Up to 50% for Inkbird Android wifi temperature controller

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Got mine on Monday, and like many others, my shipping box was badly abused. Luckily the product box was intact.

It came with the ambient temp sensor and temp probe; I wasn't expecting to get the humidity and cooking sensors.

Downloaded the app, plugged in the controller within a couple feet of the router, pressed the wifi sync button on the controller and the start button on the app, waited a bit and... timeout. Tried with my iphone 6s, and a kindle fire tablet with the android app sideloaded, but no joy with either.

Thought my three network wifi setup might be confusing the controller, so tried running each alone with the others disabled. For the wpa2 protected 2.4ghz and 5ghz networks, just the same timeouts as before. For the 2.4ghz wide-open guest network, the app won't accept an empty password.

Frustrating, but I'm still hopeful this will be a good addition to my setup.
 
Is anyone having trouble with the app? The only options are login and register. When I put in my email and password to register it gives me 'failed' and a bunch of Chinese letters.
 
Got mine today, but haven't used it yet.



One issue though (actuall two)... no humidity sensor and no cooking sensor! I only got the little antenna and the temp probe! I bought this so I could play around with all the sensors and see what I could do with them in regards to brewing and fermenting, and maybe some around the house stuff. I'm disappointed. The packaging looks nice though, if that's any reconciliation. Lol!


I guess you only get half the capabilities for half the price. I hope this thing connects to my wifi tomorrow.

Again... I'm disappointed.

Hi, sir,

Thanks for your order item. In the last picture about the whole text. we have stated that the package content which only with ambient and standard sensor. Pls understand.

BTW, have you connect it to the your router?
 
Got mine on Monday, and like many others, my shipping box was badly abused. Luckily the product box was intact.

It came with the ambient temp sensor and temp probe; I wasn't expecting to get the humidity and cooking sensors.

Downloaded the app, plugged in the controller within a couple feet of the router, pressed the wifi sync button on the controller and the start button on the app, waited a bit and... timeout. Tried with my iphone 6s, and a kindle fire tablet with the android app sideloaded, but no joy with either.

Thought my three network wifi setup might be confusing the controller, so tried running each alone with the others disabled. For the wpa2 protected 2.4ghz and 5ghz networks, just the same timeouts as before. For the 2.4ghz wide-open guest network, the app won't accept an empty password.

Frustrating, but I'm still hopeful this will be a good addition to my setup.

So sorry for that. We have stated the package content is only with ambient and standard sensor in the last picture. Pls understand that there are no humidity and cooking sensor.

BTW, could you PM me and give your transaction ID? I will arrange the replacement to you.
 
Is anyone having trouble with the app? The only options are login and register. When I put in my email and password to register it gives me 'failed' and a bunch of Chinese letters.

Sorry. Pls ignore the Chinese letter. Just retype your email address and password. Pls make sure all the letters are low-case.
 
I got mine today after getting shipping info last week.
My box was crushed a bit, however the product box inside was in impeccable condition.
I feel like when i ordered I knew that I was only getting the ambient temp sensor and the temp probe, so I was not surprised when I didnt get a humidity or cooking sensor.

I was unable to connect to my unit via wifi, following the included instructions I kept getting a "failure:" error which is oh so helpful... Im waiting to hear back from tech support and hopefully this is an easy fix.
Im honestly currently just hoping to be able to use this sensor to remotely check temperature and not even control a heat/cool unit.

So sorry.

Could you try it again follow the below link?

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showpost.php?p=7575890&postcount=1

Also, if it won't connect, could you try another router to connect it?
 
Work > play for me unfortunately. I havent had any time to bother with the "nifty" feature on this unit yet, but will be able to spend some time on it this coming week.
 
I have sent to your email address. Pls confirm there. BTW, if you won't get it, give me your transaction ID and I will confirm with it.

No need. It showed up in the mail randomly at the end of last week. Thanks for looking into it though.
 
I have mine installed and it does a great job of controlling the temperature. Wi-Fi works well at home.

Now - I see that it has a heating and a cooling option. Problem is, how does it work for both functions with only one outlet? I mean how does it work when I plug one thing in, and say that thing is a freezer. OK, I set my temperature range (which it does hold well) Does it matter if I set on heat or cool? I program in a range for one device and it holds it?

If this is going to work for setting it to cool in the low 60's for two days, then ramp up to 80 or so for a Belgian ale, it will not work
 
Got mine today. Got the app loaded and registered my email. When I hold the WiFi button, and the icon flashes on the screen, I enter my WiFi password on the app. It starts the sync process, and then I get a message saying ServerConnectError: Connection Lost. About 2 seconds later, I then get a message that says ServerConnectSuccess. It does this about a dozen times, and then I get the same Failed message with Chinese letters.

How does the app send the password for the WiFi to the device if the device cannot connect to the WiFi?
 
Got mine today. Got the app loaded and registered my email. When I hold the WiFi button, and the icon flashes on the screen, I enter my WiFi password on the app. It starts the sync process, and then I get a message saying ServerConnectError: Connection Lost. About 2 seconds later, I then get a message that says ServerConnectSuccess. It does this about a dozen times, and then I get the same Failed message with Chinese letters.

How does the app send the password for the WiFi to the device if the device cannot connect to the WiFi?

I just tried with my ipad too. What I found interesting is I had to register my email again with the iOS app because it wasn't accepting the email from when I registered with the Android app. Are these two applications authenticating to two different servers that are not using the same database?

Either way, I registered on iOS and started the search for devices. It never found anything and eventually timed out.

I have tried on both a 2.4 ghz network and a 5 ghz network with both my Android phone and iPad, and neither worked.

Any suggestions?
 
I just tried with my ipad too. What I found interesting is I had to register my email again with the iOS app because it wasn't accepting the email from when I registered with the Android app. Are these two applications authenticating to two different servers that are not using the same database?

Either way, I registered on iOS and started the search for devices. It never found anything and eventually timed out.

I have tried on both a 2.4 ghz network and a 5 ghz network with both my Android phone and iPad, and neither worked.

Any suggestions?
I just tried the suggestions in the previous post. Here are my results:


2.1 The router you have should be 2.4G.

I tried on both 2.4G and 5G. Was not able to connect using either.

2.2 The quantity of device connected to the routers is within its limited range.
Different model will connect the different quantity of the device, but more devices connected, more difficult will it be successful configuration.

I have a TP-Link Archer C9 AC1900 router. There should be no issues with the number of devices. Just to put that theory to rest, I have disconnected all devices except my Android phone from the WiFi. Still could not connect.

2.3 The closer range between the controller and the router.

I plugged the device into the same PDU that my router is plugged into. The distance between the two was about 8 inches. I stood within 2 feet of the unit with my phone. No connection was able to be made.

I don't see how your suggestion of using another router to connect to it would benefit at all. How is it supposed to connect to the router if it doesn't have the password? It can't get the password because it cannot connect. Seems like it's a catch 22 here, unless it's using WPS from the router or Bluetooth from the device (both of which I have also tried, unsuccessfully).

Please feel free to PM me if you'd like. I'd love to get this thing working, but it feels like this is still in the early stages of Alpha testing.
 
I got mine to connect over WiFi no problem. Now I just need to interpret those awful remaining instructions! I also don't understand how an antenna and thermocouple can be interchangeable... Maybe I'm missing something here.
 
I got mine to connect over WiFi no problem. Now I just need to interpret those awful remaining instructions! I also don't understand how an antenna and thermocouple can be interchangeable... Maybe I'm missing something here.

The antenna you're referring to is the ambient temperature probe and the long one is for submerging.
 
I am also unable to get mine to connect.

I suspect they are using the esp8266 module, which is the reason they ask for the SSID and password for your network. This usually has to be done via a command ,AT+CWJAP="SSID","password". I usually put in this information in a program via a FTDI cable. I have used the esp8266 on several projects on my home network without issue.

I wonder if some of the modules aren't being programmed correctly which would explain how some would work and others do not. Like I said I have esp8266 odules connected to the same network as I type this post.

Hopefully they get things figured out soon, if all else fails I may crack it open and see if I can get it to working. I know it will void the warranty but hey, it was only $35 bucks.
 
I sent payment on June 7th and still have not received shipping info, or the product for that matter.
 
I am also unable to get mine to connect.

I suspect they are using the esp8266 module, which is the reason they ask for the SSID and password for your network.
Hopefully they get things figured out soon, if all else fails I may crack it open and see if I can get it to working. I know it will void the warranty but hey, it was only $35 bucks.

Heh, I said that already on the other thread (I think the Apple one).. It would be interesting to see if they use the ESP8266 in the "AT" mode or actually used it like the Arduino people did and used it for the CPU on the temperature controller. It certainly is capable of it...

Just got another $3.85 ESP8266 delivered today from China Post.., By the way... ;)

If you do crack yours open, let us know in a new thread...
 
I got mine to work on Apple, but the Android app, as far as I can tell works for no one. The Apple app is so limited in what it can do and is still buggy that it is more or less worthless. I hate to offend Inkbird, but if they don't open up the programming info, the product is dead on arrival.
 
I got mine to work on Apple, but the Android app, as far as I can tell works for no one. The Apple app is so limited in what it can do and is still buggy that it is more or less worthless. I hate to offend Inkbird, but if they don't open up the programming info, the product is dead on arrival.

Which android cellphone you need? Apple cellphone can work well, right?
 
I have four kids, so buying six Apple devices is pretty much out. Even expensive Android devices are out.

I only tried the app on a 2nd generation Moto G (lollipop) and a Toshiba Kit Kat Tablet. The app won't install on anything older than Lollipop, and it failed pretty miserably on the Moto G. I got it to work two times for less than 10 minutes on the Moto G.

The Apple device works.. it's an iPad Mini that I won in drawing. The temperature graph stops working more often than not, however on the Apple device.

Still, I see the real value in this device in simplifying something like a BrewPi build, and to do this, actual PC's will need to be supported or a programming API would need to be released. To actually build something like this from scratch would be fairly trivial with an ESP8266, so I seriously would recommend that you release programming info. Then it simply wouldn't be worth duplicating something like this as an electronic homebrew project.

Don't get me wrong, it's a decent single stage controller for the $35.50 I spent on it and it will be put in actual use soon. I'm not upset at all. I just don't get the usefulness of the entire product the way it is.
 
I have to say this is a great idea, but it seems like an embedded web server would make it mobile O/S agnostic. I think I'm going to have to sell both my controllers as they are the IOS-only version and I don't have a single IOS device! :(
 
I'm selling mine to, simply because it's not user friendly and I am lazy. I tried for like 3.5 minutes to get it working and gave up. The instructions are crap.
 
I love mine... I was hundreds of miles from home in Seattle when I cold crashed my last brew.

I can't go back to a non-wifi controller.

Can you use two for dual stage temp control? I might buy yours @Yeastieboy
 
I love mine... I was hundreds of miles from home in Seattle when I cold crashed my last brew.

I can't go back to a non-wifi controller.

Can you use two for dual stage temp control? I might buy yours @Yeastieboy


Any suggestions? I can't get past "Configuring Wi-Fi"... it just spins indefinitely.
 
Back
Top