wgnoyes Posted November 4, 2013 Share Posted November 4, 2013 (edited) I decided this part of practiscore needed its own separate topic. Observations from South River Gun Club Nov 2013 match. Populating the list of devices on the sync screen DOES work, eventually, some day..., but it works so slowly on the nook as to still be called broken. Unless you know to just go ahead and set them all up ahead of time, go into sync and let them just sit there and churn for 3 to 5 MINUTES, it's very easy to assume, after going to the screen and watching the graphic circle spin and spin and spin, that this feature doesn't work at all. But once the list does get filled, the benefit of this feature is quite clear, especially for initial provisioning of the nooks during the shooter meeting. If you have your nooks already up and going ahead of time, sitting on this screen with the list pre-populated (making sure your master is one of the devices on the list), then it is so very simple to just go from nook to nook, tapping on the line entry for the master device, and hit the accept cmdbutton to bring over the match, and you don't have to pick up each one and painfully key in that damn device code! It speeds up the provisioning time immensely and goes a long way towards reducing the stress and pressure associated with this point in the match. You just have to get things set up ahead of time and allow for the fact that nooks are going to fill this list VERY slowly. I also got ahold of someone's real android phone yesterday and tried the sync screen on his. A real android device such as this creates the list in just a few seconds, just like ios. So I think we can put the last nail in the coffin of the idea that nooks are anything but slower than every other practiscore-capable device on the planet. I mean, when you can use the time of day as displayed on the status bar to time how long it takes to perform this function, THAT'S SLOW! Now, if anyone would care to guess why a device would show up on the list twice (running 1.2.5), guess away! Edited November 4, 2013 by wgnoyes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim/GA Posted November 5, 2013 Share Posted November 5, 2013 I have seen the same thing Bill. I use a Verizon hotspot (puck) for syncing at the range and between sometimes having troubles getting a nook or 2 to hook up the the puck (limited to 5 devices at a time and I think there are times some phones are trying to hook up- but is password protected) and then the device list not refreshing it does get to be stressful. I had not thought about just typying in the device code like before though. Will try that if one or two do this again. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Norman Posted November 5, 2013 Share Posted November 5, 2013 we use the Zytel battery powered router. List populates quick enuf but that is in 1.2.9 which has other problems. Sure is nice feature. Even if not as fast as it could be Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgnoyes Posted November 5, 2013 Author Share Posted November 5, 2013 (How do you have 1.2.9? The website lists 1.2.8.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgnoyes Posted November 5, 2013 Author Share Posted November 5, 2013 Well ultimately at South River, we need to do what Chris Wren tried at the range one month (which worked VERY well), and run a couple of his recommended outdoor router/extenders up the flagpole to get match-wide continuous coverage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Norman Posted November 5, 2013 Share Posted November 5, 2013 Dumbass that I am, I typed the wrong number in. I had 1.2.8, I am waiting for 1.2.9 to fix the problems in 1.2.8 and am vurrently running 1.2.5 courtesy of yourself Bill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHA-LEE Posted November 5, 2013 Share Posted November 5, 2013 If it takes more time for a Nook to auto-populate the device list than it does to simply type in the sync code of the device you want to sync with, then its a useless feature. When you need to sync between devices you need to do it NOW, not go into the sync screen and wait multiple minutes for the auto-populate stuff to start working. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgnoyes Posted November 5, 2013 Author Share Posted November 5, 2013 (edited) If it takes more time for a Nook to auto-populate the device list than it does to simply type in the sync code of the device you want to sync with, then its a useless feature. When you need to sync between devices you need to do it NOW, not go into the sync screen and wait multiple minutes for the auto-populate stuff to start working. Well… that's correct, hence my statement that it is reasonable to consider it as still being broken. But as I've already described, it's VERY USEFUL for initial provisioning of the nooks from the master. You just have to plan your tasks well enough to have the stage nooks and iOS master already up and running and churning away on the lists while registration/checkin is taking place. Then when shooters' meeting is call, not having to painfully key in those silly device codes into your nooks is a HUGE time saver and stress reliever. And when I "broken", some might conclude that there could be a fix. Somehow, I don't think so. I believe this is a hardware limitation of the nooks, which are being pressed into service to do something for which they were never intended. Take the same version of practiscore and run it on a real android phone or tablet and the sync list builds in just a few seconds. Try it on a nook, and you have time to get a cup of coffee from the Keurig. Edited November 5, 2013 by wgnoyes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark R Posted November 5, 2013 Share Posted November 5, 2013 Bill and others...has anyone tried the FastMode.apk to speed up the Nooks? I discovered the apk on the web, downloaded, and scanned for viruses, but haven't tried loading it yet. There is a youtube video also if you search for "Nook Fast mode" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgnoyes Posted November 6, 2013 Author Share Posted November 6, 2013 I'd have to ask Chris to evaluate the appropriateness of that to our rooting system, which is based on the graphical nook manager. I don't logically understand how adding an additional layer of software could speed things up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark R Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 Bill...it's really not a software layer, just an app that changes a system setting...here is some of the text file that came with it... *************** added a parameter (/ sys/devices/platform/omap3epfb.0/graphics/fb0/fmode) that can enable a new fast mode.By default starts at 0, so it works very much as always (although I modified some behavior, I have to do more tests), and if we put it to 1 enables a new faster mode I have also created a small program that will allow us to switch between the two modes (I use the Reading now button for it)*************** So the app is just to switch it on and off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgnoyes Posted November 6, 2013 Author Share Posted November 6, 2013 Oh okay. I suppose I can sacrifice a nook to trying that; they're easy enough now with rootnscoreit to restore. Do you have a direct link? I can't find it; the youtube video just seems to show a full rooting system with a nook trying to act like an iOS device, that is, it seemed oriented towards graphics rather than subtle internal tweaks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark R Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 Bill, I Sent you a PM for your email...I'll reply with the apk file. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHA-LEE Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 It would be interesting to see what the "Fast Mode" screen refresh does to the battery life. I would assume that drastically increasing the refresh rate will have a negative impact to the battery run time. If the battery run time goes from weeks to less than a day, its probably not a good idea to switch to a Fast Mode screen refresh setting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgnoyes Posted November 7, 2013 Author Share Posted November 7, 2013 Doesn't do anything. Screen just flashes once. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark R Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 Well that sucks...guess you can't believe everything you read on the wondernet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgnoyes Posted November 9, 2013 Author Share Posted November 9, 2013 That's okay. Gave me a chance to use rootnscoreit to reset to factory and then try rooting without going through initial B&N setup. Worked. Though you still have to manually setup wireless afterward and still put in a device name into practiscore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Smith Posted March 14, 2014 Share Posted March 14, 2014 (edited) This may or may not have any bearing on this but... This week, I updated to Practiscore 1.2.12 and was pleased to see that Sync was now working fairly fast. One problem I've had with the Nooks is that once out of range of my portable router, they disconnect and may or may not reconnect (without manual intervention) when back in range. So one thing I tested was changing the router to use MAC address filtering - this was something recommended for the Nooks, unrelated to Practiscore, on a different web site. The MAC address filtering did, in fact, result in all the Nooks reconnecting much faster. But, now the Sync function in Practiscore doesn't seem to find anything even after quite some time and several attempts. After turning MAC filtering off, the Sync function now seems to work. --------------- BTW, it appears that after the Practiscore upgrade, all of my 4 character device codes have changed. Edited March 14, 2014 by Graham Smith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgnoyes Posted March 14, 2014 Author Share Posted March 14, 2014 I have no ideas there. We've installed a range-wide wifi network and our nooks (1.2.12 and rootnscoreit) without specified Mac addresses appear on the sync lists by themselves and they stay there, and if they fall off the air for a minute for whatever reason, they come back on by themselves. You've.... had a time with this aspect of it over the months! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdphotoguy Posted March 14, 2014 Share Posted March 14, 2014 Graham Smith, what type of router are you using? I'm not using MAC filtering, but do assign static IP address to all the Nooks and master devices based on MAC address. This seems to help with the Sync list refresh speeding up and Nooks reattaching to the network after going out of range. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Smith Posted March 14, 2014 Share Posted March 14, 2014 You've.... had a time with this aspect of it over the months! I just finished doing another test and it appears that if the disconnect is only a short time, it will reconnect. But if it's quite a bit of time, it won't reconnect unless you click on the spot on the bar where the network icon should be and then uncheck/recheck the WiFi button. It's rather as if the Nook stops trying to reconnect after a while. It's also possible that it's something about the Access Point, but I've had similar results with my office wireless router. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Smith Posted March 14, 2014 Share Posted March 14, 2014 BTW, I'm using a ZyXel travel router in AP mode. It doesn't have the ability to set static IP address regardless of mode so that option is out. I have a spare wireless router sitting around somewhere that may have that ability so it might be worth a test later. With a match tomorrow I'm done messing with things for now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Smith Posted March 14, 2014 Share Posted March 14, 2014 (edited) DAMN... Just had the strangest thing happen. After waiting for quite some time while nothing connected, I forced the Master to reconnect. Then I got distracted for a few minutes and when I came back, all the Nooks had reconnected. I smell another experiment here. --------------- I also just noticed that the Device Codes changed again. How are these derived? Edited March 14, 2014 by Graham Smith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve_P Posted March 14, 2014 Share Posted March 14, 2014 (edited) The sync codes appear to be generated based on the ip address. I don't know the specific algorithim, but i charted out a few in this sheet: Practiscore Sync Codes by IP.pdf Edited March 14, 2014 by Steve_P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sperman Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 It looks like they are just converting the number to hex. 01=1, the third triplet in the ip address. 2E=46, the fourth triplet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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