Bad Elf Flex

Bad Elf, LLC

About this app

This is the free companion utility app for the Bad Elf Flex and Bad Elf Flex Mini -- our flexible, intuitive, and affordable survey-grade GNSS receivers.

Designed for GIS and survey professionals, the Bad Elf Flex and Flex Mini connect to your phone or tablet via Bluetooth and provide high-accuracy location data to ANY and ALL field data collection apps in your workflow.

This app allows you to view the health of the Flex hardware, change settings, and perform firmware updates. The app also supports purchasing and loading Flex Tokens into the hardware for standalone use of higher-accuracy features and correction sources. Several correction sources are supported including SBAS, RTK via NTRIP, and L-band.

Visit https://bad-elf.com/flex to learn more about the Bad Elf Flex and our other GNSS receivers.

NOTES:

* This app requires a Bad Elf Flex or Flex Mini to operate.

* This app does not support our mapping-grade receivers: Bad Elf GPS Pro, GPS Pro+, Surveyor, and GPS for Lightning dongle.

* Continued use of the GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life.

Ratings and reviews

App locks up frequently. You'll tap around and it just freezes. On Android, you can "Keep Open" so the app always keeps running, and it still locks up and crashes. I also noticed the satellite signal will drop completely on the Bad Elf Mini Extreme then come back. It blinks out for a second. The dev team really needs to create a lock position feature, where if it goes centimeter accuracy, it will lock its position until you select unlock, preventing floating. Really annoying it can't do this.

Works beautifully with my Flex Mini Extreme. Application is in regular development. I submit bug reports and not blind complaints. Most feature shortfalls can be remedied with Miniconda based GDAL processing for file conversation and other nice to haves. Accuracy and precision is industry disruptive, not a fluke. Quality of life upgrades like easier Coordinate System management and Data Exporting functions would help but aren't strictly needed.

Seems to be simple to use and has a lot of features to assist in setting up local rtk as well as checklist workflow for everything. Troubleshooting is easy as any issue will flag on the live updated checklist ui. One issue seems that it won't allow you to connect to another app through this app, meaning you have to choose between this or another collection app (esri feild for examole) Major issue is no way to offload data from bad elf through the app which really sucks.

What’s new

NEW! Enhanced integration with Esri's ArcGIS Field Maps

Bad Elf's comprehensive positioning metadata now flows directly into Field Maps, including CRS, correction service, orthometric height, and reference epoch. Plus, automatic pole height synchronization improves elevation accuracy.

Other improvements:
• More reliable RTK reconnects
• Smarter NTRIP datum selection
• Improved correction subscription status
• Better satellite network detection
• Saved Point elevation and import fixes