Ipad losing connection to PAW

[Paul_Sengupta]

I have my PAW fixed behind the mount where is the IPad. Do you think could be this the problem?

I've found that the minimum distance for mine is about 10-15cm, and that's with the correct Wifi settings. Maybe try separating them.

I first noticed a problem with mine driving around in the car when they were 50-60cm apart. This is now why we have settings for Wifi in the PAW! 

[Rogerthedodger]

Paul - I flew today for 1 hour and lost connection just the once when I was only a few minutes into the flight. So for more that 45 minutes it then remained connected OK. My Android tablet is on my right knee and PAW is up on the coaming - this little video shows quite clearly where I have mounted PAW and you can just see my left knee as well -

https://youtu.be/-q4DMLMBdNY

If you suggest I try different WiFi settings for PAW, please could you suggest what I should try?

(Please note I use the recommended lighter plug and cable for my PAW Classic)

Many thanks. Roger.

[Admin]

Hi Roger

What android pad is this
Paul didn't you have issues with a nexus at some point?

Also Roger, can you leave this running overnight at home to see if you get the same issue
Assuming you have only seen the issue in the plane ?

Thx
Lee

[Paul_Sengupta]

I did, yes, with a first gen (2012) Nexus 7, hence my experiments with distance. It all went away after one software update after a few changes in the Wifi configuration. I'm not sure I can recommend what settings to use for the Wifi, only to have a play around. Mine's fine with the default settings now, but they are about 50cm apart. Back in the day, with them 50-60cm apart in the car, I used to have Wifi drop-outs.

[MaxMangia]

Hi,

An update. Yesterday I had 5 flights for a total of 7 hours flying.
In the first twos I used iPad connected to PAW; I loose the GPS signal one time.
In the last three I used iPhone connected to PAW; I loose the GPS signal two times. In the last one I did two attempts before having SD again running in FLARM mode.
In both cases there were no other Wi-Fi connection.
Unfortunately I did't monitor the GPS connection (I did some mistakes using Telnet Lite or, when the problem occurred, the connection was lost and no tracing was saved).
I am sure it's not a Wi-Fi problem, the connection is always on.
I use the recommended power supply to feed PAW.
I have some other pilots asking for me how PAW works. Honestly I don't know what to say; this problem is really boring, in the past using internal GPS I never had any problems. 

[Admin]

Hi Max,

Apologies for stresssing the question again - its confusing because of how SD reports the issue

you say

I loose the GPS signal ...

I think you mean that SD reports 'connection to the GPS is lost'
which really means a TCP connection error over WiFi

I just want to clarify this, because lost GPS will behave differently by producing a banner in SD saying
'looking for satellites'

I think I need to stress to Tim Dawson that we should implement the UDP Traffic interface ASAP.

Thx
Lee

[T67M]

I have had similar issues in the past, albeit with an Android tablet not an iPad. Since I reduced the WiFi power to 20mW, the problem seems to have gone away - and I have about a metre between the PAw and the tablet. 100mW is the maximum permitted power for a domestic WiFi router @2.4GHz and should be good enough for a range of more than 50m. Airliners excepted, few aircraft are that large, and having too strong a signal can cause more problems than it solves due to overloading of the receiver.

From a network point of view, if you want a reliable network connection, TCP is much better than UDP, but you do have to re-connect in the event of a loss of signal. Personally I would prefer SkyDemon to implement auto-reconnect rather than drop to using UDP.

[JCurtis]

From a network point of view, if you want a reliable network connection, TCP is much better than UDP, but you do have to re-connect in the event of a loss of signal. Personally I would prefer SkyDemon to implement auto-reconnect rather than drop to using UDP.

Thumbs Up

UDP simply masks the problem, it doesn't solve it.  If there is a comms failure, SD will simply stop getting packets and throw an error, so the same problem is still lurking aware in there.  If it doesn't throw an error, then that is even worse!

[Admin]

I will speak to Tim, I would suspect if it gets no message for N seconds it should display the 'seeking satellites' message it currently does with GPS quality issues

Thx
Lee

[MaxMangia]

I have had similar issues in the past, albeit with an Android tablet not an iPad. Since I reduced the WiFi power to 20mW, the problem seems to have gone away - and I have about a metre between the PAw and the tablet. 100mW is the maximum permitted power for a domestic WiFi router @2.4GHz and should be good enough for a range of more than 50m. Airliners excepted, few aircraft are that large, and having too strong a signal can cause more problems than it solves due to overloading of the receiver.

From a network point of view, if you want a reliable network connection, TCP is much better than UDP, but you do have to re-connect in the event of a loss of signal. Personally I would prefer SkyDemon to implement auto-reconnect rather than drop to using UDP.

Hi,

How did you reduced the WI-FI power to 20 mW? I should like to try this option.

Many thanks

[MaxMangia]

Max
What power setting do you have for the wifi ?

Thx
Lee

Hi Lee

How can I verify the Wi-Fi power setting?

Thx

Max

[Paul_Sengupta]

It's in the Network menu on the PAW.

[Admin]

I think the default setting for power is now 10mW, but it can go lower

Thx
Lee

[exfirepro]

From a network point of view, if you want a reliable network connection, TCP is much better than UDP, but you do have to re-connect in the event of a loss of signal. Personally I would prefer SkyDemon to implement auto-reconnect rather than drop to using UDP.

Thumbs Up

UDP simply masks the problem, it doesn't solve it.  If there is a comms failure, SD will simply stop getting packets and throw an error, so the same problem is still lurking aware in there.  If it doesn't throw an error, then that is even worse!

If this is true, then simply changing to UDP sounds a Bad Idea to me !! 

We need to sort the problem, not create a new one! I suggest this needs further discussion with Tim D as it is obviously going to be an ongoing issue unless sorted properly. If the issue lies with SD, Tim needs to address it to ensure SD automatically reconnects. Manually reconnecting in flight is a real pain and potentially very dangerous.

Regards

Peter

[JCurtis]

Out of interest I wonder how much free space is on the sdcard for those who experience dropouts? I think you can check in the track option at the top to see how much free space you have, and delete some old tracks if needed.

A while ago now I had odd issues when the card was full and some housekeeping was run to manage the disk space, its a long shot but might be worth checking. I have a 16Gb card in it at the moment so space isn't an issue.