Forums » Support

Back To Topics

SBrick Android App

    • 10 posts
    January 10, 2015 6:58 PM CET

    My LG G2 can now find the brick(SBrick 0.0.26). All ports responded properly and the reverse switches worked.

    Gyro/Accelerometer responds incorrect and laggy, but that'll probably be fixed. You guys are making good progress.

     

    I can't wait to see the profile editor.

    • 25 posts
    January 10, 2015 1:24 PM CET

    [blockquote]ramiere benoit said:

    Je regrette que cette aplication ne fonctionne que sur la version 4.3 alors que de nombreux smartphones, dont mon samsung trend lite ne disposent pas de cette version.
    Pour utiliser ma SBrick je serait donc obligé de changer de téléphone ?

    Il serait vraiment plus sympa de modifier l'appli pour qu'lle fonctionne avec la version 4.1 au moins.

    [/blockquote]

     

    Ce n'est pas l'application, mais le fait que l'OS Android ne prend pas en charge le profile bluetooth nécessaire. Il y a plein de tutoriaux pour flasher un téléphone sans risque, et les derniers firmwares samsung sur samfirmwares.com. A voir d'abord néanmoins si ton téléphone a bien le profile bluetooth BLE avant, car sinon, ça ne sert à rien (la sbrick a besoin de ce profile sinon elle ne peut pas communiquer avec le téléphone niveau hardware et ce n'est pas une mise à jour logicielle qui rendra la chose possible).

    Bon courage.

    Sylca

    • 57 posts
    January 9, 2015 7:49 PM CET

    Sim vais ter de mudar de telefone porque o Android apenas suporta BLE a partir da versão 4.3.

    Ou alternativamente procurar uma ROM com Android 4.3 para instalar no telefone.

    • 1 posts
    January 9, 2015 7:38 PM CET

    Je regrette que cette aplication ne fonctionne que sur la version 4.3 alors que de nombreux smartphones, dont mon samsung trend lite ne disposent pas de cette version.
    Pour utiliser ma SBrick je serait donc obligé de changer de téléphone ?

    Il serait vraiment plus sympa de modifier l'appli pour qu'lle fonctionne avec la version 4.1 au moins.

    • 3 posts
    January 9, 2015 4:18 PM CET

    [blockquote]Jorge Pereira said:

    [blockquote]Mihai Dreve said:

    Using the sBrick app, I discovered my sBrick, assigned it to a MOC, but when I try to add a Profile, that screen is empty...

    [/blockquote]

    If you go to root (Home) menu, then Market, do you have Profiles? If you do (happened at least once to me when upgrading to an older version) try removing all Profiles then downloading all again.

    You may also try clearing all aplicaton data and cache (tap it, App Info).

    [/blockquote]

     

    Jorge, you are the man! Such a simple action, totally slipped my mind. I was able to download all profiles, now I can assign them to my MOC.

    I will test the sBrick as soon as I get a chance :)


    This post was edited by Mihai Dreve at January 9, 2015 4:18 PM CET
    • 87 posts
    January 9, 2015 12:03 PM CET

    [blockquote]Mihai Dreve said:

    Using the sBrick app, I discovered my sBrick, assigned it to a MOC, but when I try to add a Profile, that screen is empty...

    [/blockquote]

    If you go to root (Home) menu, then Market, do you have Profiles? If you do (happened at least once to me when upgrading to an older version) try removing all Profiles then downloading all again.

    You may also try clearing all aplicaton data and cache (tap it, App Info).

    • 3 posts
    January 9, 2015 11:50 AM CET

    So, I finally got my sBrick yesterday, love how it looks, but let's talk about functionality, which is missing.

    Using the sBrick app, I discovered my sBrick, assigned it to a MOC, but when I try to add a Profile, that screen is empty...

    I am using the latest version of the Android app, I reinstalled it twice, I cannot use any profiles, thus I cannot use the sBrick.

    Yes, I am doing this on an Android 4.4.2 device, with Bluetooth 4.0, as required. Any ideas? Thank you :)


    This post was edited by Mihai Dreve at January 9, 2015 11:50 AM CET
    • 34 posts
    January 9, 2015 2:57 AM CET

    So the 0.26 seems fix the port invert mixup. Good Job.

    [blockquote]Maxim Baybakov said:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4UFWNYyyEU
    The
    same problems in the port test

    [/blockquote]

    Now, this seems to be what I called lag on Nexus. Tried all the devices I have and the results are
    Bad - Google Nexus 7, Motorola Moto G 1st and 2nd gen (all 4.4 and stock Android UI)
    Good - HTC One M7 (4.3 plus HTC Sense 6.0)

    It happens for sliders both vertical and horizontal (Test2 and Gamepad 2 profiles), and port testing screen too (other controls don't work for me). It seems to sample the sliding movement and buffer the inputs.

    I did a quick test on port testing screen:
    - if I keep sliding left/right the inputs are buffered.
    - if I just click left/right, I can do it really fast and it seems OK


    This post was edited by Matej Papluh at January 9, 2015 2:57 AM CET
    • 9 posts
    January 8, 2015 11:00 PM CET

    Finaly!!! With the new Android update 0.26 the recognized my SBrick, although I still cannot pair it with my phone in my bluetooth aplication.

    Great, I don't know what you did, but you did it. Thanks!

    • 4 posts
    January 8, 2015 10:23 PM CET

    [blockquote]Denis H said:

    Hi, 

    Just test the android 0.25 version with the Crawler 9398 and a MOC (is a car), both have only steering and acceleration....now with my samsung S3 i can discovery and connect the sbrick...THANKS fot that!!!!!

    [/blockquote]

    I too am using with 9398, as with Denis I'm using gamepad2 and noticed the motors often stay on even when the slider is released and resets.  The last few updates seem to have reversed the sliders too, initially forward / back was reversed, then that was fixed, and now steering is reversed. :-)

    At least I now know that the 4 on / off sliders next to the diagram of the brick in the linked brick screen reverse the controls!

    All running on a Nexus 5, L5.0.1


    This post was edited by Iain H at January 8, 2015 10:34 PM CET
  • January 8, 2015 9:20 PM CET

    [blockquote]Fernando Correia said:

    [blockquote]Christian Treczoks said:a software like this would never, ever, be released.[/blockquote]

    Yes, maybe not beta and still alpha quality. And then?[/blockquote]

    I am well aware that software quality is no longer an issue today. A lot of software is thrown at the users in stages where it is not yet finished in the name of "rapid development". But a software that blows up at the second touch after it had several public iterations already? And how many times have we had the case of a "this bug is still there" in this discussion? Yes, ok, not all faetures are there, and bugs will lurk somewhere in the deep - thats alpha - but at least the shallow and reported bugs should be dealt with before any new release, even in alpha.

    • 12 posts
    January 8, 2015 9:56 AM CET

    Hello again.

    Finally I’ve received my SBrick and I’m like a child with new shoes!!

    I have to acknowledge all the efforts made by Tamás Fábián so I could finally have my brick. Thanks again Tamás.

    Yesterday, my son and I were testing Sbrick, , and despite the android app is not quite fine yet, we are very hopeful with SBrick and future developments.

    I think that as a kickstarter project I knew there was an implicit risk but I think it is showing that the project works and has a great future ahead. These guys are making a great job so far. The hardware quality is very good and there is no relevant failures found so far. Android app has big issues, but still it allows to do some tests already and I am sure that soon improve its performance and options.

    Cheers folks!

    • 57 posts
    January 8, 2015 2:44 AM CET

    Hi Pedro,

     

    You're right about the HW requirements and OS version not being properly communicated.

    I think this was mainly because all the bus started around the use of iPhones with much less limitations, and Android being developed quite later.

    The BLE compatibility started to be discussed at EB and I also made some explanations at TechnicBRICKs together with a poll to "measure" the compatible devices (from a list) that users itend to use.

    But we should all realize this have been a joint learning process. Even until today Samsung Galaxy S3 was supposed to work and most S3 users had problems with it. Until a bug in the discovery process was found and fixed.

     

    Eventual usefull info for the owners of older Android devices here:

    https://social.sbrick.com/forums/topic/18/sbrick-support-for-android-phones-without-ble

     

    At a certain point and because of the entensive discussion in som forums, everyone might get confident this was a widely known topic, but it is not.

    Sbrick team should make the requirements more visible in the SBricks website, community, store, etc. Not only the Google Play app store.

     

    Any help you may need, you know you can contact me. ;)

     


    This post was edited by Fernando Correia at January 8, 2015 2:45 AM CET
    • 10 posts
    January 8, 2015 1:46 AM CET

    I'm soooooo glad connecting to the Samsung S3 now works properly! Good work Vengit!

    But as often happens in SW industry, now that I can do more with it, there are also more issues to run into:  :-)

     

    This:
    [blockquote]Maxim Baybakov said:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4UFWNYyyEU[/blockquote]

    Yup, having the same effect here, it seems to me as if using the sliders (or other controls) are sending each individual step from 0-255 regardless of the speed in which the user moves the slider. This seems to lead to buffering of all those commands and have them all executed in one iteration, whereas it should probably be time based. 

    I don't fully understand what the idea was to assign actions to the profile's elements. It seems that each profile may add profile controls to the available controls, and then you need to configure your sets sbrick ports and channels to match those.

    I was testing my setup with a couple of profiles, as it seems natural to me that I can use different profiles for the same set. E.g. I may want to control it with a joystick now, but prefer a regular slider setup next time. However, the profiles are not aligned in their functions, which makes that impossible. For example: 

    I'm using 2 profiles: Test 2 and Joystick with 2 motors connected to port A and B. When I use joystick, I need to set the brick to use "Acceleration" and "Steering" whereas profile Test 2 requires me to set them to use Slider 1 and Slider 2. Wouldn't it make more sense to configure this per profile instead of per brick? So, on the profile you would configure which brick it should use and next for that brick specify which port should be linked to each function of the profile.

     

    • 2 posts
    January 8, 2015 12:37 AM CET

     

     

    [blockquote]Matej Papluh said:

    ....

    [blockquote]Fernando Correia said:

    ...

    It is stated in several places that SBrick requires a BLE (BT Smart) compatible device.

    It is also written that Android brought support to this only with version 4.3.

    ...[/blockquote]

    Unfortunately technical limitations are nowhere to be found on the Sbrick KS page or homepage so I really feel for the guys having incompatible HW. The early pledgers had no playstore page to tell them the version compatibility.

    ...

    [/blockquote]

     

    Hello Fernando and all,  

    Thanks for the insight but I’m afraid that the piece of information provided is far from being explicit in any place on https://www.sbrick.com/ or even in https://social.sbrick.com/. Stating “most recent Bluetooth Technology” does not tell you that a 2 year old smartphone is unable to work with it.

    It should not be necessary to be an expert to take advantage of this great effort called SBrick. It is not a finished work but I’m not a beta tester, not a HW/SW expert to know that BLE is and probably a very lousy Lego builder.

    BUT I’m a backer that would deserve an explicit HW/OS requirements and a configuration manual with the necessary steps to make the thing work without having to dig inside forums and much more advanced discussions that just make me feel dummier than what I am.

      Matej Papluh, thanks for your support, really appreciate and agree. Don’t worry, I know Fernando personally, is a friend and an inspiring LEGO and “time” builder.

    As a suggestion for SBRICK team, please make that information clearly available and explicit on the web pages.

    Regards,

    Pedro

    • 21 posts
    January 7, 2015 11:57 PM CET

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4UFWNYyyEU
    The
    same problems in the port test


    This post was edited by Maxim Baybakov at January 8, 2015 12:01 AM CET
  • January 7, 2015 11:35 PM CET

    Thomas, I use a Samsung galaxy S2 with CyanogenMod Android 4.4.4 and it works fine.

  • January 7, 2015 10:52 PM CET

    Hi!
    I have a problem. I connect two motors to two different ports. Then I assign these ports one and the same function (eg acceleration). Then while I use any profile only one of the motors is turned on. What can I do wrong? Is there any solution?

    Regards, Alex.


    This post was edited by Alexey Tikhvinsky at January 7, 2015 11:18 PM CET
    • 1 posts
    January 7, 2015 9:29 PM CET

    Does anyone try a SBrick with a Samsung Galaxy S3 with CyanogenMod Android 4.4.4?

    • 21 posts
    January 7, 2015 9:07 PM CET

    I have the same "long" delay. Especially when using steering control or two ports.
    When the slider quickly move in different directions, for example 20 times, brick continues to perform these commands for 15-20 seconds.

    Several times the application was closed itself.

    Inversion of ports does not always work (if on/off is the inversion).
    (Samsung Galaxy S3, 4.3)


    This post was edited by Maxim Baybakov at January 7, 2015 9:57 PM CET
    • 41 posts
    January 7, 2015 8:26 PM CET

    Hi, 

    Just test the android 0.25 version with the Crawler 9398 and a MOC (is a car), both have only steering and acceleration....now with my samsung S3 i can discovery and connect the sbrick...THANKS fot that!!!!!

     

    This are my observations/issues:

    - The joystick  and gamepad 1 profile don't work at all.

    - Gamepad 2 works, but both sliders are too big....so i can't reach the max power without exit the screen with my fingers (left for steering and up/down for acceleration/reverse)....not a good experience with this type of creation. For Cars/4x4 we need a gamepad with both shorter slider, and binary (0 = stop and 1 = full throttle)

    - For some reason when i go 50% with any slider (with gamepad 2) and release the slider....the engine get stuck at 50% without touching the screen.

    - With gamepad 2, i choose the steering in the "C" slot.....if i reverse only that port....don't work....i have to also reverse "B" port to work properly......strange issue.

    - I noticed that there is a delay when i touch the sliders in the cel and the engines actually start to move.....with my MOC (car) that runs faster than the Crawler is impossible to drive with that delay. This can be improved?? i know that with BT devices is always a very little delay, but i think in this case is longer that the "normal".

     

    Also i try to change the Gamepad 2 profile editing the .json file......what's "frame" description? for the x,y,z,w

     

    Thanks!!


    This post was edited by Denis H at January 7, 2015 8:37 PM CET
    • 5 posts
    January 7, 2015 7:52 PM CET

    Hi,

    I updated app to 0.0.25.

    I can add MOC only and download only base profiles (Test, Joistick etc.)

    I can't change direction of motors.

     

    Garek

    • 57 posts
    January 7, 2015 7:32 PM CET

    [blockquote]Christian Treczoks said:

    a software like this would never, ever, be released.

    [/blockquote]

    Yes, maybe not beta and still alpha quality. And then?

    I think we all should be a bit more comprehensive! Since the kickstarter campaign and as all other kickstarter projects we knew there was an implicit risk.

    And we honestly must admit these guys have made a fantastic job so far!!!

    I must confess that I was prepared for considerable delays, when I raised my pledge. I did it mainly to expresse my support and to help this project to happen. Something we didn't get from LEGO for years, and probably we will never get.

    After all they have managed to deliver the hardware to us, with the minimal delay of one month!!! Honestly I never expect such good performance. I've seen projects from much bigger companies with plenty of resources allocated, to fail miserably or to slip far from that!...

    Ok, we have delays with the apps, but we have quality hardware and aparently without relevant failures found so far (firmware bugs count little here as they can be solved with ease).
    Furthermore Vengit is in at least 4 app/sw development fronts (iOS, Android, WP, Profile Designer, SBrick firmware), with at least one pretty stable (iOS) at the brick delivery time. Android has big issues, but still it allows to do some tests already!
    Ok, still a lot to do in what regards the profiles design and management, poor documentation (but app still in heavy developemt phase), but come on! Were you really expecting much more than this at this point?Or did o preffer to have nothing released to test, meaning you could do nothing with your SBricks?

    This you can also test and give your feedback/suggestions to incorporate the product.
    Other platforms support will arrive at their time! Give them time a space to make the right decisions and software design, which IMO where they should focus now, for us to get the perfect product.

    Also you never heard from Vengit about excuses for the "delays", and I know there were several difficulties with significant impact, that could have caused much bigger delays by themselves and were also not their responsibility. They have always resisted to the tempation of making them public and after all we already have the SBricks in our homes!

     

    Kudos Vengit!!

     


    This post was edited by Fernando Correia at January 7, 2015 7:34 PM CET
  • January 7, 2015 6:07 PM CET

    Just updated.

    a) Select my MOC, tap "linked profiles" -> crash.

    b) How do I remove a set from the "my sets" list?

    c) And why is this app "portrait mode only"? - Nearly every other app I use works in any orientation, and, as a table user, I prefer landscape.

    Still quite alpha, it seems. If my software would crash after only two taps, QA would rip me another one, and I would have to bring cake for all. But a software like this would never, ever, be released.

    Leg bedre, Christian

    • 34 posts
    January 7, 2015 5:13 PM CET

    thanks,

    any release notes to share ? ;)

    Tested on Nexus 7, I needed to wipe the app and reinstall to get the profiles work, port tester was working right after update.

    Otherwise no change for me, was working before and its also now. And there still seems to be much more lag and random inputs on Nexus 7 compared to HTC One.


    This post was edited by Matej Papluh at January 7, 2015 5:49 PM CET