7 years, 7 months ago.

Why would iPad lose connection with BLE device when it was working fine before?

I am using STM's BLE expansion board, X-NUCLEO-IDB04A1, coupled with a Nucleo board and had it communicating out of the box with blinking lights. I even got it to pair with my iPad to control some motors. All seemed great until I took drone to the park and it got away from me. I had to chase it down and prevent it from crashing into strangers. I checked to see if BLE is still connected to the network on Ipad and of course, it was not. I couldn't even find the device on my iPad anymore. I loss all control of the drone and after getting a hold of it to disconnect the battery, I thought twice about my code and tried to protect myself from this embarrassment again by telling the motors to slow to a dead stop if BLE connection is loss.

Then, took it out to play again it did the same thing. Clearly the code didn't work or I have a hardware problem somewhere. It seems the drone is still connected in someway (not to my iPad) because it is maintaining the last user inputs. I was definitely not out of signal range because I was 15 ft from it line of sight.

Does anybody no where the problem lies. How do I determine if it's a software issue or a hardware issue? I am leaning towards the hardware side thinking I may have some loose wires, electrical noise, etc. What would cause Bluetooth connection to disappear on the iPad, user to lose all control, and the drone to continue its last known path?