BangleJS - GadgetBridge Issues

Hello,

I am trying to unite all the issues i face with BangleJS - GadgetBridge configuration in Single Topic:

My Devices -
Type: Laptop
OS: Arch Manjaro KDE Linux
Kernel: Linux517
Browser: Chromium

Type: Phone
Brand: Huawei P20 Lite
OS: Android Emui 9.1.0 Android 9
Browser:Chrome
Gadgetbridge: From F-droid v0.66.0

Type:Watch
Model: BangleJS2
Firmware:2v13
Apps:alarm, health, setting, launch, boot, antonclk, about, widlock, widbat, widbt, widid, welcome, messages, android, gbdebug

Issues -
1)Laptop auto pairs with BangleJS and doesn't allow connections from Android
2)Even when i remove Auto Pair from latptop it still gets paired with BangleJS when connected from IDE or Apps
3)Sometimes i am not able to connect to BangleJS from IDE or Apps on my laptop
4)Sometimes when connected to banglejs from GadgetBridge, notifications doesn't work and and connected shows NO on my banglejs.
5)Sometimes i am not able to connect to BangleJS from my android device
6)Sometimes switching off Bluetooth on my laptop/Android helps to solve the issue sometimes it doesn't help
7)Rebooting the device does not always help
8)Factory Reset does not always help
9)Removing all the extra apps does not help

My thoughts-
Would be nice to have debug interface for Bluetooth connections, i think that due to some reason Bluetooth gets jammed on bangleJS (' I might be wrong this is just a thought ')

Notes-
This can be conflict between multiple devices but i was able to replicate the issues in Environments were i had only android and banglejs devices with me.

Question -
Are there any plans for creating native banglejs bridge both for android/ios from same app?

Hi,

1)Laptop auto pairs with BangleJS and doesn't allow connections from Android

Have you got something like Bluetooth HID enabled? In my experience this can cause Linux devices to auto-pair.

You meantion you've done a complete factory reset of the Bangle - but what happens if you do that, don't change any settings at all, remove it from Linux and Gadgetbridge, and see if it's any better?

2)Even when i remove Auto Pair from latptop it still gets paired with BangleJS when connected
from IDE or Apps

I use Ubuntu here and I haven't seen an auto-pair option, so I'm not really sure what it is or does. As above Ubuntu tried to pair HID and keep devices and that can be a pain though.

3)Sometimes i am not able to connect to BangleJS from IDE or Apps on my laptop

Is the bluetooth icon on the Bangle grey when you try to start the connection? If not it may be connected to something else.

4)Sometimes when connected to banglejs from GadgetBridge, notifications doesn't work and and connected shows NO on my banglejs.

Ok, that's odd - you mean the Bluetooth icon is grey on the Bangle, but Gadgetbridge on the phone says it is connected? It's possible it's a power saving thing on your phone

5)Sometimes i am not able to connect to BangleJS from my android device

Is the Bluetooth icon on the Bangle grey when you start trying to connect? Either your Laptop or Gadgetbridge on the phone may already be connected to it.

You could also try connecting Gadgetbridge without pairing and see if that's any better

6)Sometimes switching off Bluetooth on my laptop/Android helps to solve the issue sometimes it doesn't help, 7)Rebooting the device does not always help, 8)Factory Reset does not always help, 9)Removing all the extra apps does not help

Linux especially can have issues with the Bluetooth adaptor, as can some phones. Occasionally I do have to manually reboot the Bluetooth stack on Linux, and even modprobe -r btusb on my laptop. It's been super rare on recent OS updates though.

Arch probably isn't helping you :)

The combination of Linux auto-pairing, and maybe the phone trying to auto-pair with Gadgetbridge could I imagine make things really flakey for you.

Would be nice to have debug interface for Bluetooth connections, i think that due to some reason Bluetooth gets jammed on bangleJS (' I might be wrong this is just a thought ')

Not quite sure what you mean here? You mean getting log messages on the screen or something like that?

This can be conflict between multiple devices but i was able to replicate the issues in Environments were i had only android and banglejs devices with me.

Thanks - that's handy to know...

Are there any plans for creating native banglejs bridge both for android/ios from same app?

Not quite sure I understand what you mean?

Is there a chance that you mean "connect" instead of "pair"? Do you have paired the watch with Ubuntu? If so, this may cause this problem - unpair it and connect only via your browser. I had in the past the problem that unpairing did not work in Kubuntu (which is very similar) in the GUI. I removed the watch via config file.

Hello Gordon,

Thanks a lot for detailed response.

Would be nice to have debug interface for Bluetooth connections, i
think that due to some reason Bluetooth gets jammed on bangleJS (' I
might be wrong this is just a thought ')

Not quite sure what you mean here? You mean getting log messages on
the screen or something like that?

Yes maybe something similar to GB debug to know which device is connected to my bangle, but anyways i didn't know that i could differentiate Bluetooth status by icon color, also i noticed that Bluetooth icon was blinking yesterday not sure what that meant.

Anyways i will factory reset again will not enable HID, will take closer look at Bluetooth icon color, and temporally will not connect from my PC.

Ok, that's odd - you mean the Bluetooth icon is grey on the Bangle,
but Gadgetbridge on the phone says it is connected? It's possible it's
a power saving thing on your phone

Not sure about the icon color, will let you know once it happens again. but today i noticed something even more odd: GadgetBridge app was showing Connected, I checked bangle and it showed connected as well but none of the notifications, nor debug actions from GadgetBrige was captured by bangle. (I did debugging via BG Debug). Reference to power saving part should not be an issue since i took all the necessary steps to avoid it.

Are there any plans for creating native banglejs bridge both for android/ios from same app?
Not quite sure I understand what you mean?

native library for bridging, alternative to GadgetBridge.

Reason why i asked -
1)Not sure about other peoples experience but for me it looks unstable(hopefully i am wrong)
2)Biggest downside is not having possibility to send HTTP requests, i have read that it is planed to resolve the issue but looks like they have other priorities
3)GadgetBridge is not supported on IOS

I have disabled HID, restarted bangle, Bluetooth color is gray, disabled Bluetooth on my laptop.

opened https://banglejs.com/apps on Android Chrome browser clicked connect, See my device in list but connect returns Device connection failed invalid JSON in the bottom of the screen.

Enabled Bluetooth on my laptop -

Opened https://banglejs.com/apps on linux chromium,clicked connect, can see banglejs in list but once i click connect/pair i get Device connection failed, notification on bottom.

See my device in list but connect returns Device connection failed invalid JSON in the bottom of the screen.

i sometimes have this message while trying to connect my BangleJS, but i re-try and it usually finally connects

See my device in list but connect returns Device connection failed invalid JSON in the bottom of the screen.

That sounds promising at least - definitely worth trying again as @nicoboss says.

It'd be really handy to see what the browser is saying in the Debug Tools. Doing that on Android is a pain, but if you can get the JSON message on desktop maybe you can open the debug tools and see what's being printed?

Yesterday i did factory reset, all settings are default, installed two applications only Android Integration and GB Debug, bangle is removed from my laptop and is connected only to my mobile phone.

Today twice i experience following:

Bluetooth icon is blue on banglejs, Setting Android shows connected.
Android GadgetBridge Shows connected.

Clicked Find lost device and nothing happened in bangle JS, Opened GB Debug and it is not receiving messages.

Opened Debug Menu on android GadgetBridge, tried to send some messages, same issue.

Ok, that is a strange one. So you just run the Gadgetbridge Debug app, send messages from Gadgetbridge, and nothing happens at all.

Today twice i experience following:

So the rest of the time, it is now working ok?

Is there a way to make it start working again? Like maybe closing the bluetooth connection from gadgetbridge (long-press on the device) and re-connect it? I'm not saying that's a solution but it helps to know what's wrong

Ok, that is a strange one. So you just run the Gadgetbridge Debug app,
send messages from Gadgetbridge, and nothing happens at all.

Correct.

So the rest of the time, it is now working ok?

Correct.

Is there a way to make it start working again? Like maybe closing the
bluetooth connection from gadgetbridge (long-press on the device) and
re-connect it? I'm not saying that's a solution but it helps to know
what's wrong

If i recall correctly what i did was following:

• Have disconnected from Gadgetbridge
  
• Connected to https://banglejs.com/apps to see if overall Bluetooth was working
  
• Reconnected from Gadgetbridge (This fixed it)
  
• Checked this morning and everything still works.
  

I was able to reproduce same issue same symptoms just now:

Bluetooth icon is blue on banglejs, Setting Android shows connected.
Android GadgetBridge Shows connected.

Clicked Find lost device and nothing happened in bangle JS, Opened GB
Debug and it is not receiving messages.

Opened Debug Menu on android GadgetBridge, tried to send some
messages, same issue.

Simply disconnecting from gadgetbridge and reconnecting back fixed the issue. i think i need to check logs on Gadgetbridge and see what is happening.

I have enabled Write log files in settings of gadgetbridge, hopefully this is correct thing to do.

Ok, great! Yes, if you have any log files you're able to share, that'd be great.

Do you see any red messages at the bottom of the Bangle.js screen like FIFO_FULL?