Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsFrustrating waste of time and energy; but, IT DOES WORK!!- EDITED REVIEW
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 21, 2018
Before purchasing this item I tried to find technical data on requirements for the phone it’d be interfacing with, but all I found was “android phones”- well, having 2 android phones both with newer versions of that os, I assumed it’d work. Nope. Actually requires an android phone with usb otg (on the go), which, apparently uses yet another, newer USB port design.
I’ve wasted 2 days waiting for this, only to find its not something I can use.
Yet another bogus purchase from some virtual company that I won’t have the satisfaction of yelling at, face to face, over a returns counter.
I’ll have to go to Lowe’s and buy something I don’t like, return that, and yell at them instead.
EDIT:
After leaving this review a couple of days ago, and with the Walabot box sitting on my dresser waiting to be returned, I got to reading about USB-OTG. As it turns out, it's not a physical port, but, rather a protocol (well, ok, a group of 3 protocols, i guess) that manages the way a device communicates with another device, or devices, via usb. And, after reading far too much about this nifty bit of tech it suddenly occurred to me that I may have tried using the Walabot incorrectly. So, I opened the Walabot box again, and while there's really not much inside, I was able to previously overlook a second cable- the cable i needed to connect the device to my phone. Using that cable, I got the phone and Walabot talking to one another- finally.
After doing additional reading and watching a few youtube videos I was able to use the Walabot as intended. Keep in mind, I spent about 2 hours reading, watching videos and playing with the Walabot to get to the point where I was able to find the recessed lighting canisters in the ceiling behind the new sheetrock that had been installed (installed sans any markings as to where the canisters were located).
In the end, the Walabot does work!
The biggest issue I see with this device is the COMPLETE lack of documentation, either in the box that the device comes in, or on-line. When you open the box, there's a nice little pamphlet, in about a dozen languages. The English section provides a URL for downloading the Walabot app. That's basically all it does. And, once you get the app on the phone, it tells you to calibrate the device. It doesn't show you how to use the device; it doesn't walk you through the basics of using the software. Heck, I was initially calibrating the device while using it backwards- I had the wrong side of the device against the wall- and it calibrated itself! I wasn't able to use it to see anything behind the wall, and, it didn't provide any error messages of any type to warn me that I was using it incorrectly. I had to watch a video on youtube to figure that out.
As a friend pointed out to me, I was probably suffering from sleep deprivation at the time I was trying to figure this out. And, he was right. But this device, especially at this price, should come with CLEAR and DETAILED WRITTEN DOCUMENTATION. There's a lot of tech in this little black box; a lot of tech that can be very useful for the DIYers out there. It saved me from having to randomly cut into new drywall trying to find recessed lighting devices. I was able to use it to pinpoint the location of 3 lights behind 5/8" drywall in the ceiling.
It's a shame that the lack of something so basic as written instructions may be the down-fall of this product.
I was 98% ready to return this thing and dismiss it as a waste of time. I'm glad I didn't, but all this could have been avoided with a little thing called a USER GUIDE.
