I am trying to use HERO4 (Silver, firmware 5.00 - latest available) with RaceChrono and I’m finding a few annoyances.
The biggest one is when ending a session, RC disconnects from the camera, and the GoPro will turn off and Wi-Fi will turn off too, requiring having to physically turn on the camera again, go through the menus to enable Wi-Fi, connect iPhone to the GoPro WiFi and then hope racechrono finds it again. Going through the dozen or so button presses at the track as the session is starting is a stressful experience. The same thing happens every time RC disconnects from GoPro, including after viewing videos on the camera.
(As a side note the GoPro app seems to be able to auto join the HERO4 WiFi much more reliably than RC. It also transfers files over WiFi much much faster than RC for some reason. I recommend using the GoPro app for all that and then just import the videos from Photos app. Extra steps but it works. I also found that using the GoPro app to turn off the GoPro also turns off the WiFi next time it turns on.
To turn on the HERO4 with WiFi enabled hold the side button. When the camera is on and not in a menu state holding the side button is also a WiFi toggle switch but this is also the menu button so it’s somewhat modal not straightforward if you can’t see the screen.)
It seems like disconnecting the camera from Racechrono turns off the camera also, which turns off the WiFi.
For the sake of reliably accessing the camera, which is important when you’re just trying to focus on driving at the track, may I suggest dissociating camera management into a separate state independent of operations such as starting a lap session or transferring data? Don’t disconnect from the camera until e.g. exiting the app or pressing a top level button or settings level button to do so.
Having to turn on the camera and join the WiFi every time I want to access the camera from racechrono is a real drag in the workflow, especially if the camera is not physically accessible, which is usually the case when wanting to use it with WiFi control. As it is now, this is just marginally useful and I’m better off pressing record on the GoPro itself, which I know will reliably start the video.
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The GoPro remote control feature is really really tough one to maintain, as there's no official support from GoPro for this. Everything has to be reverse engineered and there's like 10 different models supported right now. I just cannot justify spending much more time on it to make it more reliable... In a perfect world I would have a dedicated programmer maintaining it, but as RaceChrono is a niche app for small audience, it's not really possible.
And yes, RaceChrono does turn off the camera after recording. It should be able to turn it on too, but apparently that's not working on GoPro HERO 4 Silver. It worked on the Black model last time I checked, but probably did not test it on Silver, as it's a late addition to my test set. I will add TO-DO item to fix it, but do not expect fast turnaround or anything like that, due to reasons I've just mentioned