The Streamer's software improves over time. This page is how you get those improvements, and — just as importantly — what the Streamer will never do to you while you are flying.
You are always the one who decides. Your Streamer never downloads an update in the background and never installs anything while you are flying. When it has internet it quietly asks, every few hours, whether newer software exists — a question of a few hundred bytes, so the console can tell you the moment there is news — but nothing is ever downloaded or installed until you press Download & install, and only when nothing is streaming, recording or being watched.
The short version
- The Streamer looks for update news on its own, and that is all it does on its own. Every few hours, when it is on a network with internet, it asks whether newer software exists — a tiny version query, with nothing downloaded. You can also ask any time by pressing Check now.
- To hear any news it needs to be on a Wi-Fi network that has internet. Out in a field it usually isn't, and that is completely normal — see Putting the Streamer on Your Own Wi-Fi.
- It will only ever accept software signed by Cosmik. Anything else is refused, including something that has been altered by so much as one character.
- It will never download or install on its own. Both happen because you press Download & install, and at no other moment.
- It will never interrupt your video, your recording, or your Wi-Fi to do any of this — including while it installs.
- If an update goes wrong, or the power is cut part-way through, it puts the old software back by itself.
Checking for an update
- Put the Streamer on a Wi-Fi network that has internet. That is the Network page, and it is covered step by step in Putting the Streamer on Your Own Wi-Fi. Do this at home, between flights — not at a shoot.
- Open the console and go to System.
- Scroll to Software.
- Press Check now.
That is the whole thing. The button changes to Checking… while it works. On a slow connection it can take a few minutes — you can leave the page and come back.
You will then see one of these:
| What it says | What it means |
|---|---|
| This Streamer is up to date. There is nothing newer to install. | There is nothing newer. Nothing was downloaded. |
| Version x.y.z is available. Read what has changed below, then download and install when nobody is flying. | Newer software exists. Nothing has been downloaded yet — that happens only when you press Download & install. |
| This Streamer could not reach the internet, so it could not check… | It is not on a network with internet. Not a fault — see below. |
"Could not reach the internet"
This is the most common answer, and it is not a fault.
The Streamer makes its own Wi-Fi network so a client's phone can watch your flight in a field with no router. That network has no internet, and it does not need any. Nothing about your flying, recording, streaming or viewers depends on the Streamer ever being online.
To check for updates, join a network that does have internet first — here is how — then press Check now again. Leave that network before your next shoot; one tap, and your flight data comes back.
What it will never do
It will never download anything unless you press the button. The quiet check is a question — "does newer software exist?" — of a few hundred bytes, and that is the whole of what happens without you. No overnight downloads, ever. The reason matters: you may be on your phone's data allowance at a shoot, and software that quietly spends someone else's data is software they switch off.
It will never download or install while you are working. If the drone is connected, a recording is growing, you are broadcasting or streaming to a destination, or someone is watching the live view, pressing the button gets a plain refusal and nothing is touched — it checks again in the moment before it restarts, too, because a download takes time and you might have started flying in between. It writes to the same memory card your footage is on, and your footage comes first.
It will never install anything mid-flight. That is the rule the whole design is built around.
How the Streamer knows an update is really ours
Every update we publish is signed with a key that exists on one drive, in a safe, and has never been on the internet. Your Streamer carries only the matching public key, which is not a secret and gives nobody anything.
When an update arrives, the Streamer checks the signature before it reads anything else out of it, then checks that every byte of the download matches what was signed, then checks that the version is genuinely newer than what it is already running. If any of those fail, the update is thrown away and the console says so.
That means:
- Nobody can send your Streamer software pretending to be us.
- Nobody can take a real update, change one byte, and have it accepted.
- Nobody can send you an old version to reintroduce a problem we already fixed.
- Somebody who steals your memory card learns nothing useful from the key on it.
If you ever see "A package was refused" on the System page, that is this working. Nothing was installed. Press Check now again, ideally on a different network.
Installing it
Installing takes one press, and your Wi-Fi stays up through it. That last part is the reason it took a while to switch on: installing means restarting part of the Streamer, and the one thing that must never happen is your Wi-Fi going down with it — in a field, that network is the only way to reach the Streamer at all. Your Wi-Fi is now run by something separate that the update never touches, and that was measured across more than a thousand samples before this button existed.
The Streamer also refuses to install at a bad moment. If anything is streaming, recording, broadcasting, or being watched by a viewer, the install does not start — it tells you to try again when nobody is flying. It checks twice: once before it downloads anything, and again in the moment before it restarts, because a download takes time and you might have started flying in between.
This is what it looks like — and none of it changes what the Streamer does to you while you are flying:
- Make sure nobody is flying, nothing is recording, and nobody is watching. If anything is happening, the Streamer says so and the button does not appear — that is deliberate.
- Press Download & install.
- Wait. It downloads the update, proves it genuine, installs it, and the page goes quiet for about half a minute before coming back on its own.
Do not unplug the Streamer while it is installing. If the power is lost anyway, nothing is broken — see below.
What stays up while it installs
Your Wi-Fi. The network your phone and your client's phone are joined to does not go down, does not flicker, and does not need rejoining. Only the console pauses, and only for about half a minute.
We measured that rather than assuming it. Through a complete install of a real, signed update, the Streamer's own network stayed up in every one of five hundred and seventy measurements, and the Streamer's network hardware recorded no interruption at all.
The Streamer will never install on its own
There is no schedule, no "installs overnight", and no background update. It installs when you press the button and at no other moment. If you never press it, nothing ever changes.
If something goes wrong
The Streamer keeps the software it was running before, and puts it back by itself.
- If the new version does not work, the Streamer notices within thirty seconds, goes back to the old one and starts it again. There is nothing for you to do.
- If the power is cut part-way through, then the next time it starts it notices the install never finished and puts the old version back before anything else happens.
Either way the console shows a plain explanation of what happened, and your recordings, your settings and your Wi-Fi password are untouched. You can try again whenever it suits you.
Meanwhile, nothing is wrong and nothing is at risk. Your Streamer keeps working exactly as it does today.
Questions
Does the Streamer send Cosmik any information when it checks? No. It asks whether there is an update and nothing else — no serial number, no licence key, no version. We cannot tell one Streamer from another, or one customer from another, from an update check.
Do I need a licence to get updates? No, and deliberately so. A problem with your licence must never be able to stop you receiving a fix.
Will an update ever cost money? No. Updates to the software you bought are included.
My update was downloaded and now the version number has not changed. That is expected right now — see Installing it
Can I go back to an older version? The Streamer refuses to install an older version than the one it is running, on purpose: that is how a fixed problem would be reintroduced. If a release causes you trouble, get in touch and we will publish a fix.
Source: /docs/updates.md