Direct Mode or Wifi Hotspot?

[JohninLA]

I just purchased a Pro/X2 8GH+Wi-Fi card. I'm stuggling to figure out how I should set this up and have my photos uploaded on the fly.

I was out and took several photos I wanted to upload to Flickr. I'm all setup with the Flickr log in information on the card, and have Selective Upload chosen. I loaded the EyeFi app on my Android phone. I took 3 photos and flagged them, protected them on my camera. I checked my phone and it showed I was connected to EyeFi wifi. I assumed it was connected and the photos were being transferred to Flickr. Not so. No photos showed up, until I got home and I immediately got a text message from EyeFi, as set up by me, that my photos were transferred to Flickr. I checked and sure enough, as soon as I connected to my home network, the photos were transferred.

I wanted the photos to upload as I shot and selected them. What do I need to do to connect the card to my phone and send them to Flickr? Or, am I misunderstanding how this works, and can only transfer them once I get to a "hotspot?" And how does that work? I enabled "Public Hotspot" during my setup with the card in my pc. Once in a "hotspot," such as Starbucks or other AT&T wifi zone, as included with my card, will it just connect automatically, or do I have to do more?

Thanks!

[ahinchcliffe]

AFAIK you cannot have your phone connected to wifi and have it connect to its 3g at the same time, some android phones offer a hotspot facility in order to share your 3g internet with a laptop ect if your phone has this ability then this is the way to go, set your phone up in this way and add the wifi network it creates to your eyefi card

[JohninLA]

I thought about that, but then, do I just leave my phone on 3G, and the Eye Fi card will upload the photos using the 3G? Or is this just not possible, and the photos will upload the next time I'm in a hotspot facility? I guess I'm just confused by all the services such as Direct Connect compared to hotspots and the purpose of Android app. My phone can already upload to Flickr, so do I need the Eye Fi app at all?

[ahinchcliffe]

direct mode will allow your photos to be sent to your smart phone using wireless once they are on your phone you would need to disconnect from the eyefi card and then you could send them to flickr using 3g ( need to watch cost / Mb ) the other option is to get a portable wifi hotspot such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiFi or as i say use your phone as a wifi hotspot.

if you have android some offer a setting to turn on a portable wifi hotspot .

http://support.google.com/mobile/bin/an ... wer=182134

i dont think the iphone offers a hotspot function unless you jailbreak but i may be wrong

[JohninLA]

direct mode will allow your photos to be sent to your smart phone using wireless once they are on your phone you would need to disconnect from the eyefi card and then you could send them to flickr using 3g ( need to watch cost / Mb ) the other option is to get a portable wifi hotspot such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiFi or as i say use your phone as a wifi hotspot.

OK, this is fine if I can get this to work. I took photos with my camera. I checked my phone and saw I was automatically connected to the Eye Fi card, I thought it was transferring the photos I selected so I could use the phone to send them to Flickr. I have an unlimited plan on my cell phone, so no problem. I left my camera on, and the wifi continued to show connected, but none of the selected photos showed up on my phone. I left it but as soon as I got home the photos were sent to directly to Flickr, I assume from the Eye Fi card through my home network. No photos ever showed up on my phone.

Is there a step by step instruction guide as to how to make this work? Just a 1, 2, 3, Turn camera on, select photos, bring up Eye Fi app on phone ect.... wait for photos to download, send to Flickr. I thought the Direct Connect was to send photos directly to Flickr from the Eye Fi card using my cell phone as the network, much the same as how it works in my home network, but that's not the case?

Also, if I walk into a Starbucks or McDonalds and have access to wifi, will the card be recognized automatically as my Pro|X2 included One Year of Hotspot Access. How do I log in, or agree to the Terms of Service most Hotspots require? Is there a FAQ on how to do this when on the road? If I have a year of Hotspot Access free from Eye Fi, why buy a portable unit?

Thanks.

[ahinchcliffe]

what phone do you have ? if its an iphone you have to have the eyefi app running in order for it to recieve photos

[JohninLA]

I have an Android, HTC EVO 4G.

[ahinchcliffe]

i assume this is your phone and service plan?

http://www.htc.com/us/smartphones/htc-evo-4g-sprint/

so the wifi hotspot irritatingly is not free on your phone unless you hack its firmware , so we will forget that option for now.

try following this guide to set up direct mode for your phone. if you still have problems try submitting a log from your eyefi card as below

1. Insert your Eye-Fi card into your camera
2. Take 5 pictures
3. Wait 5 minutes to give the photos a chance to upload
4. Remove the card from your camera *
5. Insert the Eye-Fi card into the USB card reader and into your computer
6. Click on the Eye-Fi Helper icon in the Apple Menu Bar or in the Windows Task Bar
7. Select "Get Eye-Fi card Log..." from the menu. You may have to wait several seconds, but, in a moment, you will be asked where to save the Eye-Fi card log file
8. Save the Eye-Fi card.log file to your computer hard drive and reply to this forum thread with your log file attached

[JohninLA]

I've been away a bit, but I just want to try and simplify this. What is the best way to upload my photos to Flickr when I'm on the road, direct mode, or public hotspot? Once I take my photos, is it just more reliable to walk into a McDonald's or Starbucks and use the wifi connection rather than Direct Mode, which seems to be more unreliable and battery draining?

Anyone else find a satisfactory way of doing this, that is reliable? I'm just trying to make this work as easy as possible. I want to like this product, but it's not that easy. Once home, it's very simple to take the card out and move the photos to my pc. So I'm not looking for that necessarily. It's on the road, uploading to Flickr that I'm most interested in.

Thanks for the help.

[jsun]

In nearly all cases, I would recommend Direct Mode over public hotspots, because you can see the photos arrive on your phone instead of sitting at McDonald's and wondering if the transfers are done yet. And Direct Mode should work anywhere, whether you have wi-fi available or not. If anything, using public hotspots can be more draining to your camera battery, since the upload speed could be much slower and the camera may need to remain on a lot longer. With Direct Mode you're uploading straight to your own device, no distance or speed issues.

If it's behaving inconsistently, maybe some troubleshooting is needed - Direct Mode uploads to Android are usually pretty painless.

I find protecting each photo in the camera fairly tedious, so I'd upload everything to the phone and then later choose which ones to delete and/or upload.

[JohninLA]

Alright, I tried the Direct Mode again. I took some photos, selected the ones I wanted uploaded to Flickr, and left my camera on, next to my phone. I waited and waited, nothing. I decided to try turning my camera off, then on again. Sure enough, as soon as I turned it back on, my phone woke up, and the EyeFi network started transferring the two photos I selected. I tested it again later, and had to do the same thing, turn the camera off then on again to trigger the network to "wake up." Is that how it's supposed to work? I'm using a Nikon Coolpix 6100, and set the auto off to "Never." Does the card go to sleep and need nudging to get it to work? Also, if my phone is connected to a wifi network, at Starbucks or where ever, will the photos still transfer to my phone and my phone then uses whatever connection, wifi or 3/4G through the EyeFi app to upload to Flickr?

I bought the Pro|X2 card for the extra feature of the Hotspot access, thinking this gives me "sure thing" uploads when on the road. It's a pain not being able to count on that, (I don't carry a laptop with me.) I hate having to decide at home which feature I'm going to use that day, then load the card, change the access from Direct Connect and activate wifi access. Not being able to change that on the run is not convenient. That's a disappointment.

[jsun]

hi JohninLA,

Typically the card tries to upload your photos right after they appear on the card, usually within 10-30 seconds. It shouldn't be necessary to change the card's network settings in advance. You can leave your private networks on the card, leave Direct Mode on, and even leave Hotspots on if you want. The card will look for networks in this order:

1. Ad-Hoc connections (Pro cards only, networks you have added manually)
2. Infrastructure WLAN (private networks you have added manually)
3. Direct Mode (will broadcast as long as the first slider in the Direct Mode settings)
4. Hotspot (if the Hotspots feature is enabled)

It's odd that you need to power cycle the camera in order for the uploads to start. We can take a look at the card log to see what's happening.

If you have your phone (or any other device running the Eye-Fi software) with you, I would recommend using Direct Mode to transfer your photos instead of Hotspots. But yes, if the card was unable to find a private network or make a Direct Mode connection, and it uploads your photos through a public hotspot, they can reach Flickr and then your iPhone.

In order to test this, please make sure you are away from any private networks you have added to the card, or remove those networks from your card. Shoot a few photos and leave the camera on. Watch your phone's list of wi-fi networks for at least 1 minute to see if the "Eye-Fi Card" network appears. If it doesn't, please send us your Eye-Fi card log using the instructions here: viewtopic.php?f=30&t=5776 You can post the log here or email it so support@eye.fi with a link to this thread and description of the issue. We'll be happy to take a look.

Thanks!

[Edit: removed mentions of iPhone]

[JohninLA]

OK, thank you for the quick reply. I'll work with it and see if I can get it to work reliably.

BTW, this is what came from your email support. It didnt' seem right, that's why I thought I'd ask here:

_______________________________________________________________________
John, Jul 16 14:27 (PDT):

So, I have to disable the Direct Mode on
my home pc BEFORE I go out, hoping I can find a hotspot on the road? There’s no
way to do this on the spot, it has to be done ahead of time? This can be
awkward if Direct mode is disabled, don’t find a hotspot, then no photos are
uploaded until I am back in my home network again? Is that correct?

Thank you.
_______________________________________________________________________
Amir, Jul 16 16:18 (PDT):
Hello John,

Correct.

Kind regards,
Amir
Eye-Fi Customer Care
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[JohninLA]

Alright, I was out and tested my Direct Mode. It worked, although slow, but I still needed to shut my camera down, then restart it to get the card to start sending the selected photos. It was slow sending just two photos, but they did eventually end up on Flickr. The upload seemed to stall many times, just sitting there, giving me a "upload was interrupted error." It tried several times, and eventually completed the task. I was leaving my camera on the entire time. I'm not sure why the interruption, but I figured I will also have to make sure my phone doesn't go to sleep. This all involves a lot of work and battery power on my part. I was hoping when I bought the card, I could just take the photos, and a short time later, they just ended up on Flickr. But it appears I have to walk it through each step and make sure it happens.

Also, I must have gotten 6 text messages on my phone from Eye-Fi along the way. They are cryptic as to why, but each one said something about photos being received, and are being transferred to whatever service you chose. So I wasn't sure if it sends one when it starts to upload, when the phone receives it, and when it starts to upload to Flickr. Each time I wasn't sure if I could shut my camera down now or not. Overall, the process was very clumsy.

[inspiron41]

Alright, I was out and tested my Direct Mode. It worked, although slow, but I still needed to shut my camera down, then restart it to get the card to start sending the selected photos. It was slow sending just two photos, but they did eventually end up on Flickr. The upload seemed to stall many times, just sitting there, giving me a "upload was interrupted error." It tried several times, and eventually completed the task. I was leaving my camera on the entire time. I'm not sure why the interruption, but I figured I will also have to make sure my phone doesn't go to sleep. This all involves a lot of work and battery power on my part. I was hoping when I bought the card, I could just take the photos, and a short time later, they just ended up on Flickr. But it appears I have to walk it through each step and make sure it happens.

Also, I must have gotten 6 text messages on my phone from Eye-Fi along the way. They are cryptic as to why, but each one said something about photos being received, and are being transferred to whatever service you chose. So I wasn't sure if it sends one when it starts to upload, when the phone receives it, and when it starts to upload to Flickr. Each time I wasn't sure if I could shut my camera down now or not. Overall, the process was very clumsy.

Very clumsy. Understanding the interface was almost most of the trouble. But once you understand how it works, it works great and i believe it's very similar to what you're doing.

i'm using Canon 5D M3 which has the duel slots (CF and SD). I have all the high res photos JPEG photos stored on my CF for serious Photoshop processing and i store separately all the low res photos on my Eye-fi card. I also set the eye-fi card to selective transfer (protected images) to my tablet (motorola xoom) through direct connection out on the field. This way my clients or myself can just thumb though the best pictures from my camera during or at the end of the day instead of flipping through hundreds of photos. This works really great for me and i love it.

i have my tablet/smartphone seek out the wifi signal from Eye-fi card whenever it's broadcasting. when the card isn't boradcasting, it switches back to the mobile network.

[jsun]

JohninLA: When the app is receiving images from your Eye-Fi card, it will say it's receiving. Once they are received and displaying in the app or photo gallery, the card is likely done sending them and you can turn off your camera. If the app is having trouble uploading the files so they can go to Flickr, I would check your phone's internet connection. Try a speed test using a speed test app or web site. It's true that the app will just take care of those uploads in the background, but if there's a connection problem or the phone goes to sleep then that will obviously cause some trouble.