• Disclaimer
• What it is
• What it is NOT
• Features
• Installation IOS
• Scanning for cameras
• Main control screen
• Main control Areas
  • General Control Area
  • Camera Control Area
  • Camera Status Area
• Control Area Colors & Status
• Camera Status Area positioning
• General Setup
  • Speed Activation
  • Licenses & About
• Camera Setup
  • Camera Presets
  • Speed Activation
• Use of Standby mode
• Use of Scan
• Use of Modes and Presets
• Use of Photo Loop
• Use of Record
• Use of Speed Pause
• Use of Recording Counter
• Background operation
• Distance

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Disclaimer

HydraPro is NOT a replacement of the GoPro Quik app. Lakeshorelogic and HydraPro are not affiliated with GoPro Inc.

What it is

HydraPro is a super-remote for GoPro cameras.

What it is NOT

HydraPro does not replace the GoPro Quik app. It offers an alternative to some of the camera control functions that are available through the Bluetooth interface.

Example of some functions which are available in the GoPro Quik app, but not in HydraPro ;

• Camera to phone pairing.
• Naming the camera
• Add, remove, and modify presets.
• Firmware updates.
• All media functions like download, delete, etc.
• Video editing.

Features

• Uses Bluetooth only.
• Control up to 8 cameras.
• Control camera(s) individually or together.
• Recording on/off linked to GPS speed detected by phone.
• Set camera modes and presets.
• Save preferred modes and presets so that they are set automatically when modes are changed.
• Special HydraPro “loop” picture mode.
• Turn camera(s) on or off.
• Camera status display (battery, SD card storage, recording time, current mode, current preset, …).
• Easy to use user interface with large fonts and controls.

Supported Cameras

GoPro model	Supported	Modes	Presets
Hero 12 Black	Yes	Yes	Yes
Hero 11 Black	Yes	Yes	Yes
Hero 11 Mini	Yes	Yes	Yes
Hero 10 Black	Yes	Yes	Yes
Hero 9 Black	Yes	Yes	Yes
Hero 8 Black	Yes	No	No
Max	?	?	?
Hero 7	?	?	?
Hero 6 Black	?	?	?
Fusion	?	?	?
Hero 5 Black	?	?	?
Hero 4	Yes (IOS only)	No	No
Hero 3	?	?	?

For the versions marked with “?”, if the GoPro Quik app can connect with Bluetooth, HydraPro will still work correctly but have limited control of the camera. Start/Stop recording and standby mode will work. But setting presets will not work.

Installation IOS

• Install from App store.
• Start the App.
• IOS will ask for authorizations.

Scanning for cameras

Main Control Screen

Once HydraPro has found at least one camera it can connect to, the main screen will show and allow for camera control.

The main screen will be arranged differently depending on the number of connected cameras.

Main Control Areas

1. General Control Area

The top one third (black background) is for general control and setup.
Used to:

• Control all connected cameras simultaneously.
• Enter the general setup screen.
• Activate the background camera scanning.
• Set all cameras to standby or activate all cameras from standby.
• Activate the speed-activation pause.
• Check the session counter or rest the counter to zero.

2. Camera Control Area

The middle one third is for the camara which is currently selected for control.
Used to:

• Start/Stop recording for selected camera.
• Control selected camera.
• Check battery and sd-card status.
• Enter individual camera setting screen,
• Set individual camera to standby or bring it back from standby.
• Change the camera mode.

3. Camera Status Area

The bottom one third shows all the connected cameras. The selected camera is framed in yellow.
Used to:

• Start/Stop recording for individual cameras.
• Check status of all connected cameras.
• Check battery and sd-card status.
• Select individual camera for control.

Control Area Background Colors & Status.

Camera Status Area positioning.

The cameras will be positioned in the camera status area grid in the order in which they connected. But it is usually better to have them in the same position every time.

To accomplish this the camera name can be appended with a control character ‘@’ and a number. For example: “Front11 @1” and “Side10 @2”.
The number indicates the order in which this camera will be added to the grid.
In this example, the camera with name “Front11 @1” will show up in the first available grid position and “Side10 @2” will show up in the second grid position.
If only “Side10 @2” connects then it will get grid position 1 for the complete session or until camera “Front11 @1” connects. Grid positions will be reordered whenever the cameras connect.
Cameras without the ordering string in the name will be added after the ones with an ordering string in the name.

To change the camera name, use the GoPro Quik app. HydraPro will strip the position control off the name for its displays of the camera name.

General Setup.

Camera Setup.

Use of Standby Mode.

Standby mode can be used to switch the cameras to a mode in which they use less power. It will also save power on the phone because there will be no more Bluetooth communication while standing by.

The cameras can be set in standby mode in a situation where they will not be used for a while. They can then be brought back from standby mode to be used again. Setting them to standby mode is immediate, but bringing them back takes a while, so that has to be taken into consideration when deciding to go in standby mode.

A camera can also be set in standby mode if it has to be excluded from the session. As long as that camera is not set in standby mode in HydraPro , the app will always bring it back from standby. The only other way to exclude it would be to remove the battery from the camera.
So, to exclude one camera from the session, select the camera from the status area so that it shows in the control area and hit the standby button. The camera background will turn gray, indicating it is in standby mode. HydraPro will ignore this camera but the other cameras will operate normally.

Use of Scan.

When HydraPro comes up it start a very short scanning interval. Once a camera is found and connected it will start an internal timer that will gradually increase the scan interval while the app is running. This interval will be short enough during the first two minutes to detect and connect additional cameras being turned on. Gradually though the scan interval will grow so large that it would take minutes for a new camera to be detected. To detect and connect a camera that has been turned on some time after the app has been running with another camera connected, tap the scan icon to force the interval back to the initial short interval.

The icon changes color while a scan cycle is active.

Use of Modes and Presets.

GoPro cameras have a number of factory presets available in the camera and also allow for creation of custom presets.

HydraPro does not provide a way to edit or add presets in the camera, but it will allow for selecting the available presets in the camera.

HydraPro is limited to providing control of the camera modes and presets that are available in the camera. All cameras have Video mode, but some do not have Photo or TimeLapse modes.
If Photo mode is available, HydraPro will add a 4th mode: Photo Loop Mode (see below).

Each mode can have its specific preset selected and saved, so that when modes are changed, the preset tied to that mode in the settings is automatically set in the camera.

Note:
HydraPro has full control of the camera when it is running. If the mode or preset is changed from the camera screen, HydraPro will override the camera selection and force its current saved setting.

Use of Photo Loop.

Photo loop is an alternative to photo burst mode. There are differences which in some applications might make this mode preferable to the GoPro photo mode burst preset.

The GoPro burst mode works by shooting a sequence of photos in quick succession and then storing them on the SD-card. This makes for a sequence of photos with a very short time gap in between the photos.
This is usually great for shooting action sequences, like an athlete’s jump or a dog catching a frisbee.

But what about a sequence where it is more important to take a lot of photos for a longer period? For example, taking a sequence of pictures from a camera mounted on a bike driving a beautiful Alpine Road. The longest burst rate setting for the GoPro presets is 10 seconds, hardly enough to cover enough terrain.

This is where HydraPro Photo Loop is useful. When set to that mode, HydraPro will send a command to the camera to start recording and then wait for the camera status to go back to idle before sending another command and so on, until the recording mode is stopped. If the preset for photo loop mode is set to single photos, it will result in string of photos that can be as long as the recording is on. Photo loop will also work if the selected preset is set to burst mode, it will result in a string of burst photo strings.

Use of Record.

Recording can be started from the general control area, which will start recording on all connected cameras.
Recording on a specific camera can be started from either the camera control area or from the camera status area.

Recording is the only camera state that will not be overridden by HydraPro when it is started from the camera itself. When recording is started from the camera, HydraPro will detect and reflect the recording mode on that camera.

The general control area will be in recording mode if any of the cameras is in recording mode. Therefore, it will allow for recording control in that state as well. If at least one camera is recording, tapping the record control in the general area will stop the recording on all the cameras that are actively recording.

The Camera control area will show the number of seconds recorded in video and time-lapse mode and the number of photos taken in photo mode and photo loop mode.

Use of Speed Pause.

In some situations, it might not be desirable to start recording at the next speed transition passing the set threshold speed.

When the speed pause control is tapped, it is set to active state, indicated by turning it red. When active, the next speed transition will be ignored and recording with not be started.
The active state will be cleared manually by tapping the control again, turning it white again. Or automatically by the next speed transition going UNDER the threshold speed.

If the Location Services were not granted when the app was installed or if the permission was removed later, the speed activation cannot work, and the icon will remain red.
Permissions for HydraPro can be changed by using the IOS “Settings” for HydraPro.

Use of Recording Counter.

The recording counter will counter the number of times recording was started by HydraPro , either by speed transitions or by manually starting a recording.

The counter can be reset to 0 by tapping it to activate it, indicated by the red color, and then tapping it again to set it to 0.

Background Operation.

HydraPro will continue running in background mode (app swiped to the background while another app is in the foreground).

Distance.

After connecting to a camera, HydraPro keeps in constant communication with the camera. Even when no commands are sent to the camera HydraPro sends a Bluetooth message to the camera every 3 seconds. If the camera does not get this special message every 3 seconds, it will disconnect. When a camera disconnects, HydraPro will immediately go back into scanning mode to try to reconnect to the camera.
Bluetooth range can vary greatly because of any number of reasons but should not be a problem in most cases with HydraPro’s typical use on cars, boats or bikes.
Note: water will greatly affect the range. If the camera is under water, even only for a couple of inches, the range is reduced to a couple of feet.