Geoffrey,
Can you check and let us know what Kernel version your PilotAware is running on please. This will be reported on 2nd row - ‘Platform’ on the PAW Home Screen via 192.168.1.1.
Regards
Peter
Hi Peter, I *was* on kernel 4.4.34.
I say was because things have progressively got worse until I re-imaged the PAW last night.
From when I reported the problem above I have found that my PAW classic has become progressively less and less reliable. As well as the problems of dropping the connection I noticed that PAW was failing completely.
I'd say my problems were threefold:
- not reliably seeing other local traffic. e.g. flying on Saturday with other friends following behind me with PAW, some of the time I could see them, but quite a bit of the time I couldn't. They were about 4-6km away so I wouldn't have expected any range problems
- dropping wifi connection to the iPad whilst PAW continues to run OK (evidenced by ADSB displayed on my transponder OK)
- PAW failing completely, wifi disappearing, ADSB no longer fed to my transponder
Happening quite frequently now, getting anywhere between 5 to 30 minutes of stable use at any time. Interesting that when the PAW completely failed it didn't recover automatically. Unplugging the USB power lead from the brick and plugging back in would sometimes restore PAW, but on several occasions it didn't come back and I had to repeat the unplugging and plugging back in again.
Last night I decided that maybe the PAW software was corrupted in some way and this was why it wouldn't boot reliably so I reformatted the SD card and reinstalled the full software image. Plugged it in, waited and waited, and 20 minutes later still no lights flashing on the PAW.
I then unplugged and replugged in the micro USB plug into the PAW and lights started flashing. Cutting the story short the PAW reloaded OK and so is now running kernel 4.9.35 with PAW 20180520, however when I wiggled the micro USB plug in the PAW it would sometimes cause the PAW to freeze or reboot.
So I suspect at least the last of my issues may have been due to either a partial damage within the USB cable, or the micro USB socket itself. I tried with a different cable and it seemed to be more reliable when the cable was at rest (the original cable would die quite frequently) but still had problems when I wiggled it in the micro USB socket.
What's my options for fixing this? I could replace the USB cable but if it is the micro USB socket as I think it is then I guess I have to replace the entire Raspberry Pi?
Once I get beyond this and have a stable power feed then maybe I will get a better handle on how often the other problems are occurring or whether they are linked.
Geoffrey