So, I have one on order for my niece for X-mas. I saw on the box, do not sell. Can I set it up, update the firmware, etc, and then factory reset it before I ship it to her? I definitely want to update it first because her family is not techy. I was even thinking of putting in their wifi creds before I ship it so it works out of the box potentially.
2 Likes
@ricmiller ,
EMO doesn’t work that way. You can’t input any numbers, he uses DHCP to pull the network information from the router. Unless your router was named the same as hers and used the same password and local network proxy address scheme, then it would be of zero benefit. Also some people have had problems reconnecting EMO back at home again after using him on someone else’s network. Plus he would also pick up the wrong location information. Last but not least there is currently no way for users to do a factory reset, but even if you could it would clear out any changes you’d made except the firmware upgrade. As long as he connects to her network ok, the firmware is not hard at all for her to do. She just puts him on his charger and says EMO, install upgrade.
1 Like
This may not be the best gift if the family isn’t very techy, you might wanna check this one over.
2 Likes
Thanks. I heard not all tablets work. I wanted to send a tablet along with it because she does not have a phone. That is one of the things I wanted to test and setup. This sounds like it is going to be a bigger pain than I expected.
2 Likes
If I can offer a suggestion. As @macfixer01 advised, it wouldn’t be a great idea to setup EMO and then pack it up again and send it over to your Niece as you can’t “Factory Default” him once he’s booted up. As you’ve mentioned, if you’re going to also get a tablet (an iPAD or Samsung tablet) just check to make sure that the EMO App works on that first (download it and start it up), if it does, then what you can do is download the EMO app and have it ready for use. (possibly also setup the tablet so it auto logins to your family’s wifi so that is already ready to connect to the internet, as that is very important to setup EMO.
Send both over to your Niece and (here comes the fun part) when you’re niece gets both items, simply walk her through how to set up EMO by adding in their network router info / password in the EMO app so that EMO can connect to the internet and download its first firmware update. It might be a little time consuming, but it’s not that hard to do. (Maybe face time with the family so you can see what’s going on at the same time).
Of course down the track, there might be issues where EMO might lose connection to the internet, and you’ll need to go back into the APP and put in the network SSID and Password again for it to connect back online so it can work. And there will be future firmware updates as well, that will need to be done as EMO is still evolving and you’ll want it to be on the latest firmware to get the most out of him.
In theory it’s not really hard, but still as you’ve mentioned if your family isn’t too techy this could be a little bit of a problem, as you’ll be getting phone calls possibly quite often if things don’t go as planned, and coming from a tech support background myself, things are always bound to go wrong sooner or later and you’ll be on the phone doing tech support as I normally do with my family trying to figure out why their printer isn’t printing or why so and so isn’t installing correctly etc etc.
It’s certainly a very nice present and if you go ahead with it, I’m sure your niece will love EMO. Best of luck with everything 
1 Like
I am going to lay it out there. They are poor hicks. I wanted to send it (from santa) I did not want to have involvement. I have a bad relationship with my brother but I hear his daughter is a nerd and loves reading and such. It is a bummer that this tech is so prohibitive. I have already placed the order so I will just send it as is I suppose 
1 Like
I don’t believe there would be a problem with any model of iPad, but of course those are more expensive. It was stated in another thread that the issue between the app and certain Android tablets, is that they don’t actually contain a physical GPS chip. In that case they rely on internet information for determining their general location. If you choose an Android tablet then make sure first that it contains an actual GPS chip. If one of the admins wanted to take on the responsibility, it would be nice for new users to have a compiled list of tablets which are known to be compatible or at least should be. Even just polling current Android users in the forum and on the FB group for what they’re using would be a good start toward that.
Macfixer01
That was my issue with both my LG Rebel 4 phone and an RCA Voyager tablet. I was able from the forum to get a suggestion for a tablet that works well with EMO. I purchased a Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 from Best Buy with a one year geek squad warranty for $188. I am very happy with the 64 Gb Android Version 11 it comes with. Just a suggestion.
1 Like
I feel like you can still get her a lot of cool tech toys (for $300) and she can have fun just playing with a bunch of stuff. You have many alternatives, if you tell me a tad about her likes, I’ll see what I can find.
2 Likes