EvaKool

EvaKool makes portable fridge freezers for Australian touring: camping, caravans, the ute. The Down Under Series II is the dual-zone line: two compartments, tropical-rated, built to run off a vehicle battery without becoming another thing you have to get out and fiddle with.

The Down Under app was the Bluetooth half of that. From the phone you could turn the fridge on or off, set each zone, switch Eco and Max, change the battery cut-out, and read a fault without standing over the lid.

The fridge still ran without it. The app was meant to sit in the cab, not replace the panel on the unit.

I was one of two developers on the React Native app. I ran the initial spike against the fridge’s Bluetooth peripheral, then implemented the custom communication protocol EvaKool provided: pairing, live settings, and the control path over BLE.

Alongside the connectivity work I designed some of the UI: the connection flow and the settings page, where temperature, cooling mode and power use actually get changed.