Dear all,

We’ve had some busy weeks, fixing many of the bugs from the Android app (dear NullPointer and IndexOutOfBounds Exceptions, I will kill you all).
Several issues were reported, and we made a release almost every day for 2 weeks.

Fortunately the rush is over and the app is quite stable now for many phones. The major remaining issue now is supporting some phones that have a BLE stack behaving very strangely (looking at you Samsung Galaxy Sx and OnePlus phones…). We also have some problems because of the changes introduced by Android M (6.0). BLE is quite miserable on Android. So we created a tested devices section in our wiki. Please have a look and do not hesitate to update the list. Whatever the verdict, I would be thankful.

Also, if you have deactivated the Google Play Store auto-update, don’t forget to update your PandwaRF app whenever there is a new version available. We are constantly working on improving the app and fixing the issues.
Of course a lot of features are still pending or too unstable to be released yet. The next year will be interesting.

One mistake that we made so far was the lack of tutorials, guides, how-to, chat rooms, forum etc… This is now fixed with the PandwaRF wiki, which is populated topic by topic, day after day. Feel free to ask for a particular topic or a detailed explanation.
We also now have a chat room and a forum where you can talk to us and ask quick questions. Please use these rather than sending us an email. This benefits all the other users.

Here’s what is going on now on the feature side:

  • We are working on BLE platform specific hacks to work around the disconnects, scanning issues, etc… Non-exhaustive Android BLE issue list here.
  • We are still working on the simplification of the Android app, in order to make it simpler and more robust.
  • We know that the spectrum analyzer graph is a little buggy when you start sliding frequencies, zooming or pinching.
  • The Android SDK is coming soon, with a documented set of API.
  • Regarding the scripting, the JavaScript has been released since the first version of the app. It is incomplete for now as many native Java functions are not yet ported to their equivalent JavaScript functions.
  • The modified RfCat Python scripts have been released on our Github and will be working, but may require a USB plug/unplug in order to work.
  • We’re also planning to enable the HW internal memory to store RX data directly on the PandwaRF, rather than sending data to the smartphone first. This will increase the max datarate of the data that we are able to capture.
  • You may have noticed that there is a special mode (GodMode) where you have access to a lot of functions. From there you can access the PandwaRF low level interface. You can use it without the risk of bricking your device, but we provide very little support on this mode.
  • We will deploy a first FW update Over The Air (OTA update) in the next month. This is a critical phase, so fingers crossed 🙂

On the business side, we are quickly depleting our initial stock from the pre-order batch and will switch to a new batch in the next quarter, with a slightly increased price. Hurry up if you still want to take advantage of the pre-order price.
Discussions with distributors are ongoing. You may already find the PandwaRF on some resellers’ websites. We will continue selling the PandwaRF on our website until our distribution channels are fully set up.

You will also continue seeing some references to GollumRF here and there, as we haven’t yet completely finished the GollumRF to PandwaRF name changing process.

Coming up next: The PandwaRF Mini is a pocket version of the PandwaRF, without any RF amplifiers, but with an internal antenna.
It is now on pre-order for an estimated release date in 2Q17. But we are really thinking about moving it to a kickstarter campaign, instead of doing the pre-orders ourselves.
We will keep you posted on the release of the PandwaRF Mini.

Also, don’t forget our referral program: we need you to continue making awesome stuff, and fill them with more and more awesomeness.

Merry Christmas everyone!