Later versions of the app contain all of the changes from the earlier versions so, you only need to install the latest version to get all the fixes/improvements listed below.
Click on a version number to download that version of the app.
Compatibility fixes for recent PB-4 and Android releases. Note that this will not work on devices that are running Android versions lower than 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).
Bug fix - avoid crash that occurred when device was paired with a Bluetooth device that has no name.
Updated build process to use Android version 7 SDK - still compatible with earlier Android versions.
Spectrum line labels are no longer displayed on top of each other - if some labels are hidden, zoom in to see them.
Size of text on spectrum display now scaled by screen density. Please contact Smart Avionics if the spectrum text doesn't look OK on your Android device.
Added support for the PB-4.
Move lines can now be drawn using a small range of colours and styles.
More than 2 move lines can now be defined for a chart - a new polar chart menu option lets you choose a maximum of 2 move lines to be used to calculate the solution.
Now supports Two Plane balancing.
Fixed bug that caused incorrect IPS legends on the job report polar chart.
Android 5.0 (Lollipop) compatible.
Now supports French language for user interface strings (menus, buttons, etc.). The language used is determined by the system default but it can also be overriden in the app preferences.
Bluetooth remote camera shutter release devices can now be used as a remote capture button which makes it easier to capture points and spectra when flying a helicopter or gyroplane.
The captured point dialog is no longer shown automatically when a point is captured. There is a new job setup option to enable that if you want to keep the previous behaviour.
Another new job setup option controls whether spectra will be captured immediately after points are captured. Previously, this always happened when capturing using the big capture button and never when capturing using the capture buttons on the polar chart and data views. Now, the new option affects the behaviour of all of the polar point capture buttons (polar chart, data display and big button). The spectrum view capture button is not affected by this change, it still only captures spectra (not points as well).
Android version 4.4 onwards provide a built in file-chooser which can be used to select not only files on the local SD card but also files stored elsewhere which are accessed using services such as Dropbox and Google Drive. The app will now make use of that file-chooser and doesn't require a 3rd party file manager app to be installed.
On rotor mode polar charts, a new context menu option enables the display of mode line names in a sliding "bubble" that moves as the chart is panned and zoomed.
Although it is backward compatible with earlier PB-3 firmware, to get the best from this release you should upgrade the PB-3 to version 2.1 (or later).
It is recommended that you save your existing data (export database) before you update the app.
When adding/editing a note to a point or spectra, the new note will be assigned to points/spectra that were captured at the same time.
Minor GUI tweaks.
Although it is backward compatible with earlier PB-3 firmware, to get the best from this release you should upgrade the PB-3 to version 2.1 (or later).
It is recommended that you save your existing data (export database) before you update the app.
Added "Rotor Rotates Clockwise" option to polar chart context menu.
The polar chart rotor mode T marker is now shaped like an arrow to indicate the direction of rotor rotation.
The polar chart degrees legend is now always visible rather than being drawn around the outside of the chart.
Although it is backward compatible with earlier PB-3 firmware, to get the best from this release you should upgrade the PB-3 to version 2.1 (or later).
It is recommended that you save your existing data (export database) before you update the app.
Miscellaneous small fixes/improvements.
Although it is backward compatible with earlier PB-3 firmware, to get the best from this release you should upgrade the PB-3 to version 2.1 (or later).
It is recommended that you save your existing data (export database) before you update the app.
Updated 10/12/2013 to improve rotor-mode job setup dialog.
Updated 04/12/2013 to fix further crashes related to dummy data.
Updated 30/11/2013 to fix a crash.
Major release that brings miscellaneous new features and bug fixes.
Although it is backward compatible with earlier PB-3 firmware, to get the best from this release you should upgrade the PB-3 to version 2.1 (or later).
It is recommended that you save your existing data (export database) before you update the app.
Fixed bug that broke image export when the job tag contained characters that were not valid in file names.
Fixed bug that made polar point solution bubble not always appear when displaying points from both axes.
Added ability to export data (points and spectra) in CSV format and export and import data in SQL format.
Now nags the user to update the PB-3 firmware if it is old.
Added workaround for Bluetooth connectivity problem on some Android devices running 4.0 (ICS).
When the captured point dialog is displaying details of a start point, it will now provide an estimate of the amount of weight (and an approximate number of the AN970-3 washers) required to balance the prop. For heavy props and bigger engines (>100HP), the estimate will be too low but at least it gives an indication of approximately how much weight is needed.
Now, when pinch-zooming the polar chart, the chart is zoomed around the point mid way between your fingers so it should no longer shift as you zoom.
On Android versions 3.2 and higher, the app will no longer shutdown and restart when the screen orientation changes.
Now, when a point is captured, if there is not yet a start point for the current tag, the captured point dialog contains a "Use As Start Point" button that makes the current point the start point. As before, the dialog's option menu contains the "Use As Start Point" item so it's still possible to change the start point if you wish to.
The dates displayed in the captured point dialog and also in exported images now show the date like this "16 Nov 2012" or "Nov 16, 2012" rather than "15/11/12". The exact format used depends on the Locale (and also the Android version!)
Added workarounds for a couple of problems introduced in Android 4.2. If anyone is using 4.2 and spot any oddities please report them. In particular, 4.2 has a new implementation of Bluetooth which appears to have some issues.
When the polar point list screen is divided into two to show the list of points and a polar chart, you can now tap on a point on the chart to select it. If more than one point is a possible candidates, the list of candidates will be displayed so you can choose the required point.
The spectrum display now provides a means to display the IPS/RPM of any peak. In a similar manner to how the spectral lines that are multiples of the prop and engine RPMs are labelled, there is now a "cursor line label". To select a peak to be labelled, just tap on the line in the lower half of the spectrum display and the (blue) label will appear above the peak. Tapping on the upper half of the spectrum display moves the cursor label to the next peak to the left or right depending on which side of the display you tap.
Spectrum may now be plotted as either acceleration (G) or velocity (IPS) - a new checkbox in the spectrum option menu selects which.
The spectrum analysis dialog now shows the RMS G value for the analysed spectrum and a bug that stopped that analysis dialog from being updated correctly was fixed.
The spectrum option menu now shows the current values for those items that set a value (window type, rpm per line, etc.)
Fixed a bug that caused the previous or next spectral lines to be labelled when it had the same magnitude as the line that should have been labelled.
Now labels the (non-zero) spectral lines that correspond to multiples 2 to 6 of the engine RPM.
Now saves/restores ADC counts/G values across PB-3 firmware updates.
Fixed bad angle sometimes displayed in solution bubble.
Fixed update problem with dialog for setting ADC counts/G values.
Fixed orientation problem for some screens.
Added GUI support for a new PB-3 configuration option (added in PB-3 firmware version 1.9) which reduces the power consumed by the internal tacho.
Now avoids crash on some devices (for example, Samsung phones running 2.1) when the Bluetooth connection to the PB-3 is restored after the connection dropped out.
Fixed 2 regressions: comms timeout when spectrum RPM per line is set to 10 and crash when captured point RPM differs from start point RPM by more than 5%.
If more than one PB-3 is paired with the Android device, you can now use the "Select PB-3" menu item to choose which PB-3 the app will communicate with.
Fixed bug introduced in 1.15 (bad default value for Divide Screen preference). If you have installed and run either of 1.15 or 1.16 then it is likely that even if you install 1.17 the crash may still occur. You can stop the crash happening by going to Menu > Preferences > Divide Screen and choosing one of the options (Yes/No/Auto) - the default should have been Auto but it was broken.
The polar chart has a new option to display a "solution bubble" under the current polar point. It contains a terse description of how the weight needs to be adjusted to achieve a good balance result.
The polar chart should no longer "jump" when a pinch-zoom gesture is finished.
When the Track Current Point option is enabled, the screen panning now triggers when the current point moves outside of the screen's central region. When the current point is back near the centre of the screen, the panning stops. This lets the point jiggle around near the centre of the screen without continuously panning the chart.
If the screen is tall enough, a polar chart will be shown in the dummy data setup dialog. The chart will contain a single polar point created from the current dummy data values. The IPS slider is now non-linear so it is easier to select a small value.
The options menu now contains a "Help" option that gives you the choice of viewing either the PB-3 manual or the app manual. To view the manuals you need to have a PDF viewer installed on your Android device. There are quite a few available from the Android Market - some cost money, some are free. The Adobe Reader app is fairly useless as it does not appear to support hyperlinks. A much better choice is ezPDF Reader which comes in both free and paid versions and provides pretty much all you need to view the manuals (hyperlinks, TOC). If a manual is already installed on your Android device, the local copy is accessed. Otherwise, the app will try to download it from the Smart Avionics website.
The polar chart can now be panned and zoomed at any time and the old modal pan-zoom behaviour is now deprecated (but still available if you want to keep using it).
If the screen is large enough it will be divided into two when displaying the captured points or spectra. One half will show the list of captured items, the other half will display an item when it is selected.
Will now use the Holo theme when the Android device is running Honeycomb or ICS.
Fixed regression introduced in 1.12 that made start points not be displayed in blue on polar chart.
Now, when the Bluetooth connection to the PB-3 cannot be established, it lets you chose whether to try again to connect or not. If you chose "No", then you can still use the app to view previously captured data.
Added "keep centre visible" option to polar chart.
The polar points list can be exported as an image.
The database that holds the captured polar points and spectra can now be exported (shared).
The database can also be saved to, and loaded from, an sqlite database file. To make use of this capability, you also need to install the OI File Manager.
Spectrum data can now be plotted as a curve rather than individual lines.
Further refactoring of PB-3 options menus.
Note that you need to upgrade the PB-3 firmware to 1.5 to see the following changes.
Graph display view now reports the peak acceleration.
Polar data can now be sourced from either the time or frequency domains.
Added display of engine RPM to data view.
The text on the polar view now scales up when you zoom in.
Polar point and spectrum lists reformatted and now include a sequence number.
Polar points now labelled with their sequence numbers (when zoomed in).
Spectrum display can now automatically pause when a line exceeds a threshold IPS.
Now (optionally) requires user confirmation before quiting app.
The Android device's volume +/- buttons now zoom the polar chart and the spectrum RPM axis.
The Android device's space key (if it has one) now toggles the paused state.
Can now choose to delete all points/spectra captured on the current day.
Refactored PB-3 options menus.
Note that you need to upgrade the PB-3 firmware to 1.3 to see the following changes.
Added min tacho pulses option that can help reduce problems with reflective prop blades.
Filter width option replaced with filter divider option.
Added high pass filter option.
Spectrum display can now auto-zoom the IPS axis (set context menu "Set IPS Axis Zoom" option to "Auto").
Big capture button now displays the current RPM and is not enabled until the RPM is > 1.
Added preferences to hide Android status bar and app title bar.
Now uses correct tag and date/time when exporting image of previously captured point or spectrum.
Now avoids Android 2.1 bug that made activities hang when the context menu was cancelled.
Note that you need to upgrade the PB-3 firmware to 1.2 to use this release.
Spectrum view now supports FFT window functions (Hann or Flat Top).
Add ability to store spectra in database (similar to polar point capture).
Add "big capture button" to capture current polar point and spectrum.
Added option to hide tabs (avoids wasting space on low resolution screens).
Add button that visits this web page to the About Dialog.
Stop dialog boxes expanding to full width of wide screens.
Spectrum display view:
Initial Release.
Copyright 2011-2015 Smart Avionics Ltd.