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ADL / Golze satellite weather system

I have merged many ADL/Golze threads as it is much better to keep the info in one place.

Is anyone using the ADL app on an android device?

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Sebastian_G wrote:

Also don’t spread the word too far yet as our infrastructure capacity is still a little limited:

We won’t tell anyone

LFPT, LFPN

I have been testing the android app. I picked up a few points and emailed the company but they have not as yet replied. I wonder if anyone can confirm the following:

1. The app does not keep the screen on. It times out as usual. Moving map programs normally keep the screen on i.e. they prevent the screensaver / screen lock coming in. When I unlock the screen (after it auto-locks itself) the app has disappeared into the background apps list and I have to re-invoke it from there.

2. It does not appear to be auto updating the image. I cannot see any config for it. I thought it perhaps might not do it unless a flight plan is active but that isn’t the case. Perhaps they auto-update only on an Iridium (not internet) connection?

3. Assuming the update is automatic, it would be great to have an indicator within the app, perhaps a progress bar or a number, which shows how soon the next data download will happen.

4. The app seems to hammer the battery life even if it is not running, and this is the case even when the background copy has been killed. The power drain of the phone goes up about 3×. I found that terminating the app from the background list and a reboot of the phone fixes it. Obviously this doesn’t matter if it is externally powered.

The above has been found on both a Samsung T705 (android 4.4.2) and S7 (android 6.0.1).

Can anyone replicate this?

Obviously 1. is the biggest problem because you can’t just mount the display device somewhere and leave it running during the flight. There appear to be two solutions:

  • on an unrooted phone, there is an obscure option to block the screen timeout if external power (a reasonable assumption, usually) is available
  • on a rooted phone (both above devices are rooted) you can block the screen timeout anyway, with some hack, I am sure

Has anyone tried the app under an android emulator, on a windows machine? I could then run it on my Lenovo T2, over a Thuraya connection. I don’t mind paying to Golze for the usage; Thuraya is just much faster (when it works) than Iridium and one can do other stuff over it.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I still struggle to understand why small business build and maintain their products for multiple software platforms. Especially in case of very small market like GA. IMHO it makes no commercial sense and makes it more difficult to optimally target limited resources.

These days, Android is not insignificant. Since the Android app does exist, and since I have mostly Android devices, that is the app I tested

Does the app not have those issues (especially blocking the screen timeout) under IOS?

BTW there is another issue with the app: it truncates the email address beyond around 16 bytes. I had emails with the company about this; they said it is OK since it uses only those characters anyway, and sure enough it seems to work – after I tried entering it a few times.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

You can develop apps for both iOS and Android using the same code nowadays. There are multiple good solutions out there.

Limiting your product to one of them means giving up on potential sales. That doesn’t make sense.

@Sebastian_G for the avoidance of doubt, you are saying that if we use your free service, we can ignore the next renewal notice from Deutsche Wetterdienst?

EGKB Biggin Hill

Peter wrote:

BTW there is another issue with the app: it truncates the email address beyond around 16 bytes. I had emails with the company about this; they said it is OK since it uses only those characters anyway, and sure enough it seems to work – after I tried entering it a few times.

Thanks for the confirmation that the app really does truncate the email address. It looks weird and now I know that I am not the only one seeing it.

ESTL

Just a quick update. Just heard from Sebastian that point 2. (auto update) is indeed not present in the android version. And the email field size is being fixed right now. This is a great service. They just need to fix the screen shutdown thing.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Android /iOS

I just checked and with all statistical error Android makes up about 4% of the ADLConnect installations. Nevertheless I try to support all platforms as good as possible.

Thanks for the confirmation that the app really does truncate the email address

Yes that did happen in some cases. The latest ADLConnect app 7.21 on Android and iOS should fix it.

for the avoidance of doubt, you are saying that if we use your free service, we can ignore the next renewal notice from Deutsche Wetterdienst?

In fact no matter if you use the free Internet service or the paid satellite service no personal German Weather service subscription will be required any more. Currently this is a transition period where the apps, firmware, documentation etc. get updated and then a final newsletter to subscribers will follow.

www.ing-golze.de
EDAZ
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