Bluetooth flickering devices with Harmony

Hi

I’m having issues with my Harmony remote and the Mini Neo U1.
The Bluetooth device list keeps flickering and sometimes goes blank. I’m using the Hamony with the device Microsoft Kodi (though I’ve also tried Microsoft Windows 10 with no difference).

The Harmony remote appears with the right MAC address in the BT list and the Harmony remote tells me to use the Android Harmony app to pair the device. This is where the behaviour starts to get flaky - sometimes the app just says “Connecting” for ages, sometimes it appears to have worked as CE says the device is connected, but neither the app nor the Harmony remote butttons work.

I’ve tried deleting the device, refresh, Trust and Connect etc. but nothing seems to work. Sometimes CE hangs and then goes to the Movies menu option. It used to work fine ages ago but something has changed …

Another thread suggested these cmds but they appear to make no difference:

systemctl status bluetooth

? bluetooth.service - Bluetooth service
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service; disabled; vendor p
Active: active (running) since Fri 2020-05-08 21:09:49 UTC; 10min ago
Main PID: 2910 (bluetoothd)
Status: “Running”
Memory: 1.2M
CGroup: /system.slice/bluetooth.service
±2910 /usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd

May 08 21:09:49 b-bed-coreelec-u1 systemd[1]: Started Bluetooth service.
May 08 21:09:49 b-bed-coreelec-u1 bluetoothd[2910]: Bluetooth daemon 5.50
May 08 21:09:49 b-bed-coreelec-u1 bluetoothd[2910]: Starting SDP server
May 08 21:09:49 b-bed-coreelec-u1 bluetoothd[2910]: Bluetooth management interfa
May 08 21:09:49 b-bed-coreelec-u1 bluetoothd[2910]: Failed to read advertising f
May 08 21:09:49 b-bed-coreelec-u1 bluetoothd[2910]: Endpoint registered: sender=
May 08 21:09:49 b-bed-coreelec-u1 bluetoothd[2910]: Endpoint registered: sender=
May 08 21:09:49 b-bed-coreelec-u1 bluetoothd[2910]: hci0 Load Connection Paramet
May 08 21:10:55 b-bed-coreelec-u1 bluetoothd[2910]: No cache for 42:61:52:B5:B7:

b-bed-coreelec-u1:~ # bluetoothctl --version
bluetoothctl: 5.50

Log files pasted to http://ix.io/2ljQ

you mean the Minix Neo U1 probably, with the s905 standard quad core cpu. If i were you i would either downgrade the ce version, or upgrade the mediaplayer to an s905x2 or s905x3.

Thanks yes it is a Minix Neo U1, which was a recommended Kodi box of reasonable quality. I’m intrigued why lowering the CE version would help. Is the S905 getting too long in the tooth for even the basic OS?

I actually do have a x905x3 and the BT behaviour on that is slightly flaky in that the list of BT devices varies wildly and it has to be left to settle down before the Harmony hub appears. Granted it does not flicker though. There also needs to be a lot of Harmony hub syncing and restarting of the activity before it magically manages to appear and then pair/connect/trust successfully.

you said it used to work, so maybe an ce update has caused the bug.

It’s a long time since I paired the remote and there’s been several CE releases since.
I’ve no idea if that part of the code has changed.
I’ll dig out an earlier one and see if there’s been a regression.