This video shows how to set up the NetzHome Panic Button.
I've bought the Panic Button for my 80 year old Dad.
It connects to his Wi-Fi router and will send notifications
to the NetzHome app on my phone wherever I am, provided
I have either a Wi-Fi or a mobile phone signal.
Unboxing the Panic Button.
You can see that it is a small unit
which just has a simple big button to press to raise an alarm.
It is supplied with a sticky pad
so that you can stick the Panic Button to a fixed location.
However, I suspect that most people will use the supplied
lanyard to wear it around their necks.
You will also find the instructions in the box along with
a small piece of paper with a QR code which is used during the setup.
The QR code is also inside the Panic Button,
so try not to lose this piece of paper,
but it's not the end of the world if you do lose it.
Finally, there is a very small screwdriver
that you need to open up the Panic Button to install the batteries.
Find a safe place to store this screwdriver
so that you can replace the battery in a year's time.
The phone that is going to receive the alarms from the Panic
Button must be connected to Wi-Fi using the 2.4GHz, not 5GHz.
If you have BT broadband, you can log into the management port by typing.
192.168.1.254 then click
"My devices" and scroll down the list until you find your phone.
In my case, you can see my phone, which is at the bottom of the list,
and you can see that it is using 2.4GHz Wi-Fi.
I now need to install the NetzHome app on my phone.
I've got an Android phone
so I go to the Google Play Store and search for "NetzHome" and install it.
As you can see, I have already installed the app before I recorded this clip.
Use the
supplied screwdriver to unscrew the screw on the front
and the 4 screws on the rear of the Panic Button.
I then found it quite fiddly to prize apart the Panic Button.
Be firm, but don't break the Panic Button to get into the Panic Button.
You can see the QR code which is used in the setup process
and should be the same as the QR code on the small piece of paper.
NetzHome recommend that you use the QR code inside the Panic Button.
I suspect that just in case the paper QR code is different.
Do NOT put the batteries into the Panic Button yet.
Go to your phone and open up the NetzHome app.
Assuming this is your first NetzHome device.
You will need to create an account.
So tap the "Sign Up" button and enter your email address, password and nickname.
I entered Dad as my nickname since he will be using the Panic Button.
Finally enter the CAPTCHA code.
Check your email and click on the link to activate your account.
You can now log into your NetzHome account with your username and password.
There are a few help pages to get you started with the app.
It's worth having a quick read because it uses long press to get to
some pages and short press to access other pages.
The app will work with other NetzHome
smart home devices which are normally fixed in one room.
So the app is set up to show the devices in each room.
The Panic Button will be worn and will therefore move from room to room.
I decided to set up the Panic Button in the kitchen in the app.
So tap kitchen in the menu bar at the top of the screen
and then click the big + symbol.
You are then presented
with a long list of pictures of the different NetzHome devices.
The Panic Button is towards the bottom.
This screen is a reminder not to use 5GHz Wi-Fi, which we checked earlier.
We can just enter the Wi-Fi password.
This password is the normal password that you would enter for a new Wi-Fi
device that you want to connect to your Wi-Fi.
You now need to scan the QR code, tap
and then give permission for the app to take photos and record video.
NetzHome recommend that you scan the code in the Panic Buttons battery compartment.
In theory, you should be able to scan the QR code
on the piece of paper we saw earlier in the video.
I initially tried to get as close as possible to the QR code,
but as you can see it actually successfully scanned the QR code
when I actually moved the phone further away from the QR code.
The app is now ready to pair with the Panic Button over the Wi-Fi network.
NetzHome, recommend that you turn off mobile data on your phone temporarily,
which you can do by going into "Settings" on an Android phone and tap "Wireless
& networks" and then tap "Mobile network" and slide "Mobile data" to off.
I watched a NetzHome video which stated that you need to turn on
GPS location under system settings.
I misinterpreted this and I enabled "Location" for the NetzHome app.
I think that these clips which show how to enable location
for the NetzHome app are therefore not required.
However, I am including just in case you have problems,
then try enabling location as shown in these clips.
You now need to press the WPS button on your router.
On my BT Hub, I pressed the WPS button for a few seconds.
The blue light flashes to confirm WPS has been activated
and WPS will only stay activated on your router for 2 minutes.
So you need no need to quite quickly install a couple of new AA batteries
into the Panic Button.
At this stage, don't put the cover back on the Panic Button.
Go back to the app and tap "Pair".
The app should now be able to find the Panic Button
and pair the app and the Panic Button.
If it is successful, the app will jump to the room screen
that you selected for the Panic Button.
In my case,
you can see that the Panic Button has been now been installed in the kitchen.
It took me several attempts to successfully pair the Panic Button.
If you are unsuccessful and get this timeout message.
Start again.
Take the batteries out and repeat the process
from where you click the big + sign on the kitchen page in the app.
When you have successfully paired the Panic Button with the NetzHome app,
you can screw the battery cover back on onto the Panic
Button and fix the supplied lanyard.
Also, don't forget to go back into "Settings" on your phone and switch
"Mobile data" back on.
You can now go back into the NetzHome app and long press the Panic Button.
You can change the name of the device or move it to a different room.
You can also see the signal strength and the device's time.
The most useful part of the setup is the "Mode"
which allows you to control the alarm settings.
The Chime mode is set up by default.
This generates a short notification sound on your phone.
The Alert mode, on the other hand, generates a much more distinctive alert
sound that I prefer, so I use the Alert mode.
In my testing on my Huawei phone.
I had a few problems ensuring that the alarm did sound reliably.
My Huawai phone has aggressive battery saving and tends to shut down
background processes.
This has caused problems for other apps, and luckily there was a simple solution
that I've discovered.
In "Settings" search for "battery"
and then tap "Battery optimization".
Change the drop down filter to "All apps"
and then search for "NextHome" and tap on NetzHome.
This will show that battery optimization is allowed.
So change this to "Don't allow" and tap "OK".
My Huawei phone will
now not shut down the background process.
I'm now ready to test the Panic Button.
After pressing the button,
there is a delay of around 15 seconds until the alarm
sounds on your phone.
As you can hear, the alarm sound in alert mode that I set
earlier is quite distinctive.
The alert sound lasts for 10 seconds.
There is also a notification on your phone
to show that the Panic Button has been pressed.
In the app the Panic Button icon
has a red border to show that there has been an alert.
You can either clear by short
tapping the icon or if you long tap the icon, you can see that
the history has been updated with the date and time of the alert.
So if you missed the 10 seconds sound, then you will see the notification
on your phone.
And even after you've cancelled the notification,
the NetzHome app will have a record of the timestamp of the alarm.
On my Android V9 phone.
The alert sound was audible in "Do not disturb" mode
but was silent when the phone is in "Silent" mode.
In later versions of Android, you will want to add the NetzHome app
to the list of app exceptions to "Do not disturb" mode.
However, if you put your phone in "Silent"
mode, then there will be no audible alert.
Only the notification which you will see the next time you check your phone.
This may be acceptable because you have presumably
put your phone into "Silent" mode, because you are in a situation
or environment where you absolutely do not want any audible interruptions.
You can obviously put your phone into "Vibrate" mode in these situations.
However, the vibration is quite short and you may miss it.
In summary, I think that the NetzHome Panic Button
is a cost effective solution to providing a panic button
within the home of an elderly relative using their existing Wi-Fi
It is a
bit tricky to set up, but once it is set up, in my experience, it
reliably notifies the NetzHome app that the button has been pressed.
If you are in a situation where you only want really important
audible notifications, then use "Do not disturb"
and you will still get the alert sound if the Panic Button is pressed.
However, if you are in a situation where you absolutely do not want
ANY audible interruptions by your phone,
then you need to use "Silent" mode.
But be aware that
if the Panic Button is pressed, you will only get the notification
if you use "Vibrate" mode or the next time you check your phone.
Personally, in the past I have always used "Silent" mode during the day
and the automatically scheduled "Do not disturb" mode overnight.
I'm going to change and use manual "Do not disturb" mode
during the day for most situations and only use "Silent" or "Vibrate" mode
when I am in an environment where my phone absolutely must not make
any noise whatsoever.