Nexus 4
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I used the included inlay and the read/write app several time to confirm the locations that work best. I also placed the stickers.
The phone works brilliantly with the loose inlay. Its rather poor with the ring itself. I've powered cycled several times now and can't get the ring to pick up on either tag. Its pretty strange.
I got it to read the actual ring maybe 4 times total and now nothing...
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Sounds very strange @confidence, pretty sure if the lose inlay isn't working something is really broken with NFC on your device :(
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I've seen a few posts regarding faulty NFC in these phones, with intermittent function.
I use an NFC tag on my keyring to unlock my phone...works every time.
When John posted about how flaky the normal ring was with the N4, I upgraded to the Alpha ring...hopefully someone get an Alpha soon to test things out.
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I've seen a few posts regarding faulty NFC in these phones, with intermittent function. Just to verify, is it now not working with either the ring or the loose inlay tag?
I'm also wondering if there is other software that is 'feature-adding' to the NFC function on the phone - I've seen reports that Samsung's Beam function can mess with normal operation for tag reading. Is there anything like that on your phone that might be activating after the phone has been running for a short while?
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Sorry, should have been clearer - I was referring to Confidence's intermittent issues. It's odd that it's working sometimes on initial power on and then stopping after that first time.
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I took the ring and tag to work with me today. I have a few coworkers who really want one of these and will be happy to help test it.
So far two people have tested it with their Galaxy S4s. We found out there was not hotspot data for the S4. We've fixed that little problem :mrgreen:
Looks like each phone is unique in how it reads. One S4 does well with the ring, the other doesn't but douse have a bit longer read range for the loose tag than the other one.
We did find that holding the ring to the Nexus for a few seconds on the sweet spot gets it to read more consistently. However, even then, it's not very reliable. Given what I've learned with the two S4s it could just be an issue with my phone.
I still suspect an alfa ring would do a lot better on the Nexus.
If you are interested, I'll try the ring with some more phones at lunch and see how they do compared to the Nexus and let you know. Like i said, there are quite a few people here who have been waiting to see how this works. I should have plenty of willing testers.
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Confidence, it will certainly be interesting to see if the Alpha ring changes the read performance. That's pretty cool with the test data, the dodgy S4 possibly has poor antenna connections on the battery or an aftermarket battery with a bad antenna.
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I've tried a host of different phones and tables with the ring now. none of them do very well.
With my phone its still rather hard to read. I find that the ring has to be perfectly flat against the phone to read. I also have to leave it there a while before it picks up. It seems to help if i slowly move it left or right on the sweetspot if it hasn't picked up after about 3 seconds. If the ring is tilted in any way it doesn't read at all.
Ironically the larger tag is the hardest for any of the phones i've tried to read. The smaller tag picks up easier, which is not something i expected.
It seems that when i power cycle the phone it picks up the ring easier when it's presented right after the power cycle. Maybe this is just some kind of placebo or psychosomatic/magical thinking. It just seems like the ring can be held a bit farther away and at an angle for that first read right after the power cycle. Maybe there is some kind of power saving feature that android kicks in a few seconds after reboot that turns down the power to the nfc antenna. Maybe this power saving feature it's not in effect for a few seconds after reboot. Maybe, i'm just crazy...I really need to order an alpha ring to see if that will read better. After trying this ring with all the devices i have i will bet that an alpha ring will be the best choice for most people.
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confidence, what are the inlay covers of your ring?
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standard black for the small one and silver for the large one.
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I've seen a few posts regarding faulty NFC in these phones, with intermittent function.[/quote:2cvvji73]
Im in the exact same boat, however I also have a Nexus 7 (2013) which I may try and use it with, I just hope I receive an Alpha ring, as my email confirmation still had a normal on it :?
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Hi mate, if the confirmation says anything other than what you're expecting then you might need to query it, because what it says you're getting is what you'll receive.
That said, if you were an automatic change to Alpha and have been automatically re-changed back to Normal then roll with it and see how you go. If you have issues then here's the place to report them after that, and we'll help you through any troubles you're having.
Most readability issues have been sorted out though, the ones that confidence was having may be device based, not product based if you get that.
Keep us informed either way.
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[quote="lilrayman":fsr39xot]
Im in the exact same boat, however I also have a Nexus 7 (2013) which I may try and use it with,[b:fsr39xot] I just hope I receive an Alpha ring, as my email confirmation still had a normal on it[/b:fsr39xot][/quote:fsr39xot]I got the same email...I replied back saying that my Normal ring was upgraded to an Alpha on 12/22 because of N4 problems. Got an email back instantly that my email was received, but we'll have to wait & see what shipping email says.
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Got a reply email today saying that they have changed my ring back to an Alpha.
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Good deal. :-)
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Hi mate, if the confirmation says anything other than what you're expecting then you might need to query it, because what it says you're getting is what you'll receive.
Just got an email back saying that: "We found the ring to work well with Normal so reverted people back to their original order."
Happy with my normal as it was a Kickstarter Limited Edition... and as you say, roll with it and see how it goes!
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No worries mate, just keep us in the loop if anything seems wonky and it'll all work out! :-)
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I can't seem to get my ring to be read or write on either my nexus 4 or 5, am I missing something?
I have: "Normal (Classic) Ring in Titanium Normal Color Metal with a Black top inlay cover and a Transparent bottom inlay cover in USA Ring Size 10"
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try to read them with some different phones (e.g. from a friend). nexus phones sometimes are a bit picky. Did you try the additional tags sent with the ring?
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@Lafunamor Just did, the two tags aren't working with my phone either - lame! What does this mean for me? :-(
