New free MFD/ICP app to control Falcon BMS from touch devices
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@kungfoo Both iOS and android releases are out and delivered to devices. Android will soon need a new release with no functional changes, due to app compat library requirements for android 12. Apparently, they will forbid people from installing it at some point…
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Could it be something changed? I have used the server and app before, but get stuck atm at “Discovering Server…”. Both the server and iOS cliënt have been updated. Not sure where to start my troubleshooting…
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@fluke to be honest, nothing in the discovery code has changed either on the server or client. Please make sure, your PC and Wifi devices are in the same subnet, as in all of them get IP addresses in the same range such as
192.168.10.x
.Also on iOS: Make sure that the app has the permission to discover on the local network. You can find it here:
Settings > Privacy > Local Network > Falcon BMS Control
> Make sure this is toggled. It reads: ‘Apps that have requested permission to find a communicate with devices on your local network…’
What iOS version are you running? I think there is a bug in iOS14.8.x
in relation to that very permission handling. Updating to15.x
(if able) should fix that. -
@kungfoo Good call, an iOS update fixed this (now running 15.1)
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@fluke Glad that helped. I don’t know how this was b0rked by apple, but it appears that is actually what happened.
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I have release a new version
1.3.0
of the apps that allows users to manually enter the server ip address on the in-app settings screen.
Please find it on the respective app stores- https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ch.mollusca.falconbmscontrol
- https://apps.apple.com/tt/app/falcon-bms-control/id1542670299
If using a windows touch device or an android with no play store find the release here:
This should also work in contexts where automatic discovery is not desirable, such as a LAN party.
The android app is already out, Apple being Apple is taking a little longer to review.
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Hi,
I tried this app on a larger tablet than the 8-inch I usually use, but it was way too stuttery. The larger tablet is a no-name model with some unfamiliar processor. I understand that network issues may be a factor. But my smaller tablet runs fine.
I would appreciate suggestions for a 10-12 inch tablet which can run this app reliably, at least to the point where any stuttering would be network issues and not the tablet bottle-necking. What are people using, which works?
Thanks,
JayB -
I ran this app for a while on my Galaxy TAB A7 (around 200€ I think) and it worked like a charm.
All the best,
Uwe
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Thanks, much appreciated !
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<p>I am getting some disconnects with the app. Does anyone have experience troubleshooting this? Here is a log snippet:<br /></p><pre>2022-02-16 15:49:46.5437|INFO|FalconBmsUniversalServer|Starting up…
2022-02-16 15:49:46.6997|INFO|FalconBmsUniversalServer|Listening for broadcast packets on: 0.0.0.0:9020
2022-02-16 15:49:46.7337|INFO|FalconBmsUniversalServer|Running on 0.0.0.0:9022
2022-02-16 15:50:04.7387|INFO|FalconBmsUniversalServer|Peer disconnected from 192.168.1.228:33108
2022-02-16 15:50:12.4542|DEBUG|FalconBmsUniversalServer|Received 12 bytes from 192.168.1.228:52221
2022-02-16 15:50:12.5887|INFO|FalconBmsUniversalServer|Peer connected from 192.168.1.228:54298
2022-02-16 15:50:12.5887|DEBUG|FalconBmsUniversalServer|Starting to stream f16/ded to 192.168.1.228:54298
2022-02-16 15:50:12.5897|DEBUG|StreamedTextureThread|“f16/ded”: Refresh rate is: 30, Quality is: 80
2022-02-16 15:50:12.5897|DEBUG|FalconBmsUniversalServer|Starting to stream f16/rwr to 192.168.1.228:54298
2022-02-16 15:50:12.5897|DEBUG|StreamedTextureThread|“f16/rwr”: Refresh rate is: 30, Quality is: 80
2022-02-16 15:50:15.1802|DEBUG|FalconBmsUniversalServer|Stopping to stream f16/ded to 192.168.1.228:54298
2022-02-16 15:50:15.1802|DEBUG|FalconBmsUniversalServer|Stopping to stream f16/rwr to 192.168.1.228:54298
2022-02-16 15:50:15.1802|DEBUG|FalconBmsUniversalServer|Starting to stream f16/left-mfd to 192.168.1.228:54298
2022-02-16 15:50:15.1802|DEBUG|StreamedTextureThread|“f16/left-mfd”: Refresh rate is: 30, Quality is: 80
2022-02-16 15:50:15.1802|DEBUG|FalconBmsUniversalServer|Starting to stream f16/right-mfd to 192.168.1.228:54298
2022-02-16 15:50:15.1802|DEBUG|StreamedTextureThread|“f16/right-mfd”: Refresh rate is: 30, Quality is: 80
2022-02-16 15:56:50.1607|INFO|FalconBmsUniversalServer|Peer disconnected from 192.168.1.228:54298
2022-02-16 15:56:52.7412|DEBUG|FalconBmsUniversalServer|Received 12 bytes from 192.168.1.228:45403
2022-02-16 15:56:52.8727|INFO|FalconBmsUniversalServer|Peer connected from 192.168.1.228:53940
2022-02-16 15:56:52.8727|DEBUG|FalconBmsUniversalServer|Starting to stream f16/ded to 192.168.1.228:53940
2022-02-16 15:56:52.8727|DEBUG|StreamedTextureThread|“f16/ded”: Refresh rate is: 30, Quality is: 80
2022-02-16 15:56:52.8727|DEBUG|FalconBmsUniversalServer|Starting to stream f16/rwr to 192.168.1.228:53940
2022-02-16 15:56:52.8727|DEBUG|StreamedTextureThread|“f16/rwr”: Refresh rate is: 30, Quality is: 80
2022-02-16 15:56:54.0277|DEBUG|FalconBmsUniversalServer|Stopping to stream f16/ded to 192.168.1.228:53940
2022-02-16 15:56:54.0277|DEBUG|FalconBmsUniversalServer|Stopping to stream f16/rwr to 192.168.1.228:53940
2022-02-16 15:56:54.0277|DEBUG|FalconBmsUniversalServer|Starting to stream f16/left-mfd to 192.168.1.228:53940
2022-02-16 15:56:54.0277|DEBUG|StreamedTextureThread|“f16/left-mfd”: Refresh rate is: 30, Quality is: 80
2022-02-16 15:56:54.0277|DEBUG|FalconBmsUniversalServer|Starting to stream f16/right-mfd to 192.168.1.228:53940
2022-02-16 15:56:54.0277|DEBUG|StreamedTextureThread|“f16/right-mfd”: Refresh rate is: 30, Quality is: 80</pre> -
<p>A bit more info on the disconnects which leads to the app freezing:<br /></p><ul><li>The disconnects occur more frequently in Multiplayer than in SP</li><li>My computer has a cabled connection to the router</li><li>Restarting the server program does not make a difference, only restarting the app makes a difference. So it seems to be an issue with the app dropping connection to the server program, (rather than the server dropping connection to BMS)</li></ul><p><br />Sometimes after a while the app will restart on its own (shows “Discovering server…”) which then makes it work again (until the next disconnect). Would be nice to have a button on the app to force a reconnect. Could simply push that every 5 minutes or so :-)<br /><br />One thing I will try next is WiFi-direct or use the PC as wifi hotspot for the tablet to connect to …</p>
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<p>@jayb Can you try setting the quality lower? 80 is actually pretty high and quite demanding on the network side of things… Try 65 or so, you should not get too many artifacts.<br /><br />Plus you can dramatically speed up reconnects by entering your PC’s IP in the settings now, if it does not constantly change.<br /><br />In the mean time, I’ll see if I can get a proper fix for the network contention problem (because as far as I can tell, that’s what happens). The protocol itself is connection-less and should not care about dropped RTT frames…</p>
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<p>@kungfoo thanks for the suggestions - I will try them and see if it makes a difference <br /><br />-JayB</p>
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<p>I tried with the IP of my PC in the settings and a setting of 65 for quality. Unfortunately, the app still freezes after a while with the buttons responsive but no MFD images <br /><br />-JayB</p>
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<p>@jayb I assume the beta version of the server helped quite a bit, right?</p>
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<p>@kungfoo hi I responded in Discord sorry for not putting it up here as well. The beta was better and I could sense it recovering a couple of times. Unfortunately the app froze with the beta as well, although it put up a better fight than the current version. Let me know if or how I can help further </p>
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<p>@kungfoo<strong> - thank you for this app. It is great, simple and just works!!</strong><br /><br />Thank you.</p>
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<blockquote>The <strong>beta</strong> was <strong>better</strong> and it put up a <strong>better</strong> fight…<br /><br /></blockquote><p><em>HAHAHA…!</em> Most excellent…!!</p>
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<blockquote>@kungfoo hi I responded in Discord sorry for not putting it up here as well. The beta was better and I could sense it recovering a couple of times. Unfortunately the app froze with the beta as well, although it put up a better fight than the current version. Let me know if or how I can help further </blockquote><p><br />Did another test today with quality at 50 - worked better. The log mentions a few instances of stopping the MFD stream (eg. <span style=“color:#d4d4d4”>FalconBmsUniversalServer|Stopping to stream f16/left-mfd</span>) but it picks it up again after 2-3 seconds. <br /><br />Could it be that the stream-stops are connected to how complex the MFD graphics is? For instance, a HSD has only few details, so the bitmap is simple (small?), while a TGP picture is more complex? A demanding scenario would then be boresighting mavs, in which the TGP is on one MFD and the WPN page has the Maverick camera image on the other - I would suppose that could put a lot of strain on the packet size<br />@kungfoo <br />Anyway, I will run with Quality at 50 for now.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></p>
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<p>Well done @kungfoo for the lovely app! It has a small issue, at least to me. Sometimes it freezes, disconnects and tries to find the server… Any possible solutions to that? Can we add a static IP for the app???</p>