Multiple FlashAir Cards in Network

[dr_tiv]

I'm successfully using a FlashAir W04 in STA mode with Shuttersnitch. We have multiple people using Shuttersnitch in the same network. With the older EyeFi Cards we could set Shuttersnitch to connect to just one EyeFi card so we had one iPad connected to only one EyeFi Card. This way if different photographers shoot at the same time the photos will only come up in their iPad. How can I do this with FlashAir cards in STA mode? I know each FlashAir card need different APPNAMEs but how do I set our iPads to only connect to one FlashAir card (in STA mode) on the same network and not import photos from the others? Please note, using STA (Station) mode is important to us as we simultaneously MirrorCast our iPad Screens to large TVs.

My Current Config File in my FlashAir looks as follows:
[Vendor]
CIPATH=/DCIM/100__TSB/FA000001.JPG
ID=FLASHAIR
APPMODE=5
APPNAME=flashair
APPSSID=ShuttersnitchPhotographers
APPNETWORKKEY=**********
VERSION=F15DBW3BW4.00.03
CID=02544d455945464955f2c06f7b011c01
PRODUCT=FlashAir
VENDOR=TOSHIBA
DHCP_Enabled=YES

[TheBrew]

Currently ShutterSnitch will connect to any card it finds. But I'll see if I can't change that. Will post back when I have more info. :)

[TheBrew]

Will post back when I have more info. :)

Really appreciate it TheBrew. I'm running courses (and have a YouTube Channel "DrTiv") for dental/medical photography and having this feature will allow me to recommend your app for wifi transfers that are easy to set up (even in practices with multiple practitioners). Infrastructure Wifi is important as the iPad is both connected to the FlashAir (via Shuttersnitch) and Mirroring the iPad screen to a ChromeCast TV at the same time for patient communication. Can't wait for an update :-)

[TheBrew]

Oh no, I've been so swamped I forgot to post back here..

I added support for this in version 4.7.2 so you can do it right now. It works by letting you choose which cards to ignore.

To ignore a card, you'll have to have been connected to it at least once since installing version 4.7.2 or above. Once you've been connected, it'll show up in the in-app settings -> Advanced page -> Discovered Wi-Fi Cards.
In that list you can choose to not receive from the card(s) by flipping the switch. If you have a lot of cards you can also swipe the row to rename the card to something more descriptive than just "Toshiba FlashAir".

Since this can get really cumbersome if you have 20 iPads and 20 cards you have to configure, here's what I would do:

* Start out with 1 iPad and have ShutterSnitch detect the first card.
* Go to the in-app settings -> Advanced page -> Discovered Wi-Fi Cards and swipe from right-to-left on the card for the option to rename to what you'd like to call it.
* Toggle the green switch-button OFF so ShutterSnitch won't connect to it.
* Repeat for all the other cards.
* Now that you have registered all the cards, go to in-app settings -> Advanced page -> Share Configuration and check the 'Settings' row. Then Share the configuration to your computer (or some place that has a text-editor application).
* Edit the configuration file (it's just text) and remove all other settings, so it only includes the DiscoveredWiFiCards information. Example:

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
   <key>Settings</key>
   <dict>
      <key>DiscoveredWiFiCards</key>
      <dict>
         <key>ec21e5c50123</key>
         <dict>
            <key>disabled</key>
            <true/>
            <key>lastSeen</key>
            <real>581071077.817752</real>
            <key>name</key>
            <string>Brian's Card</string>
         </dict>
         <key>ec21e5c54567</key>
         <dict>
            <key>disabled</key>
            <true/>
            <key>lastSeen</key>
            <real>581071362.647873</real>
            <key>name</key>
            <string>Buddy's Card</string>
         </dict>
      </dict>
   </dict>
</dict>
</plist>

* You now have a configuration file that you can send to the remaining 19 iPads to import all the cards. Afterwards, on each iPad, go into in-app settings -> Advanced page -> Discovered Wi-Fi Cards and turn on just the card(s) you wan't to receive from on that device.

[TheBrew]

Oh, and if you make a video featuring ShutterSnitch be sure to post a link. I'd love to see that. :)

[dr_tiv]

Can I ask how do I send the configuration file to each new iPad?

[TheBrew]

Any way you like. Email, AirDrop, a URL on the web - as long as the file can be opened on the device, iOS should offer you the option to open it in ShutterSnitch.

I don't know if you noticed but in version 4.7.4 I added an option to share a configuration containing just the discovered Wi-Fi cards. So no need to edit on a computer anymore.

If you want to share the card setup from one iPad to another: open the in-app settings on the iPad you want to share from, tap the 'Advanced' tab at the top, tap 'Share Configuration', select 'Discovered Wi-Fi Cards', tap 'Share', type the super-user password to allow sharing, and if the other iPad allows AirDropping from your device it'll show up in the list. Tap it and it'll be sent and opened in ShutterSnitch. (Well, if ShutterSnitch is installed. Make sure it is, as step zero.. :)

[dr_tiv]

Thank you for setting this up. We now have multiple Eye-Fi cards with the "magic" tag that lets them be used in infrastructure mode and is only connected to a single iPad. We also have 2x Flash Air cards (in infrastructure mode [APPMODE=5]) and I've used your "Discovered Card" method to stop other Shuttersnitch sessions from picking up these cards so it is only received on a single iPad. Everything was working great until last week. Suddenly, we have had photos taken with a specific Eye-Fi card appear on 2 shuttersnitch sessions (two different iPads) at the same time. It's not that one iPad received them, but both devices have copies of the photo. It does not happen ever time (but please note we have enough iPads, WiFi Cards and shuttersnitch sessions occurring simultaneously that it's hard to replicate what the actual scenario is that caused it). Is there something we are doing wrong? We are also having issues with slow transfers of the photos to the iPads via shuttersnitch now that we have up to 6 WiFi SD cards running. Again do you know if this is a hardware issue to do with our WiFi setup (using Unifi APs) or if there is a limitation with shuttersnitch on how many WiFi SD cards it's looking for. Once again, thank you for your help so far. I'm trying to beta test this setup before promoting it to my other medial colleagues.

[TheBrew]

Eye-Fi cards will only send photos to receivers that have the key for the card. So it sounds like the two iPads both have the key for that card.

When you import a configuration, it merges the information about the cards, so if the iPad already knew about that Eye-Fi card, that key isn't removed and therefore will be able to authenticate as a receiver when the card reaches out.

You can force-remove a card key by typing this into Safari on the device:

Code: Select all

shuttersnitch://?setKey=&forMAC=00-11-22-33-44-55

(Replacing the 00-11-22-33-44-55 with the MAC address for the card you want to remove the key from.)

If you added all the Eye-Fi cards to your configuration files, a way to customize how only some of those should be "active", could be to clear the key for those that need to be deactivated.

Example pre-edit:

Code: Select all

..
<key>EyeFiCachedKeys</key>
<dict>
   <key>00-11-22-33-44-55</key>
   <dict>
      <key>DownsyncKey</key>
      <string></string>
      <key>UploadKey</key>
      <string>841a623810311e50560d95c56ef28d1d</string>
   </dict>
</dict>
<key>EyeFiUploadKey</key>
<dict>
   <key>00-11-22-33-44-55</key>
   <string>841a623810311e50560d95c56ef28d1d</string>
</dict>
..


Post-edit:

Code: Select all

..
<key>EyeFiCachedKeys</key>
<dict>
   <key>00-11-22-33-44-55</key>
   <dict>
      <key>DownsyncKey</key>
      <string></string>
      <key>UploadKey</key>
      <string></string>
   </dict>
</dict>
<key>EyeFiUploadKey</key>
<dict>
   <key>00-11-22-33-44-55</key>
   <string></string>
</dict>
..


The important part is to keep the string value - but leaving it blank, so the importer will import a blank value.

Regarding slow transfers - ShutterSnitch has no limit on the cards it'll talk to. So speed is all down to external factors. iPad CPU speed / how much the system has to do work on / network traffic / signal strength / how many active cards are on the network and how they handle being pummeled by the number of active iOS devices running ShutterSnitch.

[dr_tiv]

Hi TheBrew, long time. I've been loving your app and am now recommending it to my photography students (hopefully it's bumping up your income in that regard).
We now have 8-9 FlashAir cards in the one location. The Discovered WiFi Card feature is amazing! My question is:
What parameters on the FlashAir Config File is shown in shuttersnitch so that we can identify which card is which? Sometimes when we set up a new location they all just appear as Toshiba Flash (Large Text) Air with "FlashAir" underneath it. I know you can rename the Larger text but where does the smaller "FlashAir" come from? If I know how to change it, I can make the cards themselves easier to identify.