Thanks for confirming I am not alone!
There are no settings to change, check in Voyager and nothing has changed in the dashboard connection management. The dashboard works on websocket so it is more likely there are connectivity problems with micro-interruptions that close the connection. The webdashboard closes even if the web page from which it was called is no longer active. There is no reconnection mechanism.
If you have log about when you have disconnection (please report the timing) please send to support.
I will check if there is something can help you. I started a 6 remote dashboard to 6 remote observatory that I can contact … 4 are running … 2 are in idle. I will let you know if I experience disconnection, at now is a 20 minute of connection.
All the best
Leonardo
Hi all,
the websocket disconnection can be caused by an external connection down, but also if the browser/device gone in standby mode. I think this could be the case:
This happened on my test only when the pc gone in system standby, I’ve deliberately caused after 1 hour without problem connected.
We can implement an auto re-connection option for this kind of cases, but after received your log file we can also better investicate your specific issue, if there are any other problems.
Last two precisation:
The suggested browser for use Web Dashboard is Firefox and Chrome, even Microsoft Edge last version (based on Chromium) works well.
The support email address is at your disposal when you have problems, we will happy to help you, please use this instead of forum for a quick and efficent support.
Thanks for understanding,
we will update soon with a test version with auto connect/re-reconnect option.
Have a nice sunday.
Francesco
1 Like
Hi Francesco,
Can you advise how shall I check if that system standby is the problem? I am using Chrome as the broswer and my computer never goes to sleep/hibernate. I think I also set in Chrome to leave it always active. The Web dashboard keep disconnecting itself still…
Dear Yizhou,
We did some scruple tests that lasted even more than a week with several observatories without finding any disconnection. The cause of your problems is to be found in the connectivity that is offered to you or in the router that manages it. The browser-side connectivity is managed by the browser, the dashboard in addition to opening and closing can not do anything else, this for the design of any browser it is.
However, we are working on an automatic reconnection on the dashboard side as a work around. We’ll let you know.
All the best
Leonardo
1 Like
Hi Yizhou,
I add to what Leo has already said that the auto re-connect feature is ready and under testing. If you want I can send you a temporary link in private message for try it.
Best Regards
Francesco
Hi Yizhou, Hi to all.
I’ve published on a temporary URL the VWD version with auto reconnection option. I think it could be very useful also for using mobile device that goes in standby mode often.
[EDIT*] New 1.0.22c: http://www.starkeeper.it/wdash/1022c/
*previous version (1.0.22a) contained a bug: it required authentication or activation code. Now it’s solved, sorry for the inconvenience.
I repeat this is a temporary link, it will be removed when we’ll release the public version.
In the following screenshot the new option highlighted.
Please let us know your opionion/experience.
Best regards
Francesco
2 Likes
Thank you guys! I’ll give it a try!
1 Like
Hi Everyone,
I’m recently joined the Voyager club and successfully run two first nights with it and i just amazed how smart and intuitive Voyager is.
With that being said, I could not notice this dashboard disconnecting issue and i did some further investigation. I just surprised that not many users chimed in, as this issue should be more global, as everyone using browser. So contacting directly at least 5 people, friends and other users on forum, it’s became obviously that everyone having the same issue. I will explain with the workaround to solve it for time being.
Now, this is not Voyager problem and it seems Voyager can’t do anything about it right now, because browser tab being a “sandbox”.
You may notice, that after minimizing or switching tab in browser, after about 5 minutes websocket will drop the connection, causing Dashboard to disconnect.
That is due to a recent changes in Chrome, as of July 2020 they introduced a new feature with intention to save battery life: “Intensive throttling of Javascript timer wake ups”. You can read about it here: Intensive throttling of Javascript timer wake ups - Chrome Platform Status
This means, that when Javascript timer throttled at a 1 minute intervals, web client will not be able to send “keepalive” messages within deafult 30 seconds inactivity timeout.
So the solution for now is this:
open your Chrome browser and type in: chrome://flags
Scroll down and look for Throttle Java script timers in background.
Set it to Disabled and restart the Chrome.
I have tested it for at least 48 hours with Laptops with Internet and without Internet activity, minimizing, switching tabs and Dashboard stayed connected no matter what. Tested with latest Chrome only.
This is not perfect, as people who experiencing the same issue will need to find this post to solve it. And as i mentioned before, browser tab being “sandbox” it seems that there is nothing Voyager cant do about it. But maybe with some time and creative thinking there still might be some trick applied to it.
Maybe its possible to do something with this in future? : Window setTimeout() Method As this is already exists in Chrome.
Anyway, thank you for your time and hope this workaround will fix your problems for now.
Just a note, this fix will not work with Phone, even if you keep Chrome app alive all the time, as soon as screen goes off, after 5 minutes Dash will drop its connection. But it definitely solved it for desktop.
Thank you.
3 Likes
Thank you so much! It used to disconnect for my every ~ 5mins (the auto-re-connect function doesn’t work either) and now I have it alive for over an hour and still looking strong. I guess this is it! Will keep watching and let you know!
Thanks,
Yizhou
1 Like
We have tested for weeks dashboard without any disconnection in 3 different places … (Web Dashboard keep disconnecting? - #8 by Voyager) but we use Firefox.
I suggest to switch to Firefox if Chrome have this behaviour.
Also not only the browser can be the cause of disconnection.
I can confirm that Firefox behaves well for the web dashboard. I had mine running overnight (Though I was clouded out quite early) and it stayed connected for around 8 hours without any intervention from me.
I’ll try the workaround, thanks as I have the same disconnection problem - but I always use Safari on my iPad which is really the only time I use the Web dashboard - if I am at a computer, then I just use VNC!
I’ve never reported it because I thought it was just me or it was such an obvious thing that someone would have reported it 
(and in the end I stopped using it, too frustrating) - I will start using again!
Dear Paul we have tested also with iPad iPhone and others using safari , I personally use it, never had a problem. Check your settings on iPad and network environment starting from wifi system.safari is not chrome for your info. If you close iPad or iPhone disconnection is a normal thing, web socket works in this way.
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Is it possible to run something in the background, maybe with JavaScript setTimeout function or anything else that can renew websocket connection on mobile?
How about creating a function that runs in an interval every X minutes (or seconds) to check if a websocket connection exists, otherwise create one? It’s not pretty, but it should work.
2 Likes
Hi,
It appears that the Web Dashboard now disconnects every 5 minutes with Chrome. The latest versions of Chrome no longer have the " Throttle Java script timers in background " flags.
Is the only choice to use FireFox? And if so, is there an option to launch Firefox from Voyager since it is not the default browser on my system?
Thanks for any insight.
1 Like
Dear All,
if you think the problem is on the webdashboard we have testing so extensive the things without found any disconnection so we invite you to check your browser settings or network environment. Nothing to put like timer or similar, things are more complex than this and in anycase voyager have a bidirectional polling system already running.
if you think the problem is the Chrome browser again we do not found any problems but in this case you can ask directly support to Chrome developer with a question on info menù of browser. We suggest to use an instance of chrome with only the web dashboard or do not leave changed the tab where is opened the web dashboard.
if you think other browser is the solution but you do not want to put like default browser please create a link in your desktop to the webdashboard to open instead Article - Open a Link in Non-Default ...
We have done just now other tests with the new version of Chrome and all work fine:
If you want to use a reconnection system in webdashboard look at begin of the thread.
For this reason the thread is closed.
All the best