Troubleshooting

The buoy takes a long time to get a GPS fix

After a big change of location — a flight, a long drive, or the first use in a new area — the first fix can take one to two minutes. This is normal receiver behaviour, not a fault.

1. Switch the unit on while still on shore, with a clear view of the sky.
2. Wait for the two-tone beep. Hold the unit to your ear if you cannot hear it.
3. Keep the buoy away from buildings, masts and your own body while it searches.

If there is still no fix after several minutes in the open, switch the unit off and on again.

The WiFi network does not appear

1. Check that the unit is actually on — the power switch must stay latched down.
2. Give it a few seconds after switching on; the network takes a moment to start.
3. Refresh the WiFi list on your phone.
4. Move closer — the buoy is a low-power transmitter.

If the network never appears, the buoy may have failed to read its SD card, which is where the network name and password are stored. See below.

My phone cannot join the network

The buoy accepts at most two phones or laptops at a time. If two are already connected, a third cannot join until one of them leaves the network — switching a phone’s WiFi off, or forgetting the network on it, frees the place.

My iPhone will not stay connected

The buoy’s network has no internet, and iOS treats that as a problem to solve by leaving. This is the single most common support question.

1. Connect to FASTRRR-DRIFTER and enter the password.
2. When iOS asks whether to stay connected without internet, accept.
3. If nothing pops up, open a browser and go to 192.168.1.1.
4. If it still drops, forget the network and connect again — it may take a couple of attempts before it holds.

The page does not open by itself

On most phones a window opens automatically, like airport WiFi. When it does not, type 192.168.1.1 into a browser. Use http://, not https:// — the buoy serves plain HTTP.

The page says Offline

The ○ Offline indicator means the page has lost the buoy. Usually the phone has left the buoy’s WiFi — rejoin it and the page carries on by itself. If it does not, reload the page.

The SD card is nearly full

The Log files and Settings pages show the card’s used and free space, in red when less than 10 % is free. Download the measurements you want to keep, then delete them from the Log files page — one at a time, or all at once with Delete all logs and the update PIN.

A firmware update did not go through

The update page says what went wrong — a wrong PIN, the wrong file, or a measurement in progress. If the buoy restarted before the new firmware confirmed itself, it goes back to its previous firmware and keeps working as before, and the Settings page shows a Rolled-back update row. See If an update does not go through for every message and what to do.

My measurement came out invalid

Two things mark a measurement invalid:

• It was stopped early. Lifting the buoy out and stopping before the window closes always invalidates the result — a shortened drift is not a measurement of the current. Let the window run to the end.
• Too few usable samples. Fixes with poor GPS quality are discarded, and if what remains falls below the minimum, the measurement does not qualify. Poor sky view, spray over the antenna or a very short window all cause this.

A large deviation does not invalidate a result. Wide spread means the water was variable, which is a finding rather than a fault.

The display shows an error, or nothing happens at boot

The buoy reads its configuration from the SD card at startup. If the card is missing, unreadable, or the configuration file has been removed, the unit reports an error instead of starting normally.

1. Switch off and check that the SD card is seated.
2. Check the card holds its configuration file in the root folder.
3. If in doubt, contact support rather than reformatting the card — the card also holds all your recorded measurements.

The display looks frozen

The measurement itself runs independently of the display. If the screen looks stuck but the buoy is otherwise working, connect with your phone: the web page is the authoritative view of what the device is doing.

Report a frozen display to support with your firmware version — it helps us fix it.

Battery does not last

In active use, expect to charge roughly every three to four days. If a charge is lasting noticeably less:

• Switch Bluetooth off in the settings if you do not use the phone app
• Switch the unit fully off between outings rather than leaving it latched on
• Check that the charging connector was properly closed — a damp connector can drain a pack

Still stuck?

Contact support and include your device identifier, the firmware version, and — if the problem concerns a measurement — the log file.