Introducing the Bad Elf Wombat

Today we're thrilled to announce that Jeppesen and Bad Elf have teamed up to simplify the way pilots update their avionics databases every 14-28 days. Gone are the days of removing memory cards from the aircraft and updating them with a PC or Mac at home. We've heard it all... those cards can be expensive and are easy to lose, damage, or forget.

Now you can update your avionics databases wirelessly using only your iPad or iPhone, anywhere in the world, without leaving the cockpit. No expensive hardware to install, and it works with both new and legacy avionics.

How It Works

The first part of the solution is Jeppesen's new JDM Mobile app for iOS, which is available in the App Store. You'll use JDM Mobile to download the database updates to your iPhone or iPad every 14 to 28 days. You can do this at home over Wi-Fi or from inside the cockpit over cellular.

Once you're at the aircraft and ready to update your avionics, you then connect your iPhone or iPad wirelessly to the Bad Elf Wombat. Insert your SD card, USB stick, or NavData card into the Wombat, and the JDM Mobile app will transfer the databases over. It's that simple.

Compatible with Your Avionics

Today, JDM Mobile is compatible with the most popular general aviation avionics from Garmin and Avidyne, including those installed in all generations of aircraft from Cirrus, Cessna, Daher/TBM, Piper, and Diamond.

Support for additional avionics from Aspen, Dynon, Advanced Flight Systems, Genesys Aerosystems, Grand Rapids Technologies, and MGL Avionics is coming to the JDM Mobile app this summer.

Collect and Analyze Your Flight and Engine Logs

And that's not all -- if you've got newer avionics that use USB or SD cards, your avionics are likely recording valuable flight and engine logs during every flight. You can use the Wombat to transfer these logs onto your iPhone or iPad without leaving the cockpit. You can then upload your logs directly to SavvyAnalysis or CirrusReports, or open them with apps such as CloudAhoy for analysis and debrief.

Powering Business Aviation

If you operate turbine aircraft, the Bad Elf Wombat Turbine Edition adds support for avionics from Rockwell Collins and Honeywell. The Wombat has already been deployed in over 400 biz jets worldwide and is a powerful tool for updating avionics databases in remote locations where internet connectivity can be hard to find.

Available Today

Please visit our website to learn more about the Bad Elf Wombat or Jeppesen's JDM Mobile app.  The Wombat is in stock and available for purchase today.

If you're at the Sun 'n Fun airshow this week, stop by the Jeppesen booth in Hangar B for a demo and ask about our show specials!

Update (19-DEC-2016): This issue has been fixed in iOS 10.2.  If you still have trouble connecting more than two iOS devices to a single Bad Elf GPS unit after updating to 10.2, please contact our support team.

Summary: If you need to connect more than two iOS devices simultaneously to your Bad Elf GPS receiver, avoid upgrading to iOS 10 if you have not already done so.

After several customer reports we've verified that there is an issue preventing more than two devices running iOS 10 from connecting simultaneously to a single Bad Elf GPS receiver. This affects all of our Bluetooth GPS receivers, as well as those from other manufacturers.

Some additional notes:

• The Bluetooth status screen on our LCD will show "(MAX)" when this situation is encountered.
• Devices running iOS 7, iOS 8, and iOS 9 are not affected.
• Devices running Windows or Android are not affected.

We've submitted a bug report to Apple and are working with them to isolate the issue. We will update this blog post as we get more information.

We have all heard that phrase, “Location, location, location.”

But, what does this mean for the world of GIS? Obtaining location accuracy when collecting data delivers incredible value. The smart devices we carry daily in our pockets or the tablets we use for education and entertainment can only reliably deliver an accuracy of about five meters. For some, that is good enough. For others, it has to be better.

Consider standing on a point and looking five meters in any direction. If you are looking for a park bench in the middle of nowhere, it will be easy to find.

However, what if that point you have in your GIS is within a meter? It’s a lot easier to find and locate many items in an area if you know your location is about as far away as you can stretch your arms.

Bad Elf has been working with the Collector team at Esri to provide reliable and highly accurate location services directly to the Collector mobile applications across various platforms (iOS, Android, and Windows). The Bad Elf GNSS Surveyor was designed and built to provide mapping grade accuracy of about one meter when used with the built-in SBAS + PPP hardware. The GNSS Surveyor accessory, combined with Esri Collector, delivers an affordable solution for GIS data collection and mapping with the benefit of higher accuracy.

With the new high performance features built directly into the Esri Collector app, Bad Elf now supplies additional accuracy information right to the app. The screenshot below reinforces the fact that location supplied by the internal GPS is only OK.

Within the most recent beta Esri Collector app, there is a facility to configure external GPS receivers to supply higher accuracy location information. Bad Elf has fully integrated with this facility.

The result of this collaboration offers simplified workflow in addition to definitive location accuracy. With a simple set of configuration steps, Bad Elf receivers provide detailed location data directly to the Esri Collector app.

Field collection professionals now enjoy more robust information. The addition of detailed location information provides accurate, efficient, and economical workflows.

High accuracy location was once difficult to attain, cumbersome, and costly. Bad Elf brings affordability and accuracy to the next generation of mobile data collection. If your question is “How accurate is my location information when I collect field data?” Bad Elf, combined with Esri Collector, is the solution.

Bad Elf is attending the Esri User Conference this week in San Diego, June 28-30. Please stop by and visit us in the UC Expo, Booth 533.

One of the most common requests we’ve gotten since we launched the Kickstarter campaign is to support dual-band traffic on both 978 MHz and 1090 MHz.  We were expecting those requests, but we were really surprised by the number of non-US pilots asking us for a 1090 MHz-only traffic and AHRS accessory.  The weather data on 978 MHz is only available within the US from the FAA NextGen system, but traffic and backup attitude information are valuable tools for every pilot world-wide.

At launch we decided to focus on weather and AHRS as the biggest “bang for the buck” features.  But our loyal fans and would-be backers have spoken!  So today, we’re adding two new configurations with 1090 MHz traffic support:

1. For US pilots, the Bad Elf ADS-B dual-band weather and traffic receiver with AHRS is designed for pilots who want or need to have a more complete traffic picture.  This is handy in regions of the country with limited ADS-B tower coverage or in busy airspace with a mix of piston and turbine aircraft.  We’re offering dual-band traffic support for only $100 more than our single-band AHRS unit, resulting in a $549 price point.
2. For pilots flying outside the US, the Bad Elf ADS-B 1090MHz traffic receiver with AHRS offers the safety that comes with traffic and AHRS coupled with your favorite EFB app.  This model does not include 978MHz weather support.  We are offering this single-band 1090 MHz model with AHRS for $449 plus $25 for world-wide shipping.

We have spoken with the most popular app vendors in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, and expect to have full compatibility with these apps at launch:

Now, we will be supporting four Bad Elf ADS-B receiver models via our Kickstarter campaign:

These new configurations are available on our Kickstarter page today! Please spread the word to your fellow pilots. We have only 28 days left on the campaign. We have already seen 500 leaders in the aviation community step up and pledge their support. We need roughly 1,000 more backers to reach the funding level necessary to turn your pleas for affordable ADS-B into actual product. Are there 1,000 more pilots who will join us? Are you happy with the status quo? Are you waiting for someone else to make it happen?

Thanks again for all of your support!

If you are an existing backer (especially at the Early-Bird levels) and want to upgrade to one of these new configurations, please read the instructions below:

If you are a backer at the $299 or $449 level: Log into your Kickstarter account and select the new reward tier for the model you want. This will increase your pledge to the correct level.

If you are an Early-Bird backer at the $399 level: Log into your Kickstarter account, but don’t change your current reward tier! Just add $100 to your current pledge level. The total pledge should be $499, reflecting your $50 early bird discount. We’ll ship you the dual-band receiver model.

If you are an Early-Bird backer at the $249 level and want to change to the AHRS+978 model: Log into your Kickstarter account, but don’t change your current reward tier! Add $150 to your pledge (total of $399). We’ll ship you the receiver model that matches your pledge, preserving your $50 discount.

If you are an Early-Bird backer at the $249 level and want to change to the dual band model: Log into your Kickstarter account, but don’t change your current reward tier! Add $250 to your pledge (total of $499). We’ll ship you the receiver model that matches your pledge, preserving your $50 discount.

Before shipping any rewards next year, we’ll be in touch to get your address and confirm the exact model you’ll be receiving.

Any questions? We’re here to help. Just drop a note to kickstarter@bad-elf.com.

iFlightPlanner to Fully Support the Bad Elf ADS-B Receiver

We’re excited to announce that iFlightPlanner will be fully supporting the Bad Elf ADS-B receiver at product launch. iFlightPlanner is a popular flight planning tool that started with a browser-based interface in 2010 and has expanded since then to support the iPad and other mobile tablets/phones as well. All of the flight information is synchronized via the iFlightPlanner Cloud.

We asked John Burnside and Andy Matthews, co-founders of iFlightPlanner, a couple of questions about iFlightPlanner:

Bad Elf: Hi guys! Thanks for supporting us. Please tell us more about iFlightPlanner and what design philosophies and features set it apart from other aviation apps.

Andy: iFlightPlanner is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan and we offer a comprehensive flight management solution for private and corporate pilots that can be accessed from any computer or iPad.

iFlightPlanner.com, mobile.iFlightPlanner.com, and iFlightPlanner for iPad combines the versatility of the web with the portability of the iPad and is built on a foundation of safety, usability, and flight planning efficiency.

We treat each flight as an interconnected unit – combining route planning, graphical weather, certified weather briefings, weight & balance calculations, flight plan filing, and the creation of logbook entries – where a modification to one seamlessly updates all others. This prevents pilots from having to work back through multiple menus or different screens to ensure that no step in the process is compromised.

Our members can define sets of personal, equipment, and flight planning preferences that allow them to create a consistent user experience  every time they access iFlightPlanner. This cloud-based connectivity, a concept we first introduced in 2011 with IFlightPlanner for iPad, ensures that pilots have near universal device access to everything they need, wherever they are. We believe this makes iFlightPlanner the most versatile flight planning solution in the industry.

Bad Elf: What have you been hearing from your customers about ADS-B weather and traffic in the cockpit?

John: We’ve built iFlightPlanner on member feedback, and one thing that’s been clear among pilots, especially as new technologies are introduced, is that they don’t want to be forced into purchasing a particular product. They want a choice, and a chance to find the solution that best suits their needs. We’ve never been a fan of exclusivity and we absolutely love the path that Bad Elf and others are forging with ADS-B device interoperability.

The fact that Bad Elf is launching their campaign to introduce an affordable ADS-B device with direct support from the pilot community, with an open interface, is a testament to what can be accomplished when different constituents within an industry work together.

Including the soon-to-be-released Bad Elf ADS-B device, iFlightPlanner for iPad will support ADS-B connectivity for nine different manufacturers and at least thirteen different receivers, including both portable devices and certified ADS-B installations.

The fact that we offer both iPad and web-based platforms is proof that we’ve wanted iFlightPlanner to be accessible from the very beginning - not only in terms of device access, but with price points as well. The value pilots can achieve by flying with iFlightPlanner and an affordable ADS-B device such as the Bad Elf ADS-B, will be unmatched.

iFlightPlanner is popular with corporate and charter operators, where flight planning is often a shared responsibility between pilots and dispatchers. For office-based staff who may not have access to an iPad or prefer desktop access, iFlightPlanner’s powerful web-based interface sets it apart from tablet-only EFB app solutions.

iFlightPlanner has done some innovative integrations as well, most recently with FuelerLinx and Hangar Network. FuelerLinx is a leader in the contract fuel purchasing and dispatch process where Hangar Network serves as a resource for aviation-related real estate listings. They also support exporting flight plan files that are compatible with modern avionics from Garmin, Dynon, Advanced Flight Systems, and other modern avionics-installations, minimizing tedious flight plan entry.

Here are some screenshots of iFlightPlanner in action:

We’ll be featuring iFlightPlanner in our next in-flight demo video!

You can download iFlightplanner from the Apple App Store, or visit the iFlightPlanner website for more information.

If you haven’t already, please visit our Kickstarter page and reserve your Bad Elf ADS-B receiver today. We need your help to bring this affordable receiver to market.

iFly GPS to Fully Support the Bad Elf ADS-B Receiver

Another app vendor that jumped on board immediately after we launched our Kickstarter project is Adventure Pilot, the developers of the popular iFly GPS line of apps and portable devices. iFly GPS provides a consistent user interface across a range of platforms: iPad, Android, and even dedicated sunlight-readable aviation GPS portables, all of which can connect to our ADS-B receiver. Adventure Pilot also offers bundles that combine their aviation apps with portable and installed ADS-B equipment.

We asked Shane Woodson, Vice President of Adventure Pilot, a couple of questions about iFly GPS products:

Bad Elf: Hi Shane! Thanks for supporting us. Please tell us more about iFly GPS and what design philosophies and features set it apart from other aviation apps.

Shane: At iFly GPS, our goal is to deliver the perfect combination of affordability, capability and usability for both VFR and IFR pilots. We offer one of the first portable navigation solutions with a pilot-friendly interface, universal between multiple platforms, whether a dedicated device or an iOS or Android device. Adventure Pilot openly integrates with partners such as Bad Elf to better provide pilots a choice of ADS-B products to fit their budget.

We pride ourselves on our intuitive user experience that focuses on quickly providing the pilot with all the needed information while reducing the amount of time the user is looking down.

iFly GPS is a collaborative user experience based on feedback from thousands of pilots. By listening to our fellow pilots, CFIs, and monitoring aviation trends we are able to develop a practical and simple-to-use aviation app for pilots.

Additionally, pilots are continually frustrated with small buttons and text sizes that Apple and Android devices use. We custom build our app with in-app adjustable fonts and large buttons for any pilot’s eyes. Exhaustive efforts are taken to use high-contrast colors to improve sunlight readability on those devices with lower screen brightness.

We offer comprehensive & simply affordable subscriptions starting at $69.99 for VFR and $40.00 more for IFR. Our Multi-Platform Upgrade for only $19.99 more allows up to 3 devices on one subscription whether on iOS, Android or iFly devices.

iFly GPS is designed by pilots, tested by pilots and recommended by pilots.

Bad Elf: What’s been your experience flying with ADS-B weather and traffic in the cockpit?

Shane: Once you’ve flown with ADS-B Weather and Traffic, you’ll never look back. With 20/20 vision and relatively young eyes, it was a true eye-opener to see just how much traffic that is potentially missed… pun intended. Here is my story. Flying between DFW and Austin in my C-172, I noticed traffic approaching from behind. It was a good 2500’ above me so I just monitored it. As that plane began to descend and close in quickly, I watched his track, altitude and more as he crossed overhead. He proceeded to descend and turn into my flight path. This could have been catastrophic, but I was able to spot him ahead of time with ADS-B Traffic on iFly GPS, allowing me just enough time to descend and bank away from him, avoiding a major incident.

On another night flight back from KEDC-Austin Executive with my father, as we were approaching KLNC-Lancaster we could easily see the strong frontal boundary of storms due to having ADS-B weather on my iFly 740. While there was no immediate threat, we were able to divert slightly and avoid the outflow boundary from the massive storms. We arrived just 15 minutes before a major thunderstorm hit the airport and we watched it pass while safely inside the hangar.

There is no doubt, ADS-B Weather and Traffic brings unprecedented safety and awareness to pilots and this project by Bad Elf is poised to make it available to all pilots. This project offers amazing value and we are thrilled to be part of the collaboration.

There are a few features we love in iFly GPS. The first is RealView™, which provides downloaded, geo-referenced satellite images of over 12,600 public and private airports in the US. This is great for planning your arrival at unfamiliar airports and FBOs, without the need for Internet connectivity.

The second is the integration of small visual gauges on the main map screen, including an Attitude Indicator (driven by AHRS) and side-view terrain and airspace plot. App developers have to strike a delicate balance to not obstruct charts or plates, but these are features that really improve situational awareness.

And finally, the NRST button is always in view. This is handy when ATC requests a position report or in the case of an emergency.

For pilots looking for a seamless user experience and high-definition charts on both iOS and Android, iFly GPS is worth checking out. If you spend just 5 minutes talking to Shane and the rest of the team, you’ll see why their customers are extremely loyal. The folks at Adventure Pilot provide amazing customer support, listen to their customers, and love to fly.

Here are some screenshots of iFly GPS in action:

We’ll be featuring iFly GPS in our next in-flight demo video!

You can download iFly GPS from the Apple App Store, or visit the Adventure Pilot website for more information.

If you haven’t already, please visit our Kickstarter page and reserve your Bad Elf ADS-B receiver today. We need your help to bring this affordable receiver to market.

FlyQ to Fully Support the Bad Elf ADS-B Receiver

One of the first app vendors to enthusiastically support our ADS-B receiver is Seattle Avionics, the developer of the popular FlyQ app. They have been building flight planning and navigation tools since 2002. They also provide the navigation data that powers more than 20 other app vendors and avionics companies including Aspen, Bendix-King, and Dynon.

We asked Keith Russo, Vice President of Seattle Avionics, a couple of questions about FlyQ:

Bad Elf: Hi Keith! Please tell us about FlyQ, and what design philosophies and features set it apart from other aviation apps.

Keith: FlyQ EFB is Seattle Avionics premiere application for the Apple iPad. It is the highest rated aviation app in the Apple App Store. We believe competition contributes to innovation. For example, our ‘2-tap’ design philosophy reduces workload by eliminating the ‘hunt and peck’ typical in today's apps. The cockpit is a complex environment and the pilot shouldn’t have to endlessly tap on the iPad trying to find information or remember how to use the app. Information should be easily accessible within two taps.

FlyQ EFB is hardware agnostic, a philosophy shared with Bad Elf. We believe your choice of aviation app shouldn’t eliminate your choice of hardware. FlyQ EFB supports devices like GPS, ADS-B, and AHRS whether portable or installed avionics from virtually every manufacturer.

Bad Elf: What’s been your experience flying with ADS-B weather and traffic in the cockpit?

Keith: As an instructor pilot for over 30 years, it has been interesting to witness the evolution of weather dissemination technology. For me it began with calling FSS on the phone, walking into the local FSS office, or calling Flight Watch on the radio. With today's technology such as the internet and ADS-B portable receivers, pilots are empowered by the wealth and quality of information available in near real time.

The ability to see nearby aircraft sharing your airspace or to access the latest meteorological reports and images enhances safety like never before in the history of aviation. ADS-B is the ‘must have’ gadget and belongs in every pilot’s flight bag. 

Personally, there are two features that I love in FlyQ. The first is the ability to configure the various tab bars, controls, and menus to auto-hide after 2 or 6 seconds of inactivity. Decluttering the screen gives you unrestricted views of sectionals, approach plates, and taxi diagrams. FlyQ is designed to give you the information you need quickly, and get out of the way.

The second feature I love is the accessory status bar in the upper right corner of the screen. I’m probably slightly biased as an accessory vendor! At a glance these icons shows the connectivity, battery charge, and status of connected accessories including GPS, ADS-B, and AHRS. No guessing or digging thru menus to know FlyQ and your accessories are fully operational.

Here are some screenshots of FlyQ in action:

We demonstrated FlyQ working with our prototype hardware in our first in-flight demo video, in case you missed it:

 

 

You can download FlyQ from the Apple App Store, or visit the Seattle Avionics website for more information.

If you haven’t already, please visit our Kickstarter page and reserve your Bad Elf ADS-B receiver today. We need your help to bring this affordable receiver to market.

Finally, Affordable ADS-B

For years we have heard from you, our loyal customers and fans, just how much you wanted reliable and affordable ADS-B weather and traffic information in your cockpit. Together, we have the opportunity to make aviation history.

In 2010, Bad Elf brought aviation-grade GPS to the iPad. Today, we’re announcing the first affordable ADS-B weather and traffic receiver with universal app compatibility for just $299.

For pilots who want the safety benefits of a backup attitude source, we’re offering a model with AHRS for just $150 more.

We’re announcing this today as a Kickstarter campaign. That means we need your help to raise the funding to make this a reality. By backing our campaign, you’ll get the Bad Elf ADS-B receiver at an amazing price, and you’ll be helping us bring affordable ADS-B weather and traffic within reach of every pilot.

If you hurry, you can be among our early bird supporters and get an additional $50 off these prices.

Back us today and share this news with your fellow pilots!

Five years ago this month, we introduced the first Apple-approved plug-in external GPS receiver to the market. That product was the Bad Elf GPS for 30-pin Dock Connector, which grew out of a humble skunkworks project.  Since then, we have learned and grown more than we ever expected. We owe that success to our customers, many of whom have been enthusiastic supporters since those early days.

As our way of saying thank you, we are offering a customer appreciation upgrade program for the month of September. For folks looking to upgrade to a new Bad Elf GPS unit with more features, we’re offering up to $100 cash back when you trade in your old device.

The process is simple:

• Buy a new Bad Elf GPS for Lightning Connector, GPS Pro, or GPS Pro+ from the Bad Elf Online Store
• Send Bad Elf your old device and the rebate paperwork
• Qualify for a rebate of $50, $75, or $100
• Offer valid on qualifying purchases during the month of September 2015

Please visit our Bad Elf Customer Appreciation page for more information!

And once again, thanks for supporting Bad Elf over the last five years.  We can’t wait to show you what we’ve got in store for the next five!

At Bad Elf, our goal is to provide exceptional service to the pilots, boaters, GIS professionals, and adventurers who use our products.  Today we're announcing our Cleared to Update program, which is designed to provide timely information to you regarding compatibility between Bad Elf's products, new iOS operating system releases from Apple, and major updates from our app partners.

One of the strengths of the app-based innovation on iOS is the speed at which updates are made to the hardware, operating system, and apps. These updates improve design, functionality, and security. However, the pace of updates adds some complexity and risk for customers using these solutions in mission-critical environments where downtime is not an option.

Our Pledge

We test Bad Elf accessories with all iOS releases available from Apple, including betas. We will notify our customers immediately if any critical compatibility issues are discovered, and we will work closely with Apple and our app partners to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Whenever a new iOS update is released to the public, we will perform another test pass within 48 hours and report the results via our website page and social media.  In the event we find a critical issue, we'll immediately notify everyone via the Bad Elf mailing list as well.

Our Recommendation to You

If you rely on Apple iOS devices or Bad Elf products for mission-critical operations, we strongly recommend that you wait at least a week before installing any updates to iOS, apps, or firmware. This time period is usually adequate to identify any critical issues and gives vendors time to notify their customers.

Coming Soon: iOS 8.4.1 and iOS 9

Based on announcements from Apple, we will likely see several new iOS releases in the next 2 months.  We're not aware of any issues based on our testing or customer reports, but please follow our recommendation: wait a week before doing any updates, watch for updates to our Cleared to Update page, and check with your app vendors to make sure everything is working well.

We're committed to ensuring you have the best experience possible with Bad Elf products in the air, on the water, and in the field.  Together, we can minimize some of the risks for mission-critical users of the iPad and iPhone. 

Wow!  The response to our Wombat announcement has been amazing.  Over the course of the week at AirVenture 2015, we talked with hundreds of pilots and aircraft owners.  Many of them had, shall we say, strong feelings about the pain points of performing NavData updates and collecting flight logs today.  With Wombat, these pain points are eliminated by allowing you to perform these tasks using only your iPad or iPhone, without leaving the cockpit.

Here's a quick update on our progress:

At Oshkosh we had a chance to meet with our existing and potential partners, including app developers, navigation data providers, avionics manufacturers, and fleet operators.  We'll share more information on these partnerships in the coming weeks and months.  Our shared vision is to improve the pilot experience by reducing the current pain points associated with getting data in and out of existing installed avionics.

On the hardware side, we're working with our factory to finalize the enclosure design, artwork, and packaging. We've already gone through one round of physical samples, and the next iteration should be extremely close to the final production versions.  The production electronics are being tested this week, and so far no critical issues have been found.

We're making good progress on the development of the Wombat app, which will be a free download from the App Store.  This companion app allows you to transfer files to and from the Wombat device and provides connectivity with websites that use or supply these files.  At launch, the app will support uploading flight and engine logs to sites such as CloudAhoy, SavvyAnalysis, and CirrusReports.  The app will also support downloading NavData updates from avionics manufacturers that provide web-based downloads.

We're putting the final touches on the Wombat SDK documentation, which several of our partners are using to add native Wombat support into their own apps.  This will allow you to export flight plans, collect/analyze flight logs, or perform NavData updates -- all without leaving their app! 

We're on track to have production inventory in late September, but if you're interested in being a Wombat beta tester, please drop a note to support@bad-elf.com and we'll be in touch.

If you're reading this on our website or via an email forwarded from a friend, you can sign up for the Wombat mailing list to receive future updates on the Wombat project.

We are thrilled to announce a major update to our free Bad Elf GPS utility app, version 3.0, is now available in the iTunes App Store for download. This is the first complete re-write of the app from the ground up since we released our first iOS app back in 2010.

The primary goal of our app is to support our Bad Elf GPS hardware accessories — checking the health of the hardware, transferring trip logs, performing firmware updates, and other utility functions. We’ve streamlined these essential functions and added some new features you’ll find useful while in the air, on the water, or in the field.

The first thing we did was create a fresh new design, color scheme, and layout that’s optimized for every device that runs iOS 8.  The app takes full advantage of the screen real estate on both the iPad and iPhone.  We also provide a day/night mode setting, perfect for night flights and other adventures.

Next, we focused on streamlining the core features of our app. The new Live Gauges show your GPS data, and even work with the internal GPS if you don't have a Bad Elf GPS connected. Transferring and managing multiple trips is now a breeze, and you'll love the new trip map views with integrated graphs of speed, altitude, and distance over time.  Trips can now be shared directly to Twitter or Facebook, or exported to apps such as CloudAhoy, Google Earth, or MotionX GPS.

For our GNSS Surveyor users, we’ve created a new Deviation Plot view that shows your position and horizontal accuracy over time. This is handy for visualizing the reported accuracy and position converge down to 1 meter or better, depending on sky visibility and your geographic location. The plot’s center point can be configured to be a known benchmark, a weighted average of historical points, or the last reported position.

One of the reasons we’re so excited about this new release is that it gives us a solid foundation moving forward to build new features and take full advantage of the iOS platform updates such as iOS 9 and watchOS 2 coming this fall.

Another reason we’re excited: our app is now built on the same Bad Elf SDK framework we share with our app partners. This toolkit allows apps to use all of the advanced features and GPS data available from our hardware to provide the best user experience possible. Using a common base means that as we make improvements and release new GPS products in the future, our app partners will be ready as well.

To check out all of the new features in detail, view the Bad Elf GPS App page. Then visit the App Store to download and upgrade today.

As always, we're here to help answer any questions!  Just drop a note to support@bad-elf.com.

Update: Maintenance Release (v3.0.1 2015.07.20)

• Addresses issues with migrating trips from previous app version.
• Fixes exporting KML and GPX trips.
• Now see the progress of exporting GPX & KML trips in App Settings.
• Various other minor enhancements and pesky bugs squashed!

We’re excited to announce Bad Elf Wombat, a new portable accessory that simplifies how you download and install NavData updates into your avionics every 28 days. It removes the annoying step of taking memory cards home or finding a computer at the FBO, allowing you to complete the entire update process using your iPad or iPhone, without leaving the cockpit.

Wombat also supports transferring other types of avionics data found on the SD card, USB key, or memory card used by your existing avionics. Depending on your avionics configuration, this card contains flight logs, engine logs, flight plans, and user-configurable checklists. With Wombat, you can:

Perform NavData Avionics Updates

Download and install NavData updates from anywhere in the world without leaving the cockpit, using only your iPad or iPhone!

Analyze Flight and Engine Logs

Collect flight and engine logs from your avionics after every flight, and upload them automatically to CloudAhoy or CirrusReports.

Sync iPad & Avionics Flight Plans

Use your favorite EFB app to create your flight plan at home, and load it into your avionics during pre-flight with minimal button presses.

How it Works

The Bad Elf Wombat accessory is battery powered, so you just turn it on and plug in your avionics memory card. Your iPad or iPhone connects via Wi-Fi to the Wombat device. Apps such as CloudAhoy, EFB apps, or our free Wombat utility app can then write and read avionics files to and from the memory card. Once the data is transferred, you simply remove the memory card from the Wombat, and reinsert it into your panel. The card stays in the aircraft the entire time.

We wanted Wombat to earn a place in your flight bag, so it also functions as a back-up USB battery pack. It has 2 USB ports and can fast charge both your iPad (2.4A) and iPhone (1A) simultaneously. The rechargable 9800mAh battery pack can recharge your iPad from 0 to 100% in just a few hours.

Coming Soon

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be announcing more information about Bad Elf Wombat, including our partnerships with app vendors, supported avionics, some yet-to-be-announced features, pricing, and production status. If you’re interested, please follow the link below and sign up for the notification list so we can keep you updated on our progress!

We're looking forward to spending time with our aviation and GIS/survey customers.  If you'll be at either of these events, please stop by to say hello!  We'll post some photos and updates from both shows next week to social media, so be sure to follow along via Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.  As always, use the hashtag #badelfeverywhere to follow our adventures and so we can follow along with yours!

EAA AirVenture Oshkosh

EAA AirVenture is the largest aviation event in the world, with over a half million attendees over the course of the week.  This is our 4th year exhibiting at the show, and 7th year attending.  You can find us in Hangar B, booth B-2123.

Fun fact: although the USAF Thunderbirds aren't scheduled to perform at AirVenture this year, they will be in Milwaukee on July 25 & 26.  The flight from MKE to KOSH is just a few minutes when you're flying F-16's.  Just sayin'.

Esri User Conference

As we reported last week, the iOS 8.4 update from Apple has resolved the iOS 8.3 issue affecting external GPS receivers from Bad Elf and other manufacturers including Garmin, Dual, and GNS†.

By popular request, we're happy to announce our Summer Trade-Up Rebate program.  Valid thru 8/31/2015, this offer gives you up to $100 cash back on the purchase of a new Bad Elf GPS Pro or GPS Pro+ when you send us your old Garmin, Dual, or GNS unit.  It's that easy.

Our Bluetooth GPS receivers are known for being the best in the industry:

• Get more than 24hrs of operational battery life
• See your GPS information directly on the backlit LCD display
• Support up to 5 iPads or other devices simultaneously
• Log your adventures with standalone data logging features (100hrs/Pro & 200hrs/Pro+)
• Add barometric altitude and USB connectivity with the GPS Pro+

Please visit our Summer Trade Up Rebate page for more information!

† Dual, Garmin, and GNS are trademarks of their respective companies.

"Apple has released iOS 8.4 with Apple Music, Beats 1, and an all-new Music app."

Trust us, we're excited for that headline, but we're just a little more excited (and relieved) to finally announce to our very loyal and patient customers that with the release of iOS 8.4, the bug that prevented most GPS accessories from providing location data has been fixed.

This morning we ran the public iOS 8.4 release thru our "quick QA test matrix" which covers 4 iOS device models (both cellular and Wi-Fi only), 7 GPS accessories, and 5 apps.  That's 140 steps, and we're happy to report all passed.

We perform extensive testing with the beta iOS builds, so this is what we were expecting.  However, there's no guarantee that the public releases will match the beta releases exactly.  Also, beta builds are considered confidential under the Apple Developer Program, which limits how much we can discuss publicly -- but they give us a chance to work through any issues via direct communication channels with Apple and our app partners.

We'll be posting some more details soon regarding our revamped QA process, called Cleared to Upgrade, which will improve our communications to you regarding iOS and firmware updates, app compatibility, and any known issues. 

And for folks who may have older GPS devices from Dual or Garmin, who may not have been getting many status updates: the iOS 8.4 update fixes these devices as well.  But if you're ready to upgrade to a Bad Elf GPS accessory, we're happy to announce our Bad Elf Summer Trade-Up 2015 rebate program, which gives you up $100 cash back on the purchase of a new Bad Elf Bluetooth GPS receiver.

Finally, we want to say thank you to our loyal customers for your patience over the last 12 weeks.  This has been an extremely frustrating experience for everyone, and we'll do our best to work closely with our industry partners to ensure this does not happen again.  

As always, we're standing by at support@bad-elf.com to answer any questions!  

82 days.  Nearly 12 weeks.  That’s how long some of us have been waiting for a way out of the iOS 8.3 troubles that have left our apps unable to obtain location data from external GPS receivers.

Well, tomorrow is June 30th.  That is the date Apple announced several new features and services in iOS 8.4 would be released to the public. Several recent reports indicate iOS 8.4 will be available as early as 8AM PDT.

Once the new public release is available, the Bad Elf engineering team will download and install it on our test bench.  We’ll test the ridiculous number of permutations of iOS devices, Bad Elf GPSs model, and several popular apps to confirm that the iOS 8.4 release not only corrects the problems experienced with iOS 8.3, but does not introduce any new issues.
 

Please wait!

We know how anxious you are to just upgrade to the latest iOS release.  And if you are already broken, it might be rational to throw caution to the wind and just upgrade.  However, we would advise you to give us 24 hours to thoroughly test the release.  We’ve been testing the beta iOS releases and don’t expect any issues, but...

As soon as we are confident that the coast is clear, we will post the results to our blog and send an email blast out via our newsletter.  If you’re not on our mailing list, please subscribe through the form at the bottom of every page on our website.

In the coming week, we will also be able to share some insights into what has transpired in the background and how Bad Elf is working with key partners to reduce the odds of this kind of breakage from occurring again.  Of course, this comes with the caveat that Murphy’s Law reigns supreme - if it can break in some unexpected way, it most likely will.  It is important to take away the following lesson from the iOS 8.3 release:

If you are running a mission critical system, do not upgrade any element of it until it has been tested and verified on a non-critical system or cleared by the suppliers of your hardware and software.

As always, we’re here to help - just drop an email to support@bad-elf.com.

Look for another blog post soon announcing our Bad Elf: Cleared to Update program, along with a debrief of some lessons learned and upgrades we've made to our QA process to reduce the odds of running into similar issues in the future.

If you haven't already, please sign up for our mailing list to be notified ASAP when we've confirmed the public iOS 8.4 release resolves the GPS issue. The sign-up form is at the bottom of every page on our website.

The Bad Elf engineering team is attending WWDC this week, and we had the opportunity to meet Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, after the keynote.

Although we didn't talk to Tim specifically about the iOS 8.3 bug, we did discuss platform accessory support.  He mentioned that Apple sees accessories as a vital part of the ecosystem and driver of innovation in niche markets such as aviation, marine, and survey.  We're excited to be part of that!

Once again, we want to thank our amazing customers for their patience and support during the last 9 weeks since this issue appeared.  As always, please contact us via support@bad-elf.com and we'll do whatever we can to help.

The various rumors sites are claiming iOS 8.4 will go live in June; some say early June during Apple's WWDC conference, others say late June.  Like everyone else, we're in a holding pattern until iOS 8.4 is released.

This has been an extremely frustrating experience for our users and for the Bad Elf team.  We strive to always do the right thing for our customers.  Like you, we are passionate pilots, boaters, and outdoor enthusiasts that depend on Bad Elf GPS accessories every day.

Issues and gaps are normal when working in an ecosystem of ever-changing platforms (iOS/Android/Windows), apps, and our hardware accessories.  We build our products so they can be updated as needed.  Over the past 5 years we've been able to quickly fix or work around the various hardware, firmware, app, or OS issues that have cropped up. We work hard to maintain strong relationships with our partners to ensure our customers never get stuck in the gaps.  Unfortunately, in this case there is little we can do from our side to resolve the issue.

As always, please contact us via support@bad-elf.com if we can help in any way.  If you have an iOS device with Lightning connector, our Bad Elf GPS Pro+ and Bad Elf GPS for Lightning dongle both work with iOS 8.3 and are unaffected by this issue.

We appreciate your amazing patience and continued support on this issue.  As soon as iOS 8.4 is released, we'll update everyone ASAP with a status update via the blog and mailing list.  Hang in there!

As of this morning, we still don't have any official updates re: the iOS 8.3 issue with external GPS receivers.  As we've said before: please do not upgrade to iOS 8.3 if possible! We have heard rumors the issue has been fixed internally by Apple, but don't know when this fix will be released to the public.  We're hoping for a 8.3.1 release, although it could also be released as part of the iOS 8.4 beta program.

As soon as we have any significant updates, we will quickly notify everyone via email, blog, Twitter, and Facebook.  We are standing by to quickly test any iOS updates as soon as they are available.

If this issue is negatively impacting you, please contact us via email to support@bad-elf.com and we’ll see what we can do to help.

Update (28-April): Apple released an iOS 8.4 beta 2 update to developers and beta testers yesterday.  Unfortunately, due to the confidentiality requirements of these programs, we’re not allowed to disclose any non-public information about this beta software — including how it affects the iOS 8.3 bug affecting external GPS receivers like ours.

Several sources including iLounge and MacRumors have posted articles about this release.

If you’d like to join Apple’s Beta Software Program, you can learn more and sign up on Apple’s site.  Please make sure that you fully understand the risks associated with beta software before taking this path.

We still have our fingers crossed that this GPS issue will be fixed ASAP in a public (non-beta) iOS 8.3.1 update.  We are also exploring multiple workaround options until this is resolved one way or another.

One week from today, Columbia University's second annual #StartupColumbia Festival will bring together the Columbia and Manhattan entrepreneurial communites in celebration of innovation, entrepreneurship, and the creation of new ventures. This year, the Columbia Venture Competition (CVC) expands to be university wide with a total prize pool of $250,000 in cash grants. Each of five challenge tracks will award $50k, split among the top three teams.

Bad Elf not only sponsored this year's event, but as Bad Elf's CEO and a Columbia alumnus, I have been judging the competition. The process began back in February with a divide and conquer approach, as the judges reviewed the hundreds of first round entries submitted for consideration. Toward the end of March, the field narrowed for second round review and comment. Now, the finalists are preparing their pitches for the final round, which will be held on Thursday evening, followed by the full day conference and award announcements at Friday's event.

After reviewing more than twenty companies in the first round, I received another half dozen pitch decks and video presentations to score in the second round. The submissions ranged from clever niche concepts to broad, socially conscious initiatives. While some of the applications were simply initial concepts, more than a few demonstrated their founders' ability to get out and find customers that generated revenue out of the gate. The final round and conference speakers and panels should prove to be exciting and intellectually stimulating.

My first introduction to Columbia Entrepreneurship occurred several years ago through the School of Engineering and Applied Science.  My wife, Marina, and I graduated SEAS together in 1986 and were serving as co-chairs of the Engineering Parent's Council, since our two daughters, Alyson (EN12) and Erica (EN14) were attending the school.  That first year the Columbia Engineering Venture Competition was won by Cellanyx, a company building new predicative diagnostics for prostate cancer.

In the late 1980s, when the norm was to work for a big company, I began my career, although that model was beginning to transition from a lifetime career with one company to a lifetime of hopping between companies searching for new challenges. Time and experience convinced me that the best careers and jobs for the current generation will come from the creation of their own businesses, founded on unique, aggressive, and compelling visions for the application of technology. 

Of course, choosing the entrepreneurial path never follows a straight line, nor does it move broadly up and to the right as consistently as you would like! As Columbia Trustee and alumnus, Ben Horowitz, illustrates so well in The Hard Thing About Hard Things, every day running your own show challenges your courage, your intellect, and your empathy for others in ways that you never imagined. Riding that roller coaster forces you to adapt, grow, and learn at a pace you probably did not think you could manage.  In fact, you can't really manage it, but you can endure it. After all, the Columbia Experience, with the core curriculum and its reputation as the nation's most stressful college, does alot to prepare you for what comes next!

In the end, the benefits far outweigh the costs as the experience forges relationships, teaches focus, and uncovers true potential. I wish I had started on the entrepreneurship path when I was younger, but it was a different time. It is truly exciting to see the current generation embrace entrepreneurship with optimism and energy. Columbia has prepared you well for this, carpe diem!

I will be joined at the event by our Director of Marketing, Chris Allen, who will be manning our social platforms along the way - follow us on Twitter, @badelfceo and Instagram.

We invite anyone attending to say hello. Good luck to all of the finalists in each of the competitive tracks.  Now, we are off to Lakeland, FL to do our retail duties and aviation industry networking at the Sun 'n Fun International Fly-in & Expo to kick off flying season.

It's that time of year again!  We're off next week to Lakeland, FL, for the annual Sun 'n Fun International Fly-In.  The show starts Tuesday, and we'll be there all week.  Please stop by to say hi if you are at the show.  We are located in Hangar C, booth 46.

The following aviation resellers will have Bad Elf products at the show:

• Aircraft Spruce (Hangar B, Booth 1)
• Banyan Air Service (Hangar A, Booth 20)
• MyGoFlight (Hangar C, Booth 48)
• Pacific Coast Avionics (Hangar B, Booth 19)
• Pilot Mall (4040 Laird Blvd, Lakeland, FL, +1-863-226-1106)
• Sporty's Pilot Shop (North Area, Outdoor Tent 100-101)

Keep your eyes on our blog for some announcements next week, and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for photos of anything that catches our eye!

We are investigating reports that iOS 8.3 (released by Apple earlier this week) is not feeding GPS data from most external GPS receivers into 3rd party apps, such as ForeFlight, WingX, JeppFD, Navionics, and others. We have reproduced this issue in our lab and confirmed that this issue is not unique to Bad Elf GPS receivers, but affects other GPS receivers from Garmin and Dual Electronics as well.

Our newer GPS accessories, including the Bad Elf GPS for Lightning (BE-GPS-1008), Bad Elf GPS Pro+ (BE-GPS-2300), and Bad Elf GNSS Surveyor (BE-GPS-3300) do not seem to be negatively impacted.

We are working with Apple to resolve this issue and will provide status updates as we get more information.  In the meantime, we recommend you wait to upgrade your Apple devices to iOS 8.3.

Update (Monday 13-April): We've passed all of the necessary information to Apple Support and got confirmation over the weekend that it has been passed to the correct team.  We're optimistic it will be fixed in the next iOS 8.3.x release, and will post updates as we receive them.

Update (Thursday 16-April): We're still awaiting any news from Apple.  In the meantime, we’re exploring several possible workarounds. We have confirmed that the beta iOS 8.4 released earlier this week has the same GPS issue. Some customers have reported successfully downgrading their iOS back to iOS 8.2, but we can’t recommend that process to our customers — it’s not supported by Apple and requires a complete wipe of your settings/apps/data.  If you are a pilot grounded by this issue, please contact us via email to support@bad-elf.com and we’ll see what we can do to help. Rest assured we are doing everything in our power to get this resolved and will send another email when we have any new information.

For future updates on the iOS 8.3 situation, please view the latest information on our supplemental blog post, available here.

We were welcomed by our partners at Snow Lizard Products and spent a significant amount of time at their booth showcasing the integration of their rugged cases and our GPS technology in the forthcoming SLXtreme.  Based on the feedback from the show, the marriage of our products will be an exciting option for boaters needing protection, backup power, and GPS in a single iPad or iPhone case.

Right next to the Snow Lizard booth, we had the pleasure of meeting some new developers in the industry who are local to Miami.  BoatDayApp has a great product and website with the ability to request space for yourself, for a group, or to reserve an entire boat for fun, fishing, watersports, and more.  We also had the opportunity to meet with Get My Boat, who are the self-proclaimed AirBnb of the boating industry with over 26,000 boats available in 110 countries.

Some familiar faces we visited were Jeppesen, who showed us some detail into their C-MAP systems, Sea Pilot/True Heading (all the way from Sweden) who demoed their new app for iOS/Android/Windows, Fugawi who showcased their new partnerships, and of course Navionics, who won this year's Innovation Award for their SonarCharts Live software.

The Bad Elf team was invited to attend an outing out on the water with the teams from Snow Lizard Products and Navionics.  We had the opportunity to boat around Biscayne Bay and test drive an iPad running Navionics projected by the SLXtreme case and connected to the Vexilar Sonar Phone.  In the end, we all decided that forthcoming meetings should always take place on the water with plenty of food and beer.

We would like to thank all of our friends, partners, new teams of people we met, and especially the Miami Boat Show for their hospitality.  We can't wait to attend again next year at the new Miami Marine Stadium Park & Basin at Virginia Key, February 11–15, 2016.

The Bad Elf GNSS Surveyor is the first 1-meter GPS/GLONASS receiver for the iPad and iPhone that you can fit in your pocket!

Designed for the GIS and light-survey markets, the Bad Elf GNSS Surveyor is perfect for back-country wilderness surveys, property line verification, agricultural planning, DOT asset surveys, etc.  

Like the Bad Elf GPS Pro and the Bad Elf GPS Pro+, the Bad Elf GNSS Surveyor features a 24-hour battery life, LCD screen with backlight, rugged enclosure, and Bluetooth connectivity with up to 5 devices at a time.  It also features a barometer and supports USB connectivity.

Whereas the Bad Elf GPS Pro and Bad Elf GPS Pro+ are designed for moving vehicles with limited sky visibility and outdoor activities, the Bad Elf GNSS Surveyor is optimized for slower or stationary outdoor environments where 1-meter GPS accuracy is a priority.

High-precision Accuracy

The Bad Elf GNSS Surveyor uses a high-performance u-blox 7 GNSS engine with support for GPS, GLONASS, and GQSS satellite networks.  It supports a number of technologies to provide high-precision positioning data depending on your location and environment:

• Precise Point Positioning (PPP): for stationary applications with clear-sky visibility, PPP uses GPS signal carrier-phase tracking to reduce ionospheric and multi-path signal distortion.  This provides 1-meter accuracy without the need for a local reference station or other correction source.
• Space Based Augmentation Services (SBAS): broadcast by the satellite networks, SBAS provides correction data for satellite orbits, clocks, and atmospheric delays based on ground reference stations. Coverage includes North America (WAAS), Japan (MSAS), Europe (EGNOS), and India (GAGAN).  By itself, SBAS improves horizontal position accuracy to 2-2.5 meters.
• Differential GPS (D-GPS): for world-wide precision applications where a base station or other correction source is available, the GNSS engine supports industry-standard RTCM 2.3 messages for operation as a D-GPS rover.
• Raw data for RTK/post processing: for users needing even better accuracy (10-50cm), the raw GPS and SBAS satellite measurements are available for real-time kinematics (RTK) applications and post-processing. This data is available via our SDK or the log files recorded in standalone mode.

Together, these technologies allow the Bad Elf GNSS Surveyor to deliver enhanced precision compared to conventional single-point positioning receivers.

Here's a plot of locations that shows the PPP algorithms achieving 1-meter accuracy in under 4 minutes after getting a cold-start GPS lock.  Assuming clear sky visibility, subsequent points reach 1-meter accuracy much faster.

Unlike consumer GPS chipsets that are designed to reduce GPS jitter while stationary, the u-blox 7 GNSS engine is designed to continuously report the best location data possible as the PPP algorithms are working to improve the accuracy over time.  You can see this in the time-lapse video below, which shows the accuracy improving over a 5 minute time span:

Data-Collector Apps

Like our all of our GPS accessories, the Bad Elf GNSS Surveyor is certified under Apple's MFi program and works with any location-based app in the App Store.  Once the Bad Elf GNSS Surveyor accessory is paired with your iPad or iPhone over Bluetooth, apps will receive high-precision location data automatically.

Some popular GIS apps that work with the Bad Elf GNSS Surveyor and our other GPS accessories today:

• iGeoTrak and iCropTrak from Cogent3D
• Wolf-GIS Pro by Wolf-Tek, Inc.
• Trimble Outdoors Navigator by Trimble Navigation Ltd.
• GIS Kit Pro by Garafa, LLC
• Collector for ArcGIS by ESRI
• MotionX GPS HD by Fullpower Technologies, Inc.
• and many more

The Bad Elf GNSS Surveyor can also provide streaming NMEA GPS data over Bluetooth or USB to non-iOS devices running Android, Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.  Limited support is available for these platforms.

We are working with several iOS app developers using our SDK to access the raw satellite measurement data for RTK and improved accuracy via post-processing.  We also expect to have several methods for accessing free and commercial correction services in the near future.

We will announce more about these activities over the coming weeks and months.  If you are an application developer and would like to use our SDK, please contact us at sdk@bad-elf.com.

Special Launch Pricing until Oct 15, 2014

The Bad Elf GNSS Surveyor is available for purchase starting today, and will ship on or before October 15th.  Standard MSRP is $599.99, but we are offering a special launch price for our early adopter customers of $499.99 for all orders placed before October 15th!

You can learn more about the device here.

Questions?  Feedback?  Please send an email to support@bad-elf.com.

iOS 8

Just this Thursday iOS 8 went live to the world.  We've been testing our app and products with iOS 8 since this summer, so there aren't too many surprises.  We did submit an updated version (2.1.2) of the Bad Elf GPS utility app for Apple review last week, and hopefully that will make it thru the review queue soon.  Until then, the current app version (2.1.1) is working fine on all devices running iOS 6.0 and higher (including iOS 8).

iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus

Friday morning we stopped by the Apple Store and quickly tested the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus display units with all Bad Elf accessories.  We're happy to report that everything seems to work!

In the next few weeks we'll complete the necessary testing and paperwork to be able to claim full compatibility with these new devices.  At that point we'll update our website, packaging, and support pages.

Firmware Updates for Bad Elf Lightning Dongle, GPS Pro, and GPS Pro+

Earlier this week we released firmware updates for both the Bad Elf GPS Pro and the Bad Elf GPS Pro+.  You can download/install these via our utility app (version 2.1.1 or newer).  These updates include a number of new features and bug fixes:

Bad Elf GPS Pro (BE-GPS-2200): Firmware Version 2.0.74

• Added decimal seconds to latitude/longitude values when configured for DDMMSS.ss
• Full integration with Foolography's Unleashed photo geo-tagging accessory for Nikon cameras
• Fixed bug causing "Waiting for Lock" to show on LCD datalogger screen even after GPS lock was acquired
• Full support for up to 5 non-iOS devices (tested Unleashed dongles, Surface tablets, Android tablets, and PC/Mac) 

Bad Elf GPS Pro+ (BE-GPS-2300): Firmware Version 2.1.20

• Exported GPX files can now include GPS or Barometer as default elevation source
• LCD displays warnings when exported GPX files are too large for available space on USB drive
• Added support for performing firmware updates via the USB drive
• Fixed bug causing unit to lock up during log transfer
• Full integration with Foolography's Unleashed photo geo-tagging accessory for Nikon cameras

We have several new features and bug fixes coming for the Bad Elf GPS Pro+ next week, so we'll do another blog post when that firmware update is ready. 

Any questions or issues?  Our support team is standing by, please visit our support page.

Like the original Bad Elf GPS Pro launched back in 2012, the Bad Elf GPS Pro+ provides high-performance GPS for pilots, boaters, GIS/surveyors, and outdoor enthusiasts.  It also adds a number of new features:

• Latest generation GPS+GLONASS chip set provides faster lock times and greater sensitivity in aircraft, ground vehicle, and urban canyon environments.
• Internal barometer provides higher precision altitude and ambient pressure information.  The pressure altitude can be calibrated using known elevation, local altimeter setting, or sea level pressure.  This calibration can be done via the LCD screen on the GPS Pro+ or via our iOS utility app.
• Trip logs can be transferred to any PC or Mac via USB Drive mode -- just like a USB stick or thumb drive.
• Streaming NMEA GPS data is available via USB to desktop, laptop, and tablet computers
• Log up to 200 hours of trip location data to the internal memory (twice as much as GPS Pro)
• Integration with Foolography's Unleashed geotagging accessory for Nikon cameras

You can learn more about the Bad Elf GPS Pro+ here.

One of the common uses of trip logging with the Bad Elf GPS Pro and GPS Pro+ is geo-tagging photos taken with a DSLR camera.  Very few DSLR cameras have internal GPS support, and for those that do, the negative impact on battery life and long lock times can be a problem.

Many of our users solve this problem by recording their location history with the Bad Elf GPS Pro or Pro+, and then export that data to a GPX file.  Tools such as Aperture or Lightroom can match the timestamps in each photo to the timestamps in the GPX file, and then embed the correct location data into the photo’s EXIF metadata.  However, this is an error-prone and manual process.

For Nikon users, the Unleashed accessory from Foolography solves all of these problems.  It acts as a bridge between Nikon DSLR cameras and Bluetooth GPS receivers such as Bad Elf GPS Pro or Pro+.  The Unleashed device is a small Bluetooth dongle that plugs into the Nikon accessory port.  It receives GPS location data from the Bad Elf GPS Pro over Bluetooth and feeds it into the Nikon camera.  As photos are taken, the camera embeds the location data into the photo's EXIF metadata — no manual post-processing steps required!



The Unleashed is optimized for amazing battery life and very fast connection times, ensuring every photo is geo-tagged even if you momentarily lose GPS lock.  A single Bad Elf GPS Pro or Pro+ can supply GPS location data to up to 5 Unleashed units simultaneously, and its 24-32 hour battery life will last all weekend!

And that's not all!

Bad Elf and Foolography have taken the integration one step further: using the buttons and LCD screen on Bad Elf GPS Pro/Pro+, you can also trigger the Nikon’s focus and shutter thru the Unleashed dongle!  This is very useful for tripod mounting, self-portraits, and other photo shoots requiring remote mounting.



The Bad Elf GPS Pro and Pro+ will show a camera icon in the lower status bar when an Unleashed is connected.  The camera focus and trigger menu can then be accessed by holding the Bluetooth button for 3 seconds.

The Bad Elf GPS Pro/Pro+ and Unleashed should be part of every Nikon photog’s camera kit!

If you’re at the photokina photography show in Cologne, Germany this week, visit the Foolography booth (Hall 4.1, Booth G39) to see the Bad Elf GPS Pro/Pro+ in action.  Also, you can learn more about the Unleashed product line on the Foolography website.