RTK Facet Bluetooth Failure

Wireless & IoT Bluetooth
1

Howdy- apologies if this is addressed elsewhere in the forum- I couldn’t find it if it is.

I have a recently purchased Facet that has worked flawlessly until yesterday it didn’t. The unit will no longer connect to any of my devices via Bluetooth.

In Android: The facet comes up in the list of available Bluetooth devices, but pressing it does exactly nothing- no response at all. If I open SW Maps and tell it to connect to the Bluetooth GNSS, it does nothing and eventually says “GNSS Instrument Disconnected!”

In windows: Windows will apparently pair with the Facet all the way through the “Your device is ready to go!” page, but it is not. This process no longer produces COM Ports assigned to the Facet, which I used to connect the Facet to the GIS I’m using prior to yesterday.

I’m grateful for any suggestions on how to get the Bluetooth back up and running. Just let me know if I haven’t included some information you need for diagnosing.

Thanks,

Randy

2

As the last resort you can try to factory reset the facet.

3

Bumping this to see if i can get a response from a SparkFun moderator on this issue. I appreciate @aliarafat794’s suggestion, but before I do something that drastic, I’d like some input from SparkFun support.

I have a recently purchased Facet that has worked flawlessly until yesterday it didn’t. The unit will no longer connect to any of my devices via Bluetooth.

In Android: The facet comes up in the list of available Bluetooth devices, but pressing it does exactly nothing- no response at all. If I open SW Maps and tell it to connect to the Bluetooth GNSS, it does nothing and eventually says “GNSS Instrument Disconnected!”

In windows: Windows will apparently pair with the Facet all the way through the “Your device is ready to go!” page, but it is not. This process no longer produces COM Ports assigned to the Facet, which I used to connect the Facet to the GIS I’m using prior to yesterday.

I’m grateful for any suggestions on how to get the Bluetooth back up and running. Just let me know if I haven’t included some information you need for diagnosing.

Thanks,

Randy

4

Randy did you ever get an answer to your post a year ago? Mine is doing the same thing out of the/ box new.

5

Hi Brian,

Sorry I missed this before- I don’t think I had notifications set for this forum.

The easy answer is no, I did not receive an answer on the forum (obviously, I guess). I did get a private response after contacting my SparkFun sales rep, but couldn’t engage at the time because of some work responsibilities.

Did you ever get your issue resolved? I have just now circled back to trying to address the problem with a firmware update before I resort to hassling the SparkFun tech guys again, but have run into the apparently not uncommon problem of having the unit freeze up after the update so that it won’t power up. Looking through the forum now to see how this new problem might be addressed.

cheers,

Randy

6

Just in case this helps someone else, I resolved the new problems with powering up and down. The file that I was using to update the firmware to 4.4 had been corrupted somehow during download, and when re-downloaded it, the upgrade went to plan. Thanks to Paul ZC for catching that- the downloader GUI uses whatever firmware file you give it, and doesn’t assess its viability, so I never would have figured that one out except by a lot of frustrating trial and error.

I initially thought the firmware upgrade had solved the original bluetooth problems that have plagued this unit pretty much from the get-go, but after working perfectly on the first try after firmware upgrade, the bluetooth connection issues reappeared and persist.

Randy

7

I received a Facet Mosaic 10 days ago. The delivery was prompt and safe, but there are problems with the equipment.

The Facet Mosaic rarely starts in the 3-4 seconds specified on the web site. Sometimes the button must be held down for 20 seconds, and even then the Facet starts only after 4-5 quick button-presses in succession. The Facet possibly started (once) showing the information that the web manual says should appear at startup, but since then, that screen is seldom seen, sometimes flashing by when trying to select an option on the “menu”. At startup the Facet immediately enters BaseCast mode, which can’t be changed. A “menu” list comes up if the power button is pressed at just the right m,oment, but the menu doesn’t do anything. Once an option has been selected by toggling through the list, there’s no way to confirm or turn on that selection. After a few seconds the Facet returns to BaseCast operation.

Perhaps the Facet can be configured to a different mode in rxTools. My original hope waqs that I could record a *.sbf file for post-processing, while seeing the survey track on a tablet. Unfortunately, rxToolsv25 isn’t compatible with Windows 7, my main OS (“The procedure entry point CreateEventW could not be locatetd in the dll api-win-core-sunch 1-2-0.dll”).
Fortunately, I was able to find rxToolsv21 on line, and the information said that it works on Windows 7 computers. Unfortunately, the drivers it installs don’t work. I’ve tried manually updating them in the Windows system, but they still don’t transform a USB port into two COM ports. I’ve tried to use the drivers that are linked from your website, but the Windows file is just an executable, without an *.inf file, and simply running it in a terminal window doesn’t enable the transformation.

There are also prooblems connecting the Facet Mosaic to data loggers via Bluetooth. It doesn’t work. I can make Bluetooth connections to other peripherals from a mobile phone and a tablet, but not to the Facet Mosaic. The Facet appears in the list of possible peripherals, so it is putting out a signal, and sometimes a connection seems to be made, but the connection is dropped after a few seconds. This is true whether trying to connect in SW Maps, in Qfield or in the configuration screen. Connection also drops if a wired, serial connection between SW Maps and the Facet Mosaic is tried.

To sum up: The Facet Mosaic does not consistently turn on in a predictable manner. The Facet Mosaic does not communicate with outside data loggers via Bluetooth. The Facet Mosaic cannot communicate to a computer via cable. Without a connection to a computer I can’t configure the Facet nor even determine if it is receiving satellite signals.
Perhaps there’s a firmware fix for these problems, but I would have expected that the latest firmware was installed before it was shipped to me. If there’s not a fix that I can perform, I’d like to return the product and get a refund. Let me know if I need an RMA number.