Android Question Very Slow B4A Bridge/Bluetooth Setup

[RichardN]

For various reasons my prime workflow for the edit/compile/debug sequence has been over Bluetooth without problem. Recently however it has become unworkable. I cannot pin down the precise cause but the B4A bridge sped has become super-slow. When I connect all BT messages and log messages are as normal. Originally I thought Bluetooth was simply not working but I installed the excellent B4A Bridge Plus from Gunther Gabriel and it has become evident exactly how slow Bluetooth has become.

I compared the deployment speed of a 20Mb .apk from the compile dialog 'Completed Successfully', to the 'Install' prompt appearing on the device using the different means:-

Peer-to-peer WiFi: 4secs
WiFi over network: 6secs
Bluetooth..... I got fed up with watching the snail packets after 5 minutes and gave up.

Transferring the same .apk from computer to device by BT file transfer takes a slow 2m40s.

Because there is a new version of B4A v4, a new bridge as well as auto updates of drivers on my Lenovo laptop I am a bit stuck as to where to start. I have tried refreshing drivers, de-pairing, rebooting and re-pairing the devices but with no success. There seems to be some debate about Wifi/BT mutual interference so I have tried with WiFi off but with no improvement.

As BT is my preferred deployment method so I would really like to persevere and make it work but I am running out of ideas.

Any experiences from the community ?

 

[Erel]

B4A v4 and the B4A-Bridge update didn't change anything related to the Bluetooth feature.

Android Bluetooth is less reliable than wifi. I recommend you to either use wifi or usb debug mode.

 

[RichardN]

Hi Erel,

I have to disagree with your observation about reliability. I have found it quite reliable when deploying small projects but becomes prohibitively slow when you start bundling assets of any size in the apk.

It is also worth bearing in mind there are many household emitters that operate in the same frequency band.....

- Wireless keyboards and mice
- Wireless phones
- That tablet you forgot about in your bag!

There is a lot of equipment on your desk that will interfere with BT signal and if lots are packets are failing then those big apks will take even longer.