Hi,
thanks again for that cool product. After using it some time, I am still struggling with one thing - probably I am doing something wrong, so I'd really be interested what's the correct way of doing it.
When I switch on my camera after maybe one day of not using it and I turn on my phone, I'd expect the unleashed to be paired quite quickly (< 10s). Instead, it happens quite often that after, say 3 minutes, the device is still not paired. Then I click on 'It's not showing up', but nothing changes.
When I continue to wait, at some point in time the unleashed is connected just as if nothing happened.
Now I am wondering - what's the algorithm behind that one? When does the Unleashed connect? I mean it is not when turning on the camera I guess. What is the correct way to "wake up" the Unleashed after one day of not using it?
Thanks,
Matthias
Question: Correct way to make the Unleashed wake up and pair
Hi,
I'm glad you like the Unleashed.
First of all, are you using iOS or Android? Canon or Nikon?
The App connects to the Unleashed, but is designed to do so automatically. Nikons keep powering the Unleashed even when the camera is off, so by design, the app should always be connected. Canon's don't so you have to turn on the camera first before the App can reconnect (which it should also do automatically).
We have noticed that a lot of Android users have so called "Cleaner Apps" installed, which automatically kill apps in the background. Normally, the Unleashed would stay connected to the app even if it's in the background, which is important for things like geotagging, where you often don't want to hold the phone with the app open while taking photos, but rather just keep the phone in your pocket, screen turned off, and just take photos with the camera. So if you have a cleaner app, make sure it leaves the Unleashed app alone, even in the background.
on iOS we are currently chasing down the reason why iOS seems to kill the Unleashed app in the background a little too frequently for our taste. iOS reserves the right to do so when it needs additional resources (such as apps needing more RAM - which unfortunately every browser needs as much of as possible), or when it notices that an app is using too much battery in the background.
We tried to optimise for these potential pitfalls right from the start, but still are noticing the the app is often closed. This also disconnects from the Unleashed.
In the last firmware update, we fixed an issue where reconnecting with an Unleashed that had been off for a while would take seemingly forever, (up to 2.5 minutes), which was a result of a previous effort to reduce power consumption of the Unleashed when it's not in use. That problem is fixed now, so update your app and firmware if you haven't!
And to answer your question:
If you see your Unleashed LED is off, just turn on the camera or half-press the shutter. It should then start slowly pulsing.
if the color is Yellow/orange, that means the app is not connected. In this case just start the App
if the color is turqoise, you're good to go.
If nothing you do seems to help the Unleashed to connect, you can still try either of these:
- go to Your Unleasheds, then disable and re-enable your Unleashed
- kill the app and restart it
- unplug the camera's battery and plug it back in.
each can be very effective on its own, but the combination of killing the app and unplugging the camera battery is like a complete restart, which should always do the trick.
I'm glad you like the Unleashed.
First of all, are you using iOS or Android? Canon or Nikon?
The App connects to the Unleashed, but is designed to do so automatically. Nikons keep powering the Unleashed even when the camera is off, so by design, the app should always be connected. Canon's don't so you have to turn on the camera first before the App can reconnect (which it should also do automatically).
We have noticed that a lot of Android users have so called "Cleaner Apps" installed, which automatically kill apps in the background. Normally, the Unleashed would stay connected to the app even if it's in the background, which is important for things like geotagging, where you often don't want to hold the phone with the app open while taking photos, but rather just keep the phone in your pocket, screen turned off, and just take photos with the camera. So if you have a cleaner app, make sure it leaves the Unleashed app alone, even in the background.
on iOS we are currently chasing down the reason why iOS seems to kill the Unleashed app in the background a little too frequently for our taste. iOS reserves the right to do so when it needs additional resources (such as apps needing more RAM - which unfortunately every browser needs as much of as possible), or when it notices that an app is using too much battery in the background.
We tried to optimise for these potential pitfalls right from the start, but still are noticing the the app is often closed. This also disconnects from the Unleashed.
In the last firmware update, we fixed an issue where reconnecting with an Unleashed that had been off for a while would take seemingly forever, (up to 2.5 minutes), which was a result of a previous effort to reduce power consumption of the Unleashed when it's not in use. That problem is fixed now, so update your app and firmware if you haven't!
And to answer your question:
If you see your Unleashed LED is off, just turn on the camera or half-press the shutter. It should then start slowly pulsing.
if the color is Yellow/orange, that means the app is not connected. In this case just start the App
if the color is turqoise, you're good to go.
If nothing you do seems to help the Unleashed to connect, you can still try either of these:
- go to Your Unleasheds, then disable and re-enable your Unleashed
- kill the app and restart it
- unplug the camera's battery and plug it back in.
each can be very effective on its own, but the combination of killing the app and unplugging the camera battery is like a complete restart, which should always do the trick.
Founder & CEO of Foolography, Hardware & Firmware developer.
Hey Oliver,
thanks for your answer. I am using a Nikon D750 with a Pixel 3 running on Android 9. The Pixel 3 is known to be a little restrictive concerning memory consumption and killing of background apps, so there's not much I can do.
However, when the Unleashed is connected, everything is fine. The Unleashed keeps on sending location data just fine. I am just talking about the initial connect after some time - probably when the app is closed.
The Unleashed is currently running on probably the most recent version (at least there's no Unleashed / app update available):
A 1.4.0
B 1.4.2
C 1.3.0
I just tried to connect the Unleashed again. This time it took roundabout one minute to connect:
~ 45 flashing orange, then red shortly
15 seconds nothing => connected (no LED, I never see turquoise, but the app just works fine)
I don't really want to start killing the app during connect. I did that previously, but I never could find a real effect. I could also just wait until the App / Unleashed figured out itself how to connect.
It just feels a little weird to wait one to two minutes for the Unleashed to connect - especially when you are on a location where you want to take a photo _now_ and then the Unleashed does not connect :D - remote triggering as well as long exposures are so useful, so I don't want to miss them!
Thanks again for looking into this - maybe there's also some weird power consumption saving thingy as on iOS.
Have a nice evening!
Matthias
Edit: Now that I turned of the camera the LED flashes turquoise.
thanks for your answer. I am using a Nikon D750 with a Pixel 3 running on Android 9. The Pixel 3 is known to be a little restrictive concerning memory consumption and killing of background apps, so there's not much I can do.
However, when the Unleashed is connected, everything is fine. The Unleashed keeps on sending location data just fine. I am just talking about the initial connect after some time - probably when the app is closed.
The Unleashed is currently running on probably the most recent version (at least there's no Unleashed / app update available):
A 1.4.0
B 1.4.2
C 1.3.0
I just tried to connect the Unleashed again. This time it took roundabout one minute to connect:
~ 45 flashing orange, then red shortly
15 seconds nothing => connected (no LED, I never see turquoise, but the app just works fine)
I don't really want to start killing the app during connect. I did that previously, but I never could find a real effect. I could also just wait until the App / Unleashed figured out itself how to connect.
It just feels a little weird to wait one to two minutes for the Unleashed to connect - especially when you are on a location where you want to take a photo _now_ and then the Unleashed does not connect :D - remote triggering as well as long exposures are so useful, so I don't want to miss them!
Thanks again for looking into this - maybe there's also some weird power consumption saving thingy as on iOS.
Have a nice evening!
Matthias
Edit: Now that I turned of the camera the LED flashes turquoise.
Hi Matthias,
Thanks for the additional info. We just released a new app with a few small changes concerning Bluetooth - although they have more fixes to do with searching for new Unleasheds rather than connecting to an already paired Unleashed. But still worth the update.
I'll ask our Android team to check: 45s of flashing orange seems excessively long, even in the powersaving states. 1-2 seconds is expected. and an additional 10-20 seconds (depends on sleep mode) to read all the individual settings
The Unleashed's LED turns off in the deepest sleep states, but it's odd that you see slowly pulsing yellow, then nothing after that. But it is possible, if the camera was turned off all that time.
You might want to turn on the camera first, then start the app (if it was closed) - that way the camera will already wake up the Unleashed from it's deepest sleep, and the connection process should be a little faster already.
But as I said, we'll look into it some more!
Thanks for the additional info. We just released a new app with a few small changes concerning Bluetooth - although they have more fixes to do with searching for new Unleasheds rather than connecting to an already paired Unleashed. But still worth the update.
I'll ask our Android team to check: 45s of flashing orange seems excessively long, even in the powersaving states. 1-2 seconds is expected. and an additional 10-20 seconds (depends on sleep mode) to read all the individual settings
The Unleashed's LED turns off in the deepest sleep states, but it's odd that you see slowly pulsing yellow, then nothing after that. But it is possible, if the camera was turned off all that time.
You might want to turn on the camera first, then start the app (if it was closed) - that way the camera will already wake up the Unleashed from it's deepest sleep, and the connection process should be a little faster already.
But as I said, we'll look into it some more!
Founder & CEO of Foolography, Hardware & Firmware developer.
Hi Oliver,
Nice! As soon as I get the update I can give you an update whether it changed anything.
Actually, the tests I did were always with a turned on camera - I did not even know you can connect the Unleashed while having the camera turned off (until you told me some posts above :-)).
Today I tried something different: I turned on the camera, turned on the app to start searching, put my phone in my pocket and went outside. After 5 minutes, when I looked again, the Unleashed was still flashing orange, no connection.
Edit: Not sure, but some from some time on there were GPS locations on the photo. So probably that's a false positive.
If you need more information, I'll be happy to help (especially also with i.e. logs, if you tell me how I can provide them to you).
Matthias
Nice! As soon as I get the update I can give you an update whether it changed anything.
Actually, the tests I did were always with a turned on camera - I did not even know you can connect the Unleashed while having the camera turned off (until you told me some posts above :-)).
Today I tried something different: I turned on the camera, turned on the app to start searching, put my phone in my pocket and went outside. After 5 minutes, when I looked again, the Unleashed was still flashing orange, no connection.
Edit: Not sure, but some from some time on there were GPS locations on the photo. So probably that's a false positive.
If you need more information, I'll be happy to help (especially also with i.e. logs, if you tell me how I can provide them to you).
Matthias
Hi Oliver,
as this issue is open for months now and you promised to ask your Android guys - is there an update on whether it takes so long to connect. Last weekend I tried again with an Android 9 phone and it - again - took 45 seconds or so to connect initially.
Matthias
as this issue is open for months now and you promised to ask your Android guys - is there an update on whether it takes so long to connect. Last weekend I tried again with an Android 9 phone and it - again - took 45 seconds or so to connect initially.
Matthias
We've found a possible cause for a slow(er) connection in our firmware in the last development sprint, and the next release will bring significant speed increase with it. However, I think what you are seeing is actually related to the same underlying issue that's causing the Android 10 bug, but we will hopefully find out in the next few days.
Founder & CEO of Foolography, Hardware & Firmware developer.
It's released.
More speed increases will come to the next updates, but since they will be tied with new features, this will still take a while to release - as we are still working on these features and testing a lot.
More speed increases will come to the next updates, but since they will be tied with new features, this will still take a while to release - as we are still working on these features and testing a lot.
Founder & CEO of Foolography, Hardware & Firmware developer.