CollisionAware Dropout / Disconnect

[BobD]

For what it's worth, I had the dropout problem on my second unit, in my friends aircraft last week, and on the ground. My Iphone (tester)also seemed to take a long time to get an IP address from PilotAware, quite a few seconds longer than my other unit. We thought it was probably the Wi-Fi dongle, so I replaced it earlier this week with a new one, and in testing on the ground Skydemon got an IP much quicker, and no more dropouts.

[Admin]

Interestingly, this didn't occur with ARF disconnected / not installed. With just the DVB-T receiver, it stayed up and stable for about 5 hours...

Hmm, this really does sound like a power issue doesn't it.
When the ARF pulses, it draws an additional 330mA, if it pulls down the power rail it will reboot the RPi.
You mentioned you had a good quality supply, the USB cable also needs thick wire for power, I think the best you can get is 20 AWG, the smaller the number, the thicker the wire.
Do you know the spec for the USB cable ?

I think we need a bespoke power cable, which has a very low resistance, and hence low voltage drop. It only requires the power and ground, the data is unused.
If anyone can find a good reference please post a link

I have been using these
http://vi.raptor.ebaydesc.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemDescV4&item=271929181905&category=123422&pm=1&ds=0&t=1442039556565

Thx
Lee

[stephenmelody]

Power cable could be an issue on mine, have ordered a 20AWG one to see if that helps clear up the problem. Might also build a second device for testing purposes.

[Admin]

I am trying some experiments

1. Increasing power of RPi WiFi output to 50mW
this was previously set to 5mW, I will look to make this
configurable through the web interface at some point

2. decreasing wireless speed from mode g to mode b
mode g is 54MBit/s and mode b is 11MBit/s
I would hope that the lower the data rate the less likely
a dropout occurs, and 11MBit/s is still way overkill for the
data rate we require.

so expect a patch upload shortly after I have ran mine
for a few hours

[Kevin W]

Just reporting back, running the initial release of Pi code, running 2 units, 1 connected to an iPad, the other to an Android phone, I had 2 units running for ~ 2 hours last night with no drop out problems.

Both using 20AWG power cables and 10,000mah Anker bettery packs.

Cheers
Kev

[falcoguy]

We have changed to a short, thick power cable run from a 2.5 amp supply off the mains, and it seems to have improved things - John P had his collisionaware program drop out this morning - I have had no problems today.  We will continue running the units on the ground.
Dave T

[John Parker]

I have had one of our aware's running almost constant throughout the day. Collision aware has dropped out maybe 6-7 times consistently over 1-2 hours of go-fly mode. The blue band across the top of the page disappears from Skydemon. I only have a 2.1 amp wall charger. I have tried 3 different leads and also out in the garden to avoid any wifi confliction. I perhaps could say wifi confliction isn't the issue. I have now ordered a 20awg cable and I'm pretty sure my aircraft power supply is greater than 2.1 amps and it charges my iPhone dam quick. No help needed I suppose just yet as I need to try a higher Amperage first. But it's being a little fussy with me at this time and I thought It may be worth sharing.

[Admin]

I have had one of our aware's running almost constant throughout the day. Collision aware has dropped out maybe 6-7 times consistently over 1-2 hours of go-fly mode. The blue band across the top of the page disappears from Skydemon. I only have a 2.1 amp wall charger. I have tried 3 different leads and also out in the garden to avoid any wifi confliction. I perhaps could say wifi confliction isn't the issue. I have now ordered a 20awg cable and I'm pretty sure my aircraft power supply is greater than 2.1 amps and it charges my iPhone dam quick. No help needed I suppose just yet as I need to try a higher Amperage first. But it's being a little fussy with me at this time and I thought It may be worth sharing.

This is a good datapoint, thanks for the analysis
OK, there seems to be an issue here on long runs, if CollisionAware drops out, this is actually unrelated to skyDemon to be honest.
I presume when you go back to collisionaware the green slider has gone back to the off mode ?

I will try the same soak test here locally.
Can you describe the spec of the iOS device you are using ?

Thx
Lee

[John Parker]

It is an iPad mini (first edition) with cellular+sim 16gb. After, when I find out that CollisionAware has dropped out. I double click the home button to view open pages, select CollisionAware, as CollisionAware opens the slider will slide left and immediately disconnect after the page opens. Earlier today I started with enable live data while flying. Now after turning this off around midday I don't see this as any cause of concern in my case

[Admin]

Hi jp,
Just to clarify.
You are running skydemon, and when set to offline mode,
the problem with collisionaware turning off goes away ?

Thx
Lee

[John Parker]

Morning, No. I know now that Skydemon in online or offline makes no difference to the dropout. It drops out whatever mode its in

thanks  John

[John Parker]

Hi

I have 3 iPads running now.
1. Mini 1st gen inc cellular inc GPS
2. Standard retina display no cellular no GPS
3. Mini retina display inc cellular inc GPS

None have Skydemon opened but all connected to a single pie, all connected through CollisionAware, all synced with 192.168.1.1 the big ipad with no GPS connection has not dropped out within an hour of my test. Both the mini's with internal GPS have dropped put at least twice within my hours test. Is CollisionAware only able to link one pie to one iPad at one time? as I have tried and can only get one iPad to connect at once. 


Thanks John

[John Parker]

A bit of analysing, could the ipad internal GPS be going to sleep if no movment being detected? I hope so cause thats not an issue then in an aircraft. WiFi is not a cause because the big iPad never lost connection with CollisionAware when all 3 were on at once with the same shared pie WiFi link.

So does anone know if the iPad internal GPS goes into a sleep mode?

[falcoguy]

Is there a difference when running with the internal iPad GPS to an external GPS?  I'm running with an external GPS, John is running with an internal GPS.  I have heat soak tested 6 PilotAwares here on the ground using our iPad and an external dual 150 GPS.  Each one has been on about 3 hours with no problems.  I'm going to suggest John and I swap units to try again and see if he has the same problems with a different unit.  Maybe he has a dodgy wi fi dongle.  We can check this - we have enough units to try and swap.

Did I read somewhere on the net that if using the internal iPad GPS and the unit is stationery the GPS or location services will stop updating?  Would this cause CollisionAware to switch off, or will CollisionAware switch off only if the wi fi signal is interrupted somehow?

Dave T

[Admin]

Did I read somewhere on the net that if using the internal iPad GPS and the unit is stationery the GPS or location services will stop updating?  Would this cause CollisionAware to switch off, or will CollisionAware switch off only if the wi fi signal is interrupted somehow?

CollisionAware will only switch to OFF if the socket connection to PilotAware is unavailable for a period of time.
This could be due to
1. WiFi disconnect
2. PilotAware crashed or busy (unlikely)

One alternative you could try is using a different GPS sharing application
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nmea-gps/id590868529?mt=8

I have also tested this APP as a replacement to CollisionAware

In NMEAgps you configure as per the snapshot below