How is this gonna stop theft? I have a lot of power tools from Home Depot (ryobi) and I take them apart all the time to fix them. Power tools are relatively simple in design. A Bluetooth anti theft system last as long as it takes to open the tools and remove the anti theft and re-solder the parts back.
My dad was a long time construction worker and there’ve been many anti theft devices in power tool. None of them work and are circumvented in minutes if you know why you’re doing.
This is the dumbest stunt I’ve seen a company take; this isn’t anti theft, it’s anti consumer.
How is it anti-consumer? If you paid for the tool and it works, what difference does it make? It won't stop all theft but is just an extra deterrent that does not involve having to lockup the tool.s
Have you used a lot of power tools? Because power tools get beat up and every anti theft mechanism I’ve experienced becomes the weak point of tools. Back in the late 90s Milwaukee started putting key locks in the saws. My dad constantly have his saws “repaired” cause the lock would slide closed and be unable to function, he started taking them apart and removing the mechanism. That’s anti consumer. If it will be the reason your tool stops working, it’s anti consumer. If the lock ever turns on when you don’t want it to, it’s anti consumer.
Also, Home Depot calls out on their repair site that they do not repair Bluetooth enabled devices, that’s anti consumer.
If the lock is effective, then you are definitely going to have cases where a paying customer receives a tool that is locked or re-locked itself.
The organized groups on the other hand now just have a slight inconvenience (at worst, until they reverse engineer the electronic locking) where they have to open and bypass the lock before they re-sell the tool. Power tools aren't complex enough to be able to make them impossible to bypass without the theft still being profitable.
That is going to be the single biggest point of failure. This is going to sky rocket tool costs and require specialized equipment to diagnose and repair. They’re are not integrating it in the motor. They will get sued big time for faulty motor failures.
My dad was a long time construction worker and there’ve been many anti theft devices in power tool. None of them work and are circumvented in minutes if you know why you’re doing.
This is the dumbest stunt I’ve seen a company take; this isn’t anti theft, it’s anti consumer.