Thermometers which send temperature alerts to your phone

[Markpd]

I was wondering (in some other thread, can't remember which) if we can get thermometers which could send us an alert to our phone if the temperature goes outside set limits, well we can .

And some at least are not silly money either, I'm probably going to buy this one by Govee (H5051) which is £43 (including delivery), unless someone knows of a cheaper/better one? (I did find a cheaper one at about £18, but at Amazon their were no reviews, and the same firm on Ebay had rather poor feed back).

The Amazon reviews of this unit seem quite reasonable and I saw that their support has replied to people who've had problems.

You can apparently set up temperature and humidity limits with it, as well as review the logging data it records using an app on your phone. The monitor uses wifi to do this.

It also has it's own display which a slightly cheaper unit from another manufacturer doesn't.

Don't want my babies getting too hot or cold when I'm at work or away (I'm a 6min walk from work, and for when I'm away I could get my holiday gerbil 'carer' to adjust things as needed).

Anyone else got one?

[Markpd]

I need to clear out the tumbleweeds

[LilyandDaisy]

I don't have one of those but I do have a motion activated camera that I use occasionally. It sends clips to an app on my tablet whenever there's movement. That might be useful for when you're away? You could even rig up a system where the temperature monitor is visible to the camera, so you can both monitor the temperature and see the gerbils.

[Markpd]

That's a great idea! I'll have to look into camera's (still haven't after you last mentioned it, lol).

Although I'll be able to monitor the temp anyway via the thermometer's app. (I've just ordered it btw).

Found a good (informative) review of it here www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUu53Wj7M5o (aside from you can't see what's on his phone), that review is ~2yrs old.

1yr old review here, doesn't mention any app bugs here, maybe they're fixed? www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzAmojas8tM

A recent review of the 5071 version www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxDYDE5ptRg

[betty]

I missed this - but I have a Govee thermohygrometer. It is great really - apart from it recently lost a few months data (?). Not sure what happened as there doesn't seem to be much help online for them. Even the manuals I have found are super basic.

Anyway - just ordered a second one too in the Black Friday sale so I can put it in the outhouse - just to see what the temperature does out there all day. Thinking of insulating it next year for some critters so need to know what sort of work it needs doing to it.

I also have the night vision action-triggered camera - a mibao one.

[Markpd]

Good to hear I'm not the only one here , how long have you had yours?
How weird, but isn't the data backed up to Govee's cloud? You should still be able to view/get it from their? (if you really need to).

Yea the manual is really basic, doesn't even tell you how to switch temperature units!

They do have support though (no idea how good it is), it's done via email.

Totally didn't think to leave it until black Friday! I just think of it as an American thing and think no further, doh!

[betty]

I got it last Christmas actually - the first one. Set it up super easy and I thought it had been working just fine - but massive gap from May to November. And no - it only stores it for 2 years once it is on the app - it only stores for 20 days on the device itself. Pah. No way to get it back.

And I have got a message on my app about my location - and there is nothing you can click or find anywhere to get rid of it or fix it? It is still uploading data so not sure what the problem is?

Only problem I found with it over all is that the first one was bluetooth - so it drains my device battery real fast if the yare in the same building.

[Markpd]

Oh, that's a shame
What exactly does the message say?

You could turn off bluetooth on your phone, (I do that anyway to save battery power), so it'll stop constantly trying to communicate with your phone. That's assuming you don't need bluetooth for other things! .
What's the upload time interval on your device? That apparently has a big impact in battery life, at least with wifi, I would think it at least has some impact on bluetooth too.

[betty]

No, that's the point - your device (the app) needs to always receive the information (I would imagine at least once a week - although says the thermo-box holds 20 days at a time). If you don't retrieve the information from the thermo-box regularly - it is written over and lost?

Turning the blue tooth off and on all the time is what I think lost me all the other data before?

This new one is wi-fi instead - so hopeing it will be less of a drain.


The warning says: No Location Access - and that it might disrupt date transfer - but I can't find a way to update the location on the app. The little wi-fi icon also has an exclamation mark in it - although no way to access that either on there. The wifi icon on the device is fine and the location on the device is on.

[Markpd]

Yea I wasn't thinking of a permanent disconnection , I was thinking you could just turn bluetooth on as an when you need it, rather than it being on 24/7. So, say once or twice a day? It doesn't need to be in constant communication, and at least with my phone and thermometer the bluetooth reconnects nearly instantly.

I'm not sure what time interval options your bluetooth one has (if any?), but my one has the option of 10 or 30 mins, the latter will save power if you leave bluetooth on 24/7 (I'm assuming it's not a wifi setting only).
And yea the thermometer holds 20 days of data according to their site, so you shouldn't lose anything. I don't know what happened before, did it lose power? Or maybe 'crashed' and locked up??

One of the youtube reviews reckons that bluetooth itself uses less power, but because the wifi signal only transmits on the set time interval (10/30 mins, it's not real time data), it saves power that way.

Re warning message, ah I think I know what that is, when you 1st installed the app a pop up would've shown saying that the app wants permission to access your phone's location (I've no idea why though!), I'm guessing you said no? Assuming Android, if you want to change that you'll need to go to the 'apps and notifications' (or similar) in settings and allow it access.

Re the ! in the wifi, is it red too? If so then it isn't connected, maybe a wrong password problem or wrong wifi listing? e.g I have 2 listings for my hub, 1 is VM85xxxxx the other is the name I gave it, The Matrix, it would automatically try to connect to the former and failed (even though my phone does without problems!), when I manually connected to the latter it was fine. (I can't remember now if I had to type it in or choose from the list).
Oh also, at least for the initial setup, you need to turn off 5 GHz wifi or it won't connect to the wifi!

[Markpd]

Did you have any luck sorting out the wifi connection with it?

So I've had mine running nearly a week now, strangely I got a brief gap in the data, I estimate only about 1/2hr, it was running either side just fine, very odd.
Anyway, so so far I've seen a minimum temp of ~18C late this afternoon (outside was 4-5C), atm I've set the min alert to 17C, but I just realised I don't know what would be the lowest comfortable temperature for them would be!
So any ideas anyone?

[betty]

Nope. Still got the message - and I then got the same message on a different devide I loaded the app on - so I think it is the thermo thing itself now. I got my new thermo thing recently - so hopefully when I get this one on, I might see how to change to location data on the other one?

Not sure.


Also, there is often a gap in the data line when you first update it/refresh it to your app. It often takes up to half an hour to reappear if yours is the same as mine. It is always filled back in the NEXT time you refresh it. It is a pain to have to refresh it - it doesn't do it itself (another reason why I think me turning blue tooth off an on again didn't save the data - I wasn't always going back into the app).

My room here has a mean temperature of around 16 degrees according to the app; dropping to its lowest temperature around 7/8am unless you put your heating on before then of course.

I used to live in a house that was FREEZING - well, downstairs was always around 12 degrees, and nearly the whole time we were there I put heat mats under their bottoms every night. So I would say that if they were living in fully glass tanks at 12 degrees every now and then and even during a normal day - providing they have a decent nest made - never harmed any of mine. Even the real oldies - had two there over 4 and a half and plenty of nests of pups too.

I can't say it was nice for them or not - but I know I had to keep my super snug clothes on if I was going to spend any time downstairs. I would also assume that a topper wouldn't have made an underground nest any less warm, but can't be sure. Same with these new RUBs or any plastic-bottomed enclosures - I have a feeling they won't hold as much warmth as glass, but haven't experimented either way?

[Markpd]

Err, 'A topper wouldn't have made an underground nest'?

12C is bloody cold for inside! Brrr! Reminds me of my French nan's old house in Boulogne during the winter, when you got out of bed it was freezing and you could see your own breath! (I did look at the temp's but I can't remember what it was now).

What sort of temps did you put heat mats under their cages?

Re app, if you've got Android, I just found it in settings>apps and notifications>see all apps>Govee Home>permissions. In their I could chose location, amongst others.
Yea I'm not worried by the 1/2hr delay in data (I set it to that, default is 10mins IIRC), it's just I have a 1/2 hr permanent gap in the data from a few days ago. For no apparent reason!
I have a small gap yesterday (10-20mins), but that's where I knocked it off and the batteries fell out! I get that one (even though the batteries were only out for ~30s, if that).

[betty]

I don't know the heats on those mats as they were second hand - but they were barely warm to the touch. Unlike the one I used for my heat experiemtn which was hot to touch.

Maybe I will get one of the old ones out the garage and record its temperature to see. This new one says 15W and is hotter than the ones I usually use for gerbils.

I'll try to find that setting on mine even though I am sure I went in there before...


No idea about your gap then. Like I said - mine looks like a gap in the past too when it first refreshes (it is never missing the most recent data) but if yours hasn't caught up in a few days, then I have no idea. Mine always comes back after one or two days on subsequent checks (well apart from the giant chunk of a few months that recently went missing of course).

[Markpd]

I was asking what temps you put the mats under the cage, not what temps the mats are .

Yea it's weird the gap, like yours but much smaller. I'll have to keep an eye on it, which I will be anyway.