StuFly Updated

[powerlord]

What’s New

22/09/2020 New Features:

Altitude fixed - it will now display the same altitude as the altitude widget on your phone. This will use barometer and GPS is available, and if you have adjusted it, it will display this adjusted value.

Zero Altitude is now persistent. If you prefer to always start a flight with take off field at 0, set this and every time you start the app it will zero the altitude.

Units have been separated into Distance and Vertical. So you can independently set mph or km/h, feet or meters.

Just go into Garmin Connect, apps, and stufly and 'update'.

And remember down arrow gets you vertical speed graph.

Happy flying.

 

[kiwi k]

Stu can i ask on the flight time side on your app does it start as soon as you leave the ground ? and keep logged until we reset it please ?

[powerlord]

yeh starts when detects ascent more than 20m. doesn't stop till you stop (or close app)

recorded track though is from time you start recording (or start app if using autorecord) till time you stop recording (or close app).

Idea being time on ground faffing isn't timed, so you know how much time you've actually flew/run the engine.

stu

[paraflyer17]

Only tried this a couple of times but struggling to get on with it unfortunately. 

First time was ok. 2nd time didn't auto start.

Just playing after the upgrade:

1. Zero Altitude Tog does nothing for me, just stays at circa 160

2. If I click Auto Record Tog, it just starts recording. No option as to whether you want auto record or manual record.

It doesn't seem obvious when it is recording and when it isnt. Sometimes it vibrates, sometimes it doesn't. 

And the toggles menus make no sense as they dont tell you whether stuff is on or off. So at any point how do you know you are set for manual or auto.

Are you able to advise on the above points? Or link to a full user guide?

The app looks great, I'm just finding it a bit unintuitive, and some of the basics seem a little intermittent. 

Running on a 945.

Thanks

 

 

[powerlord]

On 24/09/2020 at 06:39, paraflyer17 said:

Only tried this a couple of times but struggling to get on with it unfortunately. 

First time was ok. 2nd time didn't auto start.

Just playing after the upgrade:

1. Zero Altitude Tog does nothing for me, just stays at circa 160

I should make docs more clearer. Once toggled on, it only starts working from the next time you start the app. It will continue to zero each time you start the app unless you toggle off.

2. If I click Auto Record Tog, it just starts recording. No option as to whether you want auto record or manual record.

It doesn't seem obvious when it is recording and when it isnt. Sometimes it vibrates, sometimes it doesn't. 

if you select autorecord then it will start recording. if you exit the app, and start it again you will see it auto starts recording.

it is recording when the red dot is flashing on and off.

 

And the toggles menus make no sense as they dont tell you whether stuff is on or off. So at any point how do you know you are set for manual or auto.

that's fair, I should update to say. some are obvious (arrows, metric), but some are not. its tricky as you have so little space to write text that makes sense. but that's a good one - I'll fix that next week - thanks for the feedback.

Are you able to advise on the above points? Or link to a full user guide?

The app looks great, I'm just finding it a bit unintuitive, and some of the basics seem a little intermittent. 

Running on a 945.

Thanks

Oh, I should say - its much more clearer if you use the garmin connect app to change the settings - then there are actual toggle switches - so you can see what is on and what is off - but still - I need to make it clear on the watch.

 

 

 

[paraflyer17]

Hi,

Thanks for the response. That all makes a lot more sense now. I've tried it on the ground and will give it another go in the air now.

I should make docs more clearer. Once toggled on, it only starts working from the next time you start the app. It will continue to zero each time you start the app unless you toggle off.

Doh! That was a lightbulb moment. Tested and seems to be working now. I kept pressing that option expecting my altitude to reset to zero. It possibly would help if there was a bit more documentation

if you select autorecord then it will start recording. if you exit the app, and start it again you will see it auto starts recording.

it is recording when the red dot is flashing on and off.

Same again, I was expecting this to change now rather than on a restart.  I'll keep an eye out for the flashing red dot now.

that's fair, I should update to say. some are obvious (arrows, metric), but some are not. its tricky as you have so little space to write text that makes sense. but that's a good one - I'll fix that next week - thanks for the feedback.

Yeah, I realise the Garmin APIs are the layouts a bit restricted. All it probably needs is a single character at the front of each option. _ for off, * for on or whatever?

Oh, I should say - its much more clearer if you use the garmin connect app to change the settings - then there are actual toggle switches - so you can see what is on and what is off - but still - I need to make it clear on the watch.

Agreed, I hadn't tried this, so thanks for suggesting.

One final request ... any chance of getting the option to Save or Discard at the end of the flight, as you do with other activities. It saves and uploads whether you want it to or not at present.

Having reread my original post, I hope I wasn't too critical. It wasn't meant that way. The app looks great, I was just struggling to get it to work. Hopefully should be all good now with those tips.

Thanks for the reply anyway, looking forward to trying again.

[powerlord]

Updated menu fields to reflect current settings as requested.

 

https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/10bbeff2-2ab0-4e18-8bb2-b6a3fd808873

 

[paraflyer17]

On 17/10/2020 at 15:48, powerlord said:

Updated menu fields to reflect current settings as requested.

 

https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/10bbeff2-2ab0-4e18-8bb2-b6a3fd808873

 

Thanks, menus look lots better.

I tried this the other day, and worked fine apart from altitude was all over. I think this was because I had auto altimeter calibration set to Continuous within apps in my 945 system settings. I've changed to 'At Start' and will try again.

Not sure if you got a chance to look at adding a save/discard menu at the end like the garmin activities. Unforunately as it is I have an activity for every failed launch

[Rustynutz]

I love this app, I'm just having one problem since the last update though... the altitude seems to be all over the place, like last flight it auto zero 'd when I opened the app as its supposed to, but after my flight the altitude at my take off site was reading -330 feet instead of 0, any suggestions?

[alan_k]

Did the air pressure change during your flight?

However that is quite a change (30 feet per millibar aprox).

[paraflyer17]

18 hours ago, Rustynutz said:

I love this app, I'm just having one problem since the last update though... the altitude seems to be all over the place, like last flight it auto zero 'd when I opened the app as its supposed to, but after my flight the altitude at my take off site was reading -330 feet instead of 0, any suggestions?

Mine also dropped 500ft during an hours flight. I initially thought it was due to the setting on my watch above so was going to try without that, but maybe there has been a bug introduced. 

I also used the zero altitude at start feature. 

Pressure would vary slightly, but not that much in an hour. 

[powerlord]

Hmm, sorry about that chaps. It's a problem testing this stuff, as the simulator is not wonderful so I rely on your flight tests for bugs like this,

To help track down the bug, does the reading (-330 or 500) mean anything to you ? i.e. did you take off at 500 feet, etc ? i.e. what is you garmin alti face saying the altitude is ?

And is it just a bug for those using the zero altitude feature ? I never use it, so might be why I've not noticed.

Save/discard: I'll think about it. It's one thing I don't like on garmin apps, as I've chose the wrong thing and lost a track sometimes walking, etc. So I made it that way.

 

[paraflyer17]

35 minutes ago, powerlord said:

Hmm, sorry about that chaps. It's a problem testing this stuff, as the simulator is not wonderful so I rely on your flight tests for bugs like this,

To help track down the bug, does the reading (-330 or 500) mean anything to you ? i.e. did you take off at 500 feet, etc ? i.e. what is you garmin alti face saying the altitude is ?

And is it just a bug for those using the zero altitude feature ? I never use it, so might be why I've not noticed.

Save/discard: I'll think about it. It's one thing I don't like on garmin apps, as I've chose the wrong thing and lost a track sometimes walking, etc. So I made it that way.

 

Have sent you a PM with the link to the activity.

Not sure of the elevation, but I'm certain it is less than 500ft. Looking at an online elevation map, its about 250.

[Rustynutz]

Sorry, forgot about this. It happened me a couple of times, first time I took off from hill top approx 500-700 MSL and flew into the valley below, when I landed on the hill again instead of reading 0 it was 330ft.

Next time I took off from a large strand, my usual flying spot, and the altitude fluctuated wildly throughout the flight, I didnt have a second altimeter to check against but by eye the actual altitude didn't look accurate against the watch.

I had been using the app prior to the update and never had any issues, except with zeroing the altitude before takeoff, would only work sometimes, at the strand, at sea level, it always read about 200ft, I would just subtract 200 from the reading to get the correct altitude in flight. But when I landed the take off altitude and landing altitude were always the same.

[powerlord]

So, what I need from you guys (meant to test last week when had flight on wed just before lockdown, but forgot watch!):

- before you start app, what altitude does the watch say it is (on the inbuilt altitude watch face)

- after you close the app (when it's got wrong altitude), what altitude does the watch say it is (on the inbuilt altitude watch face)

Looking at paraflyer's track its like during flight its all fine, but then at the end it's a straight line slope far too far down.

and I can't for the life of me think wtf I could have done in the app for that - as all I do in app is display altitude (after converting to units of choice).

Unless it's something to do with the zeroing.

So can I just check: are both of you that have this issue  using the zeroing thing ? If that's definately the thing in common, I'll concentrate on looking at the code there.

[powerlord]

just realised I can test this by stapping my watch onto one of my drones! should work fine.

And ideal task for the weekend if it's dry !

 

stu

[alan_k]

At least something will be getting airbourne.

I have a new wing to test fly and I've made adjustments to my old one.

[powerlord]

hmm. so I tried it yesterday, and can't reproduce bug so far.

procedure:

1. I first set garmin to correct alti by going to alti screen, and setting to get alti from GPS (even though I have mine set to auto I've never found it works - today before I did that it was saying alti was -960 feet). Now garmin showing alti as 72 feet which is correct.

2. started stufly (it shows 72 feet, and I set to to zero it, exit app.

3. start stufly again, its zero. flew quad, took it around a bit, and then landed again. watch reporting around 0 feet again, and trace looks as you'd expect:

so.. I'll keep trying but getting nowhere so far.

[Rustynutz]

I'm still having issues with the altitude on the app, I'm beginning to think it may be my watch. My take off and landing altitude readings are always out by 300-400 ft. Did you ever find anything Powerlord?

[paraflyer17]

Is it possible to modify this so it doesn't count as 'exercise'

By this, what I mean is, the flight/activity shows as hundreds if not thousands of calories, even though it isnt exercise as such.

I could deal with that if it wasnt messing with my training status due to thinking I can now run 20 miles in under an hour

thanks

 

[powerlord]

sorry chaps, just saw these. error wise - nope - could never find the cause for you - sorry. works fine every time I try it.

calories wise - no. does this with me too when I'm on electric bike. It's not something I have control over.

 

stu

[Brandon]

This may be a dumb question, but how do you view the StuFly GPS track after a flight? I dropped my new insta360x4 yesterday and want to retrace my steps on the ground to look for the camera.

Edited July 8 by Brandon