Loading PAW onto a Raspberry Pi 4

[russp]

I have an old Classic which I previously upgraded from a ext wifi unit to a Pi 3 with internal wifi - This has recently become highly unreliable and I've narrowed it down to the SD connector. Couldn't get a replacement Pi 3 so bought a 4. Question is should the load process be the same for the 4 as described here https://www.pilotaware.com/knowledgebase/manual-software-update - I'm not getting a wifi to connect to after stage 11 and I dont (yet) have the cable to connect to a monitor to see what it's saying.

[russp]

Found a neighbour with a cable - "This board requires newer software" ... any ideas.. ?

[Ian Melville]

I didn't think the RPI4 was acceptable and not provided with the drivers in the image. IIRC here was also an issue with high current consumption.

[russp]

Damn - that's inconvenient with what appears to be a national shortage of any form of Pi3 (places seem to be quoting availability next year) .. I guess the option is upgrade to the rosetta but the classic fits nicely in my permanent install and I dont need aerials.. gps ..  Grrr...

[JCurtis]

Only next year, pfffft. I went to order some parts, 117 week lead time.  Have multiple back orders in all over the place for parts.

I might have a spare Raspberry Pi 3 of some variety knocking around though, need to check.  Do you need a 3 B+ ?

[JCurtis]

If it's SD card connector, may be able to reflow that.  Not sure if I have and space connectors handy though, got plenty of Pi power connectors.

[exfirepro]

Hi Jeremy,

From my reading of Russ’s OP and previous posts, I’m pretty sure it is the microUSB Power Connector on his Pi3B that he is actually talking about (though I could be wrong).

Russ,

The motherboard used and recommended by PilotAware is still the Pi3B. It will ‘run’ on a Pi3B+ (I have run one as a testbed since they first came out), but this is still not ‘recommended’ and at the present time PAW definitely won’t run on a Pi4. Enabling it to do so is (AFAIK) not on Lee’s ‘to do’ list (or if it is it’s very low priority), as they are way over spec for what we need the board to do and (as Ian has said above) draw far too much current, which has a negative effect on the peripheral equipment in (most) light / Microlight aircraft.

That said, Jeremy does a good deal on replacing the microUSB on existing Pi3’s (he did this for me when one of my original 3B’s went bad a while back, so I can definitely recommend him if you want to go down that route).

Best Regards

Peter

[JCurtis]

Replacing the power USB socket on a Pi is a simple thing (if you have the right gear), and I have spare sockets on the shelf.

After a rummage I do also have a single spare Raspberry Pi 3 B, I had two but best not go into why I'm down to the one.

[russp]

Mine is a Pi3B+, It's been working perfectly for years and replaced the original classic I bought from PAW to give me the advantage of the onboard wifi.  It's definitely not the micro usb power supply socket that is the issue - I've tried a third micro sd card and the unit now boots up reliably - swapping the GPS feed to one of the other USB ports seems to have solved the intermittent working issue but the Flarm out feed is an issue now (I feed GPS in to the PAW from my Dynon Skyview and traffic back out to it)  - my Skyview is reporting and giving me warnings that the flarm/traffic feed to it is cutting out every few minutes. I've borrowed an old unused classic unit from a flyer at the field and am going to update that and see if I get the same issues - if I do then it's the feed into the skyview that is the issue and if I don't then it would appear to be the USB port on the Pi3 .. Jeremy I dont want to take a spare away if I dont really need it so let me get to the bottom of this and I'll report back but thankyou so much for the offer.