thanks for the reply - very helpful - I had no idea you could install scapy on the pineapple.
Here is a script I wrote in python using scapy to perform a de-auth with a specific reason code. It takes care of setting the channel, etc... but you have to run airmon-ng check kill and airmon-ng start wlan0 (whatever your interface is). There are some devices that will behave differently depending on the reason code you send in the de-auth.
Here is a link to a list of the auth and de-auth reason codes and what they all mean/are for. https://supportforums.cisco.com/document/141136/80211