KilnSensei Setup Guide

KilnSensei is a kiln monitor: a small box that connects to your kiln and your WiFi. Once it's set up, your phone does two jobs for you:

You'll save both to your phone's home screen during setup. It takes about ten minutes, and you only do it once.

Get readyBefore you start

You'll need:

• Your phone (iPhone or Android — both work)
• Your home WiFi name and password — the same network your phone already joins at home. Use your 2.4 GHz network, not the 5 GHz one. If your router shows two names like "Home" and "Home-5G", pick the one without "5G". (Some routers label the 2.4 GHz network "2G" — that's the one you want.)
• The setup cheat sheet from the box — it has Setup Codes 1 and 2
• The label on the bottom of the box — it has Device Codes 1 and 2

If you don't want alerts on your phone and only want the dashboard, skip the "Turn on notifications" steps — everything else stays the same.

Part 1Get KilnSensei on your WiFi

1Join the kiln's temporary setup network

Scan Setup Code 1 on the cheat sheet (labeled "Join Setup WiFi"). Your phone will ask to join a temporary network called KilnMonitor-Setup — tap Join.

• iPhone: if it asks "No Internet Connection — stay connected?", tap Stay Connected. That's normal; this temporary network has no internet.

2Tell KilnSensei your real WiFi

Scan Setup Code 2 on the cheat sheet (labeled "Open Setup Page"). This only works while you're still on the temporary network from Step 1. You'll see a list of WiFi networks — pick yours and type the password carefully (passwords are case-sensitive).

When it connects, KilnSensei leaves setup mode and joins your home WiFi. Your phone will hop back to its normal network on its own — you don't need to do anything.

Part 2Save "My Kilns" — your anywhere view + alerts

3Save My Kilns to your home screen

Find the label on the bottom of the box and scan Device Code 1 (the left one). A page will open.

• iPhone: immediately tap the Share button (the box with an arrow) → Add to Home Screen → Add. Do this before tapping anything else on the page.
• Android: tap the three dots (top right) → Add to Home screen (or Install app) → confirm.

Name it My Kilns. Now close the browser completely, and open the new My Kilns icon from your home screen — not from the browser.

4Pair your kiln

In My Kilns, tap + Pair a Kiln. Your phone will ask to let the page use the camera — tap Allow. Then point the camera at Device Code 2 (the right one on the box label). The kiln is added — you can pair more than one, and My Kilns shows the current temperature of every kiln you've added.

5Turn on notifications

Tap Enable Notifications, and allow when prompted. This is what lets KilnSensei reach you at the grocery store — for example, when your firing hits 1900° and it's time to pay attention.

Part 3Save the dashboard and test your alerts

The dashboard is your at-the-kiln screen: live temperature, firing schedules, alert settings. Remember — it only works on your home WiFi, so do this part near the kiln.

6Open your kiln's dashboard

Two ways in:

• Option A: In My Kilns, find your kiln and tap Manage Schedule.
• Option B: Scan the QR code on top of the box, labeled something like "Scan to access the Kiln-1234 Local Monitoring Page" (yours will show your kiln's number instead of 1234).

Save this page to your home screen too, the same way as Step 3 — name it Kiln Dashboard so you can tell it apart from My Kilns.

7Send a test alert — don't skip this

Open the Kiln Dashboard icon, scroll to the bottom, and tap Send Test. Within about 20 seconds a real alert should arrive on your phone.

Part 4Using the dashboard

• The big number is the live temperature, shown in °F and °C. The box must be plugged in, powered on, and on the same WiFi as your phone.
• The arrow under the temperature shows whether it's rising, falling, or holding steady over the last few minutes.
• The green dot means Live. Other colors mean offline, reconnecting, and so on.
• The gear icon (Settings) is the quick way to change WiFi networks.
• Manage Kilns — click it even if it looks grayed out. This is where your schedules live.

The menu at the top of the page

• Monitor — back to the live temperature screen.
• Kilns — add and name kilns, then pick one to set a bisque or glaze firing schedule. To return to your kiln list, just tap Kilns again.
• WiFi — another way to update your WiFi password.

Setting a firing schedule

1. Tap Kilns, then add and name your kiln. Tap its name (or Edit) to build a firing profile — Bisque or Glaze — and add your alerts. Alert names are free text; call them whatever makes sense to you.
   Tip from the maker

   On my manual kiln I set alerts for the big transitions — Low to Medium, Medium to High — then key temperatures like 1200, 1500, 1800 so I know how the firing's going when I'm away from the studio. Near the end I tighten up: 1900, 1950, 1975, heading for my 1983 cutoff on a bisque firing. The point is fewer trips to check the witness cones — but watch your cones closely at first until you learn which alerts you trust.

2. When you're ready, scroll down on the Kilns screen and tap Start Bisque or Start Glaze.
3. Head back to Monitor (top menu). You'll now see the schedule, upcoming alerts, and roughly how many degrees — and how much time — until the next one. You can cancel the firing schedule at any time.
4. When an alert fires, tap Done and it's saved to your firing history. When you tap the last alert, the firing ends and everything is saved. You'll find histories on the Kilns page, where names and schedules are managed.
5. Close the dashboard whenever you like and reopen it from the home-screen icon. You can unplug the box and plug it back in any time — as long as your phone is on the same network, your kilns and schedules are safe and the data goes live again.