Mobley problems

[Naio]

My Mobley has been acting strangely for about a month. I have to redo the connection to it on average about once per hour of use. But it varies a lot. I don't think that I have had the update, because sometimes it works fine and I can go back 10 hours later and it still works fine.

I called zte last night, and they said because it's out of warranty they can repair it or send me a different one, but there is a charge of 50 bucks. For that price should I get a hotspot and put the sim in it instead? Has anybody else had the same problem with their Mobley and is there a solution that doesn't involve spending money? 🙂

Also, do I understand correctly that I will get in trouble with AT&T if I put the sim in my smart phone? I have a T-Mobile phone, and it accepts AT&T sims.

Thanks very much for any info!

[garry1p]

What I said was the Mobley has no way to know if it's moving. ATT is a different story. I figure sooner or later they will start to crack down on the 100GB folks.

I'm with magicbus I'll use it as long as I can (20G to 30G) a month then move on if I can't use it for whatever reason.

I am "NOT" violating the TOS they have the right to throttle me any time I'm over 22GB. They may have intended it to only be used in a vehicle but that is not what the TOS says. I can park my truck in the garage and get service inside should they change the TOS to read must be in a vehicle.

Mobley is no longer available but there is a new ATT "smart" device with GPS that can read other pins on the OBD port and new TOS that states it may ONLY be used in a Vehicle.

[magicbus]

Double Post

[magicbus]

Whoa, easy big fella :), all of what you say is true (except the part about not needing software to tell them if you are mobile or using a different device, that information is in their computers and got there with the aid of software and will be retrieved with the aid of software).

Personally I think you are all a bunch of conspiracy theorists. I think AT&T removed the Never Timeout option because it IS a Connected Car Service and what they had done is enable a feature that could easily kill the user's car battery, and someone wisely thought better of it. Although I have not checked my Mobley personally, it would appear that the timeout is invoked only if the voltage drops below a threshold that would indicate the car is not running. I think it is a fine technology solution to what would have been an embarrassing problem.

But is it worth arguing about? Not really. For $20/month I'll take it while it lasts and works and I'll just move to another solution if they take it away. Sadly that would probably be Comcast, and I hate Comcast.

Dave

[chuckbear]

magicbus wrote:

chuckbear wrote:

garry1p wrote:
It is my understanding the Mobley only uses the ground and + pins and has no way to know it it is in motion.

But, AT&T knows what towers the Mobley pings off of and will know if it is using the same tower all the time. Chuck

I didn't notice anything in the terms of service that said I also had to move my Mobley around town :B.

I can just imagine some manager at AT&T sitting at their desk thinking "I'll get one of our software guys to write me a report that tracks Mobleys to see how long they stay on and if they move." Actually no, I can't imagine that happening at all.

I could imagine someone running a report to select all accounts where the device in use does not meet a class of devices listed for that service, if such a list of classes/devices actually exists. But then they would have to have legal render an opinion, decide on a response, and follow through. Seems like a pretty expensive undertaking if you ask me and might be risky because it would just anger people like me who pay them for satellite, 2 cell phones and a Mobley.

Dave

The service is called "Car Connect" for a reason and is designed to be used in a vehicles OBD port, not plugged into a power adapter and used as your home internet service. If you think they don't know many folks are doing this, you are kidding yourself. I doubt AT&T will need any legal advice if it feels the Mobley is permanently stationary and not used in a vehicle. No one suspected AT&T would decide to eliminate the extended timeout or a pin lock with a software update but they did. They can do what they want when they want. Someone said they could not tell if the unit is mobile. That isn't a fact, they can. At any time they could decide that if a Mobley is used in the same location as a certain tower too long, it isn't mobile. BTW, they don't need to write software, they know what towers the Mobley has used any time they want that information. They can change or rewrite TOS at any given time or interpret the agreements we have in lots of different ways. No one knows for sure, but the recent software update was totally unneeded for the Mobley to operate. That leads us to believe they may have other motives and it is POSSIBLE there is more to come from AT&T to make sure the device and the service plan is used as it was intended. If you think for a moment they care if it affects whether anyone cancels phone service or satellite service, well you haven't been paying attention to what most of the providers are doing lately. Chuck

[magicbus]

chuckbear wrote:

garry1p wrote:
It is my understanding the Mobley only uses the ground and + pins and has no way to know it it is in motion.

But, AT&T knows what towers the Mobley pings off of and will know if it is using the same tower all the time. Chuck

I didn't notice anything in the terms of service that said I also had to move my Mobley around town :B.

I can just imagine some manager at AT&T sitting at their desk thinking "I'll get one of our software guys to write me a report that tracks Mobleys to see how long they stay on and if they move." Actually no, I can't imagine that happening at all.

I could imagine someone running a report to select all accounts where the device in use does not meet a class of devices listed for that service, if such a list of classes/devices actually exists. But then they would have to have legal render an opinion, decide on a response, and follow through. Seems like a pretty expensive undertaking if you ask me and might be risky because it would just anger people like me who pay them for satellite, 2 cell phones and a Mobley.

Dave

[BoonHauler]

Does anyone have any information from MIA? ...... I'm not a member any longer ... =/

[chuckbear]

garry1p wrote:
It is my understanding the Mobley only uses the ground and + pins and has no way to know it it is in motion.

But, AT&T knows what towers the Mobley pings off of and will know if it is using the same tower all the time. Chuck

[garry1p]

It is my understanding the Mobley only uses the ground and + pins and has no way to know it it is in motion.

I also have a 12V @ 1.67A power supply and the Mobley never times out.

The power supply looks like the kind that comes with a PC 4" long 2"wide. I wanted the longer ac cord and power cord over all 6+ ft. I bought it at a Thrift Store for .50 cents.

[BoonHauler]

Dutch_12078 wrote:

BoonHauler wrote:

BluStem wrote:

BoonHauler wrote:
..... would you have any idea of what the stay alive voltage is?

The Power Save page of the Mobley says 'The mobile hotspot will power off automatically if the voltage of the OBD connector drops to 11.5v'.

Respectfully, that's the wrong answer.

I want to keep the Mobley operating past the two hour limit. At 12.8 VDC the device still shuts down after two hours.

I'm not using my Mobley SIM in the Mobley currently, so I haven't had a chance to play around with my variable power supply to see what the minimum voltage is for a "keep awake". I do know of someone that worked around the problem by plugging his Mobley 120VAC adapter into a digital lamp timer that shuts it off for one minute every two hours.

Dutch:

I'm starting to wonder if the 1.0.3 Firmware brings along with it the new AT&T Connected Car account requirements? I read somewhere the new program needs to have the Mobley 'mobile' if a dare say meaning it physically needs to be moved around like it would be in a vehicle.

During the day my solar system charging keeps the voltage above 14VDC. The unit doesn't shutoff at 2 hours but the internet access does so I have to cycle the unit to get internet access again ..... smh

[bob_nestor]

Nobody else mentioned this and it may or may not be part of the problem some people are seeing with their Mobley devices. I have one and it works fine in my RV on the vehicle data port or on a USB 12v 2.1a power connection. It doesn't work on a USB 12v 1.0a power connection. I've tried running it on 110v using a cheap USB power converter and discovered that if the power converter can't supply about 2 amps the Mobley will either fail to come up all the way or it will operate in a really flaky fashion. Simple solution was to buy a couple of 110v USB power plugs from Walmart (about $6) that put out 2.4 amps.

[Dutch_12078]

BoonHauler wrote:

BluStem wrote:

BoonHauler wrote:
..... would you have any idea of what the stay alive voltage is?

The Power Save page of the Mobley says 'The mobile hotspot will power off automatically if the voltage of the OBD connector drops to 11.5v'.

Respectfully, that's the wrong answer.

I want to keep the Mobley operating past the two hour limit. At 12.8 VDC the device still shuts down after two hours.

I'm not using my Mobley SIM in the Mobley currently, so I haven't had a chance to play around with my variable power supply to see what the minimum voltage is for a "keep awake". I do know of someone that worked around the problem by plugging his Mobley 120VAC adapter into a digital lamp timer that shuts it off for one minute every two hours.

[BoonHauler]

BluStem wrote:

BoonHauler wrote:
..... would you have any idea of what the stay alive voltage is?

The Power Save page of the Mobley says 'The mobile hotspot will power off automatically if the voltage of the OBD connector drops to 11.5v'.

Respectfully, that's the wrong answer.

I want to keep the Mobley operating past the two hour limit. At 12.8 VDC the device still shuts down after two hours.

[BluStem]

BoonHauler wrote:
..... would you have any idea of what the stay alive voltage is?

The Power Save page of the Mobley says 'The mobile hotspot will power off automatically if the voltage of the OBD connector drops to 11.5v'.

[BoonHauler]

Dutch_12078 wrote:
All of the Mobley's are being updated to 1.0.3. It removes the "Never" timeout choice and also locks the SIM to the Mobley so it can't be used in another device. There are ways around both issues though. The Mobley will stay "alive" as long as the supply voltage stays high enough to simulate a running vehicle voltage, and the SIM lock problem can be fixed by asking AT&T tech support for a couple of PUK (Personal Unlocking Key) codes. The codes are 8-digits and are used when asked after entering an incorrect 4-digit unlock code 3 or 4 times. Only one code is needed, so save the second one as a spare. If you're not removing the SIM from the Mobley, just leave it locked for now, it'll work fine.

Thanks Dutch for the heads up ..... would you have any idea of what the stay alive voltage is?