victorsmartkill-homeassistant
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toreamun
Support for SmartKill app being dropped end of 2025?
Hi,
I use your plugin and it has worked very well. Today I got this disturbing email in my spam folder which I suspect is for real:
While disappointing, this doesn't surprise me. Victor have made zero effort on their app since forever, and I'm guessing their servers have had the same (lack of) maintenance. I have emailed them to ask if they plan to keep the servers up, or if they will turn all of the "smart" traps that customers paid extra for into dumb ones .. my pessimistic guess is that they will shut everything down.
For those that use the plugin, please do email them https://www.victorpest.com/contact-us and express your dissatisfaction with this decision!
Any chance of constructing and flashing these with a new firmware so we can talk to them locally? Any idea of the level of effort for such an undertaking?
I did use the contact form to ask them to consider releasing the source code for the traps, though I'd be surprised if I get a response, much less a positive one.
Thanks @prebbz for bringing this to my attention. Bad news.
@ggiesen These trapps have different hardware. Later models have the popular https://www.espressif.com/en/products/socs/esp8266 chip, so it should be possible for people with hardware knowledge to make it report to let say some kind of Home assistant endpoint. But this would require more effort than I have time to put in, and I am not that good with hardware to make it happend without investing a lot of time.
https://github.com/toreamun/victorsmartkill-homeassistant/wiki/Hardware#mcu-1
I wonder whether the trap with the esp8266 will remain available for sale or discontinued due to Victor's drop in support of the wifi features. If the esp is directly in charge of the trap it should be doable, but if there is another mcu involved then you need to figure out how to talk to that making it harder. I'd love for my traps to be local... especially if using ESPHome! Cloud only devices suck for this very reason... when vendors decide to drop support!
@alexruffell I think the esp is in charge of it all. See pictures here: https://fcc.report/FCC-ID/SNA-M2/4714985
@toreamun Looks promising indeed! I'm not an expert but none of the other chips look like an mcu (but I want to look up that larger chip to be sure). I am also tempted to make it rechargeable by using 18650 (or whatever fits) batteries and a small charging PCB... but if we put effort in this, it would be nice to know that it will remain available as is even if they disable wifi in firmware.
I wonder whether the trap with the esp8266 will remain available for sale or discontinued due to Victor's drop in support of the wifi features. If the esp is directly in charge of the trap it should be doable, but if there is another mcu involved then you need to figure out how to talk to that making it harder. I'd love for my traps to be local... especially if using ESPHome! Cloud only devices suck for this very reason... when vendors decide to drop support!
I expect they're all discontinued, and I think they have been for a year.
Would be nice to free these from the cloud! I just noticed their server has been down for over an hour now.
I have one of my units flashed to esphome with deep sleep. I can't get OTA to work but flashing via usb works.
Deep sleep works and it wakes up if you short the "shock" leads. I need to verify the trap still works.
I'll report back soon.
@rbflurry I believe deep sleep causes OTA not to work. Where did you connect to for the USB interface? The header ont he board?
@alexruffell even with deep sleep disabled. I get a flash size error no matter what board I specify.
"ERROR Error binary size: Error: ESP has been flashed with wrong flash size. Please choose the correct 'board' option (esp01_1m always works) and then flash over USB" - This might be due to the small flash size (512kb)
What I know about the board ESP8266EX and 25Qxx
Using the header on the board I am able to flash
1(GPIO0) 3(VCC) 5(RX)* 2 (RST?) 4(GND) 6(TX)
GPIO14 is an led (D1) GPIO15 is led (D2) GPIO5 is Blue led (D3) by the reset button GPIO13 Runs the HV Transformer via PWM not sure of the settings yet.
ADO is connect to battery for a 0-1v sweep for battery life
5v seems to appear across the plates but I cant seem to "read" this conductive anywhere unless they are monitoring a voltage dip for the plates shorting?
Stock firmware seems to read the "short" send pwm down GPIO13 for 10 seconds and then check for short to confirm "kill" enables wifi and sends data to cloud then pulse d1 every 25 seconds for "kill"
U6 is some kind of comparator/opand? It has GPIO12, the p3 "plate" circuit and gpio4 connects to u8 (esd/static protection) then through a transistor to U6.
I am at the end of my skillset but would love to assist anyone who can help me further or pickup where I left off. I have lots of notes and tracing. I just need to figure out the detection everything else is done.
Thanks for your investigations, I too have been hoping someone will try and free these from the cloud.
None of the other GPIOS seem to function ADO is not connected so I think they were faking battery life.
tl;dr: I don't think they are faking battery life.
I don't think (at least in the version I have) that they are faking battery life . Long story short, there is most likely a design flaw with the M1 traps where cold temperatures https://www.reddit.com/r/pestcontrol/comments/1ceqote/victor_smartkill_wifi_mouse_trap_known_issue/ (e.g. my attic during the winter months) cause the MCU to hang, and consequently drain the batteries in record time. After going through multiple sets of batteries, I soldered a USB cable onto the VCC rail, and run it off a smart plug in the attic (so I can power cycle the trap when it hangs). The battery perpetually reports 24% (which makes sense if a full set of batteries is at 6V and the USB is providing 5V).
@prebbz that's a good bit of information. I was monitoring vcc through the ship but that is only 1.5v after regulators. I also have an M1 but I am sure there are difference revisions.
I found a circuit off of GPIO2 that seems to tie to the battery pack but I think that used to prevent boot loops if the battery voltage is too low. It looks to pull GPIO2 low which would prevent boot.
Victor claims the devices will work after the app support is shutdown. I am just trying to make sure there is no program logic to arm or enable the high voltage side of the trap. Can't find a good way to test without a mouse or my fingers.
For what it is worth there is a GPIO that is control of the HV circuit but I am having trouble figuring out what or how to influence it.
I did use the contact form to ask them to consider releasing the source code for the traps, though I'd be surprised if I get a response, much less a positive one.
I did get a response from Victor, and obviously they declined to release the source code for these traps, though they did offer a discount on my next Victor purchase or a replacement product of similar value from their current line.
I did use the contact form to ask them to consider releasing the source code for the traps, though I'd be surprised if I get a response, much less a positive one.
I did the same yesterday.
I did use the contact form to ask them to consider releasing the source code for the traps, though I'd be surprised if I get a response, much less a positive one.
I did get a response from Victor, and obviously they declined to release the source code for these traps, though they did offer a discount on my next Victor purchase or a replacement product of similar value from their current line.
That was "generous" of them! Here is an excerpt of just how clueless their customer service is:
On Sun, 31 Aug at 4:38 AM , Marcus
_Hi,
I got a very disturbing email from you guys saying that the mobile app support is ending for my M2 traps at the end of 2025!
It was unclear, will the servers still be operating? (I have home assistant plugins that monitor these traps) Or are you effectively turning our smart traps into "dumb" ones despite paying extra money for the M2?
Please reconsider this shortsighted decision and keep support for the app!!_
To which they responded a few days later:
_Hello Marcus,
Thank you for reaching out, and thank you for choosing Victor® Pest—we truly appreciate your trust in our products.
I’m happy to clarify! The service for the trap will continue running until December 1, 2025. After that, the app will no longer function, but you can still use your trap as a regular electronic trap without any issues.
Please note that kill notifications will no longer be sent to your mobile device via the app after the service ends, but the trap itself will continue working as intended. We appreciate your understanding, and we’re always here if you have any questions or need assistance.
Sincerely,
Omkar Customer Care Specialist Woodstream Corporation_
Completely ignoring my question if the servers will still remain up. I'm also hoping that they don't push a bricking fw out (not sure the current platform is sophisticated enough to support OTA firmware updates).. but when they shut the servers down the existing traps are going to constantly try to connect to victorpest.com and eat through batteries. As others have stated, freeing these from the cloud is our best hope.
(As an aside, it's such a shame that Victor have taken a really valid and useful use case and botched it so badly)
Ok, another update from Victor:
_Hello Marcus,
Thank you for your response, and I appreciate your follow-up. As mentioned in my previous email:
Yes, the servers that the M1/M2 traps connect to will remain operational. However, after December 1st, 2025, the app will stop working, and the traps will continue to function as regular electronic traps.
As a token of our appreciation, here is a 15% discount code: xxxxxx, which can be used twice on our Victor® website.
Thank you again for your understanding and continued support.
Sincerely,_
Ok, another update from Victor:
_Hello Marcus,
Thank you for your response, and I appreciate your follow-up. As mentioned in my previous email:
Yes, the servers that the M1/M2 traps connect to will remain operational. However, after December 1st, 2025, the app will stop working, and the traps will continue to function as regular electronic traps.
As a token of our appreciation, here is a 15% discount code: xxxxxx, which can be used twice on our Victor® website.
Thank you again for your understanding and continued support.
Sincerely,_
The servers will not remain operational, they're killing them and that's why the app will no longer function. It's the classic cloud-based IOT trap (pardon the pun). They charge a one-time cost for the trap, and have no recurring revenue (or incentive) to continue operating the cloud service. Also, if the trap doesn't sell well (which I suspect most people weren't willing to the pay the premium for Internet-connected traps), they have a lot of fixed recurring costs supported by relatively low one-time revenue.
I got a less automated response about getting these open sourced.
Thank you for sharing your ideas and the technical work you’ve already done with the ESP8266 module. We want you to know that we are currently reviewing all possibilities regarding these traps, including the discussion of whether or not to release the source code.
We truly appreciate the thoughtful approach you’ve taken and the effort to find solutions that can extend the product’s life and help reduce waste. Your feedback is very valuable, and it is being taken into consideration as we continue these internal discussions.
I got a less automated response about getting these open sourced.
Thank you for sharing your ideas and the technical work you’ve already done with the ESP8266 module. We want you to know that we are currently reviewing all possibilities regarding these traps, including the discussion of whether or not to release the source code.
We truly appreciate the thoughtful approach you’ve taken and the effort to find solutions that can extend the product’s life and help reduce waste. Your feedback is very valuable, and it is being taken into consideration as we continue these internal discussions.
That's a better response than I got, which was a categorical "no":
"We understand how disappointing this update may be, and we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. Victor will no release a source code, we recognize that this device may have been a key reason for choosing our brand, and we sincerely regret that continued support for it is no longer available. "
It's probably helpful that you'd already done so much legwork, it probably got punted up to at least someone with half a clue as opposed to a customer service droid.
I did use the contact form to ask them to consider releasing the source code for the traps, though I'd be surprised if I get a response, much less a positive one.
I did the same yesterday.
From reply:
We truly appreciate your enthusiasm; however, the source code and internal components of the hardware chip are proprietary and unfortunately cannot be shared or modified. We understand how valuable home automation integration can be, and your feedback will be shared with our product team for future consideration.
The source code request should clarify that we don't need the portion of the code that talks to their servers. All we really need is to figure out how to control the hardware. That part is less likely to be sensitive, no?
The other option might be to give us the option to specify the server to connect to, and it should be relatively straightforward to build an integration in Home Assistant that the traps could report to. It would solve the issue of push notifications, too, as Home Assistant could handle that.
Would it be possible to redirect the traffic in the home router?
Redirection is possible, but it may be hard to have success. The trap propably does some kind of TLS certificate validation etc. The activation and Wifi setup etc. may also be harder if logon is required (can't remember).
For the second version with ESP8266EX chip, it is probably easier to flash it with ESPHome, Tasmota, MicroPython or similar.
I have kindly asked them for some details and source code: The hardware itself is quite straightforward, and what would be most valuable is simply some insight into how the chip interacts with the surrounding electronics. Details on how it communicates with your servers are not necessary.
Updated my notes above. Might spin this off to a discussion or my own repo just to keep the noise away from this add on creator.
I have most of the functionality mapped out. just missing the "sense" needed to fire off the HV. but everything else is there. I know, I'm missing the key feature.
@rbflurry Thanks for your hard work in reverse engineering these units. Please continue to post updates here or if you spin it off, please update us that want to follow along. Thanks!
Could not agree more, thank you @rbflurry! Another avenue I was considering is taking the good 'ole reliable Victor electric traps (the non-connected ones) and using something like a TinyPico (https://www.tinypico.com/), connected to either a dual photodiode or optocoupler soldered to the LED pins, and transform the dumb traps into smart ones. Obviously it would better though if we could reflash the existing M1 devices though.
Hi all, I'm sure most that are interested in this have also got the email, but it looks like we got ourselves another year to solve this problem :)