New app: TelloFPV for Android

[volate!lo]

Audible notifications should work, but with so many features I don't re-test everything all the time. I'll give it a try

Menu control by stick & button for the main Autopilot menu makes sense, sorry but I just forgot that one.

 

[Santiago]

... a feature I already requested earlier - a binding to open up the menu by controller and navigate through the entries also by controller. Useful for example while in VR view. I'd really appreciate that feature, also because I sometimes simply cannot manage to keep all my particular feature bindings in mind, to be honest ^^

Ah yes, a "Smart Audio," style OSD control method, this is a must have for sophisticated FPV interfaces. I first ran up against this problem in my pursuit to fly the Mavic Air through goggles (immersive FPV style.)

I found a reasonable level of success using this Bluetooth finger mouse.

Caveats:

-"Finger painting" on your leg while standing can be awkward. By this point, I was accustomed to sometimes flying from a seated position. This provides the arm of the folding chair, or my thigh, as acceptable surface on which to operate the finger mouse.

-Tello's control system is notoriously susceptible to interference from anything communicating on the 2.4GHz band. (I once had a Tello flyoff, from merely whispering words, "two point four gigahertz." XD) After accumulating literally hundreds of hours of building and flying open source flight control FPV quads, I'm considering a major Tello mod right now, and if I do dust them off, Ill test this setup for interference.

 

[xcrost]

I'm loving the new features! Awesome! Is it possible & easy to add a terrain mode icon to VR display? Thanks!

 

[volate!lo]

I'm loving the new features! Awesome! Is it possible & easy to add a terrain mode icon to VR display? Thanks!

ooops, missed that
of course. An icon would probably not make look good, but some "T" marker or maybe a message whenever Terrain is switched on /off.

 

[xcrost]

Just a "T" would be great! Pretty cool feature esp. for sideways and reverse

 

[volate!lo]

Hello my friend

Well it seems that i am one of those who have "special licensing needs" LOL

Went to upgrade my samsung galaxy s5 and now it will not start (no internet on that phone)
my old tablet that i still use for downloading my paid app works but need to fix the samsung s5 so i can fly once again.

THANK YOU AND I HOPE THAT YOU ARE HAVING THE BEST YEAR EVER WITH YOUR APP.

WORTH EVERY PENNY AND THEN SOME

PM sent!
And Thank you!

 

[volate!lo]

No, I have not forgotten those who helped me testing in the early days. And no, I don't treat everyone like a crook. I know the crooks and you are not one of them. You must have been one of the first 2 or 3 people to purchase the app. Thank you for that.
But honestly I can't see how I treated you like a crook. I explained my findings after you lost your drone, you disagreed and constantly told me you were feeling screwed (by me, my app or some bad people). Then I took a decision that will cause future versions of the app to become useless for people with manual licenses and I refunded you.


So here is my side of the story:
A few early users received manual licenses. TelloPilot2019 is one of them because he uses a dedicated phone without internet.

He recently upgraded to 1.7.8, the App required a new manual license key I provided. He tried the app successfully indoors, but lost the drone almost instantly outdoors.
Just moments later he wrote me that v1.7.8 is the cause of the fly-away, indicating the change in the totally unrelated license encryption ("it just really sucks that honest people that paid for something have to always get f*cked by bums who steal people's stuff.")
I told him to calm down. I'm not mad about him at all, I just try to understand what went wrong. For Tellopilot it was instantly clear: over the course of 25+ messages he repeatedly told me that my app was responsible for the loss (more specifically v1.7.8).
Now v1.7.8 is installed on roughly 25.000 devices and I would be under heavy fire if it contained such problems. Personally I am 100% that it was not the app, but he keeps telling me otherwise.


It's correct that long ago I told TelloPilot that it's OK for me if he extracts and moves an APK. Maybe I should have added that he does so at his own risk. I thought that this would be clear, because how could I assume responsibility for such actions?

My only idea what could have caused this is because the APK he installed had been modified by the APK extractor used to move the app to another device. So he sent me the APK and I tried to find out if it could be the cause. APKs are encrypted and obfuscated so impossible for a human to read but I can see a difference in 221 bytes.
I don't know what was modified and I have no way of knowing if the modification was the cause of the fly away. My believe is that this is not the cause. I tried the APK he sent to me on several devices, and flew 10 batteries with no problems. But...

Is it theoretically possible that an APK which was extracted by a user does indeed cause such issues? Yes that is a remote possibility. Extracting an APK is a process that is outside my control and anything is possible. I just can't be 100% certain and as a consequence I stop supporting this even for users with special needs. Which means no more manual licenses with the upcoming release 1.8.0.

That change affects a tiny minority and all others will not even notice this.
Sadly this affects mostly long-time users because I have issued a handful of manual licenses in the early days. I am really sorry but I don't want similar discussions if someone else runs into similar issues and I don't want to be held responsible for the loss of a drone or the dangers associated with an uncontrolled Tello.

Anyone ultimately requiring manual licenses should stay at the version they currently use and not update. If staying at that version is not an option for you please contact me for a refund.


Sorry for washing dirty laundry in public.

 

[anielloz]

I wonder if it is not better as I do in a S4 i9500 set it up as a family account (a gmail dedicated to that), and install the application, without needing to be doing magic to copy the apk from one device to another?????

 

[anielloz]

"I add" I did that because it was a pain to connect and disconnect my cell phone to td1 for my children to fly the tello, I fly the mavic mini and they quietly fly the tello without having to buy the app again, and if it is a necessity have the google play for the license I applaud you, @volate!lo for example the S4 is not compatible with the dji fly app and that is why I am not going to invent a story or juggle to run the app in the S4, for me it is to take risks without need ...

 

[volate!lo]

Ok, So here is my side of the story so it's balanced

Quote "That change affects a tiny minority and all others will not even notice this."
Don't worry, You have your 25,000 other people right?

Yep, 300+ logged flights with no problems, I install 1.7.8 and the very first flight outside (YOUR APP FREEZES) and my drone just keeps going up and flies away (lost) never reconnected after that. had to hard reset my phone just to get it to turn on again and open the app again.

Yep, 300+ good flights (3 different tello drones) and same T1s controller all bought just for your app and 1 install of 1.7.8 and flies away and it's my fault. I understand. No worries.......

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR THE GREATEST APP THAT THE TELLO DRONE HAS EVER SEEN, Too bad you had to change everything because people stole your work and google play is robbing you blind with there fees. Sorry for that, really

It's just business, Right? I mean, I only did "EXACTLY" what you told me to do with the app extractor for a year+ and it's my fault. I understand......

But now, forcing the other people who helped you get off the ground in the beginning to stop using your app is just another way to say "screw the little guy" Don't worry, You have your 25,000 sales from around the world now, So we are not important anymore i guess.

And YES, "YOUR" app locked up for the first time ever and my drone flew away (300+ flights vs 1 new version flight). (FACT)

I only wanted you to fix "YOUR" problem that "YOUR" app caused so i can fly my tello again. That's it, Nothing more. Never looking for free stuff, Heck, I would have sent you more money, Your app is that good.......Instead, You cancel my google play order and say screw the very people who help you get started.....i get it

No worries, I just will go tonight and buy a mavic mini and fly that instead.

Safe flights everybody and i STILL HIGHLY RECOMMEND THE TELLOFPV app to everybody i talk to (It's that good) As for me, I am done...Sorry

I never said it was your fault. I said that I have no clue what caused this, but that the _only_ thing different between you and 25.000 other users is that you are using an APK that you extracted from another device instead of using Play Store like everyone else. I never told you to use an app extractor, I said I don't have a problem if you do that. Of course if you break the APK in the process it's your responsibility. Not mine.
I will no longer provide manual licenses to avoid similar problems in the future to be on the safe side, even though I don't think this was the cause. This affects maybe 3 or 4 people.
I refunded your order because you won't be able to use any upcoming releases without using play store which I understand you don't want to use.
You still have the previous APKs and the codes to make them work.

I changed everything because of people are stealing my work?? If you mean license validation this has been part of TelloFpv since day one, just like in hundred thousands other apps. No clue what connections to your problem you are making up here.

You have sent me tons of messages over the last 24h, and refuse to understand that nobody knows what happened. So that is my final word on this.


Just for the records: The 25k installations are current installations of both the paid and the free demo version, both share the same codebase and both are on 1.7.8.

 

[volate!lo]

v1.8.0 has been released to play store as beta.

New
* Icon for "Follow terrain" in VR mode
* vibrate for warnings and notifications
* Imperial / metric units also applied in settings
* Notification if an updated version is available (normally play store should handle updates in the background that but some users just switch that off and wonder why no updates arrived)

 

[xcrost]

Loving the new features! Thank you! Possible to turn off vibration? Did I miss it? I looked in tfm

 

[raulvolador]

I posted a new video teaching some tricks on TelloFPV, as virtual GPS and photo panoramas.

Unfortunatelly they are recorded using an outdated TelloFPV app version. @volate!lo is working much more quicker than me

Tello taking photo-panos over water channel and panorama tutorial

 

[volate!lo]

Loving the new features! Thank you! Possible to turn off vibration? Did I miss it? I looked in tfm

Nope, TFM doesn't help . Never thought that someone could be annoyed by a bit vibration. The app only vibrates on battery warning, VPS warning and when you are too late to throw on a hand launch

I posted a new video teaching some tricks on TelloFPV, as virtual GPS and photo panoramas.

Unfortunatelly they are recorded using an outdated TelloFPV app version. @volate!lo is working much more quicker than me

Tello taking photo-panos over water channel and panorama tutorial

As always: Thank you very much!

 

[spanzetta]

Hi Volatello,

since I changed phone (Samsung), could you pls tell me in which folder are saved:
- application settings
- flight records
of TelloFPV app?

I would like to try to manually copy them from old to knew phone to see if it works..

I did it with DJI fly application and apparently it works there (entire DJI folder in the root)

thanks in advance

Inviato dal mio SM-F700F utilizzando Tapatalk

 

[volate!lo]

Hi Volatello,

since I changed phone (Samsung), could you pls tell me in which folder are saved:
- application settings
- flight records
of TelloFPV app?

I would like to try to manually copy them from old to knew phone to see if it works..

I did it with DJI fly application and apparently it works there (entire DJI folder in the root)

thanks in advance

Inviato dal mio SM-F700F utilizzando Tapatalk

Both use Android standard storage for settings and large amounts of data respectively.
Settings are stored in SharedPreferences
Flight details are stored in a SQLite database

These storages are of course internally backed by files, but such files are neither user accessible nor readable. I don't even know their location or file names, and have never ever looked at them.

 

[spanzetta]

Both use Android standard storage for settings and large amounts of data respectively.
Settings are stored in SharedPreferences
Flight details are stored in a SQLite database

These storages are of course internally backed by files, but such files are neither user accessible nor readable. I don't even know their location or file names, and have never ever looked at them.

That's really a pity :-(

Almost every other app out there (also/expecially free apps) has option to keep "settings/data" when changing smartphone .. as it happens today quite often..
there are many way:
- automatic using smartswitch sw (at least for Samsung)
- automatic using cloud export/import
- manual export (and reimport) from the app
- (last chance) manually copy folder

I have more then 300 apps installed and don't have to do anything when changing phone... except your app.. which appears to be the ONLY one that doesn't support any of the mentioned methods..

maybe you should rethink to enable at least ONE, even manual copy of files is better then nothing .. but I confirm that your files are either not visible even with low level file manager like Total Commander.

I hope you will understand (from an user point of view)

Thanks in advance

PS pls don't think I don't appreciate your app.. it is fantastic and I really believe you did a good job.. this is the only small thing that I think could be improved

Inviato dal mio ZFlip utilizzando Tapatalk

 

[umanbean]

but I confirm that your files are either not visible even with low level file manager like Total Commander.

Is the phone rooted? If not, even Total Commander can't see the system folders.

You might know that already but I just wanted to put it out there.

 

[spanzetta]

Is the phone rooted? If not, even Total Commander can't see the system folders.

You might know that already but I just wanted to put it out there.

no.. not rooted

Inviato dal mio ZFlip utilizzando Tapatalk

 

[Thisbeaux]

That's really a pity :-(

Almost every other app out there (also/expecially free apps) has option to keep "settings/data" when changing smartphone .. as it happens today quite often..
there are many way:
- automatic using smartswitch sw (at least for Samsung)
- automatic using cloud export/import
- manual export (and reimport) from the app
- (last chance) manually copy folder

I have more then 300 apps installed and don't have to do anything when changing phone... except your app.. which appears to be the ONLY one that doesn't support any of the mentioned methods..

maybe you should rethink to enable at least ONE, even manual copy of files is better then nothing .. but I confirm that your files are either not visible even with low level file manager like Total Commander.

I hope you will understand (from an user point of view)

Thanks in advance

PS pls don't think I don't appreciate your app.. it is fantastic and I really believe you did a good job.. this is the only small thing that I think could be improved

Inviato dal mio ZFlip utilizzando Tapatalk

IOS would have no problem transferring over
#TelloFPV-IOS-2020!!! Lol.
but seriously, There’s gotta be a fairly easy fix for your issue.... for sure.