Potential “Connectivity Issue”

[RazvanParticipant]

Hi Richard,

As mentioned in our conversation, in our lab environment we have been testing standalone application SDK 1.9 (10) running non-stop and encountered a potential issue. On Monday 2/15 when arriving in our lab we noticed the application center display light showing red and the guest pass card was not scanning. Both the Flomio and the iPad were charging the light was amber and the Flomio was not reading. After more time we started noticing the light flickering from red to green and eventually it would once again retain on red. Throughout we tried scanning the card and it would not read. We killed the app and everything was functioning as usual. We didn’t think much of it since it was the first time this has happened and it was only on one iPad. Today 2/19 we encounter the same issues upon arrival in our lab, with the same scenarios happening. This is the main reason we are reaching out and before raising the flag to confirm this is an issues we added an additional unit in our lab to evaluate more in depth. Also thank you for also replicating the scenario in our lab and hopefully this does not turnout into an issues.

Please keep us posted with any similar feedback you may have encountered or any feedback regarding your lab tests as we will do the same.

Thank you,
Razvan Dutu | Information Technology

[JimMember]

Hi Razvan,

Would you please note the reader LED, the app connectivity indicator (red/green circle), and the battery level the next time you see this. We would like to determine the state of charge of the reader.
Thanks
Jim

• This reply was modified 8 years, 9 months ago by  Jim.

[RichardKeymaster]

Hi Razvan, Jim did some analysis of your potential issue this weekend focusing on the charging behavior of the FloJack to better understand when failure scenarios can occur. This could give you some insight into what may be happening in your lab testing. Check out the report on our blog here:

Continuous Scanning With FloJack NFC Readers

best,
Richard

[RazvanParticipant]

Hi Jim,

The indicator is yellow on both test units over the weekend and battery life is displaying 100% on both units. Unfortunately the connectivity indicators on the application are red on both and the NFC cards are not reading.

@Richard Over then weekend the instance has reoccurred again on both test units here in our lab. Please let me know the status on the unit you are testing on after if this scenario occurred on your unit. If so did you get a chance to debug the units and start troubleshooting ?

Best regards,
Razvan

[JimMember]

Hi Razvan,

As Richard mentioned I wanted to measure our battery performance in continuous scanning applications and you can see the results in the blog post. In this test I used a single port USB wall charger to power the FloJack. If the hub you are using provides less power either by design or by malfunction you might see different results. You could try using a known good USB wall charger to see if this helps. Another possibility is a bad jack on the iPad. You can see many examples of this problem with a quick search. It’s sometimes caused by foreign material in the jack or by failure of the jack itself. We use both the mic and the speaker contacts so you would need to record and playback through the jack if you try to test it. We tested the app for recovery from interruptions by setting an alarm to occur while scanning and it passed. We also tested the app for iOS Media Services resets by going to Settings -> Developer -> Media Services Testing and tapping Reset Media Services and it passed. Media Service resets are rare but could occur.

The test I’ve been running has been operating for two days and I have not seen what you report. My suspicion is either a faulty USB charger or a bad jack. Hope this helps.

Jim

[RichardKeymaster]

@Razvan, as I mentioned over the phone with you moments ago, my test setup was interrupted over the weekend so I wasn’t able to conduct a full test. I have begun another test this morning and will not scan any cards on it until 2.5 days from now. Hopefully I can see the behavior you are seeing in your lab. Jim seems to have been able to sustain a good state for several days but I’m not sure if he’s scanning tags throughout that time or leaving the test setup unattended for 2.5 days to replicate your test scenario.

best,
Richard

[RazvanParticipant]

Jim,

Based on your input we have set up in our environment 2 different scenarios today. One with a known good power supply and the other as it has been. Both have new audio cables provided by Lilitab and also have been tested here in the lab also. Will keep you posted ion the results, but meanwhile we’re on a deadline for Thursday 25th when Allin incorporate SDK 1.9(10) to the application. As of today there is not signoff on our end due to this issue.

Why i believe its not related to power supply, is because this scenario first occurred last Monday the 15th. and then once again the the 19th (4day span) and again today the 22nd (3 day span). Prior to the 15th we did not encounter this state were both the FloJack and iPad show power distribution and the FloJack is not recording scans. Also i can understand that if the right amount of power is not distributed this could cause issues but then the flomio battery level would drop and no LED should be displayed after the flomio battery is consumed.

Please keep us posted on this matter as its top priority.

Thanks,
Razvan

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