Troubleshooting steps
I picked up a 5-pack of Metawear boards and have to say I am a little frustrated at the sparse documentation. I've read through the getting started guides and community discussions but there doesn't seem to be any indication of what to do when the boards simply don't respond (To BT scans, button presses, battery charging, etc.). --It doesn't help that USB is unusable for any kind of debugging or even an indication that the board is live when plugged into USB.
I've tried connecting all 5 (One at a time) to batteries, charging them via USB, trying to get any indication of life from the boards but they don't appear when I scan for BT devices, whether using the Android sample app or the system BT scans. I've used a Nexus 7 (Running 4.4.4), an iPad Air (7.1.1), and other BT hosts without any sign of the boards when scanning. I'm unsure whether I got a bad batch or whether I'm missing something because there is no response at all from the boards, whether the batteries and motors are connected or not. Sure would be nice if the LED would come on when charging or there were other means of indicating the board was active aside from BT... I'm accustomed to pressing a button to initiate pairing but there's no documentation to indicate how to do this for the Metawear platform.
I've tried connecting all 5 (One at a time) to batteries, charging them via USB, trying to get any indication of life from the boards but they don't appear when I scan for BT devices, whether using the Android sample app or the system BT scans. I've used a Nexus 7 (Running 4.4.4), an iPad Air (7.1.1), and other BT hosts without any sign of the boards when scanning. I'm unsure whether I got a bad batch or whether I'm missing something because there is no response at all from the boards, whether the batteries and motors are connected or not. Sure would be nice if the LED would come on when charging or there were other means of indicating the board was active aside from BT... I'm accustomed to pressing a button to initiate pairing but there's no documentation to indicate how to do this for the Metawear platform.
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Comments
For others who may be in a similar situation at when starting out... This may seem obvious but you need a recent Android device supporting BLE (And the sample 'droid app or a BLE scanner), or a BLE scanner on a IOS 7.1+ device to be able to see the devices; a scan for BT devices using the built-in BT settings is _not_ the same as a BLE scan! Since Mbientlab has not released a binary for the IOS sample app (Due no doubt to Apple's tight grip on the app review and release process) the only way to "see" your MW device on IOS without building the sample app is via a free 3rd-party BLE scanner tool such as "LightBlue" (No affiliation with the developer, just know that it works).
Key takeaways are that the MW devices give zero feedback that they are functional except for the use of a BLE-compatible app. No LED comes on when charging or at the completion of a charge; the battery level can be seen via Lightblue, not sure about other BLE scanners. They are also always discoverable via a BLE scan, so it's not necessary to put them in pairing mode to "see" them when scanning.