Dialed In Bluetooth Interferes with HTC Vive

I got my Dialed In LE (#111) on Sunday and had an unboxing party with a bunch of friends over. Some of the friends lost interest in pinball after the first hour and wanted to play some VR. Oddly enough, the HTC Vive base stations kept rebooting themselves. I could only keep them running about 60 - 120 seconds before they'd reset. I'd never seen this before and I was shocked. They'd been working just fine the day before.

I tried unplugging them and plugging them back in. I tried rebooting the PC. No dice. They just kept rebooting! So I started thinking, "What changed in the last 24 hours?" I knew that the base stations connected to the PC over Bluetooth. And the only new Bluetooth device in the house was the Dialed In. So I turned the machine off and lo and behold, the HTC Vive base stations started working again!

We played the Vive for over an hour without interruption before I decided to try and turn on Dialed In again. As soon as I booted Dialed In back up, the Vive base stations started rebooting again and again and again. So, I opened the Dialed In coin door and found the small bluetooth module (plugged into a USB extension cable to the left of the coin bucket) and unplugged the module. As soon as I unplugged the module, the Vive base stations stopped rebooting.

There's no doubt the Dialed In bluetooth module is causing problems with my Vive base stations. I have the latest software installed on Dialed In (1.13) and Steam does not show any outstanding firmware updates for the base stations or controllers.

I called JJP support and tried to report it but Frank was leaving for the day. I spoke with Paul and let him know about the issue. Paul said he'd have someone call me back in the evening shift but so far no calls.

I'm not sure how much JJP can do about this. I'm assuming this is a problem with the actual Bluetooth adapter that they chose. I know these machines run Linux so I'm hoping that JJP can support more than one manufacture of Bluetooth module. Before I removed the module I tried several times to get the app on my Android phone to connect to the table and it was never successful. I did the thing where you hold the left button on both the app and the machine and still no luck. Maybe I have a faulty Bluetooth module.

I just wanted to report this because other people might start having strange things happen to their Bluetooth devices like keyboards and mice when they have their Dialed In running and it might not dawn on you that the problem could be related to the pinball machine. If anyone else experiences something odd like this, please chime in and let us know.

That opinion is not based on any evidence or verifiable facts, but you are certainly welcome to it.

HTC is 20 year old global communications company that specializes in cell phones and bluetooth related communication devices. HTC Vive has been in market for over a year in well over 100,000 homes worldwide and there have been no problems reported (that I can find at least) of the base stations co-existing with other BLE devices. My home alone has dozens of bluetooth devices, several of which are BLE devices, and they have all coexisted with the HTC Vive for over a year now with no problems.

By contrast, Dialed In is the first Bluetooth enabled device created by a 6 year old company that specializes in pinball. And anyone who's been following Dialed In knows there have been problems getting the phone app to connect to the table. Especially at conferences, which happen to be heavy Bluetooth traffic areas.

Again, you're entitled to your opinion but it's simply not based on any empirical evidence. All evidence points to a problem that JJP needs to resolve.

Many people have bluetooth enabled on their phones even if they are not actively using a headset or connected to a bluetooth speaker.

And these aren't just my own words. Jersey Jack Technical Support has verified that they are experiencing problems in large venues and they expect it's related to interference from a large number of devices. But again, don't take my word for it. If you've bought a Dialed In and are having problems getting the app to connect, just contact phone support and ask. They will verify everything I'm telling you. They're actively investigating it.

Connection problems aside, the bigger problem is a bluetooth device that can actively interfere with the operation of another bluetooth device. That shouldn't be possible. As ForceFlow mentions, they should negotiate around each other. Obviously the HTC Vive is not handling a condition that the DI is causing. Whether the condition that the DI is causing is a "valid" or not would require a BLE protocol expert with a BLE sniffer and diagnostic software. This, more than anything, is what needs to be determined.

I personally feel fairly confident that HTC would have trapped for all "valid" error conditions in their BLE stack. But I will readily admit that I'm not a BLE protocol expert and I do not have the hardware or expertise to verify that. So I will not claim to be 100% sure JJP is at fault, because clearly I'm not.

What I will say is that I do believe it needs to be researched and I do believe it needs to be solved. Since there are over a hundred thousand homes worldwide that already have the Vive, and since this issue has not been reported before (that I can find), I do feel it's the right thing for JJP to research on their end. Simply saying "the Vive code is crap" and not doing any due diligence to research the problem, in my opinion, is not the responsible or respectable thing to do.

(And to answer your question ForceFlow, yes I did disconnect and re-pair the base stations. They operate normally as long as the DI bluetooth module is not installed or the table is not turned on.)

Thank you for trying to help reproduce the problem DeeGor.

At my house the pinball machine can just be turned on in idle attract mode. There does not need to be an active game in play. I still have not been able to connect my phone with the DI table at all. So, again, it may actually be possible that my DI shipped with a faulty bluetooth module.

As for the Vive, it really doesn't matter what you're doing but the base stations actually need to be on and tracking. You can just run Steam VR and be in 'Home' (without a game loaded) and it will still happen.

If anyone else owns a Vive and a DI and can confirm you're *not* having the problem, I'd actually be elated. That would just mean I need to call JJP support back, let them know what we've figured out, and ask them to send me a replacement bluetooth module.

Oh, P.S., DeeGor, do you have all of the Bluetooth options installed and enabled for your Vive? Under Steam VR go to Settings -> General. Is "Enable Bluetooth communication" checked? And is "Put Base Station in Standby mode when VR is not in use" also checked?

Thank you again for helping troubleshoot. I do sincerely appreciate it.

Bwahahahaahaha. That's some AWESOME photoshop work there DaveH. You really had me going for a second.

I'm headed to sleep. I'll check back tomorrow.

Thanks deegor for investigating further. I sure do wish I knew what was different between our two setups. Any chance you could take a photo of your actual Bluetooth module or write in here any markings you see? I wonder if we've ended up with different modules.

I spent quite a bit of time on this today in an effort to make sure it's the Dialed In triggering the reboots and not something else. Unfortunately I must still confirm my original findings. The Lighthouse base stations run great when the Dialed In is off or the Bluetooth module is removed. The Lighthouse base stations reboot continuously as long as Dialed In is turned on and the Bluetooth module is inserted.

Yesterday I was hoping I had a faulty Bluetooth adapter, but today I was able to connect my phone app with the table multiple times. This was entirely my fault. I thought you were supposed to HOLD the left flipper button on the table and the app to connect but you're actually just supposed to tap and release the buttons (not hold them). It's worth noting that I can connect and keep my Pixel XL connected for a full game, but my daughters S7 will only stay connected for the first 30 to 60 seconds.

I was able to record a video of the lighthouse stations rebooting themselves repeatedly. The whole process lasts about 4 minutes but I sped up portions of the video so the whole video lasts only about a minute. You can check out that video here: