Leica Fotos + SL2 + Hearing aids

[Jean-Michel]

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Interesting, and annoying, finding: I very recently acquired a really excellent pair of Oticon hearing aids. These are Bluetooth enabled. 

I installed the latest firmware (4.1) on my SL2.

I tried all that one can try to get Bluetooth to turn ON in the camera. Not, nothing worked.

This morning, I went down my studio minus haring aids but withy iPhone and lo and behold the Bluetooth showed up as ON in the camera; then Fotos and the camera communicated. I then fetched my hearing aids, turned them on, and the Fotos-SL2 link remained.

Just now, I returned to my studio with my hearing aids on. Guess what: the Bluetooth still shows ON in the camera, but Fotos cannot communicate with it.

Assuming that my findings are indeed the reason for the issue, I can work around it but it is annoying.

Jean-Michel

[beewee]

The Bluetooth LE connection on the SL2 is only for use with the FOTOs app for things like Geotagging. It doesn’t support audio.

Bluetooth comes in many different flavours and profiles so not all devices support all profiles. For example, a heart rate monitor will support bluetooth but just because it has bluetooth it doesn’t mean you can connect headphones or hearing aids to it… though that would be pretty hilarious if you could.

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[Jean-Michel]

Improbable as it may seem, there does appear to be a conflict between FOTOS and my hearings aids iPhone app. This is a copy of what i wrote to the technician at Leica who tried to help me:

I think that I have diagnosed the issue I have. It appears that, as improbable as it is, that the issue is some sort of conflict between Fotos and my hearing aids application. Here is what  found, and that may possibly help some of your other clients.:

 

Today, I was able to establish the Fotos-SL2 communication between my iPad and the SL2. Connect, disconnect…

 

Then I tried to connect my iPhone. Nope!

 

Reconnect the iPad without difficulty.

I then downloaded Fotos onto my spouse’s iPhone (same model as mine). Connecting with the SL2 without a problem.

My iPhone: nope! 

 

My diagnostic:

I now wear hearing aids (Oticon) that are Bluetooth enabled and can be controlled by an Oticon app on my iPhone. It seems that this is why Fotos does not function when the Oticon app is running.

 

A couple of days ago I was able to connect my iPhone’s Fotos to my SL2 by having my hearings aids OFF, and by making them “Forget this device” in my iPhone Settings. Once I disconnected Fotos, and reconnected my hearing aids and app, re-establishing the Fotos connection became impossible.

 

I will need to rely on my iPad for any remote control of my camera via Fotos. It is not really an inconvenience. especially not compared to the ‘inconveniences’ suffers by my relatives in Ukraine these days!

 

I also find the Fotos display of controls better on the iPad, for instance, one has to hunt a bit to find the ‘disconnect’ toggle on the iPhone version.

 

 

[laowai_]

Jean-Michel, 

It looks like you are running into limitations of the Bluetooth implementation on your phone.
 

Based on what you describe it looks like your phone only allows a point to point connection. In other words you can only connect one Bluetooth device to your phone at a time. As you showed, you need release one connection before establishing a new one. 

My understanding is that the Bluetooth protocol (or at least some flavors of Bluetooth) allow star and mesh architecture, apparently this is not implemented in your phone. 

Manufacturers do these kind of things because wireless high speed connections are very ‘expensive’ in the sense of using a lot of power. For handheld devices you get a lot more complaints about battery lifetime than about not being able to connecting two or more devices…

 

[slowpic]

A somewhat cumbersome workaround would be using an old or unused phone for the sl2 - you wouldn't need a sim card for that. Thus two phones - but no conflict…

[Jean-Michel]

5 hours ago, slowpic said:

A somewhat cumbersome workaround would be using an old or unused phone for the sl2 - you wouldn't need a sim card for that. Thus two phones - but no conflict…

We’ll, I do have a couple of old dial phones, but you can’t run apps on those 😂

As it happens, using my iPad will make more sense anyway. So it is not really an issue for me.