Comment 9 for bug 696562

I was finally able to identify the origin of this bug. The issue is entirely confined within the Shield, which due to switch bouncing (in the order of nano-seconds), enters a loop that prevents it from sending any data. The App on the other hand, does what it should, that is, tries to reconnect when a connection is lost, but even when connected, the Shield continues to be unresponsive causing the App to think the connection has been lost again (after the 15-30s pinging routine times out).

Workaround: Alan is right in comment #6 above (https://bugs.launchpad.net/meadl/+bug/696562/comments/6) unplugging the Shield from power (not just switching it off) and plugging it again will reset it and eliminate the issue temporarily, but it will be triggered randomly again eventually.

Solution: Unfortunately, this will require a minor change in the hardware because the switch filters need an upgrade. However, this will also give us a chance to make other pending enhancements such as making sure the two boards assemble better. I have started the changes in the following branch: https://code.launchpad.net/~jorge-silva/meadl/arduino-shield and will be merging to trunk as soon as the new boards are tested. I anticipate this will take about 2 weeks.