After the Ovrc server down last week we ended up with several random wattboxes offline. I called support today and ended up with a lady that could only apologize to me and tell me that if I rebooted the wattboxes they “should” come back.
Some clients are out of state, some are overseas, and the only damn reason we install a wattbox is to be able to remotely restart.

The issue is random, same client, some are online some are not. Some are inside versaboxes Behind a Giant Tv , some are in commercial applications, can’t just reset the breaker, and I demanded an explanation, why is this happening. Is there a firmware update on the works that will prevent this from happening? This bug defeats the purpose of a wattbox! what is SnapAV thinking ? I was hoping to get better support from SnapAV here than I got over the phone.

The one thing missing from your post is the complaining customers, so I think it might be a little early to trash your suppliers products and services on a public forum.

No, it’s no early, We try to anticipate a problem before it happens. When the customer calls with a complaint, then it’s too late. I have tried enough to get help without success, and I am Not trashing anybody, they make a lot of good products, and we use a lot of them in a regular basis, however, sometimes someone needs to scream out loud to be heard after several unsuccessful attempts.

Disclaimer: I have had zero issues with Wattboxes that require someone to make a site visit...or require the client to power cycle things for us.

Having said that...Back in the day most of our service calls were for locked up "smart devices" or IR emitters getting knocked off (solved by embedding emitters). We solved our lockup issues with surge protectors that had big ON/OFF switches on the front of them so the client could quickly turn it all off and back on. This worked perfectly for years.

Later we decided to get fancy with "smart" power control so that we could reboot things for the client remotely. And then we took it a step further with smarter devices that would tell us when there is a problem via logs and notifications so that we could intervene before the client was ever aware there was a problem.

The solution to our original problem of "smart devices locking up" is now a smart device that is prone to locking up.

One one hand i think "Okay so now we can fix 99% of our clients problems remotely"

On the other hand i think "1% of the time we look like morons because our solution to lock ups is a lock up".

Bottom line is that we end up looking like fools and the client loses confidence in US...because at the end of the day WE are the power management solution not the product we sold. Our clients wont be calling up Manufacturer A to complain. No one at Manufacturer A has to explain themselves to our client.

The good news (not sarcasm) is that its not just the power management devices. Its freaking everything. Control processors, media server/streams, tablets, apps, the network...EVERYTHING. My damn Cars Touchscreen rebooted itself the other day and wouldn't work right until i shut the car off and turned it back on. MY CAR!

So just be honest with your customers from the beginning. "Look...all these devices lock up. Nothing can solve it 100% of the time. Product X from Manufacturer A will allow us to solve a lot of these problems for you".

My cars navi / audio system locks up... but only when an Apple device is connected via USB. Of course it's fine once the dealer updates the cars info-tainment system. However... go and update the iOS device and it's back to lockups.
It really is a case of it being an issue in every industry and of course, like all industries, the issue is an ever-moving target.

Put the wattbox on a bluebolt...

True!!! but what made me mad was the way Tech support excused themselves, like, "yeah, sorry, reboot it and it should work".. I insisted on an investigation and a possible firmware update that could fix this bug, but they ignored me.
Guys, i dont want to feel bad like Mike said I am trashing my supplier, I just really think that us, the guys on the field using their products under the most different scenarios are the best ones to report the issues, and they should be really paying attention to what we say and use that to make their products better everytime. dont you agree?

I hear you.

But reality is, you have to set a pain threshold per vendor. They go over the limit, have a solid discussion about alternatives. It's an imperfect business by far, and it's all on us.

These outages/updates/events show us how much we do rely on them, but everything eventually needs service, even the service equipment. Make it an opportunity, add their wired reset buttons for every box to make it easier when needed, add labor to document circuit breakers, sell service contracts and update terms.

Wait -- someone makes a wired reset button that can be added to a system without replacing the entire product? I don't have to make my own any more?


Techsquad IS the customer! If you were to discover that all of a certain product you installed were failing, would you wait for your customers to complain to you, or would you try to get ahead of the problem?


This is really what Rob said in Post 8: Add to that the means by which you will solve their problem if they don't buy Product X, and how much it will cost them each time. Alternatively, you could tell them that you recommend Product X but will unlock their devices for free the first three times (however many), then charge after that. And make five resets equal the price of Product X.

Referring to the Wattbox units that have the option to add a button to reset outlets based on setup programming. They offer this prewired button:

[Link: snapav.com]

That's highly amusing.



It totally IS the solution for this problem. It's just a bit primitive of a device to solve a problem that a sophisticated piece of equipment should not have.

Techsquad, not sure if this will help or not but here's what I found out on a Wattbox today......
Had one in a MBR that was offline, but the other three in the house were fine. I know the power was working because I didn't get a call from the client. So I tested just taking out the Ethernet cable to the Wattbox,waited a minute or two and plugged in. Bam. It came back online. I didn't have to power cycle the unit.
So, I thought of you and out of state units. Maybe you can power cycle the switch that feeds the unit that's off line to see if that works. Just something you can try before jumping on a plane........
Update on second WattBox “offline” service call. From what I found at above call I got to site and decided to reboot the Araknis switch that was feeding the “offline” WattBox. Since the switch was plugged into that Wattbox I couldn’t reboot via power so within OvrC the switch had an option to reboot. I did it and waited a few minutes and it came back online. So, for those that may have Wattboxes that go offline but are still functioning this may work for you. It can’t hurt to try and avoid a truck roll. Isn’t that what they’re supposed to help avoid.

Im gonna start putting these in - problem solved.

[Link: 5fc98fa113f6897cea53-06dfa63be377ed632ae798753ae0fb3f.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com]

Make Power cycling GREAT again!

Interesting timing on this whole thing.

I just had a 12 outlet Wattbox crap the bed late last week. Other then the bad run a few years ago this is the first wattbox failure I have experienced.

The bottom bank of outlets would power off, stay off for about 4-5 minutes then power back up for 5-10 minutes, over and over again. It didn't turn on/off in sequence, just all powered off at the same time.

Client (and I) initially thought he had a cable box going out (reboot loop), then we noticed some of the APs, the AP controller and a few other things were doing the same thing.

Whats more is the timing of the outage is around the same time they are touting the release of the new 2 port wattbox power conditioner. Marketing nightmare.

And with the new OVRC security coming up.