Tasker Beta: BT Near state

[Pent]

Please only posts about the BT Near state here.

Thanks,

Pent

[Bill Scruggs]

BT Near works on my Galaxy S4 now!!!!!!

Thanks!

[Pent]

BTW, BT LE support is now marked 'experimental'. The BT stack is terrible to work with and
bug-ridden, at least on my N5.

Pent

[Pent]

BT Near works on my Galaxy S4 now!!!!!!

Could you give details e.g. does it work without the 'Unpaired' option checked when the devices aren't
discoverable ? And I presume you mean standard rather than LE ?

Pent

[Bill Scruggs]

Its working on my paired devices. Standard devices only-- LE and Unpaired not checked. I was having the problem with some profiles causing it not to work. Example, If it was the only profile it worked, but if others were added it stopped working. It works on my Smartwatch 2, Car stereo, and Galaxy Tab 2. If you need me to test anything further let me know. Now the FUN starts, getting rid of all the work-arounds I made...

Thanks for the great support

On Sunday, February 9, 2014 12:07:33 PM UTC-5, Pent wrote:

[Bill Scruggs]

Pent

Further testing. Unpaired devices works also but only if other device is discoverable. 

Major Device   Any

Standard Devices Checked

LE    Unchecked

Unpaired Checked

On Sunday, February 9, 2014 12:07:33 PM UTC-5, Pent wrote:

[Pent]

Further testing. Unpaired devices works also but only if other device is discoverable. 

That's expected. If the details of a device aren't known and it stays quiet there's no way to
see if it's there.

Pent

[Ryan Anderson]

Downloaded new beta and BT near working perfectly on nexus 4 KitKat. I'm using to turn on WiFi tether when my laptop (standard bluetooth) turns on. Thanks Pent

[easiuser]

I set up the following profile and kept the two devices in close proximity.  The profile will toggle between active and inactive on a regular basis.  After reviewing the run log it goes inactive after 350 +/-1 sec and returns to active after another 250 +/-1 sec continuously during a 2 hour test.

I thought it may be related to monitor preferences which are set to BT Scan 120 seconds and BT Minumum Timeout 30 seconds.

Thoughts?

Profile: BTNearHS4 (350)

State: BT Near [ Name:(SPH-L720) Address:F0:72:8C:8B:5C:EA Major Device Class:Any Standard Devices:On Low-Energy (LE) Devices:Off Unpaired Devices:Off Toggle BlueTooth:Off ]

Enter: Anon (351)

A1: Vibrate [ Time:200 ] 

A2: Write File [ File:data/User/States/Log.txt Text:%DATE %TIME - BT Near HS4 Append:On Add Newline:On ] 

A3: Flash [ Text:Near BT HS4 Long:Off ] 

Exit: Anon (343)

A1: Vibrate [ Time:200 ] 

A2: Write File [ File:data/User/States/Log.txt Text:%DATE %TIME - BT NOT Near HS4 Append:On Add Newline:On ] 

A3: Flash [ Text:Lost BT HS4 Long:Off ] 

[easiuser]

Update.  I doubled the Scan and Minimum Timeouts and it stopped toggling.  Will have to work with these values to optimize.

[Pent]

It's almost certainly the timeout that's the problem.

Tasker should adjust upwards when nothing is found, but I have the max set at 30 for b4/5, will up it to 45
(the user min timeout overrides the hard-coded max however).

Pent

[nephilim]

 Hi Pent,

I couldn't access the BT near help page and need some clarification.

I'm not sure I fully understand what's BT Near is doing, so here are a few statements which are either right or wrong :-)

- For actions once a BT device is connected I should/could use the state BT connected instead of BT Near.
- If devices are not connected and bluetooth is active already, BT Near is used w/o the toggle box ticked
- If devices are not connected and bluetooth is not switched on, BT Near is used with the toggle box ticked for tasker's own scanning method
- Without active BT and the toggle box unchecked no BT device can be detected

Thanks

Torsten

[Pent]

I couldn't access the BT near help page and need some clarification.

You need to use the downloaded version of the docs.

- For actions once a BT device is connected I should/could use the state BT connected instead of BT Near.

Yes. Could and should, less power.

- If devices are not connected and bluetooth is active already, BT Near is used w/o the toggle box ticked

Yes, if it's already on all the time no need to toggle.
 

- If devices are not connected and bluetooth is not switched on, BT Near is used with the toggle box ticked for tasker's own scanning method

Yes.
 

- Without active BT and the toggle box unchecked no BT device can be detected

Correct.

Pent

 

[Joseph Richman]

A couple I suppose you could call them feature requests:

First, instead of having the timeout for declaring a device not seen as approximately 2 times the scan time, could it be some sort of condition "If device isn't seen in 15 seconds, deactivate profile"

Secondly, I noticed that the profiles don't drop to inactive immediately if bluetooth is turned off. This I assume has to do with how the devices aren't being removed until the condition of approximately 2 times the length of scan time is met. It would be nice to have a way for BT Near to deactivate profiles immediately if there's no way for them to activate with bluetooth off (That is they can't toggle it on)

[Pent]

First, instead of having the timeout for declaring a device not seen as approximately 2 times the scan time, could it be some sort of condition "If device isn't seen in 15 seconds, deactivate profile"

It has to be a multiple of the scan time and would have to be a global setting. 15 seconds would also be way too small, a standard device discovery takes at least 12 seconds, plus possible time to turn on BT.

Secondly, I noticed that the profiles don't drop to inactive immediately if bluetooth is turned off. This I assume has to do with how the devices aren't being removed until the condition of approximately 2 times the length of scan time is met.

Just because BT is (temporarily ?) off, doesn't mean the devices aren't there.

If you don't want your profiles active when BT is on, just add an extra context to them.

Pent

[Cameron DeCoster]

Does the BT Near state only work with one device at a time? In other words, could I enter multiple BT addresses (or names) to trigger the profile or would I have to create multiple different profiles, each with one BT device listed?

[Pent]

Does the BT Near state only work with one device at a time? In other words, could I enter multiple BT addresses (or names) to trigger the profile or would I have to create multiple different profiles, each with one BT device listed?

The device name and address fields are pattern matches, so you can match multiple devices with e.g. deviceonename/devicetwoname/devicethreename.

See Pattern Matching in the userguide for more options.

Pent

[Cameron DeCoster]

I asked the question because right now, if you select the "Add Device" button (the magnifying glass), it clears the previous entry and only inputs the device you selected. Other places I've used this button in Tasker it will automatically add the / and the device name to whatever is already listed (for example, the Calendar field in the Calendar Entry State). In other words, it would go from DEVICE1 to DEVICE1/DEVICE2 upon selecting a second device. If the current behavior is correct, then thanks for your input. If it isn't, then I guess it's a bug and now you know about it. At any rate, thanks for adding this feature. Let me know if you'd like any more information.

[Pent]

I asked the question because right now, if you select the "Add Device" button (the magnifying glass), it clears the previous entry and only inputs the device you selected. Other places I've used this button in Tasker it will automatically add the / and the device name to whatever is already listed (for example, the Calendar field in the Calendar Entry State). In other words, it would go from DEVICE1 to DEVICE1/DEVICE2 upon selecting a second device. If the current behavior is correct, then thanks for your input. If it isn't, then I guess it's a bug and now you know about it. At any rate, thanks for adding this feature. Let me know if you'd like any more information.

If that's so it's a bug, will check.

Pent

[David Stein]

From what I've read it seems that the development cycle for the BT Near feature has been difficult at best.  I began to mess with it last week (late to the game again) and I can tell you that I have not encountered any problems and I never realized just how much this one feature would change a lot of my day to day use of Tasker.  I'm primarily using a Galaxy Note 2 N7100 in case that is of interest.  I know that I missed the most difficult days of development and bug hunting this feature only to enjoy it now, but it's really a fantastic addition and greatly appreciated.

Dave

On Sunday, February 9, 2014 12:07:33 PM UTC-5, Pent wrote:

[Pent]

Phew, when I saw a post on this thread thought I was going to have to go digging around again!

Pent

[Nick]

Hi does BT Near work while your phone is locked? 

Is there a way to make it so? I have the toggle bluetooth option checked but it seems like it only runs the tasker profile when I unlock the phone.

[David Stein]

It seems to be working whether the screen is on or not.  I think I'll have to implement logging to be completely sure.  I've been using it in two ways.  One is with my car.  My car has the worst BT speakerphone ever and it always kicks off my preferred headset, even when I connect the headset after.  So what I did was pair the phone to the car, then uncheck the box to use it for phone calls.  So my car is essentially a signal to my phone to turn WiFi off and only ring the phone for starred contacts.  I had been using geofences with AutoLocation previously, but I find this to be a little more granular. In the week or so I've been doing this I haven't had any unexpected results which itself is unexpected - I NEVER seem to write anything in Tasker correctly the first time around.

The other thing I use it for is proximity locking my laptop, but only when I'm at work, not at home.  I use AutoRemote and Event Ghost for this.  I put a 30 delay on locking the laptop so that if I come back in range within that time, it won't lock.  Again, I have not had any unexpected results with this.  Who knows, maybe after 5 years I'm finally getting a little better with this stuff.

[Nick]

I don't think tasker can toggle Bluetooth while the phone is locked. Locked with a pin.

I waited a good minutes in my car to see if BT Near will recognize the Bluetooth and it did not.

As soon as I unlocked the phone then I saw the Bluetooth toggling on and it worked.

I really want to be able to keep my phone in my pocket locked and with the screen off and tasker be able to recognize BT Near and run the profile.

[Nick]

Meant to say a good 5 minutes

[Pent]

I waited a good minutes in my car to see if BT Near will recognize the Bluetooth and it did not.

As soon as I unlocked the phone then I saw the Bluetooth toggling on and it worked.

That doesn't logically follow that it's because BT can't be toggled.

Try turning BT on before you lock the phone to test that.

Pent

[Scott Miller]

I'm trying to use BT Near to detect when I turn on my BlueAnt Q3 earpiece. I leave bluetooth off to save battery, so I'm using the toggle option, and my task is intended to turn bluetooth on when a device is detected. When the scanning interval comes around, bluetooth turns on and immediately turns off. According to the help, my impression is that it should stay on for 10-15 seconds. It doesn't. I can see the profile activate, but it doesn't have enough time to detect the device. I've tried shortening the monitor settings with no effect. Is my understanding of this correct, or am I way off about how this should work? My intention is to be able to turn on bluetooth within a short period of time after I turn on my earpiece.

Galaxy S4
Android 4.3 stock
Root.

Profile: BT Active (18)
Restore: no
State: BT Near [ Name:BlueAnt Q3 V1.41 Address:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx Major Device Class:Any Standard Devices:On Low-Energy (LE) Devices:Off Unpaired Devices:Off Toggle BlueTooth:On ]
State: Variable Value [ Name:%PACTIVE Op:Doesn't Match Value:*,bt connected,* ]
Enter: BT Active Enter (100)
A1: Bluetooth [ Set:On ]

Scott

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[Pent]

I'm trying to use BT Near to detect when I turn on my BlueAnt Q3 earpiece. I leave bluetooth off to save battery, so I'm using the toggle option, and my task is intended to turn bluetooth on when a device is detected. When the scanning interval comes around, bluetooth turns on and immediately turns off. According to the help, my impression is that it should stay on for 10-15 seconds. It doesn't. I can see the profile activate,

Does it activate if the earpice is not on ?

Pent

[Scott Miller]

Oh, I see what you are asking. I'm not sure, but I will test it. If it's activating, then BT Near is actually detecting the device. I overlooked that. So if that is the case, then the enter task is not working for some reason. It works when I run it manually. I do have another profile that turns off bluetooth when the connection is dropped, but that is based on several conditions and should not play a role. I can turn on bluetooth whenever I want, and as long as I don't connect anything, stays on. If I connect something, then as soon as I disconnect, bluetooth gets turned off. I'm never getting an indication the bluetooth is connecting during this process, so I don't think that is coming into play. Maybe I just need a short delay before turning on bluetooth.

Scott

--

[Pent]

bluetooth whenever I want, and as long as I don't connect anything, stays on. If I connect something, then as soon as I disconnect, bluetooth gets turned off. I'm never getting an indication the bluetooth is connecting during this process, so I don't think that is coming into play. Maybe I just need a short delay before turning on bluetooth.

You need to look at the Run Log too to get a better idea what's going on there I think.

Pent

[Scott Miller]

Yeah, *blush*. I got so excited by a new feature that I couldn't see the obvious.

Anyway, run log shows that I am getting an error when trying to turn on bluetooth.

20140306 07.47.55 T Running  ID100    BT Active Enter
20140306 07.47.56 A OK       ID100.1  BT Active Enter.Wait
20140306 07.47.56 A Err      ID100.2  BT Active Enter.Bluetooth
20140306 07.47.56 T ExitErr  ID100    BT Active Enter

Is that another "feature" provided by Google? I can turn it off without a problem.

Scott

--

[Scott Miller]

There must be an internal collision. I increased my wait to 5 seconds, and Bluetooth turned on successfully. But my Q3 is so quick, it detected the Bluetooth on during the toggle and connected briefly, but then almost immediately was disconnected, and then didn't try again without intervention. At the moment, my brain can't think of a workaround for this behavior.

Oh, and now the profile won't deactivate, even though the device is turned off. I even turned off Bluetooth manually, but it came back on, because the enter task ran again.

Scott

[Scott Miller]

I'm giving up on this. I increased the timeout value for Bluetooth, to see if the connection can remain. When I enable this profile, my Wi-Fi connected state gets lost. Bluetooth gets turned on, even though the device is turned off. And the profile is not active. It's so strange I don't even know how to describe it in a way that makes sense. I only wanted to see if this could be accomplished, it's not really important to me at this point. I know others are having success with it, so there must something unique on my device that's causing trouble. And I won't rule out my own lack of understanding.

Scott

[56 Kruiser]

I'm wanting to get blue tooth near, so I tried to install the beta, but it doesn't install. I'm on Liquid Smooth 2.10, Android 4.3.1, on a Galaxy S III. I do have unknown sources on. It goes through the steps, but at the end it says Not Installed. Should it install?

[Matt R]

Do you have a regular validated copy of Tasker installed before installing the beta?

Matt

[Scott Miller]

You also need to choose the correct version of the beta, either direct purchase or play store version.

Scott

[keith twombley]

I am receiving errors from Tasker when I have a profile with a bt near state in it.

Tasker 4.3u3

Profile Name: Docked in Subaru

State 1: Power Wireless

+

State 2: BT Near (

name: OBDII

address:na

Major Device Class:Any

Standard: checked

Low-Energy: checked

Unpaired: unchecked

Toggle: unchecked

Invert: unchecked

)

I have a wireless charger in my car and a bluetooth OBDII adapter. The idea is that if my phone is getting wireless power and it is near the OBDII dongle, I want it to kick into car mode.

When I put my phone on my wireless charger at home (e.g. not near my OBDII adapter) I get these error messages when I reopen tasker:

Log Contents:

BTUtils: 13.58.30#BTUtils: error: getMahorDeviceClassName: unknown ID 2816

(sic)

Is this enough of a bug report, or is there more information you'd like?

[Pent]

BTUtils: 13.58.30#BTUtils: error: getMahorDeviceClassName: unknown ID 2816

2816 seems to be a combination of TOY and NETWORKING (by adding the numbers),
but the Android documentation and other references I have seen says that only a single
device class will be given.

I'm going to assume this is a bug in Android, but will change the log message to diagnostic
instead of error so it doesn't pop up, and will take the class as being UNCATEGORIZED.

Pent

[Pent]

p.s. could also be a bug in the device

Pent

[Rich Belthoff]

This may be dumb question, but I just want to make sure I understand how to use BT Near. I usually leave BT off on my phone. However, when I get in my car, I want Tasker to detect the car's BT and turn on BT and GPS (phone is rooted Galaxy S4 with Secure Settings). This works fine if I leave BT on (i.e., a profile with BT Near). However, I would prefer to use BT Near to detect the BT and turn on BT and GPS. It didn't work this morning. My phone was locked, though, with a PIN. In the profile for BT Near I have Name, Address, Major Device Class, and Standard Devices completed or checked. Do I also need to check Toggle BT so that every now and then Tasker turns on BT to see if a BT is near? Is that the trick?

 

I suppose I ought to also write some profiles that turn off my BT Near profile when I get to my office or home or maybe when I'm just standing still for a long period of time to avoid BT getting turned on and off all day and burning out the battery?

 

Thanks.

 

-Rich

On Friday, February 14, 2014 5:54:08 AM UTC-5, Pent wrote:

I couldn't access the BT near help page and need some clarification.

You need to use the downloaded version of the docs.

- For actions once a BT device is connected I should/could use the state BT connected instead of BT Near.

Yes. Could and should, less power.

- If devices are not connected and bluetooth is active already, BT Near is used w/o the toggle box ticked

Yes, if it's already on all the time no need to toggle.
 

- If devices are not connected and bluetooth is not switched on, BT Near is used with the toggle box ticked for tasker's own scanning method

Yes.
 

- Without active BT and the toggle box unchecked no BT device can be detected

Correct.

Pent

 

[David Stein]

You can't do BT near without BT being on.  How is the phone supposed to know it's near anything Bluetooth related when the Bluetooth radio isn't on?

The way I do BT near in my car, or rather the way I did before I bought a 3rd party Aptx adapter, is to pair your phone with the car and then on your phone, go to Bluetooth settings, then the settings for your car's BT device, and finally just uncheck the box next to the phone service.  Also if your car has a setting to automatically connect to your phone you could disable that - this is what I did in my Toyota.  It isn't a completely perfect system, especially if punctuality is a priority for you.  It can take my phone a number of minutes before the profile relying on BT near expires.

[Brad Minion]

Doesn't BT near have a Toggle BT option like Wifi Near does?

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[Rich Belthoff]

Yes, it does, and that's what I'm trying to understand. Does the toggle need to be on if BT is not on all the time by default? And is the same true for WiFi near? I thought both of these options were working, but then I discovered that in each case BT was already on or WiFi was already on and that's how BT Near and WiFi Near discovered available connections. I would like to live BT and WiFi off in general, but my thought is that BT Near & WiFi Near will work, or should work, if I select the BT/WiFi On toggle in the options for BT/WiFi Near. I tried the toggle WiFi Near this morning, but it didn't seem to work. I will keep testing. I also will keep testing with BT in my car. Thanks.

[Rich Belthoff]

If that's the case, then what utility does BT Near provide that BT Connected doesn't provide? My thought is that with BT Near, it will poll for BT nearby and if it finds the one I'm looking for it will turn on BT and connect to the BT. If I have to leave BT on all the time for BT Near to work, then that doesn't help me much because if BT is on it will just connect to my car when I start the car anyway (and I do want it to connect to the car). Thanks.

[Brad Minion]

" Does the toggle need to be on if BT is not on all the time by default? And is the same true for WiFi near?"

That's exactly what the toggle is for. If BT or Wifi is off, it toggles it on for the duration of the scan and then toggles it off again. I have not used BT near but I do use WiFi near and it's toggle worked fine for me. At least it used to. I now leave BT and WiFi on all the time. The only time that causes a battery issue is if I'm near a WiFi access point that I automatically connect to and it can't connect for some reason. That drains my battery quickly because it's constantly trying to connect.

[Otavio Bonder]

Hi all

I'm trying to turn on WiFi tether when I'm in my car. I set up Bt near to my OBDII device that is installed in my car. It's always discoverable. I tried with the device paired and unpaired, but both didn't work. Tried with my iPad also, but no luck.

I'm on cyanogenmod 11 on a galaxy s4, why is it not working?

Thanks

[Matt R]

Start by enabling and checking the run log (menu > more > run log).

Matt

[JK]

I have the same problem. My Samsung S4 only performs the task when i unlock my phone (pin). BT near only seem to work when the phone is unlocked.

Is there a setting i can change? Or a Tasker plugin that can help me with this? Thanks!