#12917 Difficulty connecting tablet to race controller

Closed Created by @jnindorf - 3 comments

From @jnindorf 21.02.2018, 23:48
Hi,

I would greatly appreciate some suggestions on how I can get the Smart Race application to work properly on my tablet.

I purchased a new Nextbook tablet to be used with my track. It came with Android 6.01 and I have installed both Smart Race and the Carrera Race App. I think that I have a compatibility issue, but I would like to know what you think. (I have tried the suggestions in the manual with limited success).

The Carrera app will never connect to the controller from the tablet but works perfectly from my iPhone. The Smart Race App has connected a few times but usually the symptom is as follows.

The blue light on the app connect is flashing, I start the Smart Race app, the app states that it is trying to find a controller, the blue light on the app connect turns solid, but the Smart Race app continues to state that is trying to find a controller. Through an arbitrary method of turning off the controller or tablet or restarting the software I may get the connection to complete correctly, I was able to complete a race. However, several times after I was able to get the connection working, the screen on the tablet turns solid white and I have to power it off and on again to be able to re launch Smart Race.

I believe Smart Race would work properly on my iPhone, but I would really like to use the larger screen on my tablet.

I have also tried to run the program on my Windows Surface using AMIDUO (Android 5.1) and with Bluestacks (Android 4.2) and the application ran correctly in each case but would never connect to the controller.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Jon
#1 From @smartrace 22.02.2018, 08:25 Owner
Hey Jon,

I unfortunately don't have a satisfying answer for you. If your iPhone connects properly, I'd assume that your tablet has some sort of issues. It turns out that cheaper devices usually have also cheap bluetooth components built in, which can cause issues like those you described. Either way, please make sure the device you're using supports at least bluetooth 4.0.

For the surface, I don't know how it works to emulate Android on this device, but I could imagine that there would be difficulties using bluetooth correctly. But I personally don't have any experience with it to be honest.

Marc
#2 From @jnindorf 22.02.2018, 14:37
Thanks for the reply Marc, I spent more time trying to get the tablet to connect and it really seems arbitrary. It probably connects 20% of the time, which is frustrating because I can't duplicate when it does connect. I'm giving up on the tablet. I installed Smart Race on my iPhone and it works perfectly, I really enjoy having this program to enhance the racing experience. Really awesome job creating it!

I am thinking of getting an iPad (I like the larger screen so you can see each drivers position without scrolling etc). Is there a version of IOS you would recommend I use? I read that there are some issues with IOS 11, so I would like to know what is known to work well. Would you be able to recommend a couple of tablets that you have had good experience using? (Apple, or other).

Thanks!

Jon
#3 From @smartrace 22.02.2018, 16:26 Owner
Hey Jon,

well, there can be issues using iOS 11, but those are from the AppConnect hardware, which will be replaced on demand by Carrera if you ask them. So I'd recommend to go for the device you'd like to use (the bigger the screen the better, e.g. iPad Pro) and take it :-). I personally use SmartRace on iOS 10 with iPad 4, which works well for me.

Marc

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  • Created by

    @jnindorf
    21.02.2018, 23:48

  • Type

    Bug

  • State

    Closed

  • Priority

    normal

  • Product

    SmartRace