PAW Hardware failure

[Spooner]

I have a recently purchased PAW Classic. It worked great at homw but would not work in the aircraft. The wifi doesn't come up. There is a steady green and a steady red light showing. I've tried the wifi dongle in a different USB hole, and tried re-seating the memory card but this hasn't had any effect. I don't have an HDMI cable so cannot plug it into the telly to see what's wrong. I've also tried contacting the pilot aware people through the website contact form but have had no reply.

Is there anyone here who can help please?

[Admin]

I have a recently purchased PAW Classic. It worked great at homw but would not work in the aircraft. The wifi doesn't come up. There is a steady green and a steady red light showing. I've tried the wifi dongle in a different USB hole, and tried re-seating the memory card but this hasn't had any effect. I don't have an HDMI cable so cannot plug it into the telly to see what's wrong. I've also tried contacting the pilot aware people through the website contact form but have had no reply.

Is there anyone here who can help please?

Hi Spooner,
Sorry to hear you are having trouble.

When you say

I've also tried contacting the pilot aware people through the website contact form but have had no reply.

Unfortunately I have seen no requests, can you be specific about exactly how you tried to contact us ?
Was this through a 'contact us' Pilotaware.com or PilotAwareHardware.com, or have you emailed directly to an address (if so which)

You say this worked at home - does it still work at home, or does it no longer work at home/aircraft ?

If the issue is only in the aircraft, what is different about the setup ?
Different power supply ?
Different power supply lead ?

If I recall correctly, both RED/GREEN Leds indicates a MicroSD card issue

Thx
Lee

[Spooner]

Hi, thanks for the swift reply. It was the contact form on the Pilotaware.com website I tried using.
I have brought the unit home and it doesn't work at home either.
The aircraft power supply is a 12 volt cigar lighter socket with a 2.1 amp USB adapter. The power supply lead is the same.

If this is a microSD card issue, is there anything I can do beyond removing and re-seating it?

Many thanks

[exfirepro]

Hi Spooner,

I agree with Lee, this sounds like a microSD card issue. Unfortunately, the only thing you can do with a Micro SD fault (apart from removing the card and checking it is re-seated properly) is to reformat the card and reload a fresh copy of PilotAware. This can be a bit daunting if you aren't reasonably technically minded and haven't done it before. Have a look at the Operating Manual on www.pilotaware.com and you will see what I mean.

Basically, the card has to be re-formatted in a PC or Laptop using 'SD Formatter'. You have to do a 'Full Overwrite' Format, with Size Adjustment 'On' to completely clear the card and set it up properly. While the format is running, you can download a fresh copy of the 'Full Installation Image' software from www.pilotaware.lode.co.uk . You then need to open the downloaded folder and carefully copy the content directly onto the 'root' (top level) of the re-formatted card.

This is all actually easier than it sounds, so don't be afraid to give it a try. If you don't want to go down that route, or if it doesn't solve the problem, Lee will probably arrange to have a replacement card sent out to you.

Regards

Peter

[Spooner]

Many thanks, I'm giving that a go now and I'll post again when I've completed the process.

[Spooner]

I've completed the process, the instructions were pretty straightforward. However, there has been no change in the behaviour of the PAW.

[Admin]

I've completed the process, the instructions were pretty straightforward. However, there has been no change in the behaviour of the PAW.

That is very bad, so to confirm - the same issue a permanent and stable RED/GREEN LED (no flashing or flickering)
If this is the case, it sounds like a return to manufacturer.
Please contact Dave Styles at PilotAwareHardware.com for returns procedure.
http://pilotawarehardware.com/contact-us/

Thx
Lee

[Stu B]

I seem to have a similar problem - start-up stalled with the green disc-access LED on. I checked and removed and refitted teh SD card several times, it clicks in positively and no amount of re-fitting it could clear the problem.
I met with you at the LAA rally at Sywell (with my PAW and SD card). You temporarily swapped in another SD card and it appeared to now be starting OK, but we did not wait for the whole light sequence to run through. I was advised to go home, download the formatter and reformat the card and then install the latest software. First problem was that your manual says install version 4 of the SD formatter, but the current version is v5 and v4 is no longer  available. This may not be significant but your instructions are to use the Options button to select "Format Size Adjustment" - but with v5 there is no such option available. Does that matter? I did set the "full" format and it took quite a while to work so I hoped it was correctly set up even without the FORMAT SIZE ADJUSTMENT selection. I downloaded the latest software and copied that onto the formatted card and now it appeared to be going through something more akin to the proper start sequence (previously it had just "stalled" with the green disk access LED on all the time).  But it does not reach the stage of the flashing lights which progressively change from 4 red flashes to four green flashes as the various status items come on line, and no wifi network can ever be detected. Might it be significant that while it has been not working my licence has expired. I had renewed the licence and got a new code but of course until I can use the wifi to view the settings pages on my tablet I cannot put in the new licence code!

[Paul_Sengupta]

I don't know how long you've left it, but after a full install it takes about 20 mins to install the software properly and come on-line. You shouldn't interrupt the power during this time. If you did, you may have to write the card again and start again. If you plug in a HDMI cable to the PAW and monitor it on a TV or monitor, you can see what's happening during this sequence.

[exfirepro]

Stu,

The expired licence shouldn't stop it booting to the stage where your Wifi hotspot appears - otherwise you wouldn't be able to get in to PAW to set the new licence code.

As Paul says, starting after a full software re-install can take 20 minutes or more to get to the stage where the WiFi hotspot appears, as PAW has to reconfigure the SD card before startup first time out.

Attaching to a monitor (or your home TV)  is a good option to see what is going on. When the boot sequence gets to the 'Raspberry Pi login' bit you are good to go. (You don't actually log in)

Give it another try

Regards

Peter

[Stu B]

Thanks for the quick and helpful replies, I'm now having another go at it and will post some news when completed.

Perhaps the instructions should warn of the length of time this first start will take (perhaps they do if you red them as if you are starting for a brand-new "straight from the box" unit, I just homed in on the section about reformatting a card and  installing a full card image download).

VMT

Stu B

PS - so the lack of a "Format size adjustment" option with V5 of the formatter is a red herring? If so it would be good to remove that bit in your next update to the manual.

[Stu B]

Delighted to be able to report that (almost) all now seems to be in order after giving it sufficient time to fire up on the first launch. In fact the wifi came on after about 5 or 6 minutes and then I could put in the new licence code. Also had to put the aircraft hex address and registration letter back in, of course,  re-set the wifi password and give the GPS a while to find itself as it had not run for 2 months so doubtless its satellite database needed to be refreshed. So I left it running for 40 minutes and all the home page flags were green except ADSB (and that was to be expected as my ADSB antenna and its cable was still installed in the aeroplane and not at home with me!) and the upper row flashing LEDs were giving one red flash then 3 green, again I presume the one red related to the ADSB status?

I restarted it a couple more times, same as above. I'll be able to test with the ASDB antenna at the weekend I hope.

Thanks again for the very quick support which allowed me to sort it out!

[exfirepro]

You're welcome Stu, glad you have got it all sorted out.

Regards

Peter