November 4, 2025
Thermo‑drama: hot takes, cold trust
NoLongerEvil-Thermostat – Nest Generation 1 and 2 Firmware
Hacking old Nest to go off‑grid—fans cheer, skeptics sweat
TLDR: An experimental DIY firmware for old Nest thermostats reroutes them off Google’s cloud to a community platform, promising full control. Comments explode: angry at Google’s shutdown, hopeful for independence, skeptical of the developer and missing server code, and demanding HomeAssistant support—because control over home devices matters.
Someone just dropped NoLongerEvil‑Thermostat, a DIY firmware that tells older Nest thermostats to stop talking to Google and connect to a community‑run platform instead. Translation: your smart thermostat goes independent, using a replica server so it thinks it’s still on Nest, but it’s actually on your terms. The catch? It’s experimental and could brick your device, so don’t try this on your only source of heat or AC.
The comments came in hot. One nostalgic voice says the OG Nest teams cared and “wouldn’t have said ‘turn them off,’” while another furious homeowner vows never to buy Google hardware again after the old devices lost online features. The practical crowd chimed in with “make it a HomeAssistant add‑on and I’m in,” because if it doesn’t plug into their DIY home hub, they’re not touching it. Open‑source purists threw shade: firmware without the server isn’t truly free—though an edit promises the backend will be open‑sourced soon. Then came the spice: a LinkedIn sleuth pointed out the dev’s a PHP programmer, triggering the meme machine—“thermostat jailbreak,” “free‑as‑in‑freon,” and “can a web coder keep my house from freezing?”
It’s a full‑blown smart home rebellion: half the crowd rooting for freedom from the cloud, half terrified of melting their summer or icing their winter. Drama, hope, and a lot of backup thermostats.
Key Points
- •Experimental custom firmware targets Nest Thermostat Gen 1 and 2 using the OMAP DFU interface.
- •After flashing, the thermostat stops contacting Nest/Google servers and connects to the NoLongerEvil platform.
- •Firmware modifies bootloader and kernel to redirect network traffic to a server hosting a reverse‑engineered API.
- •Setup includes cloning a GitHub repo, installing prerequisites (libusb, build tools), and building the omap_loader tool.
- •Installation requires entering DFU mode; the installer flashes x‑load, U‑Boot, and a uImage kernel, then a 3–4 minute boot follows.