Acknowledged
CIQQA-3377

impossible to keep ANT+ sensors paired to the simulator

I'm running Connect IQ Device Simulator 8.2.2 the most recent version on my Mac, and I have a Garmin ANT+ stick.

I'm able to pair ANT+ sensors; but I have no idea how to keep them paired.

Currently the flow goes like this:

- Start datafield simulator

- Open Settings -> Manage Sensors menu

- Search and pair ANT+ sensors (this process kills the running app, but does allow me to pair the sensors).

- But now we have to somehow restart our app because the app is not running; so I kill the simulator and restart it

- Now my app is running but my ANT+ sensors are all in the "Disconnected" state. There is no obvious way to get them to search mode or reconnect without going through the same flow as before which will kill my app; clicking Unpair or RemoveAll will kill the app. Then I can repair the sensors but I will have to reboot the simulator to get my app running again and then it will not be disconnected.

Sometimes, with shear luck, when I restart the simulator my app will be successfully paired with the ANT+ sensor(s). No idea why this sometimes works, it's about 1 in 20. Makes it very cumbersome to test and develop locally. Am i doing something wrong? What is the recommended approach to get your app restarted after the pairing menu kills the app?

Parents
  • On a related note, the Eclipse Monkey C plugin allowed you to start the sim without running an app. It's too bad they took this feature away from the VS Code extension, as it would be more convenient for your use case (where you want to manage sensors before running the app).

    Sure, you could start the simulator by running the exe in the SDK bin/ folder, but that causes an annoying "extra" console window to open as well.

    Anyway, to be clear, the simulator can be started without running an app, and an app can be run multiple times without restarting the sim. The sim doesn't close (or need to close) after an app is killed.

Comment
  • On a related note, the Eclipse Monkey C plugin allowed you to start the sim without running an app. It's too bad they took this feature away from the VS Code extension, as it would be more convenient for your use case (where you want to manage sensors before running the app).

    Sure, you could start the simulator by running the exe in the SDK bin/ folder, but that causes an annoying "extra" console window to open as well.

    Anyway, to be clear, the simulator can be started without running an app, and an app can be run multiple times without restarting the sim. The sim doesn't close (or need to close) after an app is killed.

Children
  • Thanks!!

    Yeah, there's multiple things here making it confusing...

    First, in the ConnectIQ Device Simulator nav bar File menu, there's no way to "Restart App" and the button to "Reset Simulator" seems to do nothing.

    Second, like you said, if go to the VS code nav bar Run menu, (without first closing the simulator, so I still have the simulator open), and then if click "Start Debugging" or "Run without Debugging" these sometimes don't work. Now that I know the trick i'll just keep clicking those until the app actually reboots in the simulator without closing the simulator.