When we released a bunch of new smart shots for Solo on iOS in June, we promised that they would be coming to Android, too. I'm pleased to report that the new Android app is now out.
WHAT'S NEW
New in 2.4.0:
- Pano
- Zipline
- Return to me
- Rewind options
- Revised orbit to allow adjustment of ROI after it has been set
- Removes dependency on 3DR Services
Requires Solo firmware 2.4.1 or newer
Fixes:
- MPCC issues
- Turned off local device recording by default, which was causing crash
- Fixed bug in weather information display
Comments
Thanks for the very helpful feedback. I'll pass that to the developers so they can fix.
I have some comments on this update. First the good. We now have Zipline and Pano. Both awesome features I've been longing for. The FW 2.4.1-6 also fixed a lot of problems, some annoying and some very serious. The solo is noticeably more stable and gets a GPS lock noticeably faster now. This all gave me the confidence to upgrade from 2.3 finally. The 3DR services app is no longer needed. That's great because it was the subject of many app crashes. Remove the middle man and things work better.
Now the not so good...
It seems the rewind as part of a failsafe has been removed from the firmware in FW 2.4.1-6. So the entire concept is basically moot. The new app has on/off and distance settings for rewind, but there is no rewind for it to set. Regardless of setting, loss of signal results in RTH or RTM (whatever you've chosen). The whole premise of rewind was that if you hit nothing on the way in, you'll hit nothing on the way out. Reversing back to where you will regain signal. Since it was removed (apparently intentionally) from the most recent FW update, it probably shouldn't be in the list of features, or used as a selling point
A lot of users are struggling with the lack of documentation and conflicting statements. The promotional material says one thing, the brief release notes say another, the developers say something else, and the actual functionality is yet something totally different or non existent.
Return to Me on android is also not working properly. The 3DR Solo App (v2.4) is not requesting updated GPS locations from the phone/tablet. It is using only the rough triangulation location using cell towers and WiFi networks. This results in a "me" location that 50 to 1000 feet off. Like using Google Maps without the GPS turned on. It's just random locations that jump around. Setting the phone/tablet for "GPS Only" mode also doesn't help, because the app will then just stop trying all together. It will use whatever the last triangulated location was from 20 minutes ago. As such, if you are an Android user, you should probably never ever used Return to Me. Using RTM as it's currently implemented in the 3DR Solo app is dangerous, resulting in at best a lost Solo, and at worst damage or injury to others. Test it for yourself, but so far everyone on the forums and facebook groups has had the same results.
The selfie mode on Android is also still broken. The gimbal tilts up to almost level when you start the shot, and does not keep itself pointed at you during the move.The only time it "appears" to work, is if the move is an angle at which it doesn't need to adjust. But this has been broken for about a year, so it shouldn't be anything new and earth shattering. Just know it is still broken.
All of the above was reported by the beta testing group over a week before the production 2.4 app was released. A week went by without fixes or updates, and then 2.4 was released to production in Google Play with all the above issues still present.
I get that this application and firmware has probably become a somewhat of a boat anchor for 3DR. As a business, 3DR has moved on from consumer products, but still has this app and firmware hanging out there. I'm sure the most logical business decision would have been to not even bother with app 2.4 and just call it a day with the firmware update. So I think we're grateful for the pano and zipline, which we could have been left without. But I feel the rewind and RTM issues are really serious and I cannot believe it was allowed into production like that.
That guy's going to throw his back out with enthusiasm, if there's 1 more feature.
I appreciate the followup, great bird and great software...
YES Finally! time to fly!
Hi Chris A, thank you for making sure this happened. Sadly today was a wet and windy day so no flying for me, hopefully I'll get to give the Zipline a go on the weekend. Any chance we will see Geo Fence in the Android app? No pressure but it doesn't look very hard to implement at all since we have the map view with overlay on it.