Legacy Bluetooth missing again

[Long, Martin]

Hi,

The seems to keep cropping up every so often when a new version becomes
available. Does someone keep reverting the fix to fix some other issue?

Please see the screenshots. BLE simply doesn't work with the Petrel, so
without the classic BT device, I simply cannot download my dives.

It works for about a week, and then i normally have to wait months for a
fix to make it back into the mainstream release. (I'm currently on the
Android beta channel)

I was hoping I'd be able to test out the fixes to the recent problems with
Shearwater ppO2 readings, but obviously need to be able to actually
download dives.

Regards

Martin

[Long, Martin]

I seem to have got it back by:

- Deleting app and reinstalling
- Deleting the pairing (in phone BT settings) and recreating

Though I tried several times. Both of those steps on their own didn't seem
to work.

Regards

Martin

Post by Long, Martin
Hi,
The seems to keep cropping up every so often when a new version becomes
available. Does someone keep reverting the fix to fix some other issue?
Please see the screenshots. BLE simply doesn't work with the Petrel, so
without the classic BT device, I simply cannot download my dives.
It works for about a week, and then i normally have to wait months for a
fix to make it back into the mainstream release. (I'm currently on the
Android beta channel)
I was hoping I'd be able to test out the fixes to the recent problems with
Shearwater ppO2 readings, but obviously need to be able to actually
download dives.
Regards
Martin

[Davide DB]

Post by Long, Martin
- Deleting app and reinstalling
- Deleting the pairing (in phone BT settings) and recreating
Though I tried several times. Both of those steps on their own didn't seem to work.

Same here but on my vintage Nexus 7 (first version) it's sufficient to
delete and create the BT pairing.

Bye

[Dirk Hohndel]

Post by Davide DB

Post by Long, Martin
- Deleting app and reinstalling
- Deleting the pairing (in phone BT settings) and recreating
Though I tried several times. Both of those steps on their own didn't seem to work.

Same here but on my vintage Nexus 7 (first version) it's sufficient to
delete and create the BT pairing.

Shearwater acknowledges that the dual stack BT/BLE versions of the Petrel 2
are a bit temperamental. Once they remember a device, they stop broadcasting
and in some circumstances that leads to a new connection not working.

But I will admit that I have problems with the Suunto as well.

If you go to the forums of any of the company dive log apps (be it Suunto,
Shearwater, Scubapro...) they are filled with people reporting similar issues.
Getting BT and BLE connections set up and maintained is not as simple as
it should be.

/D

[Long, Martin]

Ah, so maybe it disappeared because I'd paired my petrel with my PC in
order to test the ppo2 download.

Thing is I'd tried unpairing and re-pairing several times, to no avail.
Anyway it's working now, and the good news is that the ppO2 data also came
through for my new dives. Excellent work.

Post by Long, Martin

Post by Davide DB

Post by Long, Martin
- Deleting app and reinstalling
- Deleting the pairing (in phone BT settings) and recreating
Though I tried several times. Both of those steps on their own didn't

seem to work.

Post by Davide DB
Same here but on my vintage Nexus 7 (first version) it's sufficient to
delete and create the BT pairing.

Shearwater acknowledges that the dual stack BT/BLE versions of the Petrel 2
are a bit temperamental. Once they remember a device, they stop broadcasting
and in some circumstances that leads to a new connection not working.
But I will admit that I have problems with the Suunto as well.
If you go to the forums of any of the company dive log apps (be it Suunto,
Shearwater, Scubapro...) they are filled with people reporting similar issues.
Getting BT and BLE connections set up and maintained is not as simple as
it should be.
/D

[Dirk Hohndel]

Ah, so maybe it disappeared because I'd paired my petrel with my PC in order to test the ppo2 download.

Yes - I can actually reproduce that behavior here. For the Suunto you have to explicitly delete a pairing, the Shearwater doesn't offer that.
Additionally, you can get the Shearwater in a state where it refuses to give up its idea of its state. Shearwater themselves recommend removing the battery and waiting about 15 seconds for the BT settings to reset.

Thing is I'd tried unpairing and re-pairing several times, to no avail. Anyway it's working now, and the good news is that the ppO2 data also came through for my new dives. Excellent work.

I'm glad this is working. I'm puzzled how it would make a difference to the ability to pair if you re-install Subsurface... but let's simply remember this as "last ditch attempt" when other, saner approaches don't work :-)

One request - your email sounded like you had this not working for weeks and were rather frustrated. Apparently we (the community) and I (as the maintainer) sometimes don't do a good job listening to people who are stuck. Please be persistent and tell us when things are broken for you so we prioritize the effort to fix them...

Thanks for the feedback!

/D

[Dirk Hohndel]

Thanks. Yes, I did report it the last time, and I believe it was you who worked on the fix. At the time I wasn't aware of the CI builds available through github, and I waited for it to be released on the official Beta channel through the Play Store.

I think we should continue to work on getting releases out more frequently... It's easy to forget that most of our users do not use test builds and not even the beta channel builds - they use the releases.

It can just be very frustrating when software I've come to rely on stops working.

Oh yes, I am well aware of that. Trust me.

/D

[Long, Martin]

Just a small further update. I seem to have reproduced the problem. But
haven't been able to break back out of the state using any of the suggested
means.

Opened subsurface on PC, and did a test download, worked OK.
Back to phone, and Petrel has completely disappeared from subsurface. It's
also just vanished from BT pairings.

Now I've just tried many combinations of:
- phone reboots (sometimes these are required just to get the Petrel to
pair again)
- Petrel reboots (with between 15s and 1 minute unpowered)
- Subsurface "Clear data" from android app settings.

Now it only seems to see the BLE address. I'm sure eventually I should get
it back, but there seems to be a lot of luck involved.

[Long, Martin]

Just had a brainwave, and pulled the USB dongle out of my PC. Re-paired on
phone, and suddenly it all works.

I think the Petrel is doing a scan, and latching onto the first BT device
it remembers, which is then preventing it from pairing properly with the
phone (although it SEEMS to complete successfully).

[Dirk Hohndel]

Just had a brainwave, and pulled the USB dongle out of my PC. Re-paired on phone, and suddenly it all works.

Yay. If you can reproduce this and are comfortable that this is reproducibly the right fix... we should add this to our FAQ.

I think the Petrel is doing a scan, and latching onto the first BT device it remembers, which is then preventing it from pairing properly with the phone (although it SEEMS to complete successfully).

Yes, it does remember the last device and stops advertising. But pulling the battery is supposed to clear this. And of course this will become more painful with the Teric which is completely sealed and has no battery to pull...

/D

[Dirk Hohndel]

Just a small further update. I seem to have reproduced the problem. But haven't been able to break back out of the state using any of the suggested means.
Opened subsurface on PC, and did a test download, worked OK.
Back to phone, and Petrel has completely disappeared from subsurface. It's also just vanished from BT pairings.
- phone reboots (sometimes these are required just to get the Petrel to pair again)
- Petrel reboots (with between 15s and 1 minute unpowered)
- Subsurface "Clear data" from android app settings.
Now it only seems to see the BLE address. I'm sure eventually I should get it back, but there seems to be a lot of luck involved.

That's just ugly.
For BT (vs. BLE) I don't even know of a better app than the Android "on board" pairing app.
I went back through my email exchanges with Shearwater - it seems that the way the Petrel remembers what he was last paired to and when and how it decides to stop advertising is a bit complicated.
If any of your phone / laptop / tablet is bonded to the BLE part, the BT part will stop advertising it seems (on the Petrel 2 this is not one BT/BLE device, but they are two devices). Is it possible that your phone is bonded to BLE?
You could use nRF Connect on the phone to disconnect and un-bond with the BLE device. Then reboot both phone and Petrel and see if it shows up again for BT pairing.

What a pain.

/D