THE UWATCH CUBE

Introduction
Recently we have had the pleasure of field testing a new trap monitoring system that doesn’t use wifi like most; we have had this now for a couple of months and have tested these in the field and in many different situations. We have worked with the developer to adapt the original product design so that it could save time, and money within the pest control industry whilst providing a better service for a client. This isn’t just a monitor that tells you when a trap has been set off. It runs from an app on your phone as well as on a computer, and any setting can be changed with a click of a button without needing to attend the client’s site.
Along with the main monitor itself, it can also be used to monitor up to ten traps of your choosing as well.

So what is the product?
The product in simple terms is a time-saving device. It saves you time checking traps, or it alerts you to check traps sooner depending on the situation you are in.
On top of alerts, it can show you numerous other things, depending on how/what you have set it up for. Things like, what have you caught (sends pictures), the location of the cube if you own multiple, it can be used for real time monitoring using the PIR sensor and then send a picture with a I.R camera of the culprit setting the sensor off within a minute or two.
It will let you know which trap has gone off, so you know you have a trap that is sat there being inefficient now it’s caught. Just remember the only good trap is a working trap.

What traps can it be used on?
We have currently tried it on most traps, but anything that moves or has a shock to it will most likely set this monitor off. It has worked on Fenn traps, rat/mouse traps (even in boxes), squirrel traps, cage traps and yes even some mole traps are compatible, although we haven’t done extensive trials on mole traps. (very soon we will also hopefully be able to say the good nature a24, as well as some others).

Is it legal?
A question we get asked a lot when implementing this system and even more so when speaking to other professionals. The answer is this; you have to show that you are checking your traps in line with laws, legislations and codes of best practice. With this product, you can set it to send a notification every 4 hours or what ever time period you like. This is called a heart beat and one of many safety features to keep you within the law. this will tell you things like the battery power, signal strength (it runs on a roaming Sim card which can connect to multiple networks so if one provider doesn’t have great signal in the area and another does it will switch to that network), if it goes off it sends a date/time stamped picture that can be used as evidence if needed (trap tampering and proof for visit report). it alerts you however you set it up to do so including sending you a no signal alert if the signal is lost, so you can go and check why. We will post a list of the configurations so you can see how many ways it can be set and the applications it can be used in. Either way, the best answer is this, a trap that needs checking a minimum of once every 24 hours is monitored every second of the day instead of just the times you turn up, and if anything does go wrong like the battery running out of power or the very rare no signal it will tell you it needs checking. If it's set indoors you have a choice to run off its battery or run off of mains power. A trap monitor that also checks itself whilst informing you is a winner in my books.

Does it have competitors?
Yes, and no, it has multiple contenders that are already being used successfully in and around buildings due to wifi only. One of these competitors notably the mink police unit will also work anywhere on most traps, but only where the inserted sim card can connect to a network. The mink police downfall is it only monitors a single trap. It is a great unit to consider in itself if you have jobs where you are setting a single trap, for example, a fox cage but will work on most traps also but only one at a time. The mink police is also a product we have reviewed and at the time of writing are still reviewing, this review and updates can be found HERE ( http://www.shire-pest-solutions.co.uk/minkpolice-monitoring-system ) the other main competitive systems are the wedge unit and emitter which can work out more costly for only one use. (we have yet to trail these units as no one has offered us the chance to test its reliability).

OUR SCORES

Build quality
At the moment it is 3D printed, it is strong and has withstood some nice heat variations, along with bumps, knocks and the occasional drop (we are all human). It has a case that creates a safe water proof barrier (add the waterproof number if has one) but if you don’t want this a clear plastic bag is good although it will affect picture quality if using that option.The battery cover does not seem to fit because of some small bits of plastic from the 3D printing , On the cube i was given the picture is not focused very well and since speaking to uwatch they have sorted this problem out on other cubes For this, we give a shire pest rating of, 7/10


Set up and use
To set this up it is very simple. You create an account which takes five minutes, you then add your cube, set your preferences and settings you wish to apply the unit, download the app and log in and the data is now on your phone. You then turn the unit and monitoring tags on add tags to the traps check the connectivity of them all and you're set. For this, we give a shire pest rating of 9/10

Website and app usability
I believe I have kind of covered this in set up but will expand. The website and the app are both user-friendly. Once you have logged into the app it can turn on/off the things you require the cube to do or not do. For this, we give a shire pest rating of 9/10
(pic of the on/off choice screen)
Shire pest Overall score 26/30

Summary
Great product and the issues found are tags and battery cover, range problem between tags and the cube so always check the app to see the tags are in range, we have used it in open areas as well as in buildings. If you want to monitor one trap then I do believe the mink police would be better for you. If you want a trap monitor you can use inside and out with up to 10 traps then it’s definitely the Uwatch cube. Battery cover can be sorted by simple filing the small tags off left by the printing progress.

My last word
Batteries you have to use for the cube are expensive to buy. I will finish by saying thank you for reading this, we will be publishing a couple of on the job blogs and videos shortly to show you all first-hand the ease of use and more. Be sure to keep up to date with us on both here most social media and youtube all links to those are at the bottom of our home page.