Clueless Newbie - GoPro4, iPhone6, & TrackAddict: Video via GoPro Only on Motorcycle?

[wspollack]

I received a GoPro4 Silver as a Christmas present, and have an iPhone6 (with 128GB of memory), and a motorcycle. And recently purchased the Pro version of TrackAddict, and am completely clueless about all of this.

I would like to use the GoPro to record some track days and occasional back-road runs on the motorcycle. And I would like to use TrackAddict to embed -- at some point in the final video -- a speedometer overlay in those videos. That's the goal.

I think I understand that in order to accomplish this I have to run TrackAddict on the phone, and also that I have to have the phone and the GoPro talk to each other via Bluetooth. Once that communication is established, I'm at a loss here.

What I'd like to do is keep the phone -- once I start TrackAddict -- in the topcase on my motorcycle. That is, I don't want to actually use the phone's camera, nor do I want the phone mounted on the outside of the bike -- just the GoPro. But I understand that I have to have TrackAddict active, in order that the combination of the TrackAddict software and the hardware in the phone can keep the velocity information coming in.

Before I received the GoPro, I did some playing around with recording video just using the iPhone and TrackAddict, and it was very nice, worked as intended, etc. However, as I mentioned, for reasons of physical security and integrity, I would rather not have the phone mounted on the motorcycle where it is exposed to the outside world.

I imagine I'm not the first person who has this combination of hardware and software, and probably not even the first person with that combination on a bike. Would someone who has this setup -- or who just understands what I think I'm trying to accomplish -- be willing to give me some advice here... assuming what I want to accomplish is even possible?

Thanks for any help.

Bill P.
Niskayuna, NY

[Weston@HPTuners]

What you could do is use TrackAddict to record your data, and set it's Video slider to "Off" (thereby disabling recording with the phone's internal camera), then go into the "More Options..." screen and setup External Camera Control for your GoPro. You'll first need to setup the GoPro for your iPhone with GoPro's app, and always make sure your iPhone has joined the GoPro camera's WiFi network. With this configuration, the GoPro video recordings would automatically be started by TrackAddict when it starts recording a data sessions typically within a second or two of each other.

After recording a session this way, you would then have the TrackAddict data (ie GPS position, speed, and other data) saved on your iPhone, and the GoPro video stored on the camera's own memory card. For a number of reasons, it's not very practical or realistic to have users transfer the GoPro footage onto their smartphone for processing, so TrackAddict's in-app video capabilities only apply to footage that you shot with the phone's internal camera, and not the GoPro footage. This is where our RaceRender desktop software comes in... RaceRender will take the data file from TrackAddict, the video file(s) from the GoPro, and optionally other video and data files as well, then enable you to create and customize video+data overlays. This goes much much further than TrackAddict's in-app video overlays, and is the most practical way to combine GoPro footage with data overlays based on TrackAddict data. The GoPro video should already be pretty close in synchronization to the data, and you can use RaceRender's Synchronization Tool to fine-tune it to be even more precise, if you wish.

[wspollack]

Weston: thank you very much for your thorough explanation. This is exactly the sort of information I was looking for.

I will give this a shot in the next week or two (in the car -- too much snow to be messing with the motorcycle)... after I purchase RaceRender (looks like the Deluxe edition is what I need).

Cheers,

Bill P.

[wspollack]

Weston: just wanted to let you know that I've tested this out (in a car) a few times, and everything went fine.

My GoPro Hero4 Silver was set at 30fps and what they call "Super Wide." TrackAddict was running on the iPhone 6, with the setting -- one of the things you pointed out to me -- that the iPhone NOT record any video; the iPhone was used merely to record the speed and location data. TrackAddict was also linked to the GoPro, through its external device setting. The GoPro was set such that its wi-fi was active.

So, running TrackAddict, and then starting a session, started both the GoPro and the iPhone, performing their respective tasks.

When all this was finished, I used RaceRender on my PC to download the iPhone's data. Getting the video from the GoPro was my only hassle. GoPro has a PC application, but it doesn't run on Windows Vista, which is what I have. And for some reason my memory-card reader on the PC didn't "see" the GoPro card, once I took it out. Similarly, using the GoPro's USB cable, hooked up to the PC didn't work, through a USB hub or via the front ports on the PC; it may have worked on the back USB ports on the PC -- I've read that motherboard ports sometimes work better -- but my PC is buried in a desk enclosure, such that the back ports are hard to get to. Yes, I'll be upgrading my PC one of these days. What I wound up doing is copying the GoPro video to my iPhone, and then, via wi-fi, copying the video a second time, i.e., from the iPhone to the PC (I have an app for that). And then deleting the video from the phone.

Last, using RaceRender on the PC, I merged the data from the phone and the GoPro video. It worked fine -- I didn't need to play with the synchronization at all. And I did some playing around with adding gauges to the video, i.e., I'm getting a little familiar with the options in RaceRender. I have a 140MB clip -- about one minute -- on Dropbox of the finished product, if you want to take a look, here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cd06gnptb4...pt%29.wmv?dl=0

Bottom line: your instructions were very helpful. If I could've figured this out myself, it would have taken me a loooong time, or perhaps never. This is exactly what I was trying to accomplish. Thanks!

Bill P.

[Weston@HPTuners]

Great! Glad to hear it!

[kawasaurex]

I'm not sure if it's possible with the GoPro app, but will it control a 2nd camera? And if so, does that mean TrackAddict will be able to start/stop the 2nd camera too? I'm using this on a motorcycle as well and want to borrow my buddy's GoPro for the rear view. Just trying to be efficient but also minimize the time to work the controls while riding.

[Weston@HPTuners]

I'm not sure if it's possible with the GoPro app, but will it control a 2nd camera? And if so, does that mean TrackAddict will be able to start/stop the 2nd camera too? I'm using this on a motorcycle as well and want to borrow my buddy's GoPro for the rear view. Just trying to be efficient but also minimize the time to work the controls while riding.

Being that the connection to the GoPro is via WiFi, and the phone can only connect to one WiFi network at a time, you end up being limited to controlling just one camera at a time. That's also why we can't control both a WiFi-based OBD device and a WiFi GoPro at the same time (fortunately, the there Bluetooth options for OBD to solve that). I believe the newer GoPro's use Bluetooth in some small way with their own app, however the primary control is still over WiFi, and iOS wont let apps take control of which network you're attached to.