Terms of Service

1. Service Description

JKBMSR provides remote monitoring for compatible JK-BMS battery systems via an ESP32 gateway and cloud software.

2. Hardware & Installation Safety

Battery systems carry inherent electrical risks. Installers and users are solely responsible for proper wiring, fused connections, physical isolation, and safe operating practices.

3. Read-Only Device Access

The JKBMSR gateway firmware is built to read from your BMS, never to write to it. It listens to the telemetry your BMS already broadcasts over its existing Bluetooth or UART interface — voltages, current, state of charge, temperature, and cell data — and relays that data to the cloud. It does not send configuration, control, or write commands, and it will never modify your BMS's charge or discharge parameters, protection thresholds, balancing behavior, or any other setting. Your BMS operates exactly as you configured it, independent of JKBMSR, whether the gateway is connected or not.

4. Gateway License (One-Time Fee)

Each gateway receives a 30-day full-access trial starting the day it's claimed to your account. Continued use of that gateway beyond 30 days — flashing firmware, changing its settings, and keeping it claimed to your account — requires a single one-time payment of $5 per gateway. This license is permanent: it is not a subscription, it does not expire, and it never needs renewing.

How it's fulfilled. There is no manual processing step. Payment is handled by Polar (see Section 6); the instant Polar confirms your payment, our system automatically records the order and creates your license entitlement. If you started checkout from a specific gateway's settings page, that entitlement is assigned to it immediately and it unlocks with no further action from you. If for any reason it can't be matched to a device at checkout, the entitlement is still created under your account and stays claimable — sign in with the same email you paid with (or contact us) and it will be assigned to whichever gateway you point it at.

A license belongs to your account, not to a specific piece of hardware. If your ESP32 fails, you may rebind the same license to a replacement device at no additional cost — the license transfers, the fee does not repeat.

5. Cloud Service Subscription (Recurring Billing)

Cloud Service — live telemetry relay at faster-than-free intervals, mobile alerts, and related cloud features — is billed separately from the one-time gateway license, as a recurring subscription per gateway. It follows the same 30-day trial (at the fastest tier), after which it settles to whichever tier you've subscribed to, or the always-free tier if none. See Pricing for current tiers and rates.

How renewal works. A paid subscription auto-renews at the end of each billing period — monthly or annual, whichever you chose at checkout — and Polar charges your saved payment method automatically. We never see or store your card details; see Section 6. Switching to a different tier (faster or slower) is started as a new checkout for that tier through your device's settings page.

Cloud Service is never all-or-nothing. A free tier is always available — currently a 1-hour telemetry interval, though this interval may be adjusted over time to keep the platform sustainable as our user base grows. Paying only buys a faster interval. If a subscription lapses, isn't renewed, or is cancelled, nothing is deleted and nothing stops: that gateway's telemetry relay automatically falls back to the free tier's interval instead of pausing, your historical telemetry stays visible, and your gateway stays claimed. Resubscribing at any time immediately resumes the faster interval — there is no reactivation fee or waiting period.

Cancelling. There is currently no in-app "cancel" button. Manage or cancel a subscription through the link in the payment confirmation email Polar sent you at checkout, or reach out through the Contact page and it will be handled directly. Cancelling stops future renewal charges; it does not retroactively refund the current billing period (see Section 7) and, per the paragraph above, never blocks telemetry relay outright.

6. Billing & Payment Processing

All payments — the one-time gateway license and Cloud Service subscriptions alike — are processed by Polar.sh, an independent payment processor and merchant of record for these transactions. Checkout happens entirely on Polar's own hosted payment page; your card number, expiry, and CVV are entered directly into Polar's systems and never pass through or touch JKBMSR's servers at any point.

What we do receive from Polar, and store, is billing metadata: the order or subscription ID, the billing name and email you checked out with, which product and price tier it was, the amount and currency charged, and its current status (paid, active, refunded, etc.) — never the underlying card data itself. See the Privacy Policy's Payment & Billing Data section for the full list.

7. Refunds

Refund requests are handled case by case — see the Refund Policy for the specifics on both the one-time gateway license and Cloud Service subscriptions, including how a refund affects your license entitlement.

8. Pricing Changes

License and Cloud Service fees in Sections 4 and 5 exist to cover the real, ongoing cost of hosting, cloud infrastructure, and keeping the platform maintained and running. As the user base grows, pricing may change to reflect the cost of operating the Service at that scale. Any such change applies to new purchases and future renewals — it does not retroactively affect a license or subscription you already hold.

9. Fee Waivers, Discounts & Extended Trials

Reasonable requests for extended trial access, a fee waiver, or a discount code are considered case by case, and requests are read and answered personally, not by a support queue. If cost is the only thing standing between you and trying JKBMSR properly, reach out through the Contact page before assuming the answer is no.

10. Disclaimer of Warranties

The Service, the gateway firmware, and the gateway hardware are provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, express, implied, or statutory, including any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. JKBMSR does not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that telemetry, alerts, and notifications will always arrive without delay.

11. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, JKBMSR and the individual operating it are not liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising out of or in connection with your use of, or inability to use, the Service, the gateway firmware, or the gateway hardware — including damage to your battery system, BMS, inverter, or other connected equipment, loss of data, or loss of monitoring visibility — even if advised of the possibility of such damages. Your BMS's own built-in protections (over-voltage, under-voltage, over-current, over-temperature, and cell balancing) run independently of JKBMSR at all times and remain your primary safeguard, whether or not the Service is reachable. Nothing in this section limits liability where it cannot lawfully be limited.

12. Compatibility and Independence

JKBMSR is an independent remote monitoring solution compatible with JK-BMS products. JKBMSR is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by JK-BMS.