Skywatcher AZGti + SkySafari + Huawei P20 - Success at last

[AdeKing]

It's taken a while, but I have finally got to the root of all my mount WiFi connection issues with the AZGti, the WiFi dongle and also Skyfi when using a Huawei P20 mobile so I thought I'd share my findings to help others with similar issues when using this particular phone. 

My issue was that when using WiFi to connect to a mount that SkySafari would report that either it could not connect or that the mount was not responding, despite the SynScan app controlling the mount perfectly well. 

It seems that the cause of my problems were the very aggressive battery saving algorithms that Huawei use on the P20 family of phones. 

Essentially as soon as an app drops into the background the Huawei turns it off even though it hasn't been closed down. 

I found this out when my fitness app stopped tracking my walks unless the phone screen was powered on and the fitness app displayed on the screen, it just dropped the GPS connection and stopped tracking needing me to restart tracking every time the phone went to sleep. 

A search of the Runkeeper forum yielded an answer so I tried the same solution for SkySafari and it solved my previous issues. 

The power save settings in the Huawei P20 are not logically named and I'd missed them when trying to solve this issue previously so I thought I'd share my findings. 

Go to "Settings" then "Battery" this part is fairly logical. 

Next you need to select "App Launch" 

Then scroll down to Synscan and SkySafari and click on the toggle switch to turn off the automatic management so the switch colour changes from blue to grey. 

This should now stop SkySafari complaining that it cannot connect to the mount. 

Edited September 16, 2019 by AdeKing

[johninderby]

Very common problem with most phones is the default power saving settings shutting down WIFi connections. Wish they would just have an “Aways On” option for any app to make it simple.

Edited September 16, 2019 by johninderby

[Dr_Ju_ju]

All the manufacturers try to pack sooo many features (mostly useless or targeted at generating ad revenue) that they will try all the tricks available, to make the battery last, otherwise the device would soon be prematurely shutting down....

 

[johninderby]

You could allways go retro. 😁

[AdeKing]

1 hour ago, johninderby said:

Very common problem with most phones is the default power saving settings shutting down WIFi connections. Wish they would just have an “Aways On” option for any app to make it simple.

It's obviously the cause of my issues as last night was the first time I'd ever managed to get the Skyfi working with SS and the P20 at all.

1 hour ago, Dr_Ju_ju said:

All the manufacturers try to pack sooo many features (mostly useless or targeted at generating ad revenue) that they will try all the tricks available, to make the battery last, otherwise the device would soon be prematurely shutting down....

Very very true. I don't use the majority of the features my phone is capable of but don't know how I got on without it. 

[michael8554]

10 hours ago, johninderby said:

You could allways go retro. 😁

No, doesn't have WiFi.

You could try a StarTrek Communicator, you sometimes see them on FLO..... 

Michael 

[johninderby]

They make smartphones with 10,000mah batteries.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/10000-Battery-OUKITEL-K7-Smartphone/dp/B07DZYRCXK/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_107_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=02SQ1A67EN5C0288H24V