Petlibro polar wet cat food feeder

This page is under construction, but here to help the many people having issues.

Overview of the product:

First, this product is an excellent, game changing product, basically it has a rotating tray, with a door that can expose 1 of 3 food cups, and it can be programmed to open and close on schedule and the unique feature is that it has a solid state cooling system that keeps food fresh up to 72 hours. Nothing else like it on the market.

Quality is very good, even down to the external power supply, with a strong braided cord and extra length for convenience. Really nice design and appearance.

They have other products, and based on my (final) success, will be looking forwards to get more of their products, probably the dry food/snack feeder.

The price is also very good, surprisingly.

Installation / setup problems:

Hoo boy! I could not set this up to save my life, and many many people have posted they have the same issue, and also have returned the product, and have given up on the product.

I was right on the cusp, when I found some additional settings in my very sophisticated WiFi router, that finally got it working, but was very frustrated and ready to send it back, just like the dozens of other frustrated customers.

The symptom:

The setup procedure goes through 3 steps: discovery, registration, and completing the setup (I forget the step name), it shows these 3 steps and a progress bar with percentage

The procedure fails at various percentages, depending on the method of setup, but the result is the same: "connection failed"

There's nothing you can do, but retry.

There are 2 main setup paths: either do the completely automated one, or the one that uses the "hotspot", both fail, and also the manual selection of the device fails.

Analysis of what is going on:

Clearly the Bluetooth and WiFi are communicating, you can prove this to yourself by watching the status light (slow blink wants setup, fast blink it is in the process of connecting)

Bluetooth communication is proved by just finding the device initially.

WiFi communication is proven by the app connecting to the hotspot

So, there is some interruption in the registration procedure, and it is not the wireless hardware, it's some interruption caused by bad software algorithm/procedure, or something has interrupted the communication. I suspected both.

Things people (and I) have tried (and failed):

• Turn off the 5 GHz WiFi
• change 2.4 authentication from AES to TKIP
• Change 2.4 channel bandwidth down to 20MHz only
• Changed to a different access point, and different manufacturer
• moved all devices within 20 inches of each other

What solved my issue:

Back to this: So, there is some interruption in the registration procedure, and it is not the wireless hardware, it's some interruption caused by bad software algorithm/procedure, or something has interrupted the communication. I suspected both.

In one final try before returning the product, I put the system on my Asus RT-AC88U, and went to the advanced WiFi settings, and within that, there were "professional" setting:

• make sure roaming is off (in case you have several AP's)
• turn off "airtime fairness"
• turned off mimo setting

But the one that seemed to do the trick was:

• enable "bluetooth coexistance"

This one disables certain modes in "Pre-Emptive" mode. Remember that Bluetooth and 2.4 Gig Wifi share the SAME frequencies... and I reasoned that this sharing and jumping back and forth between Bluetooth and WiFi in the setup "broke" the connection during the registration procedure.

"Bluetooth coexistence preemptive is a feature that allows a router to inform a Bluetooth device about the channel it's using, so the Bluetooth device can disable communication on that channel before the router uses it. This can help prevent interference between Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, which can cause dropped connections, slow speeds, and poor audio."

I reasoned that once the system is set up, it would be WiFi only, and this mirrors experiences on the net where once set up, it works fine even on different AP's in the same network.

Software issues/room for improvement:

The app really can use some improvements, besides the huge issues with registering the unit for the first time.

Yesterday I finally got the system online. While introducing the feeder to the cat, the system offered a firmware update. I declined, since I had just got the cat looking at the feeder. The next day, I decided to do the firmware update. I hit the "setup gear" on the screen, and that took me to DEVICE SETTINGS, scrolling down I saw that the "Firmware Version Update Alert" was set to on (yeah, it alerted me yesterday), and below that line, "Firmware Update" showed, saying v2022, and a box that said "latest". Bullshit... turned the alert on and off, no dice. Screwed around some more, and found a firmware update, and did it.
SUGGESTION: on the "Firmware Update" line, that box that said "Latest", make that into a button "Check for Updates"...

Another annoying thing, is when you get into the app, often a large box covering most of the screen with your device, and shows the device picture, three NON functional icons (wifi, speaker, snowflake) and the next feeding/schedule.
SUGGESTION: if you tap the icons, explain them... clearly they are status indicators telling me the WIFI is connected, it's set to "ding" when feeding, and the cooling system is on.
ALSO: minimize that stupid large white floating box or get rid of it, it appears to be obstructing another page underneath... it serves NO purpose other than CONFUSION