How does the EEVE app connect to my Willow robot?
One of the key characteristics of the EEVE app (iOS and Android) is that it allows you to connect to your robot from anywhere in the world. What’s extra special is, is that the connection is ‘peer-to-peer’. This means your phone makes a direct connection to your robot, without passing through the EEVE servers. The main advantage is that images of your garden are perfectly private and do not pass via our systems.
Important: This article describes how you phone can connect to your robot, the first prerequisite is that your robot is connected to the internet via Wi-Fi or an optional 4G connection.
The way your phone connects to your robot is that the app on your smartphone contacts the EEVE servers and after identification, your app gets a direct route to your robot. As of then, you are in direct contact with the robot, independent from the EEVE service. It’s important to note that the video you see is a live stream. This means that it can take some time for the connection to be fully established, and if the quality of the connection is a bit less for a second, you will immediately notice this. Think of it as watching a live video on a website. So don’t worry if the connection drops for a second, it will reconnect.
What do we mean by ‘remote connection’?
Broadly speaking there are three possible connection situations:
- Your phone is connected to the same Wi-Fi network as your robot:
Here you will always have a connection. - Your phone is connected to another Wi-Fi network than your robot, e.g. at the office or a public hotspot:
You will be able to connect, but there are some factors that can make the connection slower or even prevent it. Some firewalls (e.g. at the office) prevent peer-to-peer video streaming, and public Wi-Fi networks may limit the bandwidth or your phone. - Your phone is connected to the internet via the mobile network (3G/4G/5G):
You can perfectly connect to your robot via the mobile network, but as you probably experienced the quality of the connection can differ very much from provider to provider and depends on your location. When roaming (travelling abroad) it may look like you have a good connection, but in practice bandwidth is sometimes limited. Take that into account.
A special note for Germany:
A number of German telecom providers, for sure TELEKOM and VODAFONE have very strict firewall settings which prevent you to stream video peer-to-peer. So if you live in Germany, or travel through the country you may not be able to connect to your robot via the mobile network.
What are possible solutions?
- Connect to a Wi-Fi network
- If you are using the TELEKOM network, there is a workaround: change the APN in your phone to: internet.t-d1.de
