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AltosUI on iPhone: what it is (and what it isn’t)

If you searched for an “AltosDroid iOS equivalent” or an “Altus Metrum iPhone app,” you ended up in the right place. AltosUI for iPhone and iPad is the iOS ground-station app for TeleBT v4 — the one you pair over Bluetooth LE, carry to the pad, and use to walk up to your rocket after landing. This page explains what the iOS app is, what it isn’t, and how it fits next to the other software you may already be using.

What AltosUI iOS is

AltosUI iOS is the launch-day field app for Altus Metrum flight computers. You pair it to a TeleBT v4 receiver over Bluetooth LE, watch your flight live through the Pad, Flight, Map, and Recover tabs, and walk to your rocket with on-screen guidance. It is the iOS ground-station app for TeleBT v4, and the only App Store iOS app for live Altus Metrum telemetry.

Scope is the important word. The iOS app is scoped to launch day and recovery: live telemetry, voice guidance, offline maps, flight replay, and a post-flight report generated on the device from the .telem file it just captured. It does not configure altimeters. It does not flash firmware. It does not download or analyze .eeprom files. Those are desktop jobs and always have been.

The name collision you need to know about

There are two pieces of software called “AltosUI,” and they do different things. The desktop AltosUI from Altus Metrum is a Java application for Mac, Windows, and Linux. It is the workbench: firmware flashing, altimeter configuration, USB .eeprom download from a recovered flight computer, zoomable multi-channel plots, thrust curves, and CSV and KML export. The iOS AltosUI is the field app — the one on your phone when you are standing on the range.

The two are designed to complement each other. You fly with the iOS app, then sit down at a laptop later and dig deeper with the desktop app if you want to. Neither replaces the other. Website copy that says “AltosUI” without context is usually talking about whichever one you are currently looking at — check the URL or the screenshots.

Where AltosDroid fits

AltosDroid is the Android counterpart of this iOS app, also from Altus Metrum. It does the same core job: live telemetry from a TeleBT receiver, recovery on foot, and on-device reporting. The iOS app tracks AltosDroid closely — the current 3.0 release is at telemetry parity with AltosDroid 1.9.22 and already includes most of the UI features in AltosDroid’s current beta. The iOS and Android apps are sibling field tools; the desktop app is the workbench behind them both.

The three tiers of analysis

One flight produces data at three different levels of depth, and each tier lives in a different place. Keeping them straight saves confusion later.

  • Tier 1 — iOS Flight Report. Generated on your iPhone from the .telem radio capture, at the launch site, without a laptop or a cable. Headline performance numbers, phase timeline, altitude chart, recovery metrics, advisories. See the Flight Report page and the iPhone PDF guide for the full shape.
  • Tier 2 — desktop AltosUI with the same .telem file. Open the file you captured on your phone in the desktop app and you get zoomable multi-channel plots, GPS track maps, richer statistical tables, and CSV and KML export. Same input data as Tier 1, more ways to slice it.
  • Tier 3 — desktop AltosUI with the .eeprom file. The lossless, full-rate onboard log, pulled over USB from the recovered flight computer. This is the authoritative record used for records submissions and motor-performance work. It lives only on the desktop.

The iOS Flight Report is a real analysis tool — its algorithms were audited against the desktop’s so the numbers are in the same ballpark — but it reads a radio stream, not the onboard log. If you are submitting for a record or debugging a motor build, plan on Tier 3.

What hardware the iOS app talks to

On the ground-station side, AltosUI iOS talks to the TeleBT v4.0 receiver over Bluetooth LE. Later TeleBT models are supported to the extent Altus Metrum keeps them compatible with the v4 BLE protocol. There is no USB TeleDongle path on iOS — iOS devices do not speak to that receiver over the Lightning or USB-C port in a way the app can use. If you have a pre-v4 TeleBT, you will need to upgrade before the iOS app can see it. See Pair your TeleBT v4 with AltosUI for the detail.

On the flight-computer side, the app understands the current Altus Metrum lineup: TeleMega (v1–v7), TeleMetrum (v1–v4), TeleMini (v2–v3), and TeleGPS (v1–v4). What the tabs show depends entirely on what the hardware sends; there is a per-device guide for each below.

How to decide whether the iOS app is for you

If you fly Altus Metrum hardware, own or plan to own a TeleBT v4, and want a field tool that does not require hauling a laptop to the range, the iOS app is for you. If you need to configure an altimeter, pull an .eeprom log, or export a GPX track for post-flight mapping, you want the desktop app — and that is fine, the two are meant to live side by side.

Start with the launch-day checklist for the full walkthrough, or jump straight to the per-device guides: TeleMetrum, TeleMega, TeleMini, and TeleGPS. The features hub and the FAQ cover the rest.

For hardware and firmware, the canonical source is altusmetrum.org. The app itself is in the App Store.