I am an Idiot... RF ATO

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Clearance... because it sucks apparently. And sale items are not returnable now I guess.. Different company now...

Maybe not returnable if you just changed your mind, but this one is clearly defective. I'd do as others suggested and file a charge back with your credit card company and/or reach out to the BBB.

 

[braaap]

Maybe not returnable if you just changed your mind, but this one is clearly defective. I'd do as others suggested and file a charge back with your credit card company and/or reach out to the BBB.

BBB is a company. They have ZERO pull when it comes to this stuff. It is a paid review company. Companies pay to be listed there and shown in a positive light. Biggest scam around.

 

[braaap]

Thought of you the the other day... saw a track support van with a Braaap sticker on it!

haha nice

 

[furam28]

Sounds defective. I would call and talk to BRS. Ask them to make an exception or exchange it. Mine connected right away. I do fear the app / cloud going dark at some point, turning this into a brick.

 

[gbroadbridge]

So I bought the Reef Factory ATO on sale at BRS. I did not realize it was a cloud based app use only product. (it says no where in the description). Well I can get the app to connect to the dosing pump, but can not get the app to connect with my Wifi. I have a bunch of other 2.4 things connected. But when the app is looking for networks it does not find any. Anybody have any hacks? Also apparently BRS will not take this back.

Reef Factory devices are not cloud only - you can control them directly via web interface locally.

You do lose cloud based actions if you do not log into the server account, however they are nothing to get excited about anyway.

Like most IOT devices they only use 2.4 GHz WiFi for reliability reasons.

 

[gbroadbridge]

Clearance... because it sucks apparently. And sale items are not returnable now I guess.. Different company now...

It's obviously faulty - lodge a chargeback with your CC company.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

BBB is a company. They have ZERO pull when it comes to this stuff. It is a paid review company. Companies pay to be listed there and shown in a positive light. Biggest scam around.

BBB has salesman come around your door. Pay us this and we will give you a good rating. If someone complains, we will try to arbitrate it so you will keep your rating. Plus as a bonus we will give you a BBB sticker to put on your door to inspire confidence in your customers.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

Reef Factory devices are not cloud only - you can control them directly via web interface locally.

If you can explain how to do that, it would be great. Because I can connect to the ATO, it is just the app/pump will not find my 2.4 network

 

[fish_collector]

BRS return policy for sale items sucks. If your item won't work, send it back and file a complaint with your CC company. Buy a Spectrapure ATO and be done with it.

 

[Paul B]

If you are older than about 65, anything with wify, bluetooth, passwords, clouds or any other abbreviations that are too confusing will not work and will just be a course to aggravation. If it was me, I would find the nearest dumpster, throw it in and run.

I need things made of wood or rocks with nothing connected to it. I wish I could get a wooden cell phone with no apps or passwords. Just a crank. But that's just me and I'm old.

I have no idea what a Spectrapure ATO is but I build my own ATOs because I know they will work, work forever and be practically free.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

BBB is a company. They have ZERO pull when it comes to this stuff. It is a paid review company. Companies pay to be listed there and shown in a positive light. Biggest scam around.

I have had great results when filing complaints with the BBB. They absolutely reach out to the companies and often this is enough for the company to settle the issue.
Definitely not a scam. No one pays for reviews there.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

BBB has salesman come around your door. Pay us this and we will give you a good rating. If someone complains, we will try to arbitrate it so you will keep your rating. Plus as a bonus we will give you a BBB sticker to put on your door to inspire confidence in your customers.

Not necessarily so. I had trouble getting a dispute settled with AT&T and after submitting my complaint to BBB, a VP contacted me and the issue was resolved immediately (I had been fighting with AT&T for 5 months prior to this...)

 

[braaap]

I have had great results when filing complaints with the BBB. They absolutely reach out to the companies and often this is enough for the company to settle the issue.
Definitely not a scam. No one pays for reviews there.

As a business owner who has been approached by them multiple times to become a “member” I know for a fact you are absolutely paying for good reviews.

BBB is a business. It’s a genius scam. It has no regulatory power or government affiliation.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

As a business owner who has been approached by them multiple times to become a “member” I know for a fact you are absolutely paying for good reviews.

BBB is a business. It’s a genius scam. It has no regulatory power or government affiliation.

This was definitely my experience.

 

[gbroadbridge]

If you can explain how to do that, it would be great. Because I can connect to the ATO, it is just the app/pump will not find my 2.4 network

Currently I have one tank not connected to the cloud - on the weekend I'm migrating all the RF gear on the other main tank to standalone so I'll post some steps here.

Edit: Oh a shiny new badge just appeared. Lol

 

[KStatefan]

Currently I have one tank not connected to the cloud - on the weekend I'm migrating all the RF gear on the other main tank to standalone so I'll post some steps here.

This is great for hobbyist that have Reef Factory gear

 

[Sparticle]

So I bought the Reef Factory ATO on sale at BRS. I did not realize it was a cloud based app use only product. (it says no where in the description). Well I can get the app to connect to the dosing pump, but can not get the app to connect with my Wifi. I have a bunch of other 2.4 things connected. But when the app is looking for networks it does not find any. Anybody have any hacks? Also apparently BRS will not take this back.

Basic suggestions with wifi not connecting (not specific to this ATO which I have no experience with):

• Try changing wifi settings. Some settings can interfere with devices connecting due to incompatibilities and bugs such as encryption settings, wifi standard(s) supported (enable/disable mixes of N and beyond), and I thought I ran into MIMO support all being able to make/break connection compatibility. If you see choices, note where you start and begin cycling through alternative settings either one at a time or as a group to try to find more compatible settings.
• Update firmware on the router. How to do this varies by brand+model so seek out your manufacturer's guidelines. Though probably not necessary, its good to keep track of all settings on a router so you can manually reenter changes if needed in case they are lost by an update or otherwise; also helps if you get a different router to get it setup to replace your current one quicker.
• Update firmware/drivers on the other devices. This option is of limited use when dealing with some IoT devices, items that are no longer supported, and companies that go out of business but sometimes you can find 3rd parties that host, or even improve, drivers and firmware.
• Replace the firmware with an alternative. In the case of routers, there are 3rd party projects like ddwrt which completely replace the manufacturer's firmware with their own. Doing so often unlocks a number of additional capabilities but sometimes certain features are not compatible with a device and you may even find a performance drop. My Linksys router originally released in 2011 lost factory updates for security/bugs and features years ago and they no longer even offer downloading updates from them for it if you had missed them (a reason to always make copies of web provided content for your products). Switching to ddwrt fixed a laptop, reef angel (older noncloud adapter), and Nintendo 3DS wifi issues if memory serves but it was so long ago. Despite Linksys dropping support many years ago, I still get security updates for it by using a (3rd party, not by the manufacturer) supported firmware. I'll definitely look elsewhere as I learned after purchase that this Linksys gigabit router I paid extra for at the time for future network growth cannot push gigabit speeds and actually goes to less than half while being unstable or in a stable configuration is stuck at about 300Mbps; false advertized specifications and short product life caused by proprietary software abandonment can be avoided with some shopping around.
• Use a separate access point. Some dual and triband routers have limits to what settings can be configured when multiple band radios are in use. You can work around such limits by having an access point with the configuration needed for a given device and without other features it doesn't need. This can similally fill the gap of 'fixing' support for a router that has a buggy implementation without switching to a different firmware or switching it out completely. Once components are separate, future upgrades, expansions, and faulure replacement can target just the relevant piece instead of having to be complete swap outs. While at it, it seems common for some users to seek out 'better' hardware. I've got Ubiquiti access points in use at a couple of places with mixed results but far better than what the common consumer routers gave me though I'll probably seek out used Ruckus next to try to see if I can get better range and lower latency as long as I won't be locked to cloud (=a definite 'no' in my book).

It is not always clear if it is a setting or firmware/driver issue. I've seen the update required on the router or on the device when its suspected the other is where a failure was at so always look at both. Yes, sometimes updates are needed on both ends.
If you attempt to perform updates, be aware of any steps needed to make backups of current configurations or be ready to manually reconfigure from scratch. More importantly, run devices with battery backup during updates when possible as some devices may be difficult to fix without additional hardware to reprogram it if an update is interrupted partway though.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Looks like rephrased LLM response to me, detailed but only tangentially relevant.

FWIW the oft repeated requirement for an isolated 2.4 GHz SSID for IoT is misinformation based on misunderstanding,

If an IoT device only has a 2.4 GHz radio, then it can’t see or be interfered with by 5 GHz SSIDs or radios, full stop.

The only time that a shared SSID matters is when a device has both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz radios — which most IoT devices do not have. The device may flop back and forth between SSIDs.

 

[Sparticle]

Not LLM referenced/built in any way but yea I did get a bit into personal tangents.
I wasn't trying to say that 5GHz signals interfere with 2.4 signals, but multiband equipment does sometimes suffer from full customization of 2.4 due to 5's settings. Sometimes you can work around that by disabling all but the 2.4 radio to be allowed to adjust other settings successfully. Consumer gear often removes a lot of options from the user but at least testing 2.4 only may show if you get other options or if some are altered without any UI indicating their state.
Similarly if you have a WiFi setting that is detrimental to most other devices on the band, you normally need another radio (access point or whatever). I normally degrade 2.4 as much as needed to have any devices I care about able to use it and ignore it for anything that needs performance as I'm always surrounded with neighbors who do other fun things like channels other than 1,6,11.
IoT should be isolated but for reasons of those devices often run outdated and insecure code which sometimes is so bad the only correct solution is to make sure it is kept off of the internet. "SSID isolation" could help organize that but is definitely not proper isolation in itself as you can have multiple SSIDs be one network. The real isolation starts coming from other technologies like firewall and vlan which normally can be configured to work without a focus of what SSID it connected to.
In the case of initial "I can't get it to work" troubleshooting, things that are designed to break network connection may need to be analyzed, reconfigured, or turned off for troubleshooting.

 

[BeanAnimal]

sometimes suffer from full customization of 2.4 due to 5's settings. Sometimes you can work around that by disabling all but the 2.4 radio to be allowed to adjust other settings successfully.

They are different radios and different standards with very different settings. I can’t think of even an edge case that disabling 5 GHz would expose otherwise hidden 2.4 settings.

Similarly if you have a WiFi setting that is detrimental to most other devices on the band, you normally need another radio (access point or whatever). I normally degrade 2.4 as much as needed

The “degraded” settings are more often than not the only true stable settings to begin with. Comparability defaults vs a kludged attempt
at fast roaming.

Yes there are valid reasons for isolation, but that is beyond the context of my comments.

Thank you for the response.