Issues with BLE connectivity

[MichaelParticipant]

Hello Flomies,

Recently, we had just finished another event with the Floble and have some feedback that we would like to share.

1. Direct connect with BLE is a real pain in the ass. There are many reasons for that. In total, we have deployed almost 30 unit. 15 units were deployed at check-in/registration. Setting up is an issue because we have to set up machines 1 by 1 and they have to be at least 5 feet away from each other for fear that they will do a multi connect(meaning, 2 floble will connect to the same Ipad).

2. Spontaneous loss of BLE connection between Ipad and Floble. Granted, there was some interference but this would happen once every 30 mins or so. Our staff had to reset the app and hopefully the Floble would connect to the device on first try. If not, we would have to start the process all over again and that takes waaaay too long.

The question I have is this:

1. Will there be a better process going forward? I know you have mentioned entering the serial number. Before deployment we felt that might be a good solution but now we are afraid of the spontaneous disconnects. In our previous conversations about this, I believe Richard mentioned that once connected, the Floble would not disconnect but we have found that is not the case. That is a very very big problem for us and our customers were not very happy with the results of our last deployment.

2. Can we discuss an enterprise solution. Going forward, our events will be getting bigger and bigger and we cannot always have hardware issues or really any downtime. We need something more bulletproof. As we firm up our events relationships, attendance for events will start around 50,000 ppl per day. That is the scale we are referring to.

3. Maybe we can discuss the Kiosk idea again? This is something we have an interest in.

Thank you.

Mike

[HongbinModerator]

Hi Michael

I saw FloBLE had two version, May I know which one you are using? will check how to support on this, thanks

or

[RichardKeymaster]

@Ben, Michael is using the FloBLE Plus (second image above, ACR1255U-J1) with the Flomio SDK v2.2 beta.

@Michael, we are working on addressing your issues. It is troubling that the devices are disconnecting after being paired. I may have underestimated the level of interference present in your environment. We intend to expose through the SDK interface a configuration parameter that allows you to specify the device ID (serial number) in order to automatically restore the reader connection in the event of such a disconnection. We will also boost the BLE connection power in order to try and minimize disconnections which could be occurring due to range issues.

It would be helpful if you could provide further details of your deployment scenario. Specifically:

1. How many readers are within 50ft of the tablet and reader that are paired and experience disconnections. 15?
2. What is the max distance between tablet and reader ever experiences during a session? Please include details like obstructions between the line of sight between tablet and reader.
3. Are there any covers, cases or potentially conductive materials that are being wrapped around the tablet and reader during usage? It would be helpful to get pictures of the deployments in action to understand how to setup our testing environment.
4. Can you share your iOS application via TestFlight for us to observe and test internally?

We are working with the engineering team at ACS to solve these issues in the most expedient way. These are solvable problems but it will take a methodical and coordinated approach across support and technical teams so I appreciate what patience you can afford.

To address enterprise needs that are mission critical and designed for scale, we offer Flomio Service hours. Included with this service is direct access to our team over a private Slack channel instead of the Forums. You only pay for the time that you use in blocks of 3 hours. We provided this service out with a few enterprise customers already and the feedback has been good.

Regarding our Kiosk offering, you can order directly from our partner Lilitab. Their enclosure is custom designed to fit our readers and allow them the best performance. Follow this link to Lilitab’s product page for you to build your own kiosk solution and get an idea on prices. If you have any questions you can ask us here or contact Lilitab customer support directly.

thanks,
Richard

[ScottKeymaster]

Hi Michael,

We have come up with a solution for your reconnection problem that you can try with the latest Flomio SDK v2.2.
After setting ‘Allow Multiconnect’ to be false, the SDK will only connect to the first reader it finds and then if it disconnects, the SDK will only reconnect to that specific reader.

Kind Regards,
Scott

[MichaelParticipant]

It would be helpful if you could provide further details of your deployment scenario. Specifically:

1. Yes approx 15. It was deployed at a long table, so a set(ipad+reader) was about 6inches to 1 feet apart depending on registration traffic
2. Max distance was never more than 1-2ft. For registration, there was no obstructions and each pad had a clear line of site to each reader. They were all being handled by staff. For entry and exits, we had stands made. For this particular event, there were about waist high. 2sets-4sets were deployed at every entrance. Reader and Pad distance again were never more than 2 feet apart and always in clear line of site. Normally our stands are made with steel but for this particular event, they were made with thin wood.
3. Steel and wood.

@Scott: Thank you for finding a solution but The problem with that solution is time. We will always have to log out of the app and turn off the Floble. Then we are never 100% sure that it will be able to reconnect on the first try. Sometimes it takes 2-4 different tries for it to successfully pair with the pad. Ultimately, that results in at least a 5min delay. It may not seem much but when you are staring down a couple of thousand of event goers, staffers get rattled which causes even greater delays. So far, the best scenario that we can think of is with the serial number but without fully testing, we are not sure if even that will speed things up.

Mike

[MichaelParticipant]

Secondly, the other issue with the solution is replacement. In some scenarios where we run 24 hour events, those Ipads need to be charged and changed periodically throughout the day. With your solution, we wouldn’t be able to change that out. That would also cause lots of delays among other issues during an event.

Mike

[RichardKeymaster]

Hey Mike, thanks for the feedback. A couple comments real quick:

3. Steel enclosures may pose a problem since the conductivity can detune the BLE and NFC antennas. Try to stick to non-conductive materials like wood and plastic where possible. The Liltab kiosk head unit hardware is designed with molded plastic for that reason.

RE: Scott’s latest fix. It does not persist across app launches. In other words, if you launch the app with Flomio SDK and pair with a FloBLE reader then it will remember that connection should the FloBLE disconnect for any reason. If you were to kill the app, then this stored connection handle would be lost and upon relaunching the app would connect to the first FloBLE it finds. With that in mind, if you need to swap out iPads, it will just be a matter of exiting the app on one iPad to allow for the fresh iPad to connect and persist that pairing across the app usage. What I suspect that @Scott’s latest fix will do is prevent you from needing to kill your app when disconnections happen during use. Because the connection handle persists, the Flomio SDK will find and reconnect the corresponding FloBLE when it detects a disconnection event.

hope that helps. I’m sure Scott will add something to this once he’s back online in 8 hours or so.

best,
Richard

[MichaelParticipant]

Hello Richard,

Right. I’m sure it will find the first Floble but again, pairing upon first try, that is an uncertainty. Though it will find, it may not necessarily pair. That is why we find the process unnerving. In a perfect environment, it should be able to pair correctly upon a reconnect but throughout 2 events, we have found that is not the case. Hence our suggestion with a more direct approach.

We will make a note of the material. Before we had invested in our stands, the manufactueres assured us that BLE signals would not be affected at all. We will follow up with them on this as well.

Mike

[RichardKeymaster]

Got it. @Scott will implement the direct approach tomorrow so that you can be at ease. Thanks for your patience.

RE: conductive materials. It’s the safest bet to go with nonconductive where ever possible. While the solution may work anyway, there is no doubt that conductive materials run the risk of interfering with the NFC or BLE signal.

best,
Richard

[ScottKeymaster]

Hi Michael,

I have added the ability to connect to a specific device.
Flomio SDK v2.2 (beta)
The use case for you would be this:

Turn on app, define the specificDeviceId property with your device ID “RR330-XXXXXX”, call [sessionManager createReaders].
If a disconnect happens, simply turning on and off the reader should reconnect to that specific reader.
To connect to a different reader, you would then need to change the property specificDeviceId, disconnect the currently connectly reader and connect the new device.
Note: make sure “Allow Multiconnect” is set to @0.

Kind Regards,
Scott

• This reply was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by  Scott.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by  Scott.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by  Scott.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by  Scott.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by  Scott.

[MichaelParticipant]

Thank you Scott, our tech team will implement and give feedback.

Mike

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