Milwaukee battery drm: Difference between revisions
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==Incident== | ==Incident== | ||
In August 2024, an independent YouTube investigation demonstrated that Milwaukee M18 batteries store hundreds of bytes of hidden diagnostic data. These logs include counts of over-current events, over-temperature events, cell voltage imbalances with millivolt precision, low-voltage cutoffs, | In August 2024, an independent YouTube investigation demonstrated that Milwaukee M18 batteries store hundreds of bytes of hidden diagnostic data. These logs include over 50 different statistics, such as counts of over-current events, over-temperature events, cell voltage imbalances with millivolt precision, low-voltage cutoffs, total discharge statistics, total charge time, time on charger whilst full, etc. The data can be accessed through undocumented serial commands but is not disclosed in user manuals.<ref name="TSYT">{{Cite web |date=2025-09-13|author=Tool Scientist|title=Full M18 diagnostics revealed |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHj0-Gzvbeo |url-status=live |website=YouTube}}</ref> | ||
Community reverse-engineering reports published on Hackaday also documented communication traces between batteries & chargers, confirming that undocumented registers store diagnostic histories not available through consumer interfaces.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://hackaday.com/2023/09/15/reverse-engineering-the-milwaukee-m18-redlink-protocol/ |title=Reverse Engineering the Milwaukee M18 REDLINK Protocol |website=Hackaday |date=2023-09-15 |access-date=2025-09-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240104104402/https://hackaday.com/2023/09/15/reverse-engineering-the-milwaukee-m18-redlink-protocol/ |archive-date=2024-01-04}}</ref> | Community reverse-engineering reports published on Hackaday also documented communication traces between batteries & chargers, confirming that undocumented registers store diagnostic histories not available through consumer interfaces.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://hackaday.com/2023/09/15/reverse-engineering-the-milwaukee-m18-redlink-protocol/ |title=Reverse Engineering the Milwaukee M18 REDLINK Protocol |website=Hackaday |date=2023-09-15 |access-date=2025-09-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240104104402/https://hackaday.com/2023/09/15/reverse-engineering-the-milwaukee-m18-redlink-protocol/ |archive-date=2024-01-04}}</ref> | ||
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==Consumer impact== | ==Consumer impact== | ||
Consumers have expressed concern that undisclosed logging could void warranties for circumstances outside of their control, such as environmental heat exposure. Community projects have since published open-source tools that allow end users to read diagnostic registers from Milwaukee batteries, giving them access to the same information the manufacturer uses internally.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://github.com/m18battery/diagnostics |title=Milwaukee M18 Battery Diagnostics Project |website=GitHub |date=2024-08-20 |access-date=2025-09-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240718105511/https://github.com/m18battery/diagnostics |archive-date=2024-07-18}}</ref> The "M18 HD12" battery series from Milwaukee currently has a 2.1/5 stars score from 522 reviews [https://www.milwaukeetool.com/Products/Batteries-and-Chargers/M18-Batteries-and-Chargers/48-11-1812 on their own website], and the "M12 XC6" battery has a 1.7/5 stars score from 321 reviews [https://www.milwaukeetool.com/products/48-11-2460 on their own website] and the company's [https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.milwaukeetool.com Trustpilot reviews] currently sit at 1.6/5 stars for their entire product line and after-sales service, with many consumer complaints that warranty claims on Milwaukee batteries have been denied, even though their batteries were still within the warranty period. Presumably, Milwaukee is downloading the usage logs from consumer's batteries and looking for any possible data-set to deny a warranty claim | Consumers have expressed concern that undisclosed logging could void warranties for circumstances outside of their control, such as environmental heat exposure. Community projects have since published open-source tools that allow end users to read diagnostic registers from Milwaukee batteries, giving them access to the same information the manufacturer uses internally.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://github.com/m18battery/diagnostics |title=Milwaukee M18 Battery Diagnostics Project |website=GitHub |date=2024-08-20 |access-date=2025-09-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240718105511/https://github.com/m18battery/diagnostics |archive-date=2024-07-18}}</ref> The "M18 HD12" battery series from Milwaukee currently has a 2.1/5 stars score from 522 reviews [https://www.milwaukeetool.com/Products/Batteries-and-Chargers/M18-Batteries-and-Chargers/48-11-1812 on their own website], and the "M12 XC6" battery has a 1.7/5 stars score from 321 reviews [https://www.milwaukeetool.com/products/48-11-2460 on their own website] and the company's [https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.milwaukeetool.com Trustpilot reviews] currently sit at 1.6/5 stars for their entire product line and after-sales service, with many consumer complaints that warranty claims on Milwaukee batteries have been denied, even though their batteries were still within the warranty period. Presumably, Milwaukee is downloading the usage logs from consumer's batteries and looking for any possible data-set to deny a warranty claim.<ref name="TSYT" /> | ||
==Industry comparison== | ==Industry comparison== | ||