GOPRO 4 black 3.0 firmware for rollback

[Pedals2Paddles]

Manual shutter and those fancy features came about in GoPro firmware v4. Which is also when the live video out cropping began, and also when we lost the ability for the solo to turn the gopro on.

 

[David Boulanger]

Manual shutter and those fancy features came about in GoPro firmware v4. Which is also when the live video out cropping began, and also when we lost the ability for the solo to turn the gopro on.

I'll have to pay closer attention to the screen on my ipad. Haven't noticed the cropping. Not saying it doesn't exist

 

[my-spot]

I'll have to pay closer attention to the screen on my ipad. Haven't noticed the cropping. Not saying it doesn't exist

What I found isn't technically cropping, but it might look like it depending on how your display handles the stream. The long story: I discovered that the Solo app was recording the video stream with different resolutions: 1280x720 and 640x480 depending on if I was recording or not. To verify this I hooked my GoPro to my 4K OLED TV via HDMI. When set to anything above 1080p60, the GoPro's output was 1080p when NOT recording. Hit the record button and the GoPro's HDMI output dropped to 640x480. However, the image's aspect ratio was "stretched" from 16:9 to 4:3 (Stretched taller) but was not cropped. This behavior was exactly the same with V3.0 and V5.0 firmware.
The Solo App & Solex stretch the 4:3 back to 16:9 on my phone's display so I really never noticed except for the lower resolution.
Here is a quick comparison of the stream and the 4K video (rendered to 1080p). Note that the aspect ratio changes but there isn't actually any cropping...

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[jcar]

Can I use this firmware for the hero 4 silver also? Does the folder need to be named update when we copy it to the micro sim card?

I'm new to Solo and am having a hell of a time seeing a video stream out of GP 4 black to Iphone6.

Had a chat with 3DR support and they said that they only updated to 3.0 and have stopped updating for Solo.
Not super pleased but it is what it is. Found a few a posts on YouTube ect with rollback updates 1.02, 2.0 firmware as well as 3.0 in an obscure forum.

I read the GoPro disclaimer saying that if you rollback you'll brick your camera blah blah blah...we won't support it...blah. I think they are using scare tactics which pisses me off even more. They probably want everyone to go out and buy a Karma. No thank you, Solo kicks ass once it's tweaked a bit.

Being super frustrated I decided I'd chance it. Tried every firmware I found and rolled each one back and tested with Solo. They all sucked in terms of the camera being seen by the gimble, connection issues ect. except for 3.0 firmware. The camera turned on when I powered up Solo. I was able to record, ect. Suffice it to say I think I have a bad HDMI port because when I connect to a monitor/TV I don't seen anything except black. *(&^$%$)(^&)(#*&!!!! Oh well.

It was a bear to find the 3.0 firmware which 3DR says is the last supported version so I thought I'd share it with anyone who is having issues with higher versions or can't find it anywhere.

Here is a list of versions I tried:

1.02
2.0
3.0
4.0
5.0

My camera is working fine except for the HDMI port which has nothing to do with (I don't think) with firmware.

Here is the link to GP Hero 4 Black 3.0 firmware

GP 4 black3.0 UPDATE.zip

If anyone needs versions 1.02 or 2.0 let me know and I'll share with you.

Cheers

I also upgraded the GPS -
mRo GPS u-Blox Neo-M8N / 3DR SOLO Upgrade

Wow what a difference!

This may be old news to a lot of you here, I'm sure it is but I thought I'd share.

 

[jcar]

Looking for Hero 4 Silver edition firmware that last worked with all the features with Solo. Also looking for Hero 4 black firmware that worked with Solo.

 

[Brendon Baddiley]

Does this v3 roll back still work?

 

[tracer]

I don't like the 5.0 firmware for several reasons, which I don't see mentioned here:

First, your camera will NOT run off your Solo's battery. Let me explain. I can plug in my GoPro4 with a dead battery and still shoot footage. That's one less thing to charge when I go flying!
Second, the Solo will NOT turn off your GoPro when powered down. I always power down my Solo with the Solo power button at the end of the flight. This turns off the GoPro too. I don't like to put electronics in my backpack left "on". This also means the Solo is "OFF". I once forgot to turn off my solo and zipped it up in the backpack. It got super hot in there and started alarming. I almost fried my favorite drone.

I rolled both my GoPro 4's back to 3.0 and have left them there.

 

[David Boulanger]

I don't like the 5.0 firmware for several reasons, which I don't see mentioned here:

First, your camera will NOT run off your Solo's battery. Let me explain. I can plug in my GoPro4 with a dead battery and still shoot footage. That's one less thing to charge when I go flying!
Second, the Solo will NOT turn off your GoPro when powered down. I always power down my Solo with the Solo power button at the end of the flight. This turns off the GoPro too. I don't like to put electronics in my backpack left "on". This also means the Solo is "OFF". I once forgot to turn off my solo and zipped it up in the backpack. It got super hot in there and started alarming. I almost fried my favorite drone.

I rolled both my GoPro 4's back to 3.0 and have left them there.

I disagree. My Gopro's runs off the Solo battery with version 5. If you are leaving your Solo on when putting into the backpack you may want to add checking it into your post flight checklist. The flexibility of v5.0 outweighs the cons in my opinion. My Green Cube Solo does not turn off the Gopro but I thought my 1.5.3 Solo did. Are you sure about your facts?

 

[Brendon Baddiley]

I disagree. My Gopro's runs off the Solo battery with version 5. If you are leaving your Solo on when putting into the backpack you may want to add checking it into your post flight checklist. The flexibility of v5.0 outweighs the cons in my opinion. My Green Cube Solo does not turn off the Gopro but I thought my 1.5.3 Solo did. Are you sure about your facts?

I am under the understanding that the GoPro doesn't turn off with v5 also if you change between video and photo that you loose linear mode as it has to be set via the GoPro

 

[David Boulanger]

The thing about this changing from video to photo is not really an issue. If your taking video chances are you have a dark filter on the camera to slow down the shutter. Photo's no filter fast shutter speed. I guess it's all about the results you are looking to achieve.

 

[Brendon Baddiley]

What about in the air?

 

[David Boulanger]

What about in the air?

What do you mean?

 

[Brendon Baddiley]

Swapping between video and photo using the app

 

[David Boulanger]

I have never tried. But I think you can do it you just may not have control over a lot of adjustments. Solex allows me to go back and forth from video to photo but have not check out the fine details of it yet

 

[Brendon Baddiley]

Do you still maintain linear mode when doing that?

 

[David Boulanger]

Do you still maintain linear mode when doing that?

I don't know. I use Aftermarket lenses so I use wide only.

 

[Brendon Baddiley]

I don't know. I use Aftermarket lenses so I use wide only.

Fair enough. I haven't got one of those yet.

 

[David Boulanger]

If I have time tomorrow i'll test if 2.7 linear video can switch to photo and back. Sound good. I still have a stock H4B with 5.0 to test with.

 

[tracer]

I disagree. My Gopro's runs off the Solo battery with version 5. If you are leaving your Solo on when putting into the backpack you may want to add checking it into your post flight checklist. The flexibility of v5.0 outweighs the cons in my opinion. My Green Cube Solo does not turn off the Gopro but I thought my 1.5.3 Solo did. Are you sure about your facts?

My GoPro 4 silver did not run off the battery after I updated it. Maybe another update since then has changed that. I am very certain of my facts because I couldn't shoot video that day. Googled it and a lot of others had the exact same issue.

I don't leave the Solo on when putting it in my backpack. I learned my lesson. Unlike the majority of my tech gadgets, the Solo lacks an auto shut-off. And I did add it to my checklist. I pull the battery off of it altogether when I transport it so it doesn't get turned on by accident. It gets wicked hot, so I don't want to chance it.

 

[David Boulanger]

What Firmware are you using. I wonder if this is a Silver problem or just a bad connection into the gimbal. My 4 black appears to get power with v5.0. If you saved the rubbery gimbal stabilizer to use when not in use the camera is fairly safe from turning itself on.