Questions or need help?
If you are having problems with your product, you should first check the forum to see if your question has been answered already. You can also use the search tool to find it easier.
If that doesn’t work, give us a holler through the contact page.
Warranty
Not happy with your purchase? If you bought from a retailer, please return it to them to make it right. If you bought it from us online directly, we’ll happily give you a refund within 30 days. If it breaks within a year due to some kind of manufacturing defect, we’ll give you a refund or a replacement.
Suggestions
We fish, but we’re not the best at it, and you probably fish differently. If our products don’t meet your needs exactly, let us know. It’s possible that a quick little tweak to our design could make a huge difference for you. We’re listening. Contact us!
+ How far is the range?
In our testing, we’ve gotten BlueTipz to work over 600 feet. This is spectacular, and in fact twice the rated range of the underlying wireless technology, Bluetooth Low Energy. On the other hand, we’ve tested this in our freezer, and have a hard time getting more than a few feet out depending on the freezer. So what’s the deal?
Wireless is a bit like magic, and sometimes works counterintuitive to expectations, but there are some things that can be treated as general rules:
- Line of sight is best. When you have a direct line of sight between two antennas, that’s ideal. If nothing is in the way, nothing can block the signal.
- Water is bad for range. It’s a long story with molecules and science, but the short version is that humidity, falling snow, and bags of water (people) in the way will reduce the range.
- Some metals are really bad for range. Steel is the worst. If you put yourself inside a steel box, you’ll probably lose your cell phone signal, too.
So how can you get the best range possible?
- Put your smartphone or receiver on a table or shelf, not right next to your body where you are shielding it.
- Be aware of the weather and place your tipups accordingly. A bright sunny day might get great range, but in a blizzard the snow might block the signal quite a bit and reduce your range. Plus you won’t want to be trudging out too far in that kind of weather anyway.
- If you have a steel shed, consider getting our receiver/repeater unit, which mounts to the outside of the shed and re-sends the signal. This way you can hear the signal from a tipup far away, then push it through the steel shack with the much closer unit.
+ What’s that rattle when it shakes?
If you shake the BlueTipz transmitter, you may hear a rattle. Don’t worry; it’s not broken. That rattle is a what’s called rolling ball sensor. It is a small black box that has a little metal ball inside. Two metal contacts go into the box, and when the box is tilted just right, the ball rolls so that it touches the metal contacts, and it turns the transmitter on.
We tested a lot of different sensors to find the right one. This particular one turns on at 45 degrees of vertical whether it started flat or sideways. Others only worked at one orientation. Some had REALLY BAD performance in the cold (they weren’t sealed, so frost would build up inside). We also tried an accelerometer, which would have been much more accurate, but would have killed our battery life. Old tilt sensors used mercury, but not only did we not want to have to deal with mercury, in cold temperatures mercury turns solid, and that wouldn’t have worked either.
So the rattle you year is perfectly normal, and it’s what tells the the circuit when the tipup is vertical.
+ How long is the battery life?
We say about 600 fish. That assumes that it takes you two minutes from getting the notification to getting out there and turning it off. If it takes you longer, you’ll get fewer fish than that. If you hustle, it’ll last longer. It only uses battery when it’s on AND vertical.
+ Can I change the battery?
Yes! It’s super easy. Go to any store and get a CR2032 coin cell battery. It’s a very common battery. Take the 4 screws out of the back, open it up and pull out the old battery, slide in the new one, and put it back together. It takes under a minute, and the battery will last you a few seasons. Here’s a guide with pictures.
+ Is it waterproof?
Short answer, BlueTipz is not waterproof.
However, we’ve done work to make sure it’s reasonably safe from the elements. If fully immersed in water, it will get water in it. However, it will float, and if you pull it out of the water right after dropping it in, it should be fine. Snow and ice and rain should be ok, too.
+ Will it work with my phone?
The best way to find out is to download the BlueTipz app and open it. The app will tell you if your phone is compatible or not. There are a lot of phones, and we’ve tried to test on as many as we can, but we can’t get them all perfect. Let us know what your issue is and we’ll do what we can to get it to work. Here is a list of devices we test on and have verified.
+ How many can I have at once?
There is no limit. Seriously.
+ Can I get alerts for just my tip-ups?
Yes. There are two modes in the app: All devices, and My devices. Listening for all devices means any BlueTipz, whether it’s yours, your friends’, or your neighbors’ tip-ups, will all alert on your phone. Listening for my devices will only alert if it’s one of your devices that you’ve set up in the app.
+ How does it attach to my tip-up?
We made sure that it would snap to any tip-up on the market, and made it flexible enough to adapt to others we haven’t seen yet. It should snap into the channel on the side. Keep pressing until you are satisfied with the tightness of the fit. Make sure that it points so that the light is pointed up when the tip-up goes up. Here’s more detail with pictures.
+ What if I have a problem?
Contact us! We want to know what kinds of issues you are having, and if there’s a way we can help you resolve them. We know you use your equipment hard and in ways we haven’t considered, and we’re looking for ways to improve our product to make it more useful. If you run into problems, let us know and we’ll try to figure it out before you return your product.