I have written this post to help out users who want to set up their Bolt to WiFi but don’t have a WiFi network available.
There has to be a WiFi network and a smartphone with Bolt IoT setup app to be present when you are setting up the Bolt for the first time. If you do not have a WiFi network at home then you will need 2 smartphones, one for creating the WiFi network and the other for installing the Bolt IoT Setup app. This is only required during the setup stage. Once the setup is complete, you need only one smartphone which will be used to provide the WiFi network. Please find the steps below for setup when using 2 smartphones.
Setup process using 2 smartphones
Note: For the Bolt setup steps listed below you will require 2 smartphones. If you do not have more than 1 smartphone, please borrow one from your family members or friends. Use the borrowed phone for creating the WiFi network via phone hotspot.
- On the first phone install the Bolt IoT Setup app.
- On the second phone create a WiFi hotspot.
- Open Bolt IoT app in the first phone and log in with your login credentials
- Click on Add Device button and follow the onscreen instructions till you reach the screen to select WiFi network.
- Select the WiFi network you have created in step 2 on the second phone and enter the password for the network and click “CONNECT” button.
- Once you click connect the Bolt will restart and connect to WiFi network created on the second phone. If it connects successfully then the Blue LED will stop blinking and become stable. This might take a few seconds so please wait.
- While the Bolt restarts, you can proceed with the setup process in the app on the first phone to link the Bolt to your cloud account and complete the process.
- If the Blue LED is still blinking then the Bolt might not have been able to connect to the WiFi network due to an incorrect password. Please repeat the above steps in such a scenario.
Using a single smartphone after the setup process is complete
If you had borrowed the second smartphone, or prefer to generally use just one smartphone, then follow the steps below to ensure that your Bolt can connect to the WiFi network of the first phone from now onwards so that you don’t have to rely on the second phone.
- Once the setup is done i.e. Blue LED on Bolt is stable, copy the WiFi hotspot network name also known as SSID and password from the second phone
- Switch off the WiFi hotspot network on the second phone.
- Create a hotspot on the first phone with the same name and password as the second phone and switch on the hotspot
- Restart the Bolt and wait for it to connect to the hotspot of the first phone.
Do try out the above steps and let me know if you are able to do the setup. In case you are facing any issues then let me know. I will be happy to help.
