So I have just recently purchased the gen1 Xiaomi Vacuum.
First thing I wanted to do was flash custom firmware so I am not sending my mapped house back to China.
I have successfully obtained the token and can connect to the vacuum. Unfortunately though when attempting to flash with various methods it times out (xvacuum, miiotool, etc)
Can these vacuums still be flashed? Has xiaomi blocked this?
Thanks
I think you may be out of luck unfortunately. I’ve been looking into getting a second gen1 Xiaomi Vacuum myself, and was put off by this:
Please note that Gen 1 Vacuums with a production date >= 2019-09 (ver >= 4004) may come with newer firmwares preinstalled which disables local OTA and thus making the Installation of Valetudo impossible without opening the device.
(Source: https://valetudo.cloud/pages/knowledge_base/supported-roborock-devices.html)
I think we may have missed the boat 
Ah unlucky, Mine shipped with 4008 firmware, even when restoring to recovery.
Next step, researching on flashing through a hardware method? I can’t find any info about this