The Monocle

I find the new calendar features easy to navigate, this allows me to set up multiple schedules for my car and hot water

Pros - no more login issue (mentioned in previous reviews)! Fixed about a year ago. - useful information, tidy graphs, ability to remotely control power flow. - nice to see automated power savings. - bug with timer was quickly corrected after giving feedback. Cons - minimal ‘how to’ information. The app isn’t super intuitive, so there’s a bit of a learning curve.. but you only need to learn once 🤷 Definitely now 5 stars after bug fixes.

We’ve waited months and months for this promise device. It turns up and we get this app. Seriously? If there’s an alternative product, I’ll be replacing this immediately.

Monocle App is only useful for overriding the preset schedule, ie remotely turn the controlled circuit on or off. To set the schedule you need the Catch Configurator App. I’ve been trying to get the Monocle App to give me information on my solar battery status - a task I think it is supposed to be capable of. I am unable to find a comprehensive user guide on the Catch website. Have tried reaching out to support and received a one line email back saying “sure, tell us what the problem is”. I described the issues as best I could but I have not had a response.

The CATCH Control is great hardware to help lower your electricity bills. The app requires multiple steps to perform an action when it could be achieved in one gesture, for example: - you can't swipe through daily usage graphs to compare stats. - to go each feature, you must press menu then select the feature, rather than pressing a button at the bottom of the screen. The app provides screens that aren't needed, for example, on the Home Screen: - if you press the House image, you go to a screen that displays exactly the same information but in a different format. - if you press the Device Control image, you go to a select device screen pop-up that's really hard to use and that serves the same function as the device list in the Control feature. Please take inspiration from the award winning apps on the App Store.

(April 2024): The app now no longer recognises my login credentials. I use a password manager, they haven’t changed. The app has just decided not to accept them anymore 😢. Always a journey with this app. V2.0 review (March 2024): The app now seems to remember your login details which is a major boon for its overall usability. V1.0 was university assignment quality, V2.0 is like a pretty good 2014-2015 era app. This app would fit right in on an iPhone 5S. The stats pages and graphs do not work for me in V2.0, my solar input is always generating 0 W, even though I am managing to export power to the grid. If you touch the graph, you’re blessed with a massive tooltip that covers almost the entire graph and will not disappear under any circumstances. This tooltip will never go down to the corner store for a pack of smokes it will stay with you for life. Nice job on V2.0, still a long way to go though in my view. V1.0 review: The app asks you to log in basically each time you open it. That’s such a big pain and it’s really not reasonable to expect that sort of major usability issue in a modern app. There are so many other way to deal with authentication. Otherwise, the app is functional, but that’s about as good of a compliment as you can give it. It’s about the quality I’d expect of a really good uni assignment.

The old app for Catch was a bit clunky and did tend to ask you to login each time but the new version is really good and seems to have fixed this issue. We’ve got 2 Catch relays and they monitor our system perfectly and give fantastic control of our hot water too. I’d highly recommend these guys.

Was working great when I first used it. For the past few weeks I’ve been stuck at the login screen unable to type anything into the username or password fields. My iPhone and iOS version are compatible according to the download page on the App Store.

I cant log in, i type, and nothing.

Really like the new look & feel. Its a lot nicer now. Great improvements.