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Waiting

  • February 5, 2015 4:35 PM CET

    Serious discussion, it was not my intention.
    sbricks have come in, time to play! and wait for the profile designer.

    Thanks..

     

    • 24 posts
    February 4, 2015 1:03 PM CET

    Jorge,

     

    Thank you so much for your research.

    I understand what you are saying about the Samsung Galaxy S3.  This would appear to give an explanation ..... except for one significant fact.  Sbrick v0.26 works after a fashion.

    I took your suggestion and replaced v0.41 with v0.26.  With this I can discover Sbricks and using the port tester I can use each port.  However, there are numerous problems with profiles that don't work, inability to assign multiple Sbricks to a profile, extremely slow response, etc., etc.

    However, the point is a Samsung S3 can communicate and operate a Sbrick so it cannot be a fundamental problem with the phone!  The problem is with the application.

    In my opinion what needs to happen is for the developers to see what they changed after v0.26 to stop the app working and fix it. With what I expect were later mods to correct other problems with the app this should make it usable for Android users.

    Thanks again,

    Norman

    • 87 posts
    February 4, 2015 8:58 AM CET

    Norman,

    I found this thread at Samsung developers forum. It's an old thread but it might explain your pains - Samsung S3 (not sure if there are more than one version) has BLE support but only some API's work. People on that thread report that custom tools (like Nordic nRF) work but the apps for their devices don't. Seems like custom tools use their own API while general apps trust in the phone's implementation.

    I am not saying that I found a culprit. But its a clue. And it might also explain why there are no 4.3.x Androids reported here:

    https://social.sbrick.com/wiki/view/pageId/12/slug/application-device-compatibility

    • 87 posts
    February 4, 2015 8:38 AM CET

    Thank you.

    Your Galaxy S3 is connecting to the SBrick as expected. So it really is a problem between the SBrick app and the SBrick firmware. As strange as is may sound, that combination (SW v0.41 anf FW 4.0) works more or less fine with other Androids, including mine [Sony Xperia Z1, Android 4.4.4].

    All other versions behaved the same way? This other thread has a link to version 0.26, that person (Frederic) reports a better behaviour compared to 0.35/0.41, but he is using a S4 (Gt-i9505) running 4.4.2.

    Google made changes in Bluetooth stack from 4.3 to 4.4. It may affect the way SBrick App works (it shouldn't but programmers aren't perfect). Vengit also made same changes from original firmware (4.0) to present (4.1) and also with next one (4.2, I'm testing a beta version of it, had to made my own tool in Linux as there is no Over The Air upgrade function for Android yet) but AFAIK none related to Bluetooth connection [except a watchdog functionallity].

    As upgrading your S3 to 4.4.x is probably out of question... you don't have a friend nearby with a 4.4.x Android, do you?

    • 24 posts
    February 4, 2015 3:09 AM CET

    Jorge,

    Thanks for your kind comments.

    I'm using a Samsung Galaxy S3 running Android 4.3 with Sbrick for Android version 0.41

    I can see Sbricks using nRF Master Control and get the following:-

    Firmware Revision Level  0x2A26  value 4.0

    Hardware Revision Level  0x2A27 value 4.0

    I try to avoid updates so for each revision I have first uninstalled the existing app and then downloaded and installed the later version.  I have no other Bluetooth apps open at any time and no other Bluetooth devices connected.

    I hope that this helps.

    Best regards,

    Norman

     

    • 87 posts
    February 3, 2015 10:40 PM CET

    Norman,

    thank you for you last post; you have the right to be frustrated and still you were polite, thats becoming rare in the present Internet times

    You are using SBrick Android App 0.41, right?  Excuse me if you already tried this but nevertheless...

    - you can see the SBrick with the Nordic nRF MCP for Android app? If yes, can you tell me what are the firmware and hardware levels seen by nRF MCP?

    After you connect, the second line says "Device Information, UUID 0x180A", if you expand it there is a "Firmware Revision String" and a "Hardware Revision String", if you press the arrows to the right the tool will read those standard BLE fields from the SBrick

    If no, there's something more to investigate like your Android version (from what I've seen 4.4.x seem to have a better behaviour than 4.3.x) and phone model

    - did you uninstall the SBrick App and installed it "fresh" or just updated [I did have problems with previous updates, at least twice]?

    - do you have all Bluetooth Apps closed before starting SBrick App? SBrick can only be connected to one client and Android apps tend to be «sticky»

    • 24 posts
    February 3, 2015 8:31 PM CET

    Jorge,

    I'm tired of telling people that I cannot even discover a Sbrick!  One version only allowed me even to see an Sbrick and even that was changed in the next release! On the early releases I was usually one of the first to respond with the problems but that has made no difference whatsoever.

    Making great demos is great......but you need to be able to control a Sbrick! This is something that I hoped for!

    On 30 January Lenard promised a "big release" including an update to the Android app for 2nd February.  Never happened...no reason given.

    It appears that the people who have done the great demonstrations (something that sold me on the Sbrick) are a privileged few and, as far as I can tell, involved an Apple device.  Perhaps the solution is for Vengit to give all those who have reported Android problems an iPhone so we can contribute our own demos!

    In the meantime, I've just about reached the point where I'll throw my Sbricks into a box and forget about them.  They are a waste of space, time and money until they become usable.

    As has been suggested, make the application open source and you'll have a lot of people working on a solution!

    Finally, thanks for responding to my post.  It is appreciated.

    Norman

    • 87 posts
    February 2, 2015 5:43 PM CET

    Norman, I understand your frustration/desillusion. Not everyone is a geek and can use his SBrick without a client app.

    But to be fair, there is more to the Sbrick than just the harwdare or the firmware. Tamás has been working hard on the firwmare and had released the protocol - not perfectly documented but good enough for a guy like me with almost no background on modern programming to follow. Thanks to his work I can read internal temperature and voltage of my SBricks and also transfer to it small micro-programs. "Playing music on motors" is  just a demo of one of those micro-programs - it demontrates that it is possible to control the motor in small steps with different frequencies and timings manipulating the internal PWM settings - there are some more demos in the same wiki page, just no other funny videos.

    But Tamás seems responsible for just the hardware and firmware. There are other people working on the client App. For 3 platforms: iPhone, Android and Windows Mobile. Sariel and some others have been demonstrating real live demos - perhaps more with the iPhone than with the Android as it is indeed more mature. So it is unfair to say «you'll have to wait for usable software».

    And Lénárd announced that today there will be several newer releases, including the Online Profile Editor.

    We'll have to show our support and offer our help - reporting all the bugs we can, giving suggestions, suggesting documentation and also, those who can, making great demos or developing 3rd party apps.

    • 24 posts
    February 2, 2015 5:10 PM CET

    Rene,

     

    We're all excited about Sbricks as well.  However, don't be in too much of a hurry to get the hardware as you'll have to wait for usable software.

     

    I've had 2 Sbricks for over a month but still can't do a thing with them due to lack of working software.  The software team are concentrating on the most important aspects like playing music on motors through the Sbrick.

    Becoming rapidly dis-illusioned,

     

    Norman Chalcraft

  • February 2, 2015 1:22 PM CET

    I will send an email. Thanks!

     

    • 340 posts
    February 2, 2015 12:44 PM CET

    Hi René,

     

    At first, thanks for your support! :)

    You can ask about shipping at shipping@sbrick.com

     

    thanks

  • February 2, 2015 12:19 PM CET

    Am very excited about sBrick and have ordered a 2-1 pack.
    Status of my order is shipping for a week (order date 26-01-2015), how long is the wait? (The Netherlands).