Simple Android Instructions That Work

[ab123ga]

I have had he eyefi card for several months and have periodically tried to get the direct mode to work to my transformer. The support instructions are a bit misleading because it notes that direct mode only works when it sees no support network available. I have tried this many times and have yet to see a picture arrive. What is also interesting about this concept is even if the eyefi card activates its own network how will my transformer decide to get off the network it is currently on and connect to the eyefi. So...I tried manually connecting and still no pictures.

In he android FAQ section, it is also noted that if both devices are on the same network it will transfer that way. That is a bit misleading because they note that direct mode works when it does not see a configured network.

Does anyone have "the" instructions that actually work for direct mode?

Outside of this, I have been happy with this product but it appears that quite a few people have struggled in this area.

[happygirl83]

Their support on this product is bad.

[ahinchcliffe]

i had typed a long response this morning but gave in towards the end as it seems they have changed the eyefi app, the product is fine the admins who help on this forum do so in their free time and your reply is demoralizing tbh the information is on the forums .. have you searched?

but a quick answer to your question is not easy , you are confusing a couple of terms relating to the way pictures travel from your eyefi card to your chosen device.

1. direct mode is not a means of transfer it is in fact a connection method
2. it is possible to have pictures travel "directly" to your chosen device either using direct mode (connection method) or via a Router / hot spot infact by any available and known wireless network by disabling "relayed transfer"


so what is it you want to achieve?

you want your picture to be sent to your android device but were ? in the presence of your known wireless network? then juts add the network to your android device make sure this network is also set up on the eyefi card (although i would assume that this is the case as you say it is working to your pc) and if you want them to arrive "directly" on your android device (without taking a trip round the WWW) then disable online sharing and then disable relayed transfer. if you can set it up on the pc the procedure is the same on android.

once this is working at home next to your access point / wireless router you can then set up your eyefi card to work in direct mode. so to recap on something you have already read "Direct mode is NOT designed to work in the presence of known wireless networks". You realy think your devices want to leave the very strong wireless network put out by your wireless router with all the bells and whistles of internet and everything to join the relatively small signal put out by your eyefi card with the sole perpose of sending you photos out and no internet access. any attempt to use direct mode in the presence of known wireless networks is Doomed to Fail! so turn on direct mode on the card using your pc and make a note of the wireless network key your card provides then place the card in your camera and take some pictures ( AWAY FROM YOUR WIRELESS NETWORKS ) your eyefi card will look for known wireless networks and fail it will then deploy its own wireless network and your android device will be able to find it. enter the key provided when you enabled direct mode on the card and allow the connection to take place ( keep in mind direct mode will only allow your eyefi card to connect to one device only!)

like i say i know i have answered similar questions to this before have a look around and keep in mind that forums are self help solutions for the most part dont expect someone to hand hold you through the entire process if you need that kind of help i believe eyefi have a very good telephone support line.

and if i sound rude in my instructions i apologies my irritation is aimed at honeygirl83 and not at the OP

[ab123ga]

Thanks for the response. My ultimate goal is to be able to see photos on the tablet. I understand that direct mode is a connection method. Note that it may be confusing because the support site states things such as "Setup Direct Mode for Android" so this does make it quite confusing because it would lead one to believe that Direct Mode is for transferring the files.

With that said, I was not able to get it to work with your instructions but figured it out. The key issue is when I set up the app in the beginning I set it to have the eye-fi card transfer directly to the computer and not to the the android device. So all of the settings about "Direct..." would never have worked. I uninstalled the software and reinstalled and this time had it transfer to the tablet. It worked both on my WIFI as well as direct mode (connectivity). The config allows you to transfer the files from the tablet to the computer so I get the best of both world; photos on the tablet and the computer. It takes a bit longer to get to the computer, but that's fine since I wanted my tablet as the primary source of viewing photos with the computer more as long term storage. So what worked for me is as follows (the order was not important):

1) Ensure that the photos and video are being transferred to the android device during software set-up. My error for not doing this up front. Also I saw no way to change so if not done...uninstall and reinstall.
2) Set up WiFi and direct mode as instructed.
3) In eye-fi setup on computer...have it transfer files to computer, upload to eye-fi center, and online as needed.

Thanks again...

[ahinchcliffe]

im glad you got it working in the end its a good product but it does throw you in the deep end of networking and network connections but its well worth the effort in the end. i had a dabble with "magic lantern" for canon cameras last week which doesn't work with eyefi cards and tbh i dont care my eyefi card is more important to me than the tweaks magic lantern offers.

[Bruce]

Just to add a bit. If you have your card sending to your desktop and want to change it to your phone, you need to change it on the phone. On the phone, you would go to menu->Settings->Eye-Fi Device Settings and select the card in the list that you want to transfer to this phone then click the checkbox (so it is on). You'll get a dialog with the types to transfer, click ok and you are done. Switching it back to your desktop means using Eye-Fi Center to do it.

Some additional info in case you want to do some things automatically:
One of the confusing parts of the setup is the fact that you have two devices; the Eye-Fi card and your phone. Each one can do some things automatically. For instance, (in Eye-Fi Center) I have set my card to go to Flikr and View and my phone is the destination so all photos go through it. Again in Eye-Fi Center, I select my phone and set to send to my desktop which is part one of the configuration. On the phone, you would go to menu->Settings->Upload preferences and check 'Upload to Computer' should you want all phones received from the card to go there.

And yes, we are working on making this simpler.

Cheers,
Bruce