From the box to the map.
Seven steps, one phone, no tools. In about ten minutes your GeoShake T1 will be a working seismic station, visible to everyone on the live map — and part of a network that gets faster with every device added to it.
Plug in
USB-C power. The light comes on.
Install the app
iPhone or Android, then sign in.
Connect
The app finds it over Bluetooth.
Enter WiFi
Your network and password.
Link it
Device joins your account.
Place the pin
You choose the published spot.
Go live
Your station on the map.
Before you start
Four things. Gather them now and the whole setup runs without interruption.
The seven steps
Do these in order. Each step tells you what you should see before moving on — if you do not see it, the fix is right there.
Plug it in
Connect the USB-C cable to the device and to power. Leave it somewhere convenient for now — you can move it to its final spot once it is online.
If nothing lights up: try a different USB-C cable and a different power adapter before anything else. Charging-only cables and low-power USB ports on monitors and keyboards are the usual culprits.
Install the GeoShake app and sign in
The app is how you set up the device, name it, place it on the map and receive alerts. It is free and you do not need a device to use it.
Create an account or sign in with Google or Apple. Use the account you want to own the device — this is the account your station will belong to.
Connect to the device over Bluetooth
In the app, choose Add device and let it scan. A GeoShake T1 that has not been set up yet announces itself over Bluetooth with a name that starts with GST1- followed by five characters, for example GST1-BH2JN. Those five characters are the end of your device ID, so if you are setting up more than one device you can tell them apart.
Tap your device in the list.
If your device does not appear: make sure Bluetooth and location permission are granted to the app, and stay within a few metres of the device. Still nothing? A device that is already set up stops advertising over Bluetooth on purpose — that is why a second setup attempt finds nothing. Use the WiFi fallback instead, which always works.
Enter your WiFi details
Pick your network from the list and type the password. Take your time with the password: the device tests the connection before it saves anything, so a wrong password means the step simply fails and you try again rather than ending up with a half-configured device.
If your network is not in the list: your router is probably broadcasting 5 GHz only. Enable the 2.4 GHz band in your router settings, or connect the device to a guest or hotspot network on 2.4 GHz. If the password is rejected: check for a stray space at the end, and note that passwords are case sensitive.
Link the device to your account
This is what makes the station yours — it connects the hardware to your account so you can name it, place it and manage it. The app does this automatically, immediately after the WiFi step. You normally do not type anything at all.
If automatic linking does not work, the app asks for the claim code instead. It is printed on the label on the device: ten characters, letters and digits. The code deliberately avoids the confusable characters, so there is no O or 0, and no I or 1 to guess at. Capitals, lower case, spaces and dashes are all fine — the app cleans up whatever you type.
If the app says the device already belongs to someone else: that happens with a device that was previously set up on another account — a returned or second-hand unit. Contact info@geoshake.org with the device ID and we will release it.
Place your location pin
The app shows a map centred on where your phone is, with a pin on it. Drag the pin to where the device actually is and confirm.
Do not skip this step. A station with no location set sits at a default point on the map that is nowhere near you, which makes its data useless for locating earthquakes — and location is the entire reason a seismic network works.
The published coordinate is the one you choose
Your station appears on a public map, and the only position it ever shows is the pin you place here. We do not publish your address, we do not derive your position from your phone or your IP, and we never reveal your account details next to the station.
We recommend picking a point near your home rather than on it — a nearby corner, a park, the middle of your street. Anywhere within a few hundred metres keeps the data scientifically useful while keeping your exact address to yourself. This is your choice to make, and you can change it any time from the app.
See your station on the map
Open stations.geoshake.org and find your pin. This is the public map — the same view everybody else sees, with your station now on it.
Managing the device is a separate place: my.geoshake.org/devices, or the app. That is where you rename it, move its pin, or reconnect it to WiFi. The short version: the public map is where you look at your station, and My devices is where you change it.
A brand-new station can take a few minutes to appear the first time. If it is not there after five minutes, check the status light against the table below.
That is it. You are now part of the network. Move the device to its permanent spot whenever you like — if the new spot is more than a hundred metres away, nudge the pin in the app to match.
What the light is telling you
The GeoShake T1 has one status light, and it is the fastest diagnosis you have. Read the pattern, not just whether it is lit.
| What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Steady, always on | Waiting to be set up. The device has power but no WiFi details saved. This is how every device arrives from the factory — it is not a fault. | Run steps 2–5 above. |
| Slow soft pulse, fading in and out every ~3 seconds | Everything is working. Connected to your WiFi and reporting to the network. | Nothing. This is the state you want. |
| Blinking on and off about twice a second | Has power, but not reaching the network. Either it is reconnecting after a WiFi or internet interruption, or it is waiting for new WiFi details. | Give it two minutes to recover on its own. If it keeps blinking, see station offline. |
| Bright for about two seconds, then back to the pulse | It felt something. The device detected ground motion above its threshold. Footsteps, a slammed door and a passing lorry all do this — one bright flash is not an earthquake. | Nothing. If it happens constantly, move it somewhere steadier — see mounting. |
| Very fast flicker, several times a second, continuously | The device failed its own start-up self-check. Rare, and it means the readings cannot be trusted. | Unplug it, wait ten seconds, plug it back in. If the flicker returns, contact info@geoshake.org. |
If something does not go to plan
These four cover almost everything people write to us about.
My phone cannot find the device over Bluetooth
Every GeoShake T1 offers a second, independent way in that needs no app and no Bluetooth at all. It works from any phone, tablet or laptop:
- Unplug the device, wait five seconds, plug it back in.
- Open the WiFi settings on your phone or laptop and look for a network called GeoShake- followed by four characters, for example GeoShake-7A2F. It has no password.
- Join that network. A setup page usually opens by itself, the same way a hotel WiFi login page does.
- If it does not open on its own, type 192.168.4.1 into your browser's address bar.
- Enter your WiFi network name and password on the page and submit it.
The device restarts and joins your WiFi. Your phone will drop back to its normal network on its own. Then open the app and add the device with the claim code from its label to finish linking it to your account.
The GeoShake- network only exists while the device is waiting to be set up. Once it is on your WiFi, that network disappears — which is also why it is not a security concern.
My station shows as offline
What it means: your station has not reported to the network for several minutes. It does not mean the device is damaged, and no data you have already contributed is lost.
A light that keeps blinking means the device has power but cannot reach the network — nothing more specific than that. Work through these in order; the first two account for the great majority of cases:
- Is it still powered? Look at the status light. No light at all means no power: check the cable, the adapter and the socket. A switched socket that someone turned off is the single most common cause.
- Is your internet working? Check that another device in the house can reach the internet. If the router restarted, the GeoShake T1 reconnects by itself, usually within a minute or two.
- Did the WiFi password or network name change? The device still holds the old details and cannot connect. Run setup again from the app to give it the new ones.
- Is it actually waiting to be set up? Open the WiFi list on your phone. If you can see a GeoShake-XXXX network, the device has no WiFi details at all and is waiting for setup — moving it will not help. Run setup again from the app.
- Is it too far from the router? Only if none of the above applies is a weak signal likely. Move it closer to the router or a mesh point and watch for the slow pulse.
A station that comes back online rejoins the map automatically. If the light shows the healthy slow pulse but the map still says offline after fifteen minutes, that is worth an email to info@geoshake.org — include your device ID.
My WiFi network does not appear during setup
The GeoShake T1 connects to 2.4 GHz WiFi only. This is not a limitation of the device so much as a deliberate trade: 2.4 GHz travels further through walls and floors, which matters for something that lives on a basement floor.
Nearly every home router broadcasts 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz at the same time. If your network is missing from the list, one of these is usually true:
- Your router has 2.4 GHz turned off, or is a 5 GHz-only mesh node. Turn 2.4 GHz on in the router settings.
- Your router combines both bands under one name and is steering the device to 5 GHz. Temporarily splitting the bands into two names solves it.
- The network is hidden. Enter the name manually.
A phone hotspot set to 2.4 GHz also works if you just want to get the device online and confirm it works before dealing with the router.
I want to move the device, or set it up again from scratch
Moving it around the same home needs nothing at all — unplug, move, plug back in. If it moves more than about a hundred metres, open the app and drag the location pin to the new spot so the map stays truthful.
Moving it to a different WiFi network means running the setup again from the app, so the device learns the new network name and password.
The device stays linked to your account through all of this. You do not need the claim code again unless you are transferring the device to somebody else.
Where to put your device
This decision affects your data more than anything else you do. A sensor measures whatever the surface under it is doing — so the question is which surface tells the truth about the ground.
Good, better, best
| Placement | Why |
|---|---|
| Concrete floor in a basement or on the ground floor, against a load-bearing wall | Best. As close as a home sensor gets to the actual ground. Quiet, stable, and the readings are genuinely comparable with professional stations. |
| Any solid floor, at the edge of the room rather than the middle | Good. Floors flex least where they meet the walls. Corners of rooms on lower storeys are noticeably quieter than the centre of a span. |
| A shelf, a desk, a cupboard, a bookcase | Avoid. Furniture has its own wobble. Every time somebody walks past, the sensor records that instead of the ground. |
| Upper floors of a timber-framed building | Workable, but noisy. The building amplifies footsteps and doors. Still useful to the network — just expect more false movement. |
A few practical things
- Flat and level, on its base. The device does not need bolting down, screwing in or gluing. Its own weight on a hard floor is enough.
- Away from the washing machine. Also fridges, tumble dryers, boilers and air conditioning units. Anything that vibrates on a cycle is a constant source of noise.
- Out of the sun and away from radiators. Big temperature swings show up in the readings.
- Leave it plugged in. A seismic station is only useful when it is running. The value of the network comes from stations that are simply always there.
Everything else
Once your station is live, this is where the rest of GeoShake is documented — from smart home alerts to raw seismic data streams.
Smart home integrations
Make your home react to a confirmed earthquake — Home Assistant, Apple Home and Google Home.
Read the guide →Developer portal
API keys, endpoints and the live event feed for building on top of the network.
Open the portal →Source code
Firmware, enclosure designs and the tools that run the network. Open source.
View on GitHub →Seismic data access (FDSN & SeedLink)
Standards-compliant access to waveform data for researchers and institutions.
Draft pending — AdamUsing GeoShake with jAmaSeis
Connecting a station to classroom and educational seismology software.
Draft pending — AdamData licence & reuse
What the network's data may be used for, and how to cite it.
Draft pending — AdamCommon questions
Does GeoShake publish my home address?
No. The only coordinate ever published is the pin you place yourself during setup, and we recommend placing it near your home rather than on it. Your name, email and account details never appear on the public map.
How much internet does it use?
Very little — under about 5 MB a day, comparable to a single email with an attachment. Any broadband connection or mobile hotspot is more than enough.
Will it alert me when there is an earthquake?
Yes — the app sends alerts for events the network confirms, and you can set how close an event has to be before it notifies you. Treat these as a helpful extra layer rather than an official warning: always follow your national authority for emergency instructions.
Do I need to keep the app installed?
The station runs on its own and keeps reporting whether the app is installed or not. You need the app for setup, for alerts, and for changing your station's name or location.
What happens during a power cut?
The device stops reporting and the station shows as offline. When power returns it reconnects on its own and rejoins the map, with no action from you. If you want it to keep running through outages, a small USB power bank between the socket and the device works well.
Can I set up more than one device on one account?
Yes, as many as you like. Repeat the setup for each one — the last five characters of the Bluetooth name tell them apart — and give each a name you will recognise.
Still stuck?
Tell us what the status light is doing and what step you reached — that is usually enough for us to answer in one reply.
One more station makes the network faster.
Every device that comes online shortens the warning for everybody around it.