Running a survey
A survey is the core of ARRF: you walk a space and signal-coloured cubes drop where you measured. This page covers the survey lifecycle and the on-screen controls.
The Survey lobby
Section titled “The Survey lobby”The Survey tab opens on a lobby with two choices:
- Where — the survey source: a Demo (simulated) walk, a RUCKUS One venue, or Manual AP IPs. See Demo mode and Connecting your APs.
- How — the Capture mode (below).
Tap Start Survey to begin. For a live survey ARRF first runs a pre-flight — a bare SSH-port probe of each AP — and shows which answered. If none answer, you’ll see “Can’t reach your APs” and can’t start; if only some answer, you can Start anyway and offline APs are skipped.
Capture modes
Section titled “Capture modes”Pick the mode in the lobby’s How card. You can switch mid-survey.
| Mode | How it works | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Continuous (default) | Walk and a cube drops automatically per reading — hands-free, no tapping. | Fast coverage of a space. |
| Stop & sample | Stand still, tap the Capture button, and one cube drops on the next fresh reading. | Deliberate, accurate spot measurements. |
Placement throttle
Section titled “Placement throttle”To keep the AR scene readable, ARRF spaces cubes out. Two floors apply in Continuous mode, both set in Settings → Survey & capture:
- Placement throttle — the minimum distance between cubes. Default 0.3 m.
- Live cube interval — the minimum time between cubes. Default 1.0 s.
Raise them for a sparser map, lower them for denser sampling.
The AR HUD
Section titled “The AR HUD”While surveying, the camera view carries a heads-up display:
- Cube count — a large running total of cubes placed.
- Serving-AP chip — the AP your phone is currently associated to (in that AP’s outline colour), with its band, channel, and width.
- Signal readout — the current dBm, SNR, and grade, plus a live signal sparkline.
- Capture button (bottom centre) — in Stop & sample it arms the next cube; in Continuous it pauses/resumes the automatic sweep.
- Clear (trash) — removes all placed cubes from the view.
- Full screen — hides the HUD for an unobstructed camera view; capture keeps running. Tap again to exit.
- Colour and roam-marker chips — change what cubes encode and toggle roam posts. See Cube colors, labels, and detail and AP locations and roaming.
- Tracking state — hints like “Move slower” or “Point at detail” when ARKit needs a better view to track.
If a phone call or Control Center interrupts the camera, capture auto-pauses with “Camera paused — capture resumes when it’s back.” and resumes on its own.
Stopping and saving
Section titled “Stopping and saving”Tap the red Stop Survey button to end. Stop also saves:
- Every stopped survey with data is auto-saved to the History tab.
- With at least 3 points, the Results grade screen opens automatically. With fewer, you’ll see a brief “Saved to History” note and can reopen it from History any time.