Volkslogger - Shut off the memory warning buzzer?

I fly with the sample rate on my VL set to give me about 9+
hours of data recording. That's sufficient for two normal
flights, and I usually dump it after every flight. However,
the thing begins complaining about low memory when it has 8
hours left, and it keeps complaining every few minutes. It
beeps and puts a message on that interrupts the display I
want to see. A few weeks ago it beeped about memory just as
I hit a turn, and I missed the turn beeps. I've tried
turning off warnings, but I can't seem to get this annoyance
fixed. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Ah yes, the annoying beep for 'Only eight hours left!'
and this beeps every 256 seconds, or some such number.

This is the default setting for each time the recorder
is powered up.

To defeat the beeper, you can 'mash the buttons' and
kill that sucker. Let's see if I can do this from
memory (hah! I suffer from 'CRS')

Press (or mash, depends if you are an American living
above or below the Mason-Dixon Line) the top button
however many times it takes so the bottom line gives
you 'NAV INFO CFG1 CFG2' or something like that. You
need to select CFG1, I think. Then, select WRN (warnings),
Then select SND (sounds). Or maybe those two are backwards
(Lot of help, ain't I?) I believe at either SND or
WRN, you will find the selection for turning off the
annoying beeper.

It's there, you just have to find the proper key strokes.

Later, when I have a chance to sit down and play with
my Volkslogger, I could give you the exact steps.

Ray Lovinggood
Carrboro, North Carolina
(Down where we 'mash' buttons)

At 16:00 23 July 2003, Bjen wrote:
I fly with the sample rate on my VL set to give me
about 9+
hours of data recording. That's sufficient for two
normal
flights, and I usually dump it after every flight.
However,
the thing begins complaining about low memory when
it has 8
hours left, and it keeps complaining every few minutes.
It
beeps and puts a message on that interrupts the display
I
want to see. A few weeks ago it beeped about memory
just as
I hit a turn, and I missed the turn beeps. I've tried
turning off warnings, but I can't seem to get this
annoyance
fixed. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Ray Lovinggood wrote:

Ah yes, the annoying beep for 'Only eight hours left!'
and this beeps every 256 seconds, or some such number.

This is the default setting for each time the recorder
is powered up.

Are you saying that I need to kill this thing every time I
power up? I could swear I've turned off the warning beep in
the way you've described, but if it's resetting to default
on at every power up - then I may not have realized I was
correctly turning it off.

"BJen" wrote in message
...
Ray Lovinggood wrote:

Ah yes, the annoying beep for 'Only eight hours left!'
and this beeps every 256 seconds, or some such number.

This is the default setting for each time the recorder
is powered up.

Are you saying that I need to kill this thing every time I
power up? I could swear I've turned off the warning beep in
the way you've described, but if it's resetting to default
on at every power up - then I may not have realized I was
correctly turning it off.

Yep, every time you power up. If you have two batteries, and change during
flight, better do quickly or the beep will be back.

Yep, you have to do this each time. I pasted the sequence of keystrokes
needed to do so on the face of the logger. I have had some discussions
with Garrecht regarding changing this nuisance. I don't recall the
details of what was said, but they consider this a very important
feature, and have no intent to change it.

Are you saying that I need to kill this thing every time I
power up?

I also have a volkslogger and find I must turn this off every time I fly, or
I get the annoying beeping, If anyone knows how to disconnect this beeping
another way I would like to know!

Joe Simmers
asw19b

You really do need to reset this warning every time it is
powered up. Garrecht says nobody ever complains about this,
so PLEASE everybody send him an email explaining how
stupid and annoying this is !
Best Regards, Dave

"BJen" wrote in message
...
I fly with the sample rate on my VL set to give me about 9+
hours of data recording. That's sufficient for two normal
flights, and I usually dump it after every flight. However,
the thing begins complaining about low memory when it has 8
hours left, and it keeps complaining every few minutes. It
beeps and puts a message on that interrupts the display I
want to see. A few weeks ago it beeped about memory just as
I hit a turn, and I missed the turn beeps. I've tried
turning off warnings, but I can't seem to get this annoyance
fixed. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

"Dave Nadler "YO"" wrote in message
...
You really do need to reset this warning every time it is
powered up. Garrecht says nobody ever complains about this,
so PLEASE everybody send him an email explaining how
stupid and annoying this is !
Best Regards, Dave

It is the one bad feature of the VL (besides the incomprehensible menus).

On Wed, 23 Jul 2003 11:29:59 -0400, BJen
wrote:

I fly with the sample rate on my VL set to give me about 9+
hours of data recording. That's sufficient for two normal
flights, and I usually dump it after every flight. However,
the thing begins complaining about low memory when it has 8
hours left, and it keeps complaining every few minutes. It
beeps and puts a message on that interrupts the display I
want to see. A few weeks ago it beeped about memory just as
I hit a turn, and I missed the turn beeps. I've tried
turning off warnings, but I can't seem to get this annoyance
fixed. Can anyone point me in the right direction?


Set the sample rate to one very 10 to 12 seconds or so. Even 20 isn't
unreasonable and this problem goes away. The sample rate automatically
increases in the OZ anyway. There is no really good reason to sample
more than 5 or 6 times a minute except in the OZ. Reduces download
time and file size too.

If this feature was permanently disabled people would complain about
running out of memory without warning and it has to be set for 8 hours
or so to capture 99% of flights which might be done with the warning
up.

Mike Borgelt

Borgelt Instruments

Set the sample rate to one very 10 to 12 seconds or so. Even 20 isn't
unreasonable and this problem goes away. The sample rate automatically
increases in the OZ anyway. There is no really good reason to sample
more than 5 or 6 times a minute except in the OZ. Reduces download
time and file size too.

Since I don't ever use any waypoints in the VL (because it will
then self-declare if there is a power interruption, can be
awkward to explain) my sample rate
is always the same. I use 9 seconds, because I recall
in the FAI docs (section 3c 7.1b) about a 10 second
sample rate for records/badges. This is the most frequent
rate I've seen in any doc, so I use it and it's frequent enough to
show an unambiguous 360 off tow and good OZ penetration,
yet long enough to ensure recording all day long without the
annoying lowmem beeping.

The FAI docs mention that a power interruption can be
overlooked if a good interpolation of the course is done (3c 13.8),
but these same documents also mention the latest declaration made before
takeoff is the valid one (section 3 4.4.2 a). It's
a little hard to explain if you have two traces with different
declarations because of an in flight power interruption...

So I use 9 seconds, enter no course and no waypoints,
and make sure the memory is cleared each day. Then I do all
written declarations (this is great too since I always have
a valid declaration for every flight, even if it's a year old,
and I don't have to fool with the VL). I then use a moving map Pilot III
GPS for course and waypoints, and reference the VL only for
altitudes recorded. So far I've had no discrepancies greater
than 50 feet between the VL and Pilot III GPS. I was
once grateful I checked the VL altitude, as the pressure alt
recorded was too low for the badge I wanted, and I spent
another 30 minutes climbing an extra 400 feet to the tippy top
of the thermal to make sure I was high enough for the VL.

I can't recommend ever using the VL for anything other than vertical
navigation. There are too many other products out there which
do a better job for horizontal navigation and are much more user
friendly.

Mark Boyd