Flytrex Live 3G Released - Review

[Brent10]

It is enabled in my profile I have toggled it on and off. I saw another member a few pages back in this thread that had the sane problem.

I have the same problem.

 

[bbfpv]

hm, i dunno then. never actually tried it myself.

 

[dirtdummy]

hm, i dunno then. never actually tried it myself.

I thought you where talking from experience.

 

[amitregev]

Hmmm.... It isn't working yet and Flytrex hasn't responded to the ticket I opened last night.

When I went flying today I still had the solid green light on the Flytrex with flashing green lights on the Phantom indicating I had a good GPS location. No flight information has been logged on the Flytrex website and it still shows my Flytrex has never been seen.

- Scott

Hi Scott

If the Flytrex Live 3G LED is showing solid-green, rather than flashing green, this indicates that the Live 3G was able to power up correctly, connect to the network and to Flytrex servers successfully, but there is no incoming data coming in the data connection and therefore the Live 3G isn't transmitting any data -- note that a solid green means a successfully connection WAS INDEED made, so your network connection and SIM card are all OK, just that there is no flight data feeding to the Live and therefore it can't transmit any data to the Live servers.

The common causes for this issue are different depending whether you installed the Live 3G using the CAN-BUS Adapter or the installation cable. If I remember your setup correctly you are using the installation cable.

When using the installation cable the cause is almost always related to some issue with the data cable connectivity. Either that the cable was not connected, not pushed all the way in, or that it got broken in one of the pins -- in either of these cases the Live will basically not get any data feed in and therefore won't be able to transmit any data to the servers.

To help me determine the cause in your specific case please post a few pictures showing your setup. Specifically, I'd like to see the Flytrex installation cable connection to the Live 3G itself. Most chances that this is the cause for this issue. If needed, we will of course be glad to help with a replacement cable quickly.

Looking forward for your follow-up. Thanks!

 

[amitregev]

View attachment 16315
These are the only two ends other than the smaller white one that fits the Flytrex unit. Neither seem close to fitting in the canbus port in the Phantom.......scratching head.....thanks again!

Hi Mike

According to the picture you are using the basic installation cable (not the CAN-BUS Adapter) and therefore the wiring is connected via the GPS connection instead of the CAN-BUS. This explains why the connectors you were looking for on the main Phantom board do not seem to fit.

You can find the installation guide for the Phantom 2 Vision Plus using the basic installation cable (the same setup you have) here:

http://www.flytrex.com/support/flytrex-live-3g/phantom-2-vision-plus-installation/

As a reference, you can see the installation guide using the CAN-BUS Adapter here:

http://www.flytrex.com/support/flytrex-live-3g/phantom-2-vision-plus-canbus-installation/

Let me know how it goes and if there is anything else I can help with.

 

[amitregev]

Blaine Vallem
amitregev

Thanks Topdog11ttc!

I just checked and your order is almost at the top of our shipping queue by now. It will get shipped towards mid of this week, Tuesday-Wednesday.

As soon as the order gets shipped you will receive an email from us including your full shipping details.

Let me know if there is anything else I can help with!

 

[topdog11ttc]

Thanks Topdog11ttc!

I just checked and your order is almost at the top of our shipping queue by now. It will get shipped towards mid of this week, Tuesday-Wednesday.

As soon as the order gets shipped you will receive an email from us including your full shipping details.

Let me know if there is anything else I can help with!

Thanks

 

[amitregev]

Thanks for the reply, Dirt!! I have a smaller white plug with a red and orange wire coming out of it on one end. This fits into the Flytrex unit. On the other end of the cable, the wiring splits and there are two connectors...the ones I thumbnailed above. Neither of those ends appear to fit over the port labeled CAN. I will attach 3 other thumbnails showing the ends and the canbus port....Thanks again for your help!
View attachment 16332 View attachment 16333 View attachment 16334

Hi Mike

Please see my previous reply on this with full details and with correct setup instructions for your setup.

Let me know how it goes.

 

[amitregev]

Same here after a flight it creates a Facebook post on my Flytrex profile page, But it never makes it to Facebook?????????

Hi Dirtdummy

I just verified this with my Flytrex and Facebook account and as far as I can tell Live flight notifications get posted correctly to my Facebook wall. There are two settings related to this that might cause live-flights not to get posted in real time to your Facebook timeline, so I suggest we start by checking those and see how it goes.

First, please enter your Flytrex General Account Settings here:
http://www.flytrex.com/account-settings/general/

Verify that the Share on Facebook default value is set to ON.

Then enter the Live Settings page (on the left menu) and click on the Settings link for your Live device. In the Live Settings page, make sure that the option "Share Live flight status and stream on Flytrex" is set to Public.

If any changes were made (in either of the two settings) make sure you press Save Changes in each of the setting pages to store those changes.

Once set this way you should see a post on your Facebook Timeline getting posted in real time as soon as you take off, inviting your friends to join your flight in real time.

Let me know how it goes!

 

[amitregev]

After reading your link I can now answer......no. I thought that is what I was ordering and got, but after reading up in the users guide I see what I have is I guess the solder version....and I have clipped the power wires already too (and would not attempt to solder!). I emailed the vender that supplied me for what my options are.....

Hi Mike

If you need any further help with this feel free to email us at support[at]flytrex[dot]com. Our team will be glad to help with this.

Our support team will be back tomorrow from a short vacation so handling a bit higher loads of support than usual, but you can expect a reply by the end of the day tomorrow (Sunday is the first working day for us ).

Let me know if there is anything else I can help with.

 

[amitregev]

View attachment 16409 View attachment 16410 View attachment 16411
Amit, attached are three photos showing the connections. When I took the photo showing the CAN Bus Adapter the Phantom 2 Vision+ V3.0 was powered on.

The Phantom had a flashing green light indicating a good GPS signal. However, the Flytrex had a solid green light.

FYI I also sent this information to Nir who responded this morning to my ticket #690 that I opened on Sunday.

One question... after powering on the Phantom and getting the fast flashes indicating 6 or more satellites, should the Flytrex start flashing green without starting the Phantom motors?

- Scott

Thanks Scott for the pictures -- this definitely helps!

Technically, the Live 3G should start flashing green about 1-2 seconds after the solid green is showing, regardless to how many GPS satellites you have. It will flash green even if you do not have GPS lock yet. The flashing green indicates that data (any type of data) is being transmitted to the Flytrex server. Since the Live 3G transmits additional data fields apart from the GPS data, such as voltage information, compass etc., the flashing green should show right from the start, not related to your aircraft GPS status.

Looking at your pictures I believe your setup is correct. My assumption is that the CAN-BUS adapter is defective and that we will need to replace it for you. We will of course be glad to help with this and we will arrange this replacement quickly for free.

Before doing that, just one last thing we can try -- please try to push the connector of the black cable that connects between the Live 3G and the CAN-BUS Adapter a bit more on the side that connects to the CAN-BUS Adapter. Looking at the picture *it might* need to be pushed a bit further and this might also cause this issue, if this is the case.

To be honest, chances are pretty low that this is the case -- but it makes sense to check this before coordinating a replacement CAN-BUS shipment.

Let me know if this helped. If not, we'll get a new CAN-BUS Adapter on its way quickly.

Thanks!

 

[djifan]

Thanks Amit.

While there is surely scope for improvement in the TAT from flytrex, but I think it also needs to be acknowledged that there is a genuine effort and satisfactory response from you eventually on almost all the queries posted here.

Personally, you are the reason i'm still a customer of flytrex and in my opinion, they owe you a big fat raise!

Cheers and Keep up the good work!!

 

[amitregev]

Amit,

The time from one of the video files from this mission is 4:39 PM.
The time shown on Flytrex website is 9:24 PM.
http://www.flytrex.com/mission/quadcopter-phantom-2-vision-v3-brent-newman-yUE89gBA/

The time from one of the video files from this mission is 8:20 AM.
The time shown on Flytrex website is 1:20 PM.
http://www.flytrex.com/mission/quadcopter-phantom-2-vision-v3-brent-newman-G2BaxwuX/?
c=7414

Both of these flights were in CST timezone.

I have Facebook account linked with my Flytrex account but I never saw any status updates posted to my Facebook timeline when I started a live Flytrex flight.

Otherwise, the Flytrex Live 3G worked amazingly well.

Thanks Brent for the links and additional details!

This isn't the first time we're seeing this report about the time issue. There is definitely something weird causing this that we will investigate and get fixed quickly.

Apparently there is some difference in the time you see than the time I see when looking at the mission. For example, when looking at the first mission myself I see the following time:
MAR. 21, 2015, 4:24:33 PM CDT

Which I assume if the correct time according to your report details. It is possible that you are in CDT time zone right now? (DST at the moment?).

Regarding live-flight takeoff posts on Facebook, please take a look at my reply here (a few posts above) and let me know if this helps:
http://www.phantompilots.com/threads/flytrex-live-3g-released-review.28149/page-28#post-346810

Looking forward to your follow-up. Thanks!

 

[amitregev]

Hi Amit. I sent an email to support on this issue on 2/23. I have also posted on facebook and this forum as well. I am surprised you are not aware and have to reinvent the process to get a resolution. I sent pictures of screen shots showing the errors and Nir Hirsch responded almost month later on 3/19 with an update.

"Thank you for the response, I have now forwarded your time issue on to the developers and I hope that soon they will fix this bug. I will keep you updated regarding this.
As for the problem with the Android app, the programmers are aware of this bug and are currently working on it.
I am sorry I cannot solve any of your problems right now, but out team is working around the clock to have all these little bugs fixed as soon as possible. Please tell me if there is anything else I can help you with."

Doesn't appear to be a quick fix. I have noticed that in the mornings my missions show the correct time and it shows "PST" (UTC-8) for my time zone. The screen shots I sent were before the time change to PDT. By the afternoon the times are forward 8 hours and the PST is gone. This is on all missions with 2 different Phantom 2's, each with Live 3G. It seems to be related to UTC. Possibly when UTC gets to midnight but I have seen it change at different times in the afternoon. I noticed Brent10 is in CDT, his missions and a few missions I flew in CDT are 5 hours forward when UTC is -5 for CDT. I would be more than happy to provide you with any other details you may need to get this resolved. I just don't understand why only a few users are having this issue. Waiting a month just to get an update that it has been forwarded to developer is not good support and not investigating quickly.

Hi PhantomPhreak

I'm sorry if this report got missed - our team handles a lot of tasks at the same time and we're doing our best to keep things organized but it is possible that this got missed along the way. I'm sorry if this is the case here.

Specifically to the time issue, I believe part of the confusion is because we had several issues with the time display and while we got several of those fixed apparently we still have some glitch that needs fixing, so the time issue might have been marked as fixed although still requires more attention.

I will start by reviewing the information we already have available on this issue and see what I can find. Usually time related issues and code can be tricky a bit, but I'm sure this is something we will find and fix after some review of the code.

I'm sorry if this specific report was missed. Thanks for the additional details!

 

[Scott848]

Thanks Scott for the pictures -- this definitely helps!

Technically, the Live 3G should start flashing green about 1-2 seconds after the solid green is showing, regardless to how many GPS satellites you have. It will flash green even if you do not have GPS lock yet. The flashing green indicates that data (any type of data) is being transmitted to the Flytrex server. Since the Live 3G transmits additional data fields apart from the GPS data, such as voltage information, compass etc., the flashing green should show right from the start, not related to your aircraft GPS status.

Looking at your pictures I believe your setup is correct. My assumption is that the CAN-BUS adapter is defective and that we will need to replace it for you. We will of course be glad to help with this and we will arrange this replacement quickly for free.

Before doing that, just one last thing we can try -- please try to push the connector of the black cable that connects between the Live 3G and the CAN-BUS Adapter a bit more on the side that connects to the CAN-BUS Adapter. Looking at the picture *it might* need to be pushed a bit further and this might also cause this issue, if this is the case.

To be honest, chances are pretty low that this is the case -- but it makes sense to check this before coordinating a replacement CAN-BUS shipment.

Let me know if this helped. If not, we'll get a new CAN-BUS Adapter on its way quickly.

Thanks!

Amit, thanks for the additional information about the solid and flashing green lights.

On Thursday Nir responded to the support ticket #690 that I had mentioned and he also said the CAN-BUS Adapter was the likely problem. He asked that I return it to Flytrex for you to see what caused the failure. I shipped it back and provided the tracking number to Nir that same day and am waiting to receive the tracking number for the replacement.

Thanks for the suggestion about checking the cable connection. Although I no longer have the adapter, I had tried to reseat each of the cables so I don't believe that was the problem.

- Scott

 

[miket234]

Hi Mike

If you need any further help with this feel free to email us at support[at]flytrex[dot]com. Our team will be glad to help with this.

Our support team will be back tomorrow from a short vacation so handling a bit higher loads of support than usual, but you can expect a reply by the end of the day tomorrow (Sunday is the first working day for us ).

Let me know if there is anything else I can help with.

Thanks, Amit! I ordered the correct can bus cable from your Web site Tuesday. Waiting now for the email and delivery!!

 

[amitregev]

Hi Amit,
So posting missions to Facebook only works with Flytrex core and not Live 3G?
Thanks Don

It should work with both - when uploading new missions using the Core and upon take-off when using the Live 3G.

The Facebook post when taking off using the Live 3G is slightly different since it invites friends to join your flight in real-time, while the post when using the Core posts details about a mission you completed, but both should work.

Please verify your Flytrex settings according to the details I posted at my post above here: http://www.phantompilots.com/threads/flytrex-live-3g-released-review.28149/page-28#post-346810

Let me know if this helps and how it goes.

 

[amitregev]

I am linked to FB and have the Live 3g but no mission shows up on FB.

Please see my feedback in this post: http://www.phantompilots.com/threads/flytrex-live-3g-released-review.28149/page-28#post-346810

Let me know how it goes. There are a few additional things that we can check if this post doesn't help. Waiting for your feedback.

 

[amitregev]

It is enabled in my profile I have toggled it on and off. I saw another member a few pages back in this thread that had the sane problem.

Also just to verify that you have Facebook linked with your Flytrex account?

This can either be that you are using Facebook to login to your Flytrex account with, or, that you have linked it with your account under Account Settings -> Sign In. Both options are equally the same and will work just fine.

Another possible option - when first signing-in to Flytrex with Facebook you are asked by Facebook if you permit Flytrex to post to your timeline. We do not enforce this permission as mandatory (for users who prefer not to use this feature -- this is absolutely OK from our side), but if you did not approve this permission Flytrex will fail posting to your Facebook timeline. This of course can be changed if this is indeed the cause.

Let me know if you think any of these might be related.

 

[Brent10]

Apparently there is some difference in the time you see than the time I see when looking at the mission. For example, when looking at the first mission myself I see the following time:
MAR. 21, 2015, 4:24:33 PM CDT

The times showing on the Flytrex website for these two missions is now correct.
I'm seeing the 4:24:33 PM CST now instead of the previous 9:24 PM.

I will keep an eye on the times.

Many thanks