ConnectSense CS-MN Wireless Motion Sensor

I received this item from Amazon on Friday 2-13-15 and installed it the same day. Installation was painless and the device started sending data immediately. The ConnectSense CS-TH worked Saturday and Sunday, Monday I could not access the wedsite most of the day so I emailed "Grid Sense" and was informed they were performing "maintenance" and later I was able to access the web site. Today 2-17-2015 I find my ConnectSense CS-TH has been "offline" since 1400. I have emailed "Grid Connect" again today and have yet to receive a reply. My concern is have I purchased a defective item, is ConnectSense a fly-by-night operation, or they just have very poor customer service. Since I had to provide my email address to set up the device I submit as a minimum they should inform their customers of outages, maintenance, or others issues with their service. Surprised since the majority of the reviews were 4 or 5 stars!Update 6-15-2015After several emails ConnectSense decided to authorize me to return my device for evaluation and after about a month they determined just what I told them, it would operate for about a week and then go off line for no reason. I purchased this device to monitor our home remotely when we were away and when it goes off line the only way to reset it is to power it down and restore power (unplug it and plug it back in) impossible when one is 1300 mile away. ConnectSense replace my defective device and after a few week the replacement began going off line also. I contacted ConnectSense and told them I wanted a refund and wanted to move on to purchase a device that would meet my needs and expectations. Bottom line is they just wanted me to keep paying return postage to ship their defective devices back to them for further evaluation. In desperation I contacted Amazon to see if they could/would apply some pressure on ConnectSense to do the right thing because the device was well beyond Amazon's return date for electronics and to my amazement Amazon refunded my purchase price. Obviously Amazon's self image and customer satisfaction is far more important to them than the $149.95 that ConnectSense refused. Integrity means a lot, perception is reality and my reality is 100% of the ConnectSense products I purchased were defective!

Not to difficult to set up. About 20 minutes.Their software is lacking let me explain.(Short Version) This software looks like the type of software a programmer writes for his own use. On occasion, I have written software for my use only, it lacked various “ease-of-use” functions because I was very familiar with it.1) Surprisingly, they do not use an iPhone app. But instead you go to their website. The website is good at remembering you, so you only need to bookmark it on iPhone.2) The text on their website is extremely tiny, and difficult to read on iPhone 6.3) I found the website poorly organized and difficult to navigate. It’s not too bad once you get everything set up, but changing configurations, set points etc. is difficult to find. It’s easier if you do as much as you can using a desktop computer.4) Under, “Recipients” it says that there are 2. I only set up one recipient, I can find no way to change or examine this setting. Under “Select Recipient” there is only one.5) There is a “Rules” section on the webpage. Underneath “Time Restriction” it is blank. I also have a blank underneath, “Output Device”.6) In the account area, there is a display that says “Text Messages Remaining”. Remaining until when? A week? A month? A year? Forever? The Box reads in part, “Includes 500 SMS messages” so I suspect that when you buy this product you get a lifetime of 500 texts for free. Their website offers to sell you more texts, but again, it’s not clear is if this is over a certain time frame or not.7) The Box reads in part, “Know the moment your environment changes via phone call, text message, email or tweet.” “Know THE MOMENT” ?? I’m not so sure. You can set up various polling time frames (5, 15, 30, 60 Minutes etc.) but I don’t think you are informed UNTIL the polling event occurs.Your situation may or may not need fast results. Let’s say your cooling system for your server room fails just after the temperature was updated. You may not know about this failure until the next polling event occurs.In my view, this unit should report immediately any deviations outside of parameters. As I understand this product, measurements are ONLY made at the intervals you select.Regarding the hardware:The hardware appears well-made, and the cabling of good quality. I found the temperature and humidity sensors to be accurate. I am not using batteries. It is plugged into our UPS using their A.C. adapter.Nowhere on the packaging, nor on the product itself, could I locate, “The Country of Origin”. This might mean one of three things. 1) The product is made in China. 2) The product is made in the United States and they do not export. 3) Somebody goofed.Despite the shortcomings above, I would buy this product again. It does indeed work. I also tried a similar product from La Crosse and never could complete the setup.If things change, or improvements to the software are made, I will try to update my review and rating accordingly.

After reading several of the posts I wasn't 100% sure that it was worth the price and potential problems. I am using this in a vacation home in the desert and have had air conditioning failures in the past so I wanted some means of providing remote data acquisition and reporting. First the pros: setting it up via their website using the internet worked and I had it up and running in about 15 minutes. This included testing the device. Their website is easy to navigate as is setting up the alarms. Cons: I don't know what the hassle factor would be setting it up via smart phone or tablet would be but I suspect you would have a driver problem. In order to set it up via the internet I had to install a new device driver in the 'Devices and Printers' area of Windows 7 and I had to do this manually because the computer couldn't find it. Overall, after installing the driver it immediately found the device and the configuration was very easy. Someone mentioned that you have to pay for additional text messages over 500. This is true although the price is relatively cheap at $0.05/ text and you buy them in blocks. 500 texts cost $25.

First of all this thing can be a pain to setup, it would really help them and their customers out if they would streamline the setup process. It is needlessly confusing and there is nothing to help you trouble shoot the setup process.The other issue I have is that their web site is unreliable, it will work for a week at a time then be up and down for a few days, this also adds to the frustration with setting up the device because you are never really sure if it is a device issue or a web site issue.So while the unit does work once you get it setup you are dependent on them keeping their website up and running for you to be able to get sensor data, not the ideal situation when the site is not reliable.