New Featherweight GPS phone app available for Android and iOS

[Adrian A]

The only place i was able to select a channel was in the device manager. No channel selection in the base. Only the transmitter. Maybe im used to selecting the base and the transmitter on the old App (and yes im using the Android version vs the old Iphone) but i wasnt able to get the channel list tabon the tracking screen to work.

Yes, in the device manager you select the channel used by the tracker, and then select which tracker to connect with the ground station in the ground station edit box. A feature I have requested to be added is to be able to select the tracker from within the tracker screen. If you click the tracker name at the top it will bring up a pop-up list of trackers that you can connect to.

Hopefully something can be done... it was really not much fun watching the arrow flip around all over the place. Lol. Made getting a directional lock difficult. And again yes android.

I'll see what we can do. My own Android testing was noticeably worse than on an iPhone, but wasn't as bad as you're describing. Maybe some Android compass sensors are better than others. Be sure to be away from magnets when using the compass.

Yes. The old set up if i was within 10 to 15 feet was pretty realistic with enough satilites. This one when i was 10 ft away was like telling me 50ft away.

Does the distance countdown as you get closer like the previous app? Even if its the last known good coordinates?

Yes. I'll do some more comparison testing myself today.

I found this to be a very useful feature

I learned to use this feature from when I was operating spacecraft in my day job. There was a different font used for fresh vs. stale telemetry in the tools we were using.

Like yourself im an Altitude junkie. Most stuff is minimum diameter lots of motor.

The Featherweight tracker in past has become such a benchmark that many of us Altitude flyers live by it. Considering the majority of the flight isnt visible, so our method of knowing whats going on has been the the featherweight tracker. starting with an established start point of the launch. The vocal call out of altitude going up. The declaration of Apogee vocally. The vocal call out of decent speed and altitude so you know if you had separation and things are good or not. The vocal call out as the main deploys and the speed drops from 100fps to 18fps now you know you're under main. Couple that with the arrow pointing you in the direction while under boost. The arrow pointing While under drouge and main. Being able to line up arrow and the azimuth bubble to get horizon and direction to possibly get a visual under decent. The screen showing altitude and distance as it goes up and comes down so you have an idea in ft how far away it landed. Then the screen change when it lands so you know that its most likely down and lost direct link. Then using the arrow and watching the distance count smaller and smaller (this works great even when driving) taking you right up to the rocket. After coming down from 35k ft. not to even mention actual data from the tracker thats recognized by TRA. Not to mention lost rocket feature. Or how long the battery life is.

This is the standard you have already established Adrian. big shoes to fill. Lots of Excellence! Hopefully all of this will be able to translate over to the new system on both platforms as its what makes the tracker so great.

Thank you for all you do.

Thanks for the endorsement!

 

[KBlack]

I'll see what we can do. My own Android testing was noticeably worse than on an iPhone, but wasn't as bad as you're describing. Maybe some Android compass sensors are better than others. Be sure to be away from magnets when using the compass.

Perhaps for Android, you can use the phone's GPS data while in motion to determine what direction the ground station/phone is moving in. Then just fall back to the compass when stationary.

 

[ac2fv]

Great! Thanks for letting us know.

So is there a way at this point to download the IOS version of iFIP? I don't see a way to do it on my phone. I'm technically challenged!

 

[Adrian A]

So is there a way at this point to download the IOS version of iFIP? I don't see a way to do it on my phone. I'm technically challenged!

Yes, follow the installation link that is on the GPS product page, from the device you want to install on.

Here is a copy of that installation link

 

[kjs]

I get this error when I go to TestFlight link.

Tim - are you still getting that error? I think the iFIP install / update should still be working although I will be trying to validate and migrate to the "Featherweight UI" version for BlueRaven and Tracker...

 

[tim cubbedge]

Tim - are you still getting that error? I think the iFIP install / update should still be working although I will be trying to validate and migrate to the "Featherweight UI" version for BlueRaven and Tracker...

No. I finally got the updated file a few days later.

 

[86mustang408w]

Ok, this is awesome. I've been looking for a Tracker for months but have an Android. I've been leaning towards these anyways but I'm sold now. This looks amazing, im going to read thru all the posts, again. Thank you all for sharing.

 

[Adrian A]

We are getting close to releasing a new build. It's taken a little longer than I expected, but dealing with all the combinations of trackers and ground stations is complicated. I want to make it easy as possible for the user to turn on any of their ground stations and trackers in any order and have them all pair up correctly on their own, when possible. Here's the tracker and ground station connection flowchart that my developer is working from:



I think there's one last bug before we release.

The new release will have:

• Improvements to Android pointer stability and accuracy
• Easier access to graphing and sharing recorded flight data
• Unified interface for downloading of recorded flight data from tracker or Blue Raven
• Downloading from 2 Blue Ravens that were on the same flight, one after the other
• Numerous improvements to tracker live data screen and Blue Raven flight summary display
• Improved voice telemetry

Once this release is done we'll be working on adding a mapping capability for tracking, integrating Google Maps. Google Maps can be cached off-line, so if you know you're launching in an area with bad cell coverage, you can still get the maps you need ahead of time.

In parallel, I'm working on an improvement to the Blue Raven firmware for the Bluetooth connections. Currently, when a Blue Raven is not connected over Bluetooth, it will accept a connection from any phone that's running the Featherweight UI app. I'll be changing this so that once the Blue Raven is connected over Bluetooth to a phone, it will not accept connections from any other phone while it is powered on. And if it is power cycled, for the first 5 seconds it is on, it will only connect with the phone it was connected to the last time it was powered on. The idea here is that if you're the owner of a Blue Raven, you'll always be the only one with control of your Blue Raven as long as you are the only one who turns it on and off.

 

[Adrian A]

The new build (245) is live now for people signed up through TestFlight or FireBase. Releasing through the stores is in progress. As usual, things took a little longer, since an update to the developer toolkit introduced some new bugs. But the regression testing is done now and things look good.

 

[kjhambrick]

The new build (245) is live now for people signed up through TestFlight or FireBase. Releasing through the stores is in progress. As usual, things took a little longer, since an update to the developer toolkit introduced some new bugs. But the regression testing is done now and things look good.

Just a note to say that I received an email and updated the Blue Raven App to version 1.0.4 (245) without any issues.

I only have a Blue Raven Altimeter to test ( no tracker yet ) but I will do some ground testing when I can ...

Thanks @Adrian A !

-- kjh

EDIT: I can already report that turning off the Blue Raven after connecting no longer seems to require me to Force-Stop the Blue Raven App to reconnect the App to the Blue Raven Altimeter !

Woo Hoo !

 

[manixFan]

We are getting close to releasing a new build. It's taken a little longer than I expected, but dealing with all the combinations of trackers and ground stations is complicated. I want to make it easy as possible for the user to turn on any of their ground stations and trackers in any order and have them all pair up correctly on their own, when possible. Here's the tracker and ground station connection flowchart that my developer is working from:

View attachment 618667

I think there's one last bug before we release.

The new release will have:

• Improvements to Android pointer stability and accuracy
• Easier access to graphing and sharing recorded flight data
• Unified interface for downloading of recorded flight data from tracker or Blue Raven
• Downloading from 2 Blue Ravens that were on the same flight, one after the other
• Numerous improvements to tracker live data screen and Blue Raven flight summary display
• Improved voice telemetry

Once this release is done we'll be working on adding a mapping capability for tracking, integrating Google Maps. Google Maps can be cached off-line, so if you know you're launching in an area with bad cell coverage, you can still get the maps you need ahead of time.

In parallel, I'm working on an improvement to the Blue Raven firmware for the Bluetooth connections. Currently, when a Blue Raven is not connected over Bluetooth, it will accept a connection from any phone that's running the Featherweight UI app. I'll be changing this so that once the Blue Raven is connected over Bluetooth to a phone, it will not accept connections from any other phone while it is powered on. And if it is power cycled, for the first 5 seconds it is on, it will only connect with the phone it was connected to the last time it was powered on. The idea here is that if you're the owner of a Blue Raven, you'll always be the only one with control of your Blue Raven as long as you are the only one who turns it on and off.

The pairing lockout is a great feature, but you might consider extending it to a longer time period, like 30 seconds. I say this based on my experience at large launches (like the Spaceport Cup), where many flyers are turning on their trackers at close to the same time, and may not have the app ready. Since the vast majority of the time the tracker will be connecting to the same phone, giving the user a bit more time may help reduce the chance someone else connects to their Blue Raven, and is a minor inconvenience for the few times someone wants to connect to a new phone.

Thanks for the updates – especially the unified download and dual Raven download.


Tony

 

[FredT]

Thanks for the update. I've installed it on my Android phone and have tested with my two Blue Ravens. I don't own a Tracker... yet, so my feedback only pertains to the BR. New UI looks better and seems easier to use. I just have a few quibbles that I've been silent about on the last few updates in hopes they would get address over time.

I like the new layout of the Flight List, especially the Export button along with the Flight Summary screen which gives a lot of useful information about a flight. I seem to remember downloading the summary, I thought through the UI, but maybe only through the Command Line. I imagine I could still download through the CL, just too lazy to do so. Currently, the Export button downloads only low- and high-rate CSV files. I'm thinking it would be relatively easy to add the Flight Summary to the download. And while you're at it, you could add the flight's configuration file. I like to get this data off the phone and into the database I keep of all my flights.

My second quibble concerns device and rocket names. It seems these names are used interchangeably the app. Just to be clear, I use my BR in several different rockets, so using those names interchangeably doesn't make sense for me. I like that I can rename my devices, but the serial number is always part of the name. The serial number is important to know and track, I'd like to see it listed as a device property rather than part of its name.

I realize these I very minor issues and I might be the only one who cares, but they distract from the polish of the app.

...Fred

 

[kjhambrick]

@Adrian A --

I've been testing my 38mm and 29mm AV-Bays for AARG's upcoming Jan 6 Launch and I've noticed something odd in version 1.0.4 (245) and Sims:

I've been booting the AV-Bay and I let it run until the battery is just about spent.

Then, I'll run a Sim.

The Sim proceeds normally and it immediately downloads the low_rate and high_rate files.

Then I shut down the Blue Raven via the integral Mag-Switch on the AV-Bay and recharge the battery.

But when the battery is recharged and I boot the Blue Raven, it immediately re-downloads the most recent sim files.

This is a screen shot of the Flights Tab:



Note the Alternating "Rocket Name" -vs- "KJH 0236" Flights but also note the Time Stamps.

Am I doing it wrong ?

Is an internal flag not being reset after the Sim Flight is downloaded ?

Thanks Adrian !

-- kjh

EDIT: I do click the reset button in the Sim Dialog after each Sim ...

EDIT[ 2 ]: More info -- I named my Blue Raven "KJH 0236" via the Android App and that's about when I started seeing this behavior ...

 

[Adrian A]

Thanks for the update. I've installed it on my Android phone and have tested with my two Blue Ravens. I don't own a Tracker... yet, so my feedback only pertains to the BR. New UI looks better and seems easier to use. I just have a few quibbles that I've been silent about on the last few updates in hopes they would get address over time.

I like the new layout of the Flight List, especially the Export button along with the Flight Summary screen which gives a lot of useful information about a flight. I seem to remember downloading the summary, I thought through the UI, but maybe only through the Command Line. I imagine I could still download through the CL, just too lazy to do so. Currently, the Export button downloads only low- and high-rate CSV files. I'm thinking it would be relatively easy to add the Flight Summary to the download. And while you're at it, you could add the flight's configuration file. I like to get this data off the phone and into the database I keep of all my flights.

My second quibble concerns device and rocket names. It seems these names are used interchangeably the app. Just to be clear, I use my BR in several different rockets, so using those names interchangeably doesn't make sense for me. I like that I can rename my devices, but the serial number is always part of the name. The serial number is important to know and track, I'd like to see it listed as a device property rather than part of its name.

I realize these I very minor issues and I might be the only one who cares, but they distract from the polish of the app.

...Fred

Fred, I have added the export of the flight summary and flight configuration file to my developer's to-do list.

The serial number does show up as a separate item in the Devices screen, next to the rocket name. It would not be easy to add it as a new field to the flight summary, however.

@Adrian A --

I've been testing my 38mm and 29mm AV-Bays for AARG's upcoming Jan 6 Launch and I've noticed something odd in version 1.0.4 (245) and Sims:

I've been booting the AV-Bay and I let it run until the battery is just about spent.

Then, I'll run a Sim.

The Sim proceeds normally and it immediately downloads the low_rate and high_rate files.

Then I shut down the Blue Raven via the integral Mag-Switch on the AV-Bay and recharge the battery.

But when the battery is recharged and I boot the Blue Raven, it immediately re-downloads the most recent sim files.


Note the Alternating "Rocket Name" -vs- "KJH 0236" Flights but also note the Time Stamps.

Am I doing it wrong ?

Is an internal flag not being reset after the Sim Flight is downloaded ?

Thanks Adrian !

-- kjh

EDIT: I do click the reset button in the Sim Dialog after each Sim ...

EDIT[ 2 ]: More info -- I named my Blue Raven "KJH 0236" via the Android App and that's about when I started seeing this behavior ...

When a Blue Raven re-connects, the app checks to see if it has a new flight summary that it hasn't downloaded yet. It checks the launch date and time, and the blue raven name. (It needs to check the name in case there are 2 Blue Ravens in the same flight) I suspect that the current version of the blue raven name is getting compared against the previously-downloaded name. I asked my developer to fix this.

Thanks for the feedback.

The new build has been released through the Apple store and Google Play.

 

[kjhambrick]

Adrian --

Maybe one useful tidbit for debugging the "Rocket Name" -vs- "kjh 0236" dupes ...

I renamed my Blue Raven "Rocket Name" and it no longer dupes the flights after rebooting the Blue Raven.

It took two tries ... there were 6 ( or so ) spaces after the Device Name in the rename dialog and I had to delete the spaces too !

HTH

-- kjh

 

[KBlack]

It's nice to have the option to see flight tracks on the map, but as part of pre-flight checks, I would really like to see the current/live position of the tracker on the map, not just the direction/altitude/distance.

 

[Adrian A]

It's nice to have the option to see flight tracks on the map, but as part of pre-flight checks, I would really like to see the current/live position of the tracker on the map, not just the direction/altitude/distance.

Live mapping is coming soon.

 

[flyguy614]

Hey Adrian!

Couple things! Firstly, I'm only getting a gray screen for the maps.


Is this just me, or is this pretty normal in this update?

And then is there any way to get the last lat/long of the rocket? I've built a fixed wing drone that I can plug coordinates into and have go find my rocket, but I either need a visible map or a lat/long to do it. Any ideas?

 

[kjhambrick]

Hey Adrian!

<<snip>>

And then is there any way to get the last lat/long of the rocket? I've built a fixed wing drone that I can plug coordinates into and have go find my rocket, but I either need a visible map or a lat/long to do it. Any ideas?

Holy cow !

That's freakin' beautiful !!

I want one of those too !!!

-- kjh

 

[Adrian A]

Hey Adrian!

Couple things! Firstly, I'm only getting a gray screen for the maps.


Is this just me, or is this pretty normal in this update?

And then is there any way to get the last lat/long of the rocket? I've built a fixed wing drone that I can plug coordinates into and have go find my rocket, but I either need a visible map or a lat/long to do it. Any ideas?

The latest build that I'm testing now has fixed this problem. It should be available in a day or two. There was a previous build that had a way to copy the coordinates, but it went away in the latest build. 2 steps forward, one step back. But we're working on it every day.

 

[Adrian A]

Well, it took more than a day or two, but a major new app update is available now. Once of the biggest improvements is in the live mapping area. The tracker and GS positions are now plotted live, and each of them can have their lat/lon coordinates copied by clicking on the interest point icon.

 

[nevadagold]

Had a chance to try the new app tonight. Connected to a Blue Raven, tracking base station and two trackers simultaneously. Everything worked very good. So far it rocks!!! I will be doing more testing this weekend.

 

[KBlack]

I updated to Android app version 1.0.5 (270) and am VERY well pleased.

I'm now unable to recreate the difficulty with making and maintaining Bluetooth connections with my devices, and having a list of all my paired devices is an excellent touch.

Live mapping is just perfect.

With this update, I have confidence in it for this year's flying season. Can't wait for the good weather, and what new features are still in the pipeline.

Thanks Adrian!

 

[Adrian A]

I updated to Android app version 1.0.5 (270) and am VERY well pleased.

I'm now unable to recreate the difficulty with making and maintaining Bluetooth connections with my devices, and having a list of all my paired devices is an excellent touch.

Live mapping is just perfect.

With this update, I have confidence in it for this year's flying season. Can't wait for the good weather, and what new features are still in the pipeline.

Thanks Adrian!

Thanks so much! I agree that now with build 270, all the critical functionality for tracking is up and running the way it should be.

New features upcoming include scanning the channel list (started in build 270, but not really functional yet), and more accessibility for the lost rocket relay feature. I also have some features in mind for making it easier to monitor the flights of other rockets at the launch that are equipped with the Featherweight GPS tracking system.

 

[Rocket86]

I've installed iPhone Featherweight UI Build 270 and get only a splash screen when I try to open the app. What have I done wrong?

 

[Adrian A]

I've installed iPhone Featherweight UI Build 270 and get only a splash screen when I try to open the app. What have I done wrong?

It's possible you had a much older version of the app, which created data that's incompatible with new new version. You won't have to do this every time, but try uninstalling the app to delete the old data, before installing the new version.

 

[Rocket86]

It's possible you had a much older version of the app, which created data that's incompatible with new new version. You won't have to do this every time, but try uninstalling the app to delete the old data, before installing the new version.

I have tried that with no success. It's a 91 Mb download and takes about 3 seconds. My dl speed is nowhere near fast enough to do that so something is preventing it from downloading and installing.

 

[Rocket86]

I have uninstalled, restarted and deleted all the backup data for the app and still cannot install a functional featherweight UI. This is all I get.

Any help would be appreciated. Is it still possible to get and use the old iFIP?

 

[Adrian A]

I have uninstalled, restarted and deleted all the backup data for the app and still cannot install a functional featherweight UI. This is all I get.
View attachment 630334
Any help would be appreciated. Is it still possible to get and use the old iFIP?

Yes, the iFIP is still available. I'm surprised the installation isn't working for you. Which phone do you have?

Did you install through TestFlight or the Apple store?

 

[Rocket86]

Yes, the iFIP is still available. I'm surprised the installation isn't working for you. Which phone do you have?

Did you install through TestFlight or the Apple store?

I've tried installing both through test flight and the Apple store. I've tried it on an SE and 8, which both worked well with iFIP.