So we have Dialed In on location and have been having problems with people connecting to the machine using the smartphone app. It worked for a while, then stopped. Over many visits to the location, I tried everything I could think of, including removing the BT from the USB dongle in the coin door area and reinstalling. Nothing. Eventually I came to the conclusion that the Linux BT driver was probably crashing, so I powered off and did a cold reboot. Viola! Problem solved - connects like a champ again.

I'm not sure how long it will work before it crashes again (and it WILL crash again), but now that I know what's happening, I can try to narrow down the circumstances of the BT driver crashing. Based on my experience with WoZ 6.xx (lockups) and Hobbit (sound popping), it will probably be related to having the machine on 24/7 with an unstable Ubuntu core.

Just thought I'd put this up for people trying to get it to work and failing. A cold reboot is the answer if it worked before and doesn't now.

Yes. Everything was cool until they upgraded to Ubuntu 16 (16.04? I don't remember offhand) last year for WoZ 6.xx, Hobbit, and now Dialed In. There were some features/support they needed in 16, so they had to upgrade, but it's caused weird problems on each machine they have now. The WoZ we have out is downgraded and stuck on 5.05 because we can't upgrade to any 6.xx without having random lockups daily. Hobbit had sound popping issues related to U16. And now, it seems like the Bluetooth driver on Dialed In is crashing, likely due to instability, but I don't have enough information on that yet to zero in on the exact circumstances, just that it's happening and a cold boot is the fix.

This isn't just the WoZ machine here, though. I know of three early run WoZ machines, and all of them will not run any 6.xx without locking up within a day when you leave it on. All three work fine on 5.05.

Looking at the PC forums with people complaining about lockups and sound popping, they both seem to be related to power management in the drivers. On PCs people turning that off seem to have fixed the problems. No idea why that isn't the answer or hasn't been tried for JJP software.

You can usually avoid the crash by starting with rotation lock OFF and the phone in landscape mode BEFORE you try to launch it. If one way still crashes, rotate 180 degrees to the OTHER landscape orientation and start it. 100% success doing this with everyone I've shown it to on an iphone, even if it was initially crashing.

I've suggested to Jack to rename the app "Dialed In" or "Dialed In App" because right now it's "Jersey Jack Pinball" by "Jersey Jack Pinball" which makes it harder to find and is dumb. "Dialed In App" by "Jersey Jack Pinball" makes more sense and will be easier to find in the app store.

BT driver could have crashed. Reach under the right front cab, turn machine off, then on and reboot and see if that fixes it.

Bluetooth LE that Dialed In uses is a connectionless communication protocol, so seeing it in the Bluetooth list isn't necessary.

Bluetooth dongle is plugged into the usb extension cable that should be near the back of coin box inside the coin door.

Yes, cold boot is just powering the machine off then on again.

How are you trying to connect with the app?

You should be good with an iPhone 7. The only phone with a definite problem is Galaxy S7 edge.

You need to hit the buttons at the same time, not one then the other. Also, check to make sure the USB cable that runs to the coin door area is connected in the backbox. Maybe even try moving it to another USB port on the PC in the backbox in case the current port is just dead.

Not all locations, but one of them is only closed for a few hours a day, so they just leave them on. This is not good for JJP machines with the newer 16.04 Ubuntu kernel because its drivers are still unstable.

I'd check the cabinet to see if it fell out in shipment. The one they sent to PAGG didn't have the dongle in, either. Maybe they can come out in shipment? I dunno.

I don't have a picture of the actual one because the machine is on location, but the dongle looks like those little "endcap" USB dongles for keyboards and mice. The one below is an example I grabbed from the internet. It looks very much like this.

small-bluetooth-usb-adapter-20080827 (resized).jpg

Yeah, the colored one is the security key.

What phone, what OS? (Or are you talking about the pinball machine OS?)

100% agree. App flipper buttons are way too small to be practical.

Two advantages from the app. Lets you select disasters to do manually and lets you launch big bang at will. Flipper control isn't really that great, so those other two features are the main attraction, and just use the manual flippers.

It's also pretty cool as "training wheels" where you can have a young kid play the machine, but be there operating flippers remotely to help them if they're going to miss the ball.