Ice Cap WiFi Controller “Registration”

[Kodock]

So I bought 2 Ice cap gyre pumps with a wifi controller from an old man with a tank. I go to hook everything up and it says the controller is registered to someone else. I’ve tried to contact CoralVue and no luck. Found some thread on how it CANNOT be unregistered by anyone other than the original owner. I don’t have that liberty.

What purpose does it serve to implement said protocol? Are people breaking into homes and stealing gyre pumps?.. Any tech savvy people here think it’s possible to jailbreak this thing or something? I was looking at buying a controller alone, but the model is discontinued or $200-$300 dollars, which is insane..

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

yeah that thing was discontinued 2 years ago, about 3 months after I bought mine, and mine just failed 2 weeks ago. The new unit is the Wave Engine LE , which cost $300 like you said. It sucks, but no other way to run those pumps. Otherwise they are good pumps.

@n2585722 is a hydros wizard hope fully he can help you

 

[n2585722]

So I bought 2 Ice cap gyre pumps with a wifi controller from an old man with a tank. I go to hook everything up and it says the controller is registered to someone else. I’ve tried to contact CoralVue and no luck. Found some thread on how it CANNOT be unregistered by anyone other than the original owner. I don’t have that liberty.

What purpose does it serve to implement said protocol? Are people breaking into homes and stealing gyre pumps?.. Any tech savvy people here think it’s possible to jailbreak this thing or something? I was looking at buying a controller alone, but the model is discontinued or $200-$300 dollars, which is insane..

You will have to contact CoralVue and they will try and contact the original owner they have on file. You may also have to have them update the firmware on it also since it is the old IceCap controller. If they have not replied to you you can submit a support ticket here https://support.coralvue.com/submit_ticket#login .

 

[Kodock]

You will have to contact CoralVue and they will try and contact the original owner they have on file. You may also have to have them update the firmware on it also since it is the old IceCap controller. If they have not replied to you you can submit a support ticket here https://support.coralvue.com/submit_ticket#login .

Thanks!

 

[Kodock]

yeah that thing was discontinued 2 years ago, about 3 months after I bought mine, and mine just failed 2 weeks ago. The new unit is the Wave Engine LE , which cost $300 like you said. It sucks, but no other way to run those pumps. Otherwise they are good pumps.

@n2585722 is a hydros wizard hope fully he can help you

Yea I had an Ice Cap when they had the manual controller and loved it, but this is nonsense.

 

[n2585722]

Yea I had an Ice Cap when they had the manual controller and loved it, but this is nonsense.

The issue is the same controller cannot be in more than one persons account since the cloud stores things according to the controller and in this case there is already an account storing data for this controller. The reason for replacing the IceCap controller with the Wave Engine Lite is so it can be included in a Hydros collective. The IceCap controller cannot even though they use the same app.

 

[Kodock]

The issue is the same controller cannot be in more than one persons account since the cloud stores things according to the controller and in this case there is already an account storing data for this controller. The reason for replacing the IceCap controller with the Wave Engine Lite is so it can be included in a Hydros collective. The IceCap controller cannot even though they use the same app.

Thank you for the insight. So sounds more like a selling your data malware plug then to me.. otherwise what data needs to store in for wave speed/schedule?..

 

[n2585722]

Thank you for the insight. So sounds more like a selling your data malware plug then to me.. otherwise what data needs to store in for wave speed/schedule?..

All the setups for the device are stored in the cloud. When you change anything a backup is also stored in the cloud. The last 20 times are stored there. Also not sure but graphing and log data may also be stored in the cloud.

 

[Tavero]

All the setups for the device are stored in the cloud. When you change anything a backup is also stored in the cloud. The last 20 times are stored there. Also not sure but graphing and log data may also be stored in the cloud.

There is no reason to not offer a factory reset other than so the customer is unable to resell the product or to remove features later on.
It's just another product that isn't owned by the customer, even though he paid for it and long as we keep giving companies money for products that are using a proprietary cloud servers, these things will keep happening.
Suddenly previous free features need to be paid for by a subscription or the product stops working altogether.

 

[n2585722]

There is no reason to not offer a factory reset other than so the customer is unable to resell the product or to remove features later on.
It's just another product that isn't owned by the customer, even though he paid for it and long as we keep giving companies money for products that are using a proprietary cloud servers, these things will keep happening.
Suddenly previous free features need to be paid for by a subscription or the product stops working altogether.

All that was needed is for the original owner to have removed it from their account when they removed it from service and there would not have been an issue since it would no longer be attached to their account. Almost all the manufacturers use the cloud in some form. I know Kamoer, Sicce and Focustronics do since that is how Hydros intergrates with their devices. You can factory reset the controller but that does not reset the information in the cloud. If they used delete device within the app it would have been removed from their account in the cloud and this issue would have happened.

 

[Tavero]

All that was needed is for the original owner to have removed it from their account when they removed it from service and there would not have been an issue since it would no longer be attached to their account. Almost all the manufacturers use the cloud in some form. I know Kamoer, Sicce and Focustronics do since that is how Hydros intergrates with their devices. You can factory reset the controller but that does not reset the information in the cloud. If they used delete device within the app it would have been removed from their account in the cloud and this issue would have happened.

So? Again as I said, there is no reason to not implement factory reset on the device. If factory reset doesn't give you a factory fresh device, it's not factory reset. You know hence the name: factory reset.

What if your phone breaks and you can't remember your account information? You can't access your controller in your own home anymore? Lol.
Also any company no matter how old and successful can theoretically declare bankruptcy tomorrow. What then? You can't access your controller in your own home anymore? Lol.

I'm not against cloud features but I'm against proprietary cloud features. If the customer is forced to use a specific companies cloud, he doesn't own the device. Just because other companies are screwing customers too doesn't make that screwing better.

 

[n2585722]

So? Again as I said, there is no reason to not implement factory reset on the device. If factory reset doesn't give you a factory fresh device, it's not factory reset. You know hence the name: factory reset.

What if your phone breaks and you can't remember your account information? You can't access your controller in your own home anymore? Lol.
Also any company no matter how old and successful can theoretically declare bankruptcy tomorrow. What then? You can't access your controller in your own home anymore? Lol.

I'm not against cloud features but I'm against proprietary cloud features. If the customer is forced to use a specific companies cloud, he doesn't own the device. Just because other companies are screwing customers too doesn't make that screwing better.

Even without the cloud issue the app would eventually become unusable with the way Apple and Android make things unusable without upgrades on their new OS versions and older hardware becomes obsolete and unusable. Even a controller that uses a web based interface would eventually become unusable as the web browsers change. The only way around that would be self contained controllers without any kind of wifi or internet interfaces. I am not sure those would sell any longer.

 

[Tavero]

Even without the cloud issue the app would eventually become unusable with the way Apple and Android make things unusable without upgrades on their new OS versions and older hardware becomes obsolete and unusable. Even a controller that uses a web based interface would eventually become unusable as the web browsers change. The only way around that would be self contained controllers without any kind of wifi or internet interfaces. I am not sure those would sell any longer.

Well theoretically you can always flash a phone with an old Android OS to get access to old apps, or just emulate the OS all together.
But what you're saying is also the issue of proprietary cloud services. If the customer had access to the API of the device he could just use a web based user interface on his own cloud.

 

[n2585722]

Well theoretically you can always flash a phone with an old Android OS to get access to old apps, or just emulate the OS all together.
But what you're saying is also the issue of proprietary cloud services. If the customer had access to the API of the device he could just use a web based user interface on his own cloud.

I have an older iPad that will no longer update to the latest OS and about the only app that will still work is the web browser but most websites no longer work on the older web browser so it will only do a few things now. youtube over the web browser still works so my cat can watch Tom and Jerry on it. She loves watching that. The youtube app no longer works though.

 

[Kodock]

All the setups for the device are stored in the cloud. When you change anything a backup is also stored in the cloud. The last 20 times are stored there. Also not sure but graphing and log data may also be stored in the cloud.

Michael at CoralVue was gracious enough to reopen it. Now just struggling in the firmware update loop, where it can’t load an older version to download the newer version, so can’t make any changes. Reset, rebooted, off and on again.

 

[Kodock]

There is no reason to not offer a factory reset other than so the customer is unable to resell the product or to remove features later on.
It's just another product that isn't owned by the customer, even though he paid for it and long as we keep giving companies money for products that are using a proprietary cloud servers, these things will keep happening.
Suddenly previous free features need to be paid for by a subscription or the product stops working altogether.

I think the biggest thing is how educated is the customer on the process of having to unregister the device if they choose to sell it. I’m sure it’s in the manual, maybe not, but most people are just going to set it up and forget about anything else. It seems like a lot of unnecessary extra work on customer service and buyer and seller on any resell. Maybe they’re counting on not as many resales.

Either way it seems like the cloud could have been a separate function to load, aside from the hardware, but I’m not a cloud expert.

Coralvue did unregister it, so I’m happy about it. Now working to get firmware updated.

 

[n2585722]

Michael at CoralVue was gracious enough to reopen it. Now just struggling in the firmware update loop, where it can’t load an older version to download the newer version, so can’t make any changes. Reset, rebooted, off and on again.

That will require CoralVue to access it and do an update since it is too far out of date. That is why I menitioned it earlier. I figured it might have been out of operation long enough for that to happen. Do you have a way of getting ahold of Michael and let him know it will not update firmware now and cannot be used until it is updated but it will not let you do it.

 

[Kodock]

We’re in email communications, so I’m just waiting on his response. I mentioned the firmware issue. He should know the action above, but if not in the response, I will relay this. Thank you!!!

 

[BeanAnimal]

There is no reason to not offer a factory reset other than so the customer is unable to resell the product or to remove features later on.
It's just another product that isn't owned by the customer, even though he paid for it and long as we keep giving companies money for products that are using a proprietary cloud servers, these things will keep happening.
Suddenly previous free features need to be paid for by a subscription or the product stops working altogether.

Exactly - I wouldn't touch IceCap with a ten foot pole. I made the mistake of buying a reefbot lab, that also is 100% dependent on their cloud services. RedSea, ReefFactory etc. NOPE.

 

[BeanAnimal]

I think the biggest thing is how educated is the customer on the process of having to unregister the device if they choose to sell it.

No, the biggest issues is that these devices are boat anchors without their cloud service.