Hi there, unfortunately, there isn’t currently a way to force Yarbo to stay connected through Bluetooth only.
You could try Bryan’s suggestion of turning off Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on your phone so Yarbo stays on 4G, and see if that gives you a more stable connection while you’re working.
Bryan and B-Mod,
That particular-85 was taken at approximately 100 yards and with some obstructions, so not surprising. What is troublesome is that even if I was standing right next to it out there it wouldn’t goto Bluetooth but rather force me to stand and wait until it gave up. It’s mostly a problem when I’m doing manual work with it. If it is just to issue a command like return to base I can usually do that in the few seconds of connectivity. The other thing that happens is occasionally it seems that the movement commands get buffered somewhere and then unexpectedly it starts moving. Sometimes these buffered and unexpected movement create their own issues.
In short, it’s an issue of reliability and consistency that are directly impacting the usability of the machine.
In a moment of reflection, I realized that this probably wouldn’t be so frustrating If it wasn’t for the fact that over the last two years of ownership, I’ve had issues, but connectivity and responsiveness to commands have been much much better than this, so now I know what I’m missing.
So, maybe this is related….
I’ve noticed that when I first open or launch the app to check on the Yarbo or issue a command, no matter where it is, I have to wait a few seconds for it to establish connection. It used to be when I’d open the app. It was pretty much connected instantly.
Also, I have noticed recently that when I wake up in the morning to check its progress, it will frequently show me the map status as it was the last time I used the app and it may literally be two or three minutes before the map updates to show me what the actual work status is. Sometimes I close the app down entirely and reopen it to get a correct assessment of progress.
Both are annoying, but not a real problem, so I’ve been focusing on the things that actually make a difference to my using the Yarbo. Specifically when I can’t control it efficiently during mapping exercises and manual work, and not being able to effectively charge it.
I fear some of my frustration is showing in my messages, I apologize for that and sincerely appreciate your thoughts and suggestions.
Best,
Jeff
Hi Yarbo-Forum,
Thank you for reviewing the situation. I have tried turning off my Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on my phone and just using my cellular connection. That doesn’t seem to make any real impact other than eliminate my ability to connect via Bluetooth, which is very useful when it works.
However, my issue seems to be the connection on the Yarbo core side. The core seems to understandably prioritize communication with the data center over halo whenever possible. But because that is so unreliable and unstable it seems to be preventing the timely use ofthe more reliable communication channels of 4G and Bluetooth.
I’ve tried both enabling and disabling Wi-Fi as well, that too seems to be a less reliable connection than it used to be. Ultimately, 4G and Bluetooth seem to work best but are mostly unavailable.
Thanks again,
Jeff
Sounds super frustrating and definitely should be addressed. Do you have an open ticket on this particular issue? Perhaps there’s commonality with your other issues.
Thanks Bryan, yes my original Halo and Charging issues ticket is still open and being researched by FSE and R&D.
I continue to send them updates and activate the log recording as instructed.
The thing is, under normal circumstances, HaLow is a VERY reliable and long distance Transmission method. The 900MHz frequency is great at pushing though obstacles and extending for acres of area.
So if your HaLow can’t even extend for 100 ish yards, something’s really wrong. And most likely it’s either the antennas or the antenna wiring. Could be bad radios, but I would start with the antennas.
I would agree, and that has certainly been my experience in the past. I’ve gone so far as to even take off the brand new little stub antenna and put on the old big curly metal 900 MHz Santana that I had extra of. It made no noticeable difference.
I also tried two sets of antennas on the data center
This is way above my expertise to resolve.
Yes as I said yesterday there is something very wrong here. It has to be figured out. You need to dig into this thing and check for issues as China is going to be hard to do what some one next to the unit can do.
I can’t remember, did you check cable connections inside your core?
I have checked and changed antennas, but no, I have not cracked the core open to check the other end of things. So far today connectivity seems pretty good and I’ve noticed that it stays on 4G a lot of the time so perhaps there was a software tweak that occurred. I don’t know.
Coincidentally today’s work plan is focused on one of the areas that’s further away and has more obstacles so the heavy 4G use may be coincidental, but it also has been helpful.
Well maybe that battery firmware update helped too.
Maybe!
I will say it’s been running for 6 1/2 hours on that charge and has not returned yet. I don’t recall it ever running that long on a single charge before. It should be ready to auto charge in just a few minutes and I am very much hoping it will do so without incident.
I am ecstatic to report that after more than seven hours of runtime my Yarbo has returned to the docking station and has successfully initiated, an automatic recharge! I realize that one success does not prove FX, technically not even a trend, but it’s a great data point that I choose to celebrate!
Hi Jeff,
Thanks for the update, and we really appreciate your patience throughout the troubleshooting process.
I’ve checked your support ticket, and it looks like the charging issue has improved, while the connectivity issue may still be present. We’ll continue following up with the team and monitoring the case to make sure the connection issue is properly addressed.
Thanks again for your patience and for continuing to share these details with us.
