Rooting to save the Nest Thermostat

Hardware
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Continuing the discussion from Nest to turn off their API:

In light of Google’s recent announcement that they’ll be turning off the Works With Nest program and the fact that you can no longer sign up for new Nest dev accounts, I’ve been looking for another way to make my Nest Thermonstat usable with Home Assistant.

Since there was a rooting exploit against the Nest Thermostat way back in 2014, I figured it would make sense to use that as a starting point, and see if we can modify or replace the Nest’s built-in software to make it speak MQTT or something else. This would get around them shutting down the APIs, and probably allow us to make it a local-only device. (also it would be cool to be able to put our own interface on that great-looking little screen)

I’m going to start working on rooting my Nest in the next few days (probably after putting our original thermostat back on the wall so we don’t lose heating/cooling control) and see if there’s something that can be done to its software.

Does this seem like a good approach? Is MQTT support the right thing to aim for?

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Doing more research, it seems that Nest themselves open-sourced their toolchain (according to Nest 3rd Gen Support · Issue #3 · exploiteers/NestDFUAttack · GitHub):

Also, if you didn’t know, Nest released their entire toolchain and build scripts to make a completely unlocked version 4.x Nest (this doesnt include proprietary source code). Check it out: http://opensource.nest.com/NestLearningThermostat/4.x%20Opensource/nestlabs-open-source.tgz

Maybe this will be a better place to start with rooting.

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Looks like there’s a few Nest MQTT projects out there. I haven’t tried any of them yet, but they may be worth checking out.

https://cylonjs.com/documentation/platforms/nest/

1 Like
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@Weok thanks for the suggestions! Unfortunately, those both still use the Works With Nest API. (they require signing up for a Nest developer account, which is no longer possible)

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@whitelynx I was wondering if you had any luck in this area?

I found your thread and had a similar idea. I love my nest hardware, but would love to swap out the software for local control. I’m also debating just selling them off for a different thermostat, but can’t get over how the nest feels when you use it.

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I haven’t yet, sorry. We ended up moving, and I haven’t had a chance to work on the Nest yet - the new place has an Ecobee that the landlord installed, so I’ve just been using that. Haven’t had enough time to actually dive into any of the hacks and see if I can actually root this thing. At least now if I brick it, I won’t lose the thermostat from Home Assitant.