SignalK bluetooth plugin causing problems

[DanLXIX]

Having taken inspiration from Boating with the Bailey's video about SignalK plugins, I installed the BT sensors one but I started having problems with a BT mouse. I'm still a total newbie to the Pi and Linux, but the mouse kept disconnecting, and the dropdown menu on the BT status bar icon wouldn't let me do anything - it was just flickering all the time. In the terminal using the bluetoothctl command I see a continuous stream of devices which seems to be swamping the interface. I ended up realising it was caused by the SK plugin, and disabling it stops all the problems.

I've tried reinstalling it, but still get a (shorter because nothing is paired) device list that constantly streams in the terminal and causes the menu in the GUI to flicker and not be usable.

I'm running a Pi 5 in X11 with an MVNE base and MacArthur HAT with power module and IMU onboard.

Anyone had similar issues/knows how to fix it?

[Hishich]

Limit device search in plugin: Plugin may be scanning BT continuously in discovery mode, causing overload. Go to plugin configuration in SignalK, reduce scanning frequency or specify MAC address of device to read data, avoid scanning all.

[Boatingbaileys]

Agree with the above - It seems that plugin can take over the control of BT devices. My keyboard/mouse trackpad thingy has its own USB dongle, so I've not had that issue, but I also had issues running two BLE-Plugins, and things have been better since I removed and just stuck with main BT one.

Once you found and setup what you need, I would stop it scanning, I've done this on my own setup.

[DanLXIX]

I discovered the Discord server after I posted this so I raised it there, and from that discussion I'm going to try a USB BT dongle and see how that goes. I think the onboard BT on the Pi5 isn't great, I've been having some mouse stutters off it even with nothing else paired, so I'll have to see if that improves things.

[Boatingbaileys]

Once you have tested an external USB BT, can you let me know if you have any slowness to the data coming in? I'm using Victron kit and with the Pi BLE, the data is instant; with an external device, I get an update every 1-2 seconds. Someone else reported this so it would be good to know if it is an issue.