Updating PAW Software

[Admin]

Hi Dave, et Al

Lets just get a replacement ADSB Dongle, and see if that fixes the issue, I will send an email directly to you Dave

Thx
Lee

[exfirepro]

Good move Lee,

Just thought it was worth trying an 'improvised' replacement antenna in the meantime to see if we could get it working for Dave's flight back to the UK from Spain on Sunday -

Regards

Peter

Thanks for the support.

I flew to Spain last week, so have been slow to respond, being a competitor in the World Air Nav Racing Championships at LECN [.....] It would be really nice to have a working PAW before my trip home through Spain and France  the day after tomorrow....
Regards,
Dave

[dh87b]

Thanks for the replacement item, which seems to be an antenna. Nothing has changed except the number of red lights has increased as per the screen shot

[exfirepro]

Hi again Dave,

Did you not get a replacement SDR dongle along with the antenna? I'm sure Lee meant you to replace both.

No matter, you are now 'seeing' ADSB traffic (evidenced by the 'green light' on the Home screen and the increasing number of ADSB messages). The reason the TRX 'light' is red is because the unit didn't have a gps fix yet at the time the screenshot was taken (orange light and 3 satellites), but it had only been running for 4 minutes when you took the screenshot. This would probably explain why the Pressure light is still red also. Have you tried running it 'in the clear' i.e. outdoors?

Can you give it another try. Leave it running for at least 20 minutes where it gets a clear view of the sky (preferably not through glass) and see if the lights on the Home screen go green. If not, see if you can get the other screenshots we asked for earlier.

The only other option I can suggest is that we may need to get your unit back to see for ourselves what is going on, but that would be a decision for Lee.

Regards

Peter

[dh87b]

Peter,
No dongle, just the antenna, but I think you've cracked it. At last I see traffic ... Screenshots attached.
I will take it flying this week and see how it performs then.
Regards, Dave

[EricC]

Looking at the screen shot, it seems to me that the problem is
loss of gps fix.


I removed the gps from my the base station resulting in the same screen shot.

Looks like green, green, red, red, amber is loss of gps fix.

[Admin]

Looks like the screenshot with a GPS error is earlier at 0:04 minutes after bootup
the later imapge is 0:15 minutes after bootup and all is working correctly

Dave,

To be sure please post a screenshot of the traffic page

Thx
Lee

[exfirepro]

Hi All,

Eric, you are right, Dave's last screenshot (with the reds and orange) does show the effect of lack of a GPS fix, however as Lee has said, that was actually the earliest of the 3 screenshots posted (see the date/time). It's interesting that despite 'seeing' 3 satellites, Dave's PilotAware still hadn't managed to get a fix, which was why I suggested he give it another try out in the clear.

Dave, Good to see all the indicators now showing green and yes, as per Lee's post, please try to take and post screenshots of the PilotAware traffic screen and, if you can manage it safely, your tablet Nav screen to let us see what you are seeing.

Glad to have been able to help.

Best Regards

Peter

[dh87b]

Thanks all. The unit is now working correctly for the first time in ages.

[diamondsvein]

Hi Peter,

I tried to update software via USB today. All OK until shortly after clicking Install.  As per user manual, I lost wifi connection with the unit.  However, I never got new contact.  Have tried several times to power off and back on, and waiting loooong time.  There are first intermittantly 4 rapid red LED flashes.  After a while, 3 red and one green.  Later, only 4 green. No wifi contact.

If I return the unit to you for upgrade, how long turnaround?  Will of course pay.

Anything I can do - I am not into computers at all!

Brgds
Svein

[Ian Melville]

You will lose the connection during the update. If you were not patient enough you may have corrupted your SD card. Not a big issue as it is possible to re-image the card with the latest software. IIRC the instructions to do this are in the full manual. You will need to put all your settings back in, including Licence key.

For reference. When you do a USB update it is best to leave the PAW to do its thing and monitor the Wi-Fi on the tablet, waiting for the PAW to reappear in the list. Connect to it and go back to the browser. DO NOT refresh but click on the home tab and check all is OK.

[exfirepro]

Svein,

I have sent you a PM by e-mail. 

BR
Peter

[diamondsvein]

See my post 14 January.  Thanks to very good assistance from Peter, I found that the cause was a poor conection of the power cable at an on-off switch I have between the power bank and the PAW.  When amps increased as the bridges became active, the power was intermittently lost, which every time caused the CPU to begin a new re-boot.  Once that was fixed, the PAW worked fine, and I found that the software update had indeed been loaded before this intermittent power loss began.
In the process, I discovered another issue which may be of interest to the forum:  Also after I fixed the poor connection at my switch, I noticed that the red power-on LED in the lower left cover went dark for a very brief period, at regular, short intervals, after all bridges were active (four green LED flashes).  The PAW, however, functioned fine.  I had used a 90 degree micro USB for the 12 V power in, due to space constraints, with wires preconnected.  I found that these wires were much thinner than the wires in the the power cable supplied with the kit.  Using that original cable and micro USB, the red power-on LED is now always on.  The voltage drop in the thin wires caused the LED to extinguish each time the unit transmitted (peak amps), but the voltage was sufficient to keep the CPU running.

Many thanks to Peter for his excellent - and quick - support!

Best regards,
Svein

[Admin]

Good catch Peter

I would say that poor power related issues probably account for about 95% of all problems encountered in normal usage

Thx
Lee