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slow Bluetooth pedal page turns with Toshiba Excite 13
#1
This is probably an Android problem rather than an issue with MobileSheets, but I figured I should ask about it anyway just in case there's a way to work around it.

Tonight I used my new Toshiba Excite 13 tablet for the first time in a two-hour concert band rehearsal. Prior to that I'd been using a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, which worked really well, but I wanted the larger screen.

The Excite 13 also works well in general, and (despite the stupid 16:9 aspect ratio) the screen width in portrait mode is a full inch wider than the Galaxy Note, but I had problems turning pages with my Airturn 105 bluetooth pedal.

The page turns worked, but they were s...l...o...w... -- so slow that more than once I counted two full bars going by between the time the pedal press registered and the time that the screen was fully redrawn. The delay wasn't consistent; sometimes pages turned quickly, but sometimes they really, really didn't.

Interestingly, in the slow cases the redraw occurred in distinct stages, and annotations from the new page were the first items to be drawn (initially appearing on top of the current page!).

When I turned pages by tapping on the screen, the redraw was (consistently) so close to instant that I couldn't measure the difference, but that negates the point of having the pedal. Undecided

...although I may end up having to ditch the pedal anyway (and perhaps try a USB version?), for a different reason. It seems I was unknowingly spoiled by Samsung's interpretation of Android 4.1 on the Galaxy Note -- the Excite 13 still has 4.0 and is as close to vanilla Android as anything that isn't a Nexus-branded product. In particular, when Bluetooth is enabled at all, the virtual keyboard is unusable; apparently this is expected behaviour, but it didn't work that way on the Galaxy Note.

I know that MobileSheets has an option to automatically disable Bluetooth while viewing the library, but that doesn't help me, for two reasons: first, it's not the library screen that I care about, it's the ability to type text annotations on the virtual keyboard; secondly, at least on the Toshiba, once Bluetooth is disabled by it, it doesn't get reenabled unless I go into the Android settings screen and reenable it manually, which isn't viable in the middle of a rehearsal.

I don't know enough about Android to propose anything reasonable, but is there no way that it can configured to accept input simultaneously from both the virtual keyboard and a Bluetooth pedal masquerading as a keyboard?

Meanwhile, the plus side of the 13" screen and 16:9 aspect ratio is that there's /always/ extra room above and below the displayed page -- so much so that it would actually make sense to leave the overlay permanently enabled. Is that a reasonable feature request (as an option, of course, to avoid disturbing people who prefer the current overlay behaviour)?

...and while I'm asking about features anyway :-), one item that would help a lot is an arrow style for line drawing in annotations mode.

Thanks,

- Steven
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#2
I'll definitely have to see if I can figure out why the pedal turns are going so slowly. Which pedal mode were you using?

I know of no way to have both the virtual keyboard and the bluetooth pedal attached. It's a really annoying problem with Android, and I wish there was a workaround I could use. If anyone hears of one, please let me know, and I'll research it.

There are already options in the Display Settings for keeping parts of the overlay always visible. You should be able to find what you are looking for. I can dig through the options and find the exact settings if you can't find them.

I'll definitely add arrows in annotations when I can. I have even less time to work on MobileSheets lately, due to a lot of overtime for my day job, so I'm not sure when I will be able to add this, but I'll do my best. Right now I'm still focused on getting all of the new display modes out.

Mike
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#3
(03-27-2013, 02:14 PM)Zuberman Wrote: I'll definitely have to see if I can figure out why the pedal turns are going so slowly. Which pedal mode were you using?

If you're asking about the configuration of the pedal itself, it's whatever Airturn's default is; I've never touched that particular configuration, since (until now?) I've never needed to.

(03-27-2013, 02:14 PM)Zuberman Wrote: I know of no way to have both the virtual keyboard and the bluetooth pedal attached.

I was afraid of that. Just for fun, I ordered a BiliPro USB pedal last night, hoping to solve both this and the page-turning speed issue simultaneously. I'll report back here once I receive and have a chance to test it.

(03-27-2013, 02:14 PM)Zuberman Wrote: There are already options in the Display Settings for keeping parts of the overlay always visible.

I'm impressed. :-) I'll have to go look for that and see what I can find.

(03-27-2013, 02:14 PM)Zuberman Wrote: I'll definitely add arrows in annotations when I can.

Thank you! This certainly isn't a rush, just something I thought of and wanted to mention before I forgot. :-)

- Steven
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#4
Hello,

I used my pedal (Pageflip Cicada) last night for the first time in a few weeks (batteries ran out) and page turns have also become very slow for me too. Certainly much slower than they used to be and not really fast enough to use in a lot of situations. This is in Link Start/Previous Page - Link End/Next Page mode.

Cheers, Chris

That's on my Asus TF300T by the way and the latest version from Google Play.
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#5
What version of the Android OS are you running?

There have been a series of issues with bluetooth latency in recent Android OS releases, with some fixes in either 4.1 or 4.2. This may be related to what is occurring here. I will have to do some more testing with multiple devices to see if I can reproduce the problems you both are seeing.
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#6
Android version 4.2.1 - Bluetooth version 11.31
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#7
I have a fix ready for the occasional slow page turns. Hopefully it will address the issues you are all experiencing.
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#8
(03-30-2013, 07:56 AM)Zuberman Wrote: I have a fix ready for the occasional slow page turns. Hopefully it will address the issues you are all experiencing.

Thank you! I also am experiencing that severe delay with my page turns using the Airturn-105 and Android 4.1. I am new to using a tablet and a foot page turner, so I am glad that fixes are on the way, both from MobileSheets and, hopefully, from Android. It's almost made me want to use the tap turning, which would negate the purpose of having the bluetooth foot turner.
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#9
How much of a delay are we talking about here? The delay I was experiencing was occasionally one second between page turns (I normally only redraw once a second to save battery life unless something is actively occurring such as a page turn). If you are seeing a larger delay than that, then I probably haven't resolved the problem you are seeing. I'm not sure what the issue is in that case...
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#10
(04-01-2013, 01:51 PM)Zuberman Wrote: How much of a delay are we talking about here?

It's difficult to time accurately, but it seems to vary from approximately 1 - 3 seconds.

I've tried timing it with the stopwatch function on my phone (just now, before writing this reply), but also at the rehearsal last Monday I specifically noticed a particular page turn which took almost exactly two full bars in a particular multi-page piece we were playing.

That section of that piece has a tempo of approximately (quarter note = 148), which comes out to 8 beats x ~0.405 seconds/beat = ~3.2 seconds.

- Steven
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#11
I'm getting this issue to as of the last couple updates to the app (not sure when, mine auto-update). I've tried it on short and long pdf files with and without notations. Also getting a variation of 1-3 second delay. Enjoying the app, just making me nervous with the latest Bluetooth delay issue!

Been using the app since last summer in the Asus TF700.
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#12
I really hope I've resolved this issue with the update I'm working on. I'm going to have check with everyone to ensure it is fixed. I don't see any more delays in my testing. The update has become a little more involved than originally planned due to some other bugs that need to be fixed and the addition of dropbox support by a fellow developer who donated his time (PJCrumb), so I'm hoping to have it out soon, but it most likely won't be ready until the weekend.
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#13
(04-04-2013, 10:22 AM)Zuberman Wrote: I really hope I've resolved this issue with the update I'm working on. [...] so I'm hoping to have it out soon, but it most likely won't be ready until the weekend.

That's great news! I can certainly wait until the weekend. Smile

Meanwhile I have another data point: tonight I test drove a BiliPro USB pedal, and found that it also exhibits a slight delay turning pages (compared to turning the page by tapping the screen), but it's noticeably faster than Bluetooth.

I also learned that USB keyboards /also/ disable the Android virtual keyboard, but at least I can disconnect the USB cable, type in an annotation, and reconnect the cable afterward. This is a pain, but it's faster than disabling, reenabling and re-pairing with Bluetooth.

Incidentally, after I ordered the BiliPro, I discovered that AirTurn has a wireless USB module, namely the AT-104. I've ordered one but haven't received it yet; I'll report back on that when I get it.

- Steven
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#14
I changed the batteries on my Pageflip Cicada the other day and discovered that it comes with a USB bluetooth thingy - I wonder, has anybody tried using that on a tablet that doesn't natively support bluetooth?
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#15
Additional info:

I'd like to reiterate that I did not have this problem in earlier versions of Mobilesheets - until around February, I think. I've been using the same ROM (CleanRom Inheritance, from 3.1 to 3.4.x) on my Asus Transformer Infinity since fall 2012. I flashed back to a recovery image from January with no luck with Mobilesheets Bluetooth responsiveness improving, so I'm pretty sure it isn't a ROM update issue.

I'm using the Airturn pedal.

The pedal takes two steps to turn the page - even then the second press delays for one to three seconds before the page turns.

Is there a place to download old versions of the app? If I could try that I could confirm that it's an update causing my issue, or something not related. Let me know, thanks!
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