drone apps on a laptop?

[Skwirl]

i could use a little help if possible, i bought a new laptop today. I havent had a home computer for many years, been using my phone.
Im not very good with computers to begin with, but thought it would help with the mini 2 pics and vids. I have a microsoft surface laptop studio with windows 11.
I thought id put a few drone apps on it, like airmap and b4ufly. Im unable to get them for laptop cause i have them on my phone. it just tells me installed already. i understand they werent intended for a laptop, but i did read about checking the b4ufly app on a computer before heading out with the drone.
I know im missing something somewhere, But i dont know what. I hope i didnt just make a big mistake.
Is there different apps for the pc that can do the same thing as the mobile apps? Where/how do you find them?
A little insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Tufargon]

If there isn't a compatible winblows app for the app you're using on your phone you could use an android emulator like Bluestacks on winblows and install them that way.

 

[Reid937]

B4UFLY is available with a browser.

B4UFLY airspace awareness tool is now available via browser

Want to pre-plan your next drone flight? Now, B4UFLY is available via browser, so you can check our your site via desktop or laptop.

dronedj.com

 

[Don Testme]

i could use a little help if possible, i bought a new laptop today. I havent had a home computer for many years, been using my phone.
Im not very good with computers to begin with, but thought it would help with the mini 2 pics and vids. I have a microsoft surface laptop studio with windows 11.
I thought id put a few drone apps on it, like airmap and b4ufly. Im unable to get them for laptop cause i have them on my phone. it just tells me installed already. i understand they werent intended for a laptop, but i did read about checking the b4ufly app on a computer before heading out with the drone.
I know im missing something somewhere, But i dont know what. I hope i didnt just make a big mistake.
Is there different apps for the pc that can do the same thing as the mobile apps? Where/how do you find them?
A little insight would be greatly appreciated.

What you have to do is get an Android Emulator for your PC. NoxPlayer is an emulator for android. It opens and looks exactly like an android phone or tablet. You can go to the app store, just like on an android phone and install apps. Or download APK files to install in the emulator. You can actually run DJI Fly, Go4Pro, Autel Explorer, Litchi, B4Ufly, etc and all those other drone apps within the emulator. You can download and run pretty much any android app from the app store in the android emulator screen.

 

[Skwirl]

What you have to do is get an Android Emulator for your PC. NoxPlayer is an emulator for android. It opens and looks exactly like an android phone or tablet. You can go to the app store, just like on an android phone and install apps. Or download APK files to install in the emulator. You can actually run DJI Fly, Go4Pro, Autel Explorer, Litchi, B4Ufly, etc and all those other drone apps within the emulator. You can download and run pretty much any android app from the app store in the android emulator screen.

Thanks for the info. Im trying to get the noxplayer installed now. Its taking quite a while and im not sure what its doing, but the little blue wheel is turning. So i guess thats good.

 

[tibadoe]

I use Airmap & B4UFLY on the laptop & desktop. Same as my Android, Mini 4, & Tripltek 8. No issues.

 

[surfbird]

What you have to do is get an Android Emulator for your PC. NoxPlayer is an emulator for android. It opens and looks exactly like an android phone or tablet. You can go to the app store, just like on an android phone and install apps. Or download APK files to install in the emulator. You can actually run DJI Fly, Go4Pro, Autel Explorer, Litchi, B4Ufly, etc and all those other drone apps within the emulator. You can download and run pretty much any android app from the app store in the android emulator screen.

Are you really sure about this? Have you tried dji fly yourself, or have a video that shows it?
There are a lot of obstacles for this
* secneo encrypted
* Native dji libs also encrypted
* usb com with the remote
and much more

If you have solved this please let me know, I hope you really have. It would make reversing so much easier!!

 

[Skwirl]

Well its not looking good for the new laptop. Neither of the android emulators will download. No clue as to why.
Ill be taking it over to the store when they open and see if there techs have better luck. If not, i guess ill return it.

any suggestions for a laptop that i can use airmap and b4ufly apps on?
at least i now know it has to droid based. Live and learn, i guess.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Do a google search for "microsoft your phone"
Install it on your laptop and on your phone. You can then mirror any app on your phone to your laptop.

 

[Skwirl]

WOOOHOOOO!!!!
I got it. B4ufly is bookmarked on my laptop now. Only took me about 7 hrs to do, lol.
I probably should go buy a lottery ticket.
I finally found a desktop version on the FAA website. Whoda thunk that, lol.
At least I learned a few things along the way to, so it wasnt all wasted time.
Thanks for the suggestions guys.

It looks like Ill even get to fly my mini 2 today also, seems rain has moved out.

 

[Kilrah]

i understand they werent intended for a laptop, but i did read about checking the b4ufly app on a computer before heading out with the drone.

When mentioned like this it's just about using the relevant web version.

 

[Don Testme]

Are you really sure about this? Have you tried dji fly yourself, or have a video that shows it?
There are a lot of obstacles for this
* secneo encrypted
* Native dji libs also encrypted
* usb com with the remote
and much more

If you have solved this please let me know, I hope you really have. It would make reversing so much easier!!

IT DOESN'T WORK. I was just making an assumption. I just downloaded the DJI FLY APK from DJI and tried installing it in the Nox Emulator. It starts to install then quits. Sorry for the misinformation.

 

[Tufargon]

IT DOESN'T WORK. I was just making an assumption. I just downloaded the DJI FLY APK from DJI and tried installing it in the Nox Emulator. It starts to install then quits. Sorry for the misinformation.

No it doesn't, likely because Nox is not likely a 64 bit version. There are very few. Bluestacks has a 64 bit version but does the same thing. It really wouldn't matter anyway because the emulators don't support USB so you wouldn't be able to do anything with it anyway. You'd just be able to look at it lol.

 

[PhotoDB]

Do a google search for "microsoft your phone"
Install it on your laptop and on your phone. You can then mirror any app on your phone to your laptop.

I've got Your Phone Companion installed and it doesn't mirror any apps. Is that the program you were referring to ?

 

[Jagerbomb52]

This one I got from Microsoft. Not sure if it is the same one. I believe about 2 or 3 updates ago I was able to mirror the Apps. If its the same program make sure everything is updated.

 

[PhotoDB]

This one I got from Microsoft. Not sure if it is the same one. I believe about 2 or 3 updates ago I was able to mirror the Apps. If its the same program make sure everything is updated.

Looks like the same one, but I checked every possibility and no apps for me.
Bummer - no such luck on my Pixel 5.

 

[PhotoDB]

Looks like the same one, but I checked every possibility and no apps for me. View attachment 141100
Bummer - no such luck on my Pixel 5.

Just discovered at aka.ms/ypltwdevices that this app only works with Samsung devices. Thanks for checking though.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Looks like the same one, but I checked every possibility and no apps for me. View attachment 141100
Bummer - no such luck on my Pixel 5.

Well that sucks. Like I said it was not always there and just one day after a update I noticed I had it.

 

[Skwirl]

Its kinda confusing to say the least. The 1 thing I learned this morning about windows 11 is that android is supposed to be supported. Something about x86 or something. The jist of it is microsoft is dragging there feet in fully supporting android.

the phone companion app does work for somewhat, i trasferred pics from my phone. but there all out of order and not in the albums they were in on the phone. arrrrrgh, frustrating to say the least. I wasnt to thrilled with the fact that if I delete a photo on the pc, it also deletes on the phone. i dont like that function, so i turned it off.
I did watch a video this morning that was posted on here. i watched it on youtube and the pc went right there, no problem. I also noticed youtube on the pc had all my subscribtions, so same as the phone.
hopefully microsoft will get with it and support android apps.

 

[Kilrah]

Android app support in Win11 works great, but like all the emulators like Bluestacks, noxplayer etc it's an android-x86 virtual machine, just way better integrated. That means that while most apps work some like DJI's that use native code libraries that are only compiled for ARM won't.
And anyway no PC has a "device" side USB port so you still couldn't connect a remote.