I would like to share my garadget experience so far. I should note that I managed to get everything working with my Merlin MT60P unit. I have two garage doors setup and its working pretty good so far. Having said that I would like to share my experience as I think the product needs some fine tuning.
The good:
Packaging and quality of device.
Simple enough to install and stick on.
The bad:
I registered a account via my android phone a week before I got my garadgets. This went fine. However for some reason I was not able to add any of the garadgets to my account as I was getting an error “Could not communicate with photon cloud.” I tried 3 phones (2 x Android 1x Iphone) all had same error. I ended up creating a new account. This allowed me to add the devices.
After initially adding the first device - Logging back into the garadget android app would crash the app. I ended up renaming the device in the web interface and then somehow it started to work on the app as well. However the name of the device was just garbage characters (all question marks) until i renamed it again on the phone.
Its too easy to fat finger and open the door. The app GUI needs some work here.
What needs fixing and tuning:
The adding a device issue is somewhat problematic and would say needs some polishing to iron out the kinks.
The garadget app GUI needs some polishing. Maybe add a button to open and close the doors. Just clicking the garage door seems to easy to fat finger open it.
Its a bit slow to log in via the Android app. I counted about 15- 20 seconds before my doors show up in the app. After thats its no problems and its fully responsive.
Apart from that - Which I think are minor issues the product is excellent and am very pleased with the results!
@Crusader,
Thanks for your feedback. I absolutely agree there’s a room for improvement which is expected this early in the process. The good news is that principally the hardware is working as expected and all the improvements can be remotely deployed. Please stay tuned.
This is exactly what I was thinking. Thanks for posting this so that I didn’t have to.
I am looking forward to getting a cleaner app to use.
Excellent hardware btw.
I just installed my Garadget, received today. Very simple install and it works as advertised, however, the micro USB connector socket isn’t hardwired all that well, and I had to adjust the connecting wire so that it’s pulling the plug a little in one direction (it makes the connection a little tighter). It’s holding so far, but I’m guessing the vibration of the opener will eventually cause the plug to lose it’s connection - - I guess time will tell. By the way, I used a different cord just to see if that was the problem; it wasn’t. The micro USB socket is definitely the issue.
Ralph,
From your description it sounds like you purchased a damaged unit from an unscrupulous seller. I’ll be happy to help you with the situation, but I’d like to learn more about the source of the unit you acquired. Please PM me the details.
Update: From what it looks like, the damaged unit was fulfilled by Amazon after some “genius” there decided that the item returned by the other customer was sell-able condition. Now I’ve contacted Amazon and specifically instructed NOT to re-stock any customer returns regardless of the appearance. Doh…
I can personally handle the exchange of your damaged unit if you prefer.