Remember with HA you can mix technologies together. to get the desired effects. ... Also here is maybe an idea for your theater it was what I have done in mine. (once again not real code) Double tap theater switch on = Theater mode enable (in software) !Double tap theater switch on = Theater mode disabled if theater mode = enable && kodi = play then enable motion_backlight_plug && dim theater_lights if theater mode = enable && kodi = pause then brighten theater_lights so my ambilight will turn on and my lights will dim and rise during playback automatically. with a few double taps at the start of the movie. Then after the movie operating the switch would return it to normal operation.

Im glad that most of the frustration here ended up being ignorance, on both sides, and mostly good-will, on both sides. I understand the minefield that this became.. and I'm glad that you did it before most of us decided to go down a similar path. -- Thank you for your sacriices.

It's unfortunate that someone with the status of Linus has to call out Jasko for their service on firmware updates before something structurally changes. I'm glad Jasko followed through and I hope it's a message to other companies that you can't get away with shit like this.

90% of the time home automation is an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” scenario. You spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars to smartify your home, just to find yourself with more inconvenience than convenience.

Myself, I don't use "smart" switches around non-technical people. A light switch that they want to have a dimming feature, they get a dimming dial mounted in place. If a light needs to turn on/off in the middle of the room, you get a pull string/chain like a ceiling fan uses. That way when they eventually break the string/chain, it's not tough to repair/replace. Things like that. Overly complicated switches and controllable lights people really need to know where, when and why they should or should not be used. 100 smart switches and lights with its' own ecosystem was just asking for migraine. Of course, we're talking about Linus, so you knew something was going to be going on. I'm just impressed at the resolution at the end. Nice job.

Man Linus gets kinda scary when he's pissed off. Turned on his CEO voice when talking to that customer support person.

I love how when Linus is chewing out the lady on the phone, Jake is just face down looking like a child when their mother is arguing at the grocery store LOL!

I'm disapointed it takes something of this level before a company will even consider something as obvious as providing firmware updates to their customers directly, but I'm glad it worked out.

I'm using Home Assistant on RPi 2 mod B with Aeotec Z-Stick, smart plug and Motion Sensor (MultiSensor 6, the same of the first video about this) since 2015. I'm happy to see that the solution are the same but also the problems are the same and that we want something not cloud related. My solution is MotionSensor 6 for temperature, light level and motion sensor and Philips Hub Lights, because I cannot change the switch; then, in Home Assistant, I have some scripts for automation that turn off the light after 3 minutes that the motion sensor is off, turn on the light immediately if the motion sensor is on but only if the light level is under some percent (so it turn on the light only in the dark). It just works fine. I used also to turn on some lights during the Winter after the sunset. I think the Aeotec is the best at the moment.

Thank you for standing up for the people Linus

Jake uncomfortably staring at the floor and fidgeting with the radio while Linus is on with tech support is so relatable, exactly how I am when I have to sit in on a serious conversation

been waiting on this since it came up on WAN show. This is the greatest tech video of all time...never has there been a greater example of fighting the battle we all love/hate to fight.

YES! Hold music should NEVER have a prerecorded voice! You can't tell if a person has answered! And, I haven't laughed in a VERY LONG TIME! This video REALLY raised my spirits A LOT! THANK YOU SO MUCH !!

wow... ive never seen any company go out of their way to fix a problem they caused that quickly. Ive had a similar issue with my dell xps 15's compatibility with audio recording/music production programs. Lots of latency and all because of a REQUIRED audio driver to allow me to PLUG IN MY HEADPHONES. I contacted dell about it over 2 years until my warranty was up and they kept telling me it would be fixed with the next bios update and that there wasn't anything wrong with my system. Still have the same latency issues and I have to restart my laptop with headphones plugged in to use them.... i have a pretty awesome $2500 paper weight though! Thanks Dell!

There is a vulnerability in the Z-wave protocol in both S0 and S2 versions. So when you guys include new devices make sure to check if the key on the box or on the device is the same as that shown on the screen. This flaw can be used for example to obtain the S2 access key and open a front door or a garage, so please be careful. I published a research on this some months ago.

I'm glad Linus is showing us all this new smart home, wifi lighting stuff. Because it makes it really easy for me to decide that I want normal a$$ everything in my house

14:00 - Directly connect the load to the line (bypassing the switch to the ceiling fixture). Then use the Z-Wave and HA to have the switch turn on/off the smart bulbs (but the actual fixture always has power).

Linus and Jake, THANK YOU for all your efforts here, I've had GE/Jasco switches for years and not being able to update firmware wasn't always a big problem. It's seriously a shame that we need people with big audiences for companies to listen. Linus and Jasco, Steve and Newegg. Who's next?

I never realized Linus and I had so much in common when it comes reacting to stupid stuff not working the way it should. As for Jasco, it really does sound like too little too late in my opinion. If you need an influencer to get support, who knows how reliable it will be in the future.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Linus legitimately get upset in a video before! There are some things in life I like the tweaky nerd friendly option, and there are some things in life I want something that just works. Not saying I have a hundred switches or anything but I’ve been very happy with my Leviton/Homekit setup. The hardest part was explaining to my electrician why I wanted to use my switches instead of theirs. Homekit is definitely not the tweaker’s option but I think we are still in the early adopter phase. Things will definitely get more fleshed out with time.

Scenic Gira Switches (€63 each) work great with Hue. They are configurable to have 4 or 2 actions, but also can dim. I have 120+ bulbs on 2 Hue hubs and 7 motion en light sensors (€35 each) and it works. You can set 2 in one room if you have multiple entrances to that room. Best thing about the Gira Switches is that they are without a battery and don't need to be put on the wall with the cables. Alternatively Hue sells kits that alter a regular switch to a smart switch. They mount behind a regular switch so you have the freedom to choose your own switches.

I've spent so many hours like this with my homeassistant - it really helps my morale to see other people struggling with it too - thanks guys

I love how they treat firmwares that's basically only there to configure 1 and 0 like some sort of source code to GTA 6.

This Video is the definition of "modern problems require modern solutions"

Thanks Linus, I have some Enbrighten Zigbee dimmers and light switches and was considering getting some of the motion dimmer switches. Now I know better.

I am an electrician here in the us. I would think that you could wire the lighting you want set on motion as follows (feed-smart on/off switch {no motion}/manual switch - ceiling or wall mounted motion controller-light fixture) this way your switch, app controlled or manual, would act as a power disconnect for the motion sensor. This would make the light to be forced to stay off regardless of motion until you decide to, manually/ app controlled, turn the lighting power back on. Idk just a thought...

I love how you can have such an influence on a company and the entire industry just because your channel is so big and popular. They clearly didn’t want too much negative press from their firmware policy.

Inovelli Red switches will allow you to keep constant power to that smart Yeelight bulb. Then you can program the Inovelli switch so the physical on/off buttons on the switch can turn the smart bulb on or off. You get the best of both worlds with that. I feel your pain on all this and wish setting up a smart home was easier.

I remember my trials with GE switches... I dumped them all and went with Zooz... I then got 4 in one Motion detectors and placed them where I wanted Motion and problem solved... I even have the sensors in my bathroom to have the fan come on when the humidity reaches a set point... You will learn smart home stuff... and you will learn that GE is at the bottom of the barrel in smart home tech... Best of luck!

As a home automation technician and programmer I took a special kind of joy in their struggles 😂

Ahh yes. Proprietary software in your light switches. Just what I needed.

I legitimately never knew how badly I needed "Mad Linus", but ffs, this was his greatest personality I've ever seen.

I want to make my house smart, starting with switches. I saw this video when it first came out and didn't know what a z-wave was. Over the last month I've gone down a deep rabbit hole and understand the entire smart tech area a whole lot better. IMO, it's a bit of a mess. It's difficult to learn about the industry in general and there seem to be a lot of bugs in it. I've all but settled on the idea of running HA on a Pi, with Z-wave and/or Zigbee dongles and starting with either GE, Inovelli, or Leviton switches. From there, add sensors, etc. But getting to know this field/hobby hasn't been very user friendly.

This was the exact same experience I had with Jasco support for their Enbrighten ZWave regular switches. Too bad a little guy like me couldn’t convince them to release firmware but glad to see you got it done by ranting how terrible their policy on firmware was on a podcast. I still have a few of them but their documentation and other support still seem lacking. Also, eff the issues with ZwaveJS in HA. 😂

Watching Linus lose his s**t was the funniest thing ive seen in a while, But a well deserved rant. great for getting a U-turn on the firmware for mortal humans. Great content as always

As an electrician in Canada welcome to the nightmare of "smart" devices. We deal with this insane back and forth with company's screwing each other by making things not work with each other and not user friendly. I personally only use LUTRON cassetta devices as they seem to be the easiest to use and set up.

Omg 🤣 I do this Smart Home stuff for a living and I'm absolutely cracking up! This reminds me of the first time I set up a house like this.

hardwired multi sensors is the way to go (to make it easier I think often they could be wired / installed near existing light / smoke / fan etc fixtures)

I never thought I'd appreciate a normal old light switch this much.

I don't have an issue with epilepsy or anything, but I think the dinging when the light was flickering and then when it stopped was genius. I've always wondered just what the heck people who are at risk of seizures are supposed to do during the warnings when they have no way of knowing once it's safe. Just peek and hope for the best I guess? Smart having the audio cue!

100% recommend working with Inovelli. I replaced all of my GE switches with Inovelli Reds after having a bunch fail with in weeks of each other. They have been absolutely fantastic.

Elechicken here: For occupancy sensing WattStopper is the end all be all of set it and forget it. Their self-learning is amazing and the lack of issues I have from them says everything. (They have a minute delay to start). For whole home smart systems, there is nothing better than Lutron Homeworks right now. Square D Clipsal is nice, but not as adaptable and as well supported. There is a key thing here though, in that you NEVER put occupancy sensors in a bedroom! They work great for bathrooms, garages, mech rooms, etc. Don't use them in your normal living spaces or you will be driven insane. You're trying to use tech solutions that are not well thought out from small companies with no real R&D budget and lots of open source software. There's a reason Lutron charges so much for their systems. They are well done, reliable, and have a huge R&D budget behind the development to avoid all these annoyances.

When Linus will sell this house in the future, he will have to write a full manual on how to use it

Screw these kind of companies. A Firmware Downloads page should be the bare minimum. A good company should provide the source code for the firmware so that customers can make whatever changes they want on their OWN devices.

I went with a brand called zooz in my new house. They have smart dimmers, switched, multi-sensors, scene selectors and much more. I love them and I do also use hass.

This is so relatable, not like ive had similiar problems with motion sensors for lights in my house or anything.

I've been keeping up with this issue since you first ranted about it on the WAN show. Its great that Jasco finally made the firmware available publicly, but I'd call it "Too little too late", and I would actively avoid any Jasco product I see in the future. This is for 2 simple reasons. 1: The fact that even with the latest firmware you are still unable to get expected behavior, meaning this drawback can likely be expected on most other Jasco devices, and 2: We all know that if it wasn't YOU (Or someone else with a social megaphone), it is guaranteed they would definitely NOT have made the firmware available publicly. Thx for updating us on this!

I'm so glad this video addresses the utter and pure pain experienced when things you buy and pay hard-earned money for straight-up DON'T work. And it's getting harder and harder to talk to actual human beings behind these products, so most of the time you are just literally screwed. This should be addressed more and I'm so glad Linus did that in this video in a way that voiced ALL our frustrations with situations like these. Well done man, glad you use your platform to address these things and urge companies to do better. Loved the video!

Linus, your debacle made me consider getting a used industrial PLC and just wire 12V to every light fixture in my house and use Ladder logic to program it, then make an interface in SCADA so I can make it look however I want. I would end up with the ability to drive LED strips or fixtures directly, no need for tiny DC inverters that tend to die before the LED`s, wiring would be thinner and less of a hassle and I could power it all with a good DC 12 or 24V PSU, and have the PLC, relays and psu all in a single cabinet, neat and organized.

i really love troubleshooting videos. can relate to every emotion