Is this still maintained?

[pounard]

Hello!

Latest commit is now 1 year-ish old, and there is not much activity in issue queue, is this still maintained?

[flyize]

Essentially, no

[pounard]

Thank you for answering! Is there any alternatives?

[jacotec]

Let's say: It works as-it-is with the older hub firmwares. As the latest hub firmware locks this project out (and noone found out yet how to downgrade the hub), I guess new features are useless until some enthusiasts builds a hub replacement.

Stupid strategy from SurePetcare in my opinion. But I don't know alternatives (and hope my hub will never die)

[plambrechtsen]

Everyone had covered it. If you are lucky enough to have a hub that hasn't been updated over 18 months ago you are able to work with it.

But I am not really maintaining it due to work commitments and being disheartened that surepetcare locked me out of the firmware and have not provided any real alternative.

[plambrechtsen]

The alternatives are.

• build a new hub using a Zigbee radio either the mrf24 I started building.

• build it on a ESP32 C6. I did have a look at this but their Zigbee driver seems to be closed source and it didn't have a basic 802.14.5 packet interface unlike the MRF24 so it would be a whole new world of pain building the driver first before even getting into interfacing to the hub.

If you're a c developer and up for a challenge then I have some code I started. You will also have an interest in reverse engineering to take the existing hub firmware and decompile some of the radio functions as there is an XOR function I never completely reverse engineered. But there is a gidra project if you're interested.

[plambrechtsen]

This code is probably going to be the only path forward once the xor key is cracked.

https://github.com/plambrechtsen/pethublocal/tree/main/WemosPetHub

[pounard]

Let's say: It works as-it-is with the older hub firmwares. As the latest hub firmware locks this project out (and noone found out yet how to downgrade the hub), I guess new features are useless until some enthusiasts builds a hub replacement.

Stupid strategy from SurePetcare in my opinion. But I don't know alternatives (and hope my hub will never die)

Problem is, I can't manage to install the HA addon, it always end up with an error and no logs. That's why I was asking.

Thank you all for answering!

[DataBitz]

Let's say: It works as-it-is with the older hub firmwares. As the latest hub firmware locks this project out (and noone found out yet how to downgrade the hub), I guess new features are useless until some enthusiasts builds a hub replacement.
Stupid strategy from SurePetcare in my opinion. But I don't know alternatives (and hope my hub will never die)

Problem is, I can't manage to install the HA addon, it always end up with an error and no logs. That's why I was asking.

Thank you all for answering!

You may have a conflict with another HACS integration or extension. I have had this in the past, try disabling all others and see if it starts working.

[flyize]

Let's say: It works as-it-is with the older hub firmwares. As the latest hub firmware locks this project out (and noone found out yet how to downgrade the hub), I guess new features are useless until some enthusiasts builds a hub replacement.
Stupid strategy from SurePetcare in my opinion. But I don't know alternatives (and hope my hub will never die)

Problem is, I can't manage to install the HA addon, it always end up with an error and no logs. That's why I was asking.

Thank you all for answering!

You have an old hub that has NEVER connected to the internet in the last couple of years? If your hub is recently purchased, or has been connected to the internet - don't bother as you have been locked out.

[flyize]

Your best bet is to keep an eye on this.

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/local-deployment-for-sureflap-surepetcare-connect-using-only-local-mqtt-broker/274494/558

[pounard]

You have an old hub that has NEVER connected to the internet in the last couple of years? If your hub is recently purchased, or has been connected to the internet - don't bother as you have been locked out.

My hub is connected for 4 years~ish, so I guess I'm fucked...

[flyize]

Indeed you are. No need to waste time on this project unfortunately.

[pounard]

Thank you for answering once again. OK, I'll try to see if other projects exist. I'd love to get rid of that hub anyway.

[plambrechtsen]

I was looking to see if I could figure out flashing the old code back onto the hub @pounard . What has happened however is it is a two step process where they first flash a new bootloader on and then the new firmware.
I have a copy of the old firmware here: https://github.com/PetHubLocal/pethublocal/tree/firmware201/pethublocal/firmware but I don't have the old bootloader as the hubs are shipped with the bootloader on it. Also I haven't managed to dump the existing firmware including bootloader using a pickit so that avenue hasn't worked out.

[cintema]

Hi,
I'm more or less confused and I simply cannot figure out what the current status of the project might be.
You are describing a way to downgrade the firmware here: https://pethublocal.github.io/firmware
However, now you're writing that you couldn't work it out yet. So, what ist the current status, eventually? Is it still worth buying a hub device or is shall we rather wait for someone figuring out a reimplementation on a zigbee device (which one?) as you mentioned here:
plambrechtsen/pethublocal#15
I feel the documentation might be outdated.
Thank you in advance!

[flyize]

This repo no longer works on hubs with newer firmware. You'll probably just want to keep an eye on this over here. There may be another company that is willing to give us local API support.

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/local-deployment-for-sureflap-surepetcare-connect-using-only-local-mqtt-broker/274494/571?u=flyize

[cintema]

Hi,
thanks for your reply. However, this device costs 500€, which is quite a bunch of money for a flap, especially if you already own a sure pet flap.
If downgrading would be doable, the older firmware should still work with pethublocal, right?

[Flachzange]

#29

[flyize]

Hi, thanks for your reply. However, this device costs 500€, which is quite a bunch of money for a flap, especially if you already own a sure pet flap. If downgrading would be doable, the older firmware should still work with pethublocal, right?

Yes, but unless you're some sort of wizard, you aren't going to be able to downgrade. This project is essentially dead.

[cintema]

Isn't the entire downgrade process described here?
https://pethublocal.github.io/firmware

[flyize]

Unless you're some sort of wizard, you aren't going to be able to downgrade. This project is essentially dead.

Feel free to read around on some of the issues if you don't believe me.

[cintema]

This still doesn't exactely answer my question why there is a downgrade-description in the docs which doesn't appear to work.
However, I just managed to get a hub from ebay which is three years old but was never connected to the internet (at least according to the seller). This could maybe work then since it may run the old firmware, I guess?
Will the hub update without confirmation if connected to the internet, or is it save to play around witch it?
Thanks.

[plambrechtsen]

If the hub hasn't been plugged into the internet and upgraded in the last 3 years potentially it might still work as it's only the older firmware.
Either find a serial console and solder that on and see what comes out, or plug it into an isolated network and spin up the dns and webserver and see what you get on the first connect to the hub endpoint.
Also message me your serial number as I might have the xor key for your hub.

[Flachzange]

Ah, thanks Peter. That was also my question here: #28 (comment)

So, maybe with some luck there are some old hubs out there

[plambrechtsen]

I do have a list of old XOR codes for a number of hubs but I think the data is useless now if the hub has been upgraded as I am sure they would have rolled or replaced the firmware key.
Send me an email if you have an old hub confirmed to be running the old firmware before the bootloader was upgraded and I can send you the necessary XOR key.

[Flachzange]

I got a hub that was not connected to the internet before (supposedly). After connecting ,I get the following output:

2025-01-04 17:13:41.978627+01:00File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/aiohttp/web_protocol.py", line 452, in _handle_request
2025-01-04 17:13:41.978652+01:00resp = await request_handler(request)
2025-01-04 17:13:41.978662+01:00File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/aiohttp/web_app.py", line 543, in _handle
2025-01-04 17:13:41.978685+01:00resp = await handler(request)
2025-01-04 17:13:41.978696+01:00File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pethublocal/frontend.py", line 63, in credentials
2025-01-04 17:13:41.978712+01:00firmware_version = body['firmware_version'][0]
2025-01-04 17:13:41.978721+01:00KeyError: 'firmware_version'

I assume this means it already has a newer bootloader. Or is that something else? Anything I can do to get some verbose output from pethublocal?