Proteus AMBIO - Wifi Temperature Humidity sensor with Buzzer and Email/Text Alerts

UPDATE 4.4.18: I just added a second Proteus sensor at our second location, and it couldn’t have been easier. What's nice is that I can use the same account as I did for the original sensor, even though it’s on a different WiFi network. Now, both sensors appear on the same webpage, and each is individually customizable, so you can set different temperature ranges and different notification emails and text. They have recently spruced up their website, too. This is a really great product from a good company!I just set this device up. It was pretty straighforward, but you need to have the provided temperature extension plugged in and should have your WiFi setter open in your phone or tablet before you plug in the sensor. If your WiFi setter doesn’t immediately pick up the Proteus WiFi signal, try pressing the black button next to the temperature sensor jack for several seconds, and the device will reset and should get the Proteus network to appear. You need to enter your account info (email and password) on their website and then log in. You will see your sensor with the temp and humidity readout. You can then do your alert settings for low and high temp and humidity %, etc., and add additional emails addresses, and cell phone numbers (for texts, if you want). Mine started recording the temp and humidity with great accuracy. I plugged mine into an UPS battery backup, so it will still work, if there is a power outage (my WiFi router is also plugged into the same UPS). The temp and humidity sensor extension is very short, but I understand that you can request a longer one from the seller, if you want to put it in your fridge or something like that.

Excellent device, couldnt be easier to setup, light years ahead of myspool devices, worth every penny !

Set this up yesterday. One page of directions, easily understood and set up in 10 minutes. Temperature agrees with 2 other thermometers in the room. Successfully tested upper and lower limit alarms with text and e-mail. It texted and e-mailed me every 30 minutes. Disabled audible alarm successfully. Unplugged probe and got error message: "probe unplugged." Unplugged from power socket and plugged it back in; started reporting temperature immediately. Phone app is simple for iPhone - basically just forwards you to the web page where unit, settings and data appear instantly. Works well on my laptop as well. Had a question about switching wifi networks - e-mailed support and had a helpful answer within the hour. This is exactly what I need for winter cabin that's empty several weeks.

Overall it's kind of a decent device, but the reason I'm giving it one star is there are certain things that are unacceptable, even if everything else about the product is reasonably good. There are certain things where it should never have been allowed to start getting sold until they fixed that part of the design. There is a certain bar any product should cross before they are willing to sell it to people. So for me personally, is something like that is wrong with the product I will give it one star even some features work okay.The thing they did very wrong is, the buzzer will not sound if the WiFi goes out. This is seriously stupid and bad. It's not like there is some other device with the buzzer or temperature sensor out there somewhere connected over WiFi. The temperature sensor is in and connected to the device, as is the buzzer! If it has previously been configured over WiFi, it should not need to remain connected for the buzzer to work. This makes it completely unreliable. WiFi is one of most notoriously unreliable pieces of technology ever made, especially WiFi routers that explicitly offer a 2.4 network, which is the kind this needs to connect to. Since mesh routers have been invented, WiFi has become much more reliable on those, but this device won't connect to those because even though they do still support the 2.4 signals, they don't advertise themselves as such in the right way for smart devices to know they can pair with them. Please program this device to save the most recent settings it received from the cloud and to continue working with the local features (the buzzer) while the device is offline!When I first got this setup, it was not working. The temperature and humidity read as 0 on their website. I looked through the FAQ information and nothing worked. I eventually went to their website and found a phone number I was able to call and get tech support. They informed me that even if the sensor cord seems like it's plugged in all the way (which it definitely did), I should still try to push it in further. I did this, and it snapped in and started working. They should really emphasize this non-obvious, but essential step right away in the instructions. Before calling them, what I initially tried was using the "Contact Us" feature on their cloud service website that you have to use with the product. This allowed me to send them a few questions. Even after a couple weeks, I still heard nothing back from them. It wasn't until I went instead to their product website and called that phone number that I was able to get tech support. They should really advertise this tech support line better and respond to the questions sent from their could service website. I had provide both my phone number and email address they could have contacted me on.I tried to work around the issue of the buzzer not sounding when offline by enabling the feature to receive a phone call when the sensor goes offline (due to WiFi or power outage). I was not able to get it to work. The instructions for the format to provide the phone number in contradicted the example they provided. Neither worked. I could have called the tech support line to try to get this working, but by this point I was done. I no longer trusted them. I don't trust these kinds of people to make a product that will work reliably when I need it and over a long period of time, even if I could get it working.