Support for SmartKill app being dropped end of 2025?

[prebbz]

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!

[ggiesen]

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.

[toreamun]

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

[alexruffell]

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!

[toreamun]

@alexruffell I think the esp is in charge of it all. See pictures here: https://fcc.report/FCC-ID/SNA-M2/4714985

[alexruffell]

@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.

[ggiesen]

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.

[ewelin34]

Would be nice to free these from the cloud! I just noticed their server has been down for over an hour now.

[rbflurry]

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.

[alexruffell]

@rbflurry I believe deep sleep causes OTA not to work. Where did you connect to for the USB interface? The header ont he board?

[rbflurry]

@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.

[prebbz]

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).

[rbflurry]

@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.

[rbflurry]

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.