Connecting your device

BLE Scanner (Home Screen)

The BLE Scanner is the app’s home screen, displayed immediately on launch.

How to Access

• Opens automatically when the app starts
• Returns here when disconnecting from any device
• Accessible by navigating back from a connected session

What the User Sees

App Bar: Centered title “Scanner”.

Bluetooth-Off Warning Banner (conditional): Appears when the Bluetooth adapter is off, showing a bluetooth_disabled icon, a warning message, and on Android, an “Enable Bluetooth” button.

Status Bar: A full-width colored strip reflecting the current connection state:

State	Text	Color
Disconnected	”Not connected”	Grey
Scanning	”Scanning…”	Blue
Connecting	”Connecting…”	Orange
Connected	”Connected to <device name>“	Green
Disconnecting	”Disconnecting…”	Orange

Device List: When no devices are found, shows a large Bluetooth icon with a prompt. The prompt text is dynamic: “Searching for devices…” while actively scanning, or “Tap Scan to search” when idle. When devices are found, shows a scrollable list of DeviceTile widgets.

Bottom FAB Row: Up to three floating action buttons:

• USB button - Opens USB connection screen (Android, Windows, Linux, macOS, Chrome web only)
• TCP/IP button - Opens TCP connection screen (all non-web platforms)
• BLE Scan button - Toggles BLE scanning on/off; shows a spinner when scanning. Disabled (greyed out, not tappable) when Bluetooth is off

Device Tile

Each discovered device is displayed as a list tile showing:

• Signal strength icon (color-coded by RSSI):
  • Green: >= -60 dBm (excellent)
  • Light green: -60 to -70 dBm (good)
  • Amber: -70 to -80 dBm (fair)
  • Orange: -80 to -90 dBm (weak)
  • Red: < -90 dBm (poor)
• RSSI value in dBm (e.g., “-72 dBm”)
• Device name (falls back to “Unknown Device”)
• Device ID (BLE MAC address on Android; a system-assigned UUID on iOS/macOS)
• Connect button (the entire tile row is also tappable — both trigger connection)

Note: The weak (-80 to -90 dBm) and poor (< -90 dBm) tiers share the same icon shape and are only differentiated by color (orange vs. red).

How Scanning Works

• Filters for devices with names starting with MeshCore- or Whisper-
• Uses low-latency scan mode on Android
• Scans for 10 seconds then auto-stops
• On iOS/macOS, waits for BLE adapter initialization before starting
• If Bluetooth is turned off during a scan, scanning stops immediately

Connecting to a Device

Tap a device tile or its Connect button:

1. The connector stops scanning and transitions to “connecting”
2. Connects to the device with a 15-second timeout
3. Requests MTU 185 bytes for optimal throughput
4. Discovers BLE services and locates the Nordic UART Service
5. Subscribes to TX notifications for receiving data
6. On success, automatically navigates to the Contacts screen
7. On failure, shows a red error snackbar

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USB Connection

How to Access

From the Scanner screen, tap the USB FAB button.

What the User Sees

• A colored status bar at the top (same color scheme as BLE scanner)
• A list of detected USB serial ports, each showing:
  • Friendly display name
  • Raw port name (subtitle, only shown when it differs from the display name)
  • “Connect” button
• FABs at the bottom to switch to BLE or TCP (these use pushReplacement, so back navigation returns to Scanner, not between USB/TCP)

Key Interactions

• On desktop (Windows, Linux, macOS): ports are polled every 2 seconds for hot-plug detection (polling pauses while connecting/connected)
• On mobile: tap the “Scan” FAB to manually refresh
• Tap a port or its Connect button to connect
• On successful connection, navigates to Contacts screen
• On connection failure, the port list automatically refreshes
• Platform-specific error messages for common USB failures (permission denied, device missing, device detached, device busy, driver missing, port invalid, timeout, and more)

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TCP Connection

How to Access

From the Scanner screen, tap the TCP/IP FAB button.

What the User Sees

• A colored status bar at the top
• Host address text field
• Port number text field
• Connect button
• FABs at the bottom to switch to USB or BLE

Key Interactions

• Last-used host and port are pre-populated from saved settings
• Tap Connect to validate inputs and connect
  • Host must not be empty
  • Port must be a number between 1 and 65535
  • Validation errors are shown as red snackbars
• The Connect button shows a spinner and “Connecting…” label while in progress
• The status bar shows the specific host:port being connected to (e.g., “Connecting to 192.168.1.1:5000”)
• On success, navigates to Contacts screen and saves the host/port to settings
• On connection, the status bar shows the active TCP endpoint (e.g., “Connected to 192.168.1.1:5000”)
• Error messages for timeout, unsupported platform, and connection failures