Scalextric Arc Pro: Bluetooth connection issues

[abendig]

Hey Guys,

warning wall of text incoming from a non-nativ speaker :)

 

So due to Covid my winter-break is much longer than normal this year and I decided to spend that extra free time to build a high track through my living room. Once I started and searched for new stuff that came out in the last couple of years it stumbled upon the Arc Pro and I found one on an amazon return site, long story short, I bought that one and integrated it in my track. It worked at first, or let's say I could drive with multiple cars and the power supply word fine as well (orange flashing LED on the ARC), so I moved on and purchased some other cars, integrated the digital-decoder and so on.

Now I'm at the point where I'm ready to race and I tried to connect the Arc Pro with the Control-App but unfortunately, that doesn't want to work. I get an error every time (BLE one and not the PIN one). I can see the Arc at my Bluetooth devices but I can't bound them without an App, so I tried switching to the Magic-app and the older Legacy, the same problem. Then I tried to update the firmware on the Arc but that doesn't work either for the same reason, cause I can't connect through Bluetooth when I'm using nRF. The next step I tried was trying to update the firmware via serial-USB, but same issue I can't see my Arc in the LightBlue-App either.

So my next thought was: Ok maybe it's a problem with the returned Arc system, so I bought a second one at Amazon just to see if that one works any different. That one arrived today and it didn't connect either. On top of that, this one won't work in general, it just switched to safe-mode (Red LED) whenever I plugged it in.

Now I'm here and just feel lost, I'm running out of ideas on how I can get this thing to work. I really need your wisdom guys. any help would be appreciated :)

 

Ah yeah one last thing to add: Yes I used different devices a Samsung Galaxy Tab s5e and a Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro. both have BLE comparability 

[Andy P.]

Woodcote covers connection issues in his "missing manual"

https://slotracer.online/community/showthread.php?tid=181&page=3

There are "dip switches" under the base that change the frequency used and that might help.

I know of at least one case where the Wifi was causing problems and getting the router to use a different frequency made it work.

Other troubleshooting things apply such as testing the powerbase alone, in a small oval, test in digital and analog mode, test analog only cars etc.

[abendig]

little update: I checked batch numbers on both. the first one, the one that's drivable is from week 35/18 and the 2nd one that came in today, is 35/17 so makes sense that the second one does nothing at all, cause I'm using the old corner-lane-changes.

 

now I turned down both of my router, tested all apps again and tested all possible combinations with the dip switches, still no connection possible but I feel like its something on my side. I tested the arc from 17 without track as well and it's exactly the same problem, no connection at all.

[Andy P.]

Apart from taking the track to someone elses house and trying a different device it sounds like you may have a dud... ::-(

[abendig]

I feel pretty dumb but I found the solution...

I knew that Android requires an authorization to use your location whenever an App wants to use your Bluetooth. So I gave them that but I discovered that the permission isn't enough you need to actually turn on your GPS... I turned it on and it works instantly. At least it's working now :D

[Andy P.]

Ah.. thank you soo much! That will help a lot of other people too!

Personally though I wonder why I have to put in GPS just to use BLuetooth... seems a bit Big Brother to me...