Problem with FOcus 40

By Maldalain, 20 December, 2021

Forum
Braille on Apple Products

I am unable to re-pair my Focus 40 to my iPad Pro, iPhone 12 and iPad Mini., all updated to the latest OS version.
It worked fine until I had to unpair it then re-pair it. I tried pairing it with Windows machine and it worked just fine. So it is unlikely it is an issue wih my Focus. Any idea why this is happening and to solve it?
P.S: I have other braille displays and they work fine, I unpaired them and re-paired them with no issues.

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Comments

By Manuel on Monday, December 20, 2021 - 09:13

Hi,
the subject says it already. Since iOS 15.2 introduced an annoying issue where the braille display randomly disconnects and cannot be repaired until your restart the device, I'd give you advice to restart your iDevice and then try to re-pair your braille display again. Before you do the restart, make sure you have ignored your braille display in order to manually pair it again.
Here's how it works:
1. Open settings
2. Go to Accessibility > VoiceOver > Braille and locate your braille display
3. Swipe down with one finger and double-tap
4. Locate the "ignore" button and double-tap it, then confirm the action by double-tapping the "ignore" button again (It could also be called "Ok" instead of "Ignore")
Now, you can restart your device.
Let me know if that helps.

By Maldalain on Monday, December 20, 2021 - 12:16

Unfortunately that did not work for me. My RB18 and BrailliantBI14 are working just fine, sounds like it is specific to the Focus dispays.

By Tristo on Monday, December 20, 2021 - 13:55

I had the same problem last year when I got a new phone. While you have removed the Focus 40 from the apple devices, the ipad, and iphone have not been removed from the Focus 40 itself. This is why it is not pairing. So what you need to do to remove the devices is: Turn the Focus 40 on and press dots 1, 3, 5, 6, and space. Use the panning buttons to scroll to devices. Press one of the curser keys to open the device list and then scroll down untill you see a buttun that says delete all. This should delete all devices. Press the power button, and try pairing the Focus 40.

By Travis Roth on Monday, December 20, 2021 - 21:34

I had this problem with a Focus and iOS recently. If you have a5th Gen display check if it has the latest firmware. The latest is 5.82. Mine had an older version. This update seems to have been released rather quietly or else I am just not well connected to announcements. Anyways one of the release notes mentions changing Bluetooth pairing functionality, and this indeed cured my problem. Here is the link to download the firmware if you need it:
https://support.freedomscientific.com/Downloads/Focus/Focus5Downloads

By Brian Giles on Tuesday, December 21, 2021 - 03:57

4th gen here too. I think the menu relates the all the new functionality the newer Focuses have, like being able to pair to more than one bluetooth device, so the 4th gen does not have it. The only menu you can get into on the 4th gen displays is some kind of diagnostic menu by pressing space with 1 3 7 and 8. You can press space with 4 5 or 1 2 to move forward and back through the menu, but I don't remember what all the symbols in there mean.

I haven't had any huge issues with mine, although I'm sure they're there. I've noticed sometimes the display gets stuck in the middle of a line and words don't wrap. But I haven't played with it a lot yet. Here's hoping 15.3 fixes some of this stuff.

By Travis Roth on Tuesday, December 21, 2021 - 14:13

Yes that's right fourth gen latest firmware is v5.71. I am afraid there really isn't much to do. As crazy as it sounds I've had occasional success in the past by moving the display and phone further away from each other, e.g., carrying the phone into the next room with the display in pairing mode. I also suggest turning off all other Bluetooth devices the phone is paired too or tempted to pair too that is possible to do to try to get it to focus.

Have you updated the firmware of your Focus. There were firmware updates, I believe for the 4th and 5th Generations of the Focus. Firmware can be found on the Freedom Scientific website in the Download section and the link you are looking is for the Focus Display. Follow the instructions for installation of the Firmware and see if that fixses the problem.

Best.

By Scott Davert on Wednesday, December 22, 2021 - 15:50

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

I can't duplicate this because I do not have a Focus 4th generation. If it is worth the inconvenience, I would suggest resetting nnetwork settings and see if this helps. I'm becoming concerned that this may be a wider problem with the older Focus displays on iOS.

Hi, I feel it is a Focus 40 issue. Near as I can tell 4th generation covers several years of them? I have one from circa 2013, and it has always been difficult to pair. It is retired now but I just got it out and paired it to my iPhone Mini 13. At first the iPhone did not find it, I let it for a couple minutes, then pressed the Back button, and re-entered the Braille display dialog a second time and after another 45 seconds it appeared. Once it's paired it has been fine.
By contrast, I have an original Focus 14 Blue, I can't even remember when they came out, 2012? It runs the same 5.71 version of the software as this elderly Focus 40, and the Focus 14 pairs every time without fail to any iOS device. I've had more issues pairing a Focus 14 5th Gen than this original. That said, with this latest firmware update for the Focus 14 5th Gen my pairing issues have been resolved so far.
I'm sorry none of this illuminating is really going to help when one won't pair for you. As I said before, I'm serous about walking around with your iPhone while it is searching for the 40.

By Maldalain on Thursday, December 23, 2021 - 23:36

apparently it is an issue with iPadOS. To explain this:
1. I pair fine with my iPhone, iPad Pro, and iPad Mini.
2. Once the pairing is done, Focus shows BT on the display which means it is connected but it is not display the content of the screen of my devices.
3. I try unpairing, but first the Focus is not shown in the list of paired device although I have just paired it. Also it is there in the list of paired devices in the BT settings in my devices.
So this tells me for sure that this is an issue with the latest release of my Apple device. My daughter has an iPhone that has not been updated to 15.2 and I tried it, for my surprise it works just fine.