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Old June 19th 13, 06:55 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Ramy
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Posts: 746
Default unusual PowerFlarm problems

On Tuesday, June 18, 2013 7:40:37 PM UTC-7, Tim Taylor wrote:
On Thursday, June 13, 2013 4:44:12 PM UTC-6, Mitch Polinsky wrote:

I've been having unusual problems with my brick PowerFlarm for several




flights.








Here's the history of my use of PowerFlarm: It was installed by Rex Mayes




during the winter/spring during my annual inspection. I first flew with it




about two months ago, and have had about ten flights total. About two or




three weeks ago (after May 13) I uploaded the latest firmware for the




PowerFlarm brick and for the Butterfly display. I think, but am not sure,




that the problems described below all occurred after I uploaded the lastest




firmware.








Here's what I've experienced:








(1) It seems to work fine on the ground, and usually initially during the




flight, but periodically during the flight it goes into the following mode:




There's a warning message on the screen saying "Waiting for Flarm." Last




week I was flying in close proximity to three other gliders all struggling




to stay up in the same area, and during a period lasting over an hour my




PowerFlarm failed to work, with the above message constantly on the screen.




Later in the flight it resumed working again. It's been doing this for




several flights.








(2) Periodically the TX square turns from green to red, while the GPS




square remains green.








(3) Once, while in flight, the screen turned to the boot-up sequence I saw




previously when I was uploading software using the USB key. This has not




happened again during the subsequent several flights. (The USB key was not




attached while I was having this or the other problems.)








* * *








Anyone else having problems of this sort? If so, I'd love to hear how you




solved them, it you did.








If you want to reply privately, my email address is:








Thanks,








Mitch Polinsky




Mitch,



My unit arbitrarily shut down and restarted three times in flight today. Similar of just all the sudden seeing the initialization screen and then restart. Frustrating was that it seems to change my V7 vario setting when it restarts. The log file was good but very odd.



TT


This one sounds like a power issue to me, especially that another unit (V7) seem to be affected the same time. otherwise I cant imagine how it will change settings in unrelated instrument.

Ramy