Pint Bluetooth issues?

[Franko]

@Enterusername said in Pint Bluetooth issues?:

I did have a BT issue with my original Iphone 6s 2yrs ago, I accidentally drowned that piece of crap and got a new Iphone 6s insurance replacement

ha! i HAVE an iPhone 6! 😆

[KWasch]

I’ve tried mine with multiple phones trying to rule things out. Bottom line is my Pint has horrible Bluetooth range. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to glance at my watch to see speed, mileage, or battery life. The only way I’ve gotten it to stay consistently connected is taping my phone to my fender. Not really a solution in my book. Still waiting to hear back from FM...

[OneDan+]

@KWasch said in Pint Bluetooth issues?:

I’ve tried mine with multiple phones trying to rule things out. Bottom line is my Pint has horrible Bluetooth range. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to glance at my watch to see speed, mileage, or battery life. The only way I’ve gotten it to stay consistently connected is taping my phone to my fender. Not really a solution in my book. Still waiting to hear back from FM...

This!

[b0ardski]

when I touch my S8+ to the front foot pad it connects instantly, if my phone was Maxwel Smart's It'd be awesome, maybe a speedo and batt level readout on the toe

[fotoflux1]

I got an official response from Onewheel today:

With the connection, ensure you connect to the app prior to beginning your ride. Strength will vary per phone. To utilize most app features, you should be at a stop and have the phone close or on top of your front footpad. Ensure you don't have 3rd party accessories that could prevent strength connectivity, such as magnets and thick cases.
- Have the latest firmware & operating system
- Make sure your phone is not connected to any other BT devices. If your connection goes in and out during the course of your ride, not to worry, your miles will still be logged.

If you're having issues with connection, your board's lightbar will help you with battery levels when you slow down/stop:
White = Fully charged
Yellow = Battery approaching low levels
Red = It's time to recharge
Let us know if you have any other questions/concerns and we'll be glad to help.

[OneDan+]

@fotoflux1 Oh boy, this is the XR issue all over again with FM asking to try the basic stuff we all try when we have connection issues. @KWasch mentioned above he's tried multiple phones and, if it was the phone, we'd have connection issues to all kinds of bluetooth devices, not just the OW Pint. Just as with the XR, everyone has to keep pounding them with complaints until they finally allow someone to send it in for a REAL diagnosis. It took months for them to finally admit and diagnose this for the XR.

Fingers crossed . . .

[Enterusername]

@b0ardski Oh hell yea, Max Smart shoe phones!!! I love the little rotatory dial and chin protector/mic and just think if they added Siri ?... Just think we could have voice controlled cell and BT shoes. Of coarse they would have to make them Regular and Fakey so everyone could be happy. But for sure, nobody would ever ask to use your phone . he he
Actually , maybe a voice controlled OW app via your ear buds /Siri or whatever might be pretty cool. Siri ? .....Speed? ,Distance?, Battery? Lights on/off
and we could always have eyes on the road.

[a_onekatie]

Again today, I hit 15 several times but my top speed refuses to update. Guess it really doesn’t want me going that fast!

[a_onekatie]

@fotoflux1 thanks for sharing there’s some interesting info there. According to that, we cannot expect to use our Air Pods while riding if we want to maintain the app connection? That doesn’t seem logical. Def keep pursuing it!

@OneDan TBH that answer sounds RIGHT in line with generic Bay Area Tech/Start-up Co’s customer service, in which they automatically assume we are all complete idiots who have no idea how anything works.

[KWasch]

Really FM ?!? , your response is to put our phones on the foot pad in order to connect to the app. Give me a break, I’m pretty sure Bluetooth has better range than two inches. That’s a total cop out. I encourage everyone with this issue to contact them if your having this issue. Maybe if I document this via YouTube it can get some traction. Don’t get me wrong I love my pint but I don’t think it’s too much to ask that it work properly.

[McFloaty]

My BT sucks too. Agree with almost all said, but gonna try and look for silver linings in this, listed below, in no order.

-my Bluetooth sucks at moments while in the car, on various headphones, wireless speakers, dslr’s, and drones. Never felt like bluetooth was/is ready for prime time anyway. Love it when it works tho.
-work hard often using my phone to get things and experiences like a OW in hopes of using the phone less.
-not sure if it digitally tracks/documents rides if you don’t activate app (or bring a phone, or watch) but don’t care. Doesn’t affect the fun.
-have seen faster mph via app in real time than ever registered in my phone on rides. Don’t care.
-glad I can float while leaving phone at home. If phone was required, could be a deal killer for me.
-as a fun machine that takes a beating, guessing my phone BT works better cause it’s not buried underneath all the stuff that makes the Pint indestructible (so far)
Float on

[b0ardski]

fm needs to get with Nike have them add a padded phone pocket to the hover shoes.

with a speed readout on the toe

[b0ardski]

after further investigation,
https://sea.mashable.com/tech/1918/you-can-lace-these-nike-sneakers-with-your-smartphone

[tzracer22]

Still waiting for a response from fm on mine. 6 days in so far. Hopefully they're working on it but some kind of update would be nice.

[Mark Vlogs]

@tzracer22 Have you sent your Pint back or just opened a ticket? If you’ve had no response to a ticket I would call them, actually even if you’ve sent your board in I would call them. Hopefully they come up with a proper solution.

[a_onekatie]

I decided to take some vid today, if anyone here is interested. Both are from my morning commute. Apologies in advance for the talk radio background noise, apparently Apple updated their screen cap software to catch sound as well now, which I hadn't realized (although, it does show that this is consistent video, not something I edited together after the fact).

Anyone else getting the Spastic Speed read-out too? This is a newer development for me:
https://vimeo.com/361889202?ref=em-share

This one is a lot longer, but shows the constant disconnections and that the stat read-outs are often inaccurate or delayed because of this:
https://vimeo.com/361889222?ref=em-share

[BrettJB]

@a_onekatie both of your URLs error out on me (message is "Sorry, we couldn’t find that page")

[Franko]

@BrettJB said in Pint Bluetooth issues?:

(message is "Sorry, we couldn’t find that page")

me too. : \

[a_onekatie]

Really? Dang I tested and everything!

Okay updated now!

[a_onekatie]

Okay this is where the issue is really pissing me off. Parking lot ride this morning, I was getting major, noticeable pushback the whole time. To the point that I actually thought maybe I’d accidentally switched to Redwood without realizing. Take out my phone to check and no, I’m in Pacific, and the speed readout says 12. 12!?!?!? WTH? Holding the phone in my hand still, I reach the end of my ride and begin to slow down, and low and behold the app suddenly updates to this:

So I guess I just gotta take whatever the app says with a grain of salt? 🤷🏼‍♀️

[OneDan+]

@KWasch said in Pint Bluetooth issues?:

I’ll probably have to call but I’m also curious just how long they will take to respond.

I think there are people from a year ago waiting on a response for the XR bluetooth issue!

[a_onekatie]

Hi Katie,

Thank you for following up with that info and your thoughts on the matter. Considering your concerns, you are absolutely right - the lightbar in specific was created to give realtime feedback from the board and try to encourage less phone use while riding.
​
Additionally, thanks for sending in those diagnostics! It is always good to get a set to have some redundancy in case there are any other issues. I just received secondary assessment results from the techs and your board is in tip top shape!
Apologies for any confusion around this matter up to date and do let me know if you have any questions about this moving forward; I will be your right hand man in all matters Onewheel and hope to help facilitate many miles and smiles into the future Katie!

Your friendly, neighborhood Board Specialist
Alex - Onewheel Team

---

TLDR = OW says my board is working as intended. Wah-wah.

[KWasch]

@a_onekatie

Well that sucks. So FM is saying it’s designed to constantly disconnect... I wonder how many people need to complain about this before they own up to the issue.

[OneDan+]

@a_onekatie No offense to Alex, but I'd talk to Jon. I worked with him to fix the bluetooth on my XR. Perhaps he'll understand if you tell him that there seems to be many others experiencing this.

This is giving me deja vu! I, myself, wouldn't buy a Pint right now because when I bought my XR after they found the problem, they still shipped me one with the old hardware.

[a_onekatie]

@OneDan Ugg okay, I will try to push back and see how far I can get I guess.

TBH I am a little confused about the whole situation now. After reading a few other pint owners’ experiences and thoughts, and having Alex tell me the app is not actually meant to maintain a connection the entire ride, I start to question if my issues are real or not. The thing I can’t reconcile though is, WTH is the point of the apple watch version? If it literally only works while I have my phone in hand, why even bother with it?

[Glyph]

@OneDan What I can't understand, is how they keep getting WORSE with this. My XR, is worse than my Plus. My buddy who has a Pint and an XR, says that the Pint is worse than the XR.

[OneDan+]

@Glyph Seriously! If anything, they should make sure the bluetooth is extra reliable, then update their watch app to connect to the board directly, without a phone, so we have the option of riding with just a watch. I know it can be done as I used to use an app that did just that, but @Future-Motion broke all the 3rd party apps when they changed the API in a firmware update for the boards. People have been asking for a standalone watch app even before the XR bluetooth debacle!

[Senior Coffee]

@a_onekatie said in Pint Bluetooth issues?:

@Senior-Coffee yes because you’re an advanced rider. Think about us noobs just learning tho.

I get that it’s not a big deal to everyone. But I would urge anyone experiencing this to at least let FM know. If they’re going to be obstinate at all about admitting there’s a problem then we need every one reporting this.

I couldn’t get thru today b4 I got too busy, but I’ll try the phone again tomorrow.

I think it depends on how much people use the app. I use it to ensure that I initially connect and then I look to make sure I'm on Pacific mode. After that, I check the app after some miles to see how much battery I have.

[shaka wheeler]

Hi All,
I just got my Pint and stumbled across this issue. The only way I’ve found to connect to the board is:

-having it simply idling
-hold the phone about 1 inch above controller
-force it to disconnect and reconnect.

It usually takes it’s time and then finally connects. I decided to ride in the crouched position and found that the Bluetooth connection would drop above 5-7mph even if my phone was equidistant to the controller.

Here is the mind boggling part, the phone always sees the Pint when you look at your list of boards. It always shows Pint but can’t collect the data once you open the app. I’d be absolutely shocked if this was a hardware issue.

I am using an Iphone 11... Ironically Apple has had Bluetooth connectivity bugs in its most recent IOS. Not exactly sure what’s up with Bluetooth these days!

Anyone hear anything more useful from future motion? I’ll give them a call next week...

[shaka wheeler]

UPDATE:
While my Pint is charging, I am able to connect to the board and change modes from 7 feet away. I cycled through modes for roughly 1 minute walking around the board and made sure the LED indicator went green to prove the modes were changed. I held a rock solid connection, so this issue is completely software related. The hardware seems fine...

[Sponge315]

I am not an expert on how this works, but Bluetooth 5.1 added a directional function. The idea was that you could use bluetooth to find your phone or keys or whatever. From your description, I wonder if this is the bug. I know that since this "upgrade" my ear buds have become a little directional sensitive. The second bud will occasionally drop out for a moment when I turn quickly to look behind. I wonder if FM could disable this?

[Mark Vlogs]

@shaka-wheeler I’ve only just been able to test BT on my board, unfortunately the weather is rubbish outside so can’t test in the real world, however in the house my connection is fine, I can see the MPH changing and the foot pad sensors moving on the App while riding in the house (I’m only able to do this when my wife is out). I’ve got iPhone 11 Pro.

[shaka wheeler]

I have a theory to the problem. The motor might be creating interference which is messing with the Bluetooth connection. That would explain all of the following:

-App connecting at low speeds (low motor rpm)
-App connecting when phone is close (interference)
-App connecting when board is charging (motor disengaged)

If this is the case, future motion would need to either relocate the Bluetooth antenna or put the Bluetooth unit on a separate circuit to isolate it from the interference.

In English, there’s a good chance we will have to live with this problem because it’s not exactly solvable with a software update. I can’t see future motion willingly fixing this issue for every Pint sold.

I could be wrong, but the evidence is compelling...

On the bright side, it looks like they under spec’d the range. That’s a pleasant surprise!

[KWasch]

I finally got a response back from FM after a month and a half. They basically told me my board is working fine. I downloaded an app that shows Bluetooth devices signal strength. It seems to me the Pint has a very poor signal. For example, My Apple Watch and a Tile on the other side of my house ( multiple walls , 60 ft ) had a significantly stronger signal than my phone sitting on the pint. How FM says that this disconnects are normal behavior is baffling to me.

[shaka wheeler]

@KWasch said in Pint Bluetooth issues?:

I finally got a response back from FM after a month and a half. They basically told me my board is working fine. I downloaded an app that shows Bluetooth devices signal strength. It seems to me the Pint has a very poor signal. For example, My Apple Watch and a Tile on the other side of my house ( multiple walls , 60 ft ) had a significantly stronger signal than my phone sitting on the pint. How FM says that this disconnects are normal behavior is baffling to me.

Check your Bluetooth strength while the board is charging. It should be much stronger because the motor is disengaged. This interference from the motor essentially destroys the Bluetooth connection. That’s why they advise putting the phone on the footpad (it’s the only way for your phone to actually see the signal through the interference).

I doubt anyone will ever admit this because imagine having to recall every board and either isolate the bluetooth’s circuit or relocate the antenna. That would be very costly.

[OneDan+]

@shaka-wheeler said in Pint Bluetooth issues?:

I doubt anyone will ever admit this because imagine having to recall every board and either isolate the bluetooth’s circuit or relocate the antenna. That would be very costly.

This is the exact same problem the XR had and, yes, they fixed any that reported it and sent it in. They replaced the controller with a newer firmware. Mine was fixed and went from barely holding a connection to almost never dropping it. The trick, however, is convincing @Future-Motion that it's an actual issue and it took a long time to do that with the XR. People just kept reporting it until they finally took in a couple of boards and admitted it was broken.

While I'm not currently in the market for a Pint, if they come out with a new XR, I'll hold off until I hear there are no bluetooth issues before plopping down my hard earned cash, that's for sure! The app is a major feature of these boards and without the board connected, it's useless, afaic!

[Enterusername]

I'm really sorry for all of you guys with your BT issues. I can see how it would be a disappointment with the signal drops. I've been in electronics since tubes and relay logic. I've been RC 'ing for about 40 yrs and I still work with high energy RF semiconductor etchers every week. RF can be a real bugger to work with. With all that said, BT and all the new fancy high tech Arduino stuff humbles almost everyone these days. It's all new too me as well. I see noise all the time in my Quadcopter projects which can easily ruin your day with a crash. The high energy stuff will kill you forever and I've seen a man get cooked. I just bought a new Pint and I kinda knew what I was getting into. I have been able to duplicate the close range dropouts also several ways and I'm pretty sure y'all don't want to hear this. One is the inherent designs with the 750w motors. My V1 with it's 500w motor gets 3x range than all the other boards. If you add more power electronics generally get noisier. If you also start adding up all the other possible RF signal transmission problems with 2.4 Ghz , like slow speed , low power, susceptible to passing through water/organics/your body , different physical positions , I know y'all are really going to hate is it's very susceptible to other BT tx/rx devices like earbuds and speakers even coming from different devices. For instance if I use any BT earbuds on my new Iphone 6s along with the BT of the board I get basically NO range. If I run the OW BT app on my cheap little Android device (no sim card) and my any BT buds on my Iphone I'm getting 10-20ft of range with no drop outs. I get about 30+ feet with my V1 but it gets a lot worst if use it with the Iphone as mentioned above.
It may be possible that the PID's could be tweaked a someday or it could just need a ferrite bead or a little RF filter, but I got a feeling that there are a bunch of variables FM was dealing with in this machine.
Good for me that I don't care. I love the light bar and that's mostly what I use for monitoring my power.I'm really stoked how fast and smooth this thing turns, and I even like the Sure stop idea when I'm just riding and not trying my stupid Darwin award tricks. My dang feet are so big , I'm hang'n about 3" front and back in the rear. I've always been challenged getting enough foot off the front pad to stop. I have definitely gotten better at stopping my V1.
I still love em both and I am SO glad I got the Pint. I feel like they make a great quiver and I even got my son to ride with me 1 out of 12 times in the last 3 days. He's REALLY sore ...LOL but he did great and it's a real change riding with someone for me. I love 2 to 4am in morning in the dark and quite and no one see me doing dumb stuff.

I bet FM will hook you guys up with a good solution soon. I think they care and really want everyone happy. Y'all hang in there...
Good luck and good riding!

[Sponge315]

@Enterusername said in Pint Bluetooth issues?:

If you also start adding up all the other possible RF signal transmission problems with 2.4 Ghz , like slow speed , low power, susceptible to passing through water/organics/your body , different physical positions , I know y'all are really going to hate is it's very susceptible to other BT tx/rx devices like earbuds and speakers even coming from different devices. For instance if I use any BT earbuds on my new Iphone 6s along with the BT of the board I get basically NO range. If I run the OW BT app on my cheap little Android device (no sim card) and my any BT buds on my Iphone I'm getting 10-20ft of range with no drop outs. I get about 30+ feet with my V1 but it gets a lot worst if use it with the Iphone as mentioned above.

Thanks Ent... That is excellent info. So sounds like a solution would be to buy a cheap, outdated, small, Android device off ebay and stick a big chunk of the fuzzy side of heavy duty velcro to the back. The matching block of velcro hooks to your fender. Sort of a OW dash board, that you can pull off to charge occasionally. Or, one of those elastic phone holders that runners use, just strap it to your shoe.

[a_onekatie]

Ha! Was just riding behind a Dude on an XR on my commute and noticed he kept pulling his phone out. So I yelled, “Can’t get that dang Bluetooth to work for me either!” He looked back at me, down at my board, and then shouted “Oh you’re on a Pint? Yeah I heard it’s terrible on them too!” lol OW woes.

[Ramphex]

https://archive.owforum.co.uk/topic/8803/bluetooth-issues-with-onewheel-pint

Above is my Bluetooth issue thread in the Technical Support forum.

Considering this.......

I don't foresee any resolutions to any of our issues until they're directly reported to the CS link provided above.

If the app wasn't designed to be constantly connected, then how do they expect the ride logging to work? Lol.

[Ramphex]

Just an update, issue has not been resolved.

[a_onekatie]

@Ramphex said in Pint Bluetooth issues?:

If the app wasn't designed to be constantly connected, then how do they expect the ride logging to work? Lol.

So, I’ve noticed mine will pick back up again eventually, and it sort of does a patch by estimating the skipped connection areas. If you want, go ahead and do a rider search for me, same screen name as here. If you watch the little animated dude on my published trails, you can see exactly where the dropped areas are when his pace suddenly triples lol. My ride labeled Livermore Trails NE Run is a particularly good illustration of this; I took the same route in as I did coming back, but at the end the map changes to a straight diagonal shot instead of the longer/slower left hand turn it actually was. Comparatively, on the Callahan Gultch ride I held my phone in hand the whole time in order to maintain the Bluetooth (back in the days when I still cared lol).

[Ramphex]

that's where I feel like the logging feature is rendered useless, makes me not want to bother to log if they're all going to be jacked up anyway

[a_onekatie]

@Ramphex unfortunately that seems to be the common attitude TBH

[gasbreakdipper]

@OneDan i have been very vocal with them but the issue is that Future Motion seems to be ok with inferior parts that just make the cut being that they currently have a bit of a monopoly here. They probably have 100,000 more of these cheapo transmitters to dump on us before they even think about changing things. They are aware. They do not seem that responsible...