The Fox Report
Barry Fox’s technology column
The curse of duff manuals
W
hy do big-name companies spend heavily on
engineering clever new products and then provide
such poor instructions that their customers cannot
get them to work? I have been asking this simple question for
decades, but they never learn.
German electronics specialist Devolo makes a wide
range of devices for extending home networks (wired
and Wi-Fi) round homes or offices, using various combinations of powerline data-through-mains and wireless
connection. When you get them to work, they do work
well – but ‘when’ is the operative word.
A right mesh
I tried the latest Devolo kit (Mesh Wi-Fi 2), in the hope that
it would be easier to get up and running than the previous kit I tried (Magic 2 Wi-Fi). As the name suggests, the
new Devolo system relies on Mesh technology (intelligent
co-operation of separate Wi-Fi units) in addition to a new
standard for carrying data over mains at higher speed (G.hn).
Although it’s not clearly explained, one practical advantage of meshing is that all the adapters transmit the
same Wi-Fi SSID and use the same password, which is
the same as the router name and password. The router’s
own Wi-Fi can then be turned off if you wish.
The Devolo adapters all have red and white LEDs and push
buttons, and the user needs to know which button on which
device to press, in what order, when and for how long, what
the many combinations of steady and flashing colour states
signify and how long to wait for states to change before assuming something has gone wrong. Without a clear installation
guide, it’s a trial-and-error nightmare.
The multi-lingual printed guide that comes with the Devolo
Mesh kit starts by advising users to download an Android or
Apple phone App, and the App then tells the user to scan a
QR code on the packaging to correctly identify the product.
1455F extruded flanged enclosures
Devolo’s Mesh Wi-Fi is a good product – but only if you can
actually get it to work.
Sounds good, but the QR code did not work for me with
the Android App, so my only option was to use the printed
multi-lingual Installation Guide, which Devolo provides
for those who ‘prefer to carry out the installation without
the App’. I did not ‘prefer’. I had no choice.
The printed manual is sketchy, disjointed and confusing,
with some apparently incorrect references to the LED flash,
steady and colour states. It also, Devolo acknowledges,
fails to mention the vital need to complete various plugand-press tasks within a 3-minute window (or 2-minute,
Devolo seems unsure of which) and when and how to use
the hidden reset pinholes, which are not even mentioned.
After many unhappy hours spent struggling with the
manual I kept thinking of what Morecambe and Wise
said to Andre Previn – we’re playing all the right notes
but not necessarily in the right order (https://bit.ly/pesep21-mandw).
!
w
ne
Learn more: hammfg.com/1455f
Contact us to request a free evaluation sample.
uksales<at>hammfg.com • 01256 812812
8
Practical Electronics | September | 2021
No go
To cut a long and painfully time-wasting story short, and
after many start-overs after resets, some of the adapters
stubbornly refused to pair and mesh, showing unhappy red
lights when they should have been glowing happy steady
white. I downloaded and installed the latest version of the
Windows control software called Cockpit and followed its
advice on pairing ‘instead of pressing the physical button
on the device itself’. But still no joy.
The human touch
Eventually, I contacted Devolo Care Support who very
helpfully guided me through several fix tricks which
finally got all three adapters working – each showing
two steady white lights. But I had to admit to myself I
was not sure which fix had done the trick. And I don’t
like relying on trial and error, so I bit the bullet, and
started again from scratch, making notes of what worked.
It is interesting to compare these with the steps given
in the manual.
The Morecambe and Wise instructions tell the user to:
1. Plug two adapters into a power socket and wait until
the Home LED flashes white quickly. Plug in the third
adapter and connect to the router by Ethernet cable.
Encryption takes place automatically and the Home
LEDs flash white. But mine continued to glow steady
white and unhappy red.
2. Press the Home button – on which adapter, pray tell?
3. Within 2 minutes press the WPS button on the router.
Once the LEDs are all flashing white continuously the
process is complete. But not for me; the white/red state
persisted.
4. If pairing is ‘unsuccessful’, press Home button on all three
adapters and once ‘all LEDs light up white, the pairing
has been completed successfully’. Sadly not. Two units
happily showed both lights steady white but the third
still had one stubbornly flashing red light.
Devolo acknowledges the basic error that the manual fails
to warn that all three adapters must be plugged in within
2 or 3 minutes (take your pick) but recommends my getthings-working steps ‘only if the installation according to
the enclosed booklet did not work’ and if the adapters need
to be reset, ‘because when first plugged-in new adapters
are automatically in pairing mode, just like after the reset.’
Also, says Devolo, ‘as a rule, the adapters find each other
when they are plugged directly into different rooms’ but be
sure to ‘plug in all adapters within 2 minutes’.
So, you had better be fast up and down your stairs.
Devolo comment
Devolo also says that ‘the adapter that is plugged in first
passes its Wi-Fi data to the other two…(so) the adapters
match each other with the same SSID and the same Wi-Fi
key… we call this function ‘config sync’, which can also
be deactivated in the menu of the configuration page under
‘system’. So where in the manual is that explained?
Devolo says, ‘we have made the instructions and the
pairing of the adapters as simple as possible… only a few
customers contact support who have problems with the
initial installation…. however, you can be sure that we
will continue to work on making instructions even more
optimal (and) have therefore passed on your tips to the
Usability Task Force (who) have already declared that they
will take your feedback on board.’
Dare I hope that this will involve someone at senior
management level in Devolo simply watching a guinea pig
new owner struggle with the existing manual, and then
revising/scrapping and re-writing accordingly?
Using the advice given by Devolo Care as a springboard,
this is what worked for me:
1. Plug all adapters into a mains strip, press the hidden
reset button on each with a paperclip for 10 seconds or
more until both lights go out, and then stop pressing.
2. With the three adapters still plugged into the power
strip, and one of them connected by Ethernet cable to
the router, (choose any, because all three adapters are
identical) wait several/many minutes for both lights
on all three adapters to glow steady white. This set the
adapters in a state where each had its own pre-set Wi-Fi
password, so not meshed.
3. I gave up on the advice to press WPS buttons on the
adapters; instead, I used the Cockpit computer software;
find and follow the Wi-Fi Mesh option, then Wi-Fi Clone
and Configuration with a WPS button press on the router.
4. Unplug the adapters from the power strip, leisurely locate
them round the house and wait a few minutes for the
LEDs to all show steady white.
5. Then, if you wish, access the router with a Browser address (192.168.1.254 for mine) and switch off the router
Wi-Fi to check that its SSID is being used by the adapters.
6. At all times remember to start the button pressing steps
within 2 minutes, or some adapters will be in pairing
mode and others not – and resetting or re-plugging will
not help because a reset adapter will be in pairing mode
but the others not.
Practical Electronics | September | 2021
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26/07/2021
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