Stratux WiFi Output Stopped - iFly General Discussions

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Stratux WiFi Output Stopped

2/16/2018 3:59 PM

Jim Davis

Joined: 8/27/2016

Posts: 9

Stratux WiFi Output Stopped

Suddenly out of nowhere no more WiFi signal coming out of my Stratux ADS-B unit.

It had some "ghost" issues but at least it was working. Now I do not have anything. Lights are coming on, I can hear the whirling sound but no device can see it as WiFi Source..

Any idea?

2/16/2018 4:34 PM

JJ Griltz

Joined: 5/18/2017

Posts: 48

Re: Stratux WiFi Output Stopped

Hey Jim,

I just responded to your email into the support que!

Sounds like your Stratux SD card needs to be re-flashed.

Here is the link on how to do so: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMPw6MuKKcI

-JJ

2/17/2018 1:02 PM

Kevin

Joined: 9/2/2010

Posts: 32

Re: Stratux WiFi Output Stopped

I have been battling this problem for a while now. Both times it quit were on multi-day trips...difficult to fix anything.

The first time, I was told to check that logging was turned off after the first episode because the likely cause was the card was filling up. But upon checking, logging was not enabled in the stratux program. I was unable to flash my card using win32diskimage and wound up buying a new micro card, flashed it and everything was fine...until the next time.

Received the same advice this time but told to use Etcher to flash the card.

Etcher was able to flash the card that win32image couldn't and also the "new" one that quit working.

Researching this issue, I found a thread where it was suggested that shutting down ship's power to turn off the unit without shutting down the stratux program can corrupt the card. That thread suggested adding a short cut to your phone to shut down the stratux program before killing ship's power. I have done that and will add that to my shut down checklist.

I also notched the bottom of the stratux case to more easily extract the card without disassembly and stashed a spare card in my flight bag...just in case. No more getting caught 1500 miles from home without ADSB.

2/17/2018 4:09 PM

Jeff Clark

Joined: 9/20/2012

Posts: 1254

Re: Stratux WiFi Output Stopped

Stratux continues to log a few things, whether or not you have logging enabled. Enabling logging causes it to log a LOT, for debug purposes. As the product has matured, the developers have toned down the amount of information logged as well as set Stratux to delete older logs, so the issue of the card filling up is slowly going away. However, the Linux operating system also creates logs, and I've seen an instance where it was the Linux logs that were filling up the disk. In a case like that, there's probably a hardware issue going on so it's best to find out what has filled the disk. There's also a way to delete the log files from the Stratux web interface, but it's not obvious (and you need to do it BEFORE your wifi quits). If you update your Stratux via .sh files, then the logs are cleared with each update. And you don't really have to do an "update"; you can just load the same update file each time.
Also, for those of us that don't know how an .img file works: the Stratux .img file that we flash onto the SD cards is a complete operating system and software package, compressed to its smallest size in order to facilitate fast downloads (this is common across the software industry). The Stratux .img file is about 2 gigabytes. When you flash the .img file onto the SD card, the Linux operating system is only aware of the original 2 gigabytes of space - which includes a very small amount of free space. So whether you flash the .img file onto an 8Gb disk, a 16Gb disk, a 32Gb disk etc., the operating system thinks it has only the 2Gb to work with, and will run out of room (disk full) when the small amount of original free space is used up. Thankfully, there is an easy way to tell the operating system to expand the disk to use the whole card, and that's what I do. I've also added several additional sensors to my Stratux system and written additional software that logs about 30 conditions every second. I've left the system running at home for weeks at a time, and my 8Gb card still has about 5Gb free. So an 8Gb card has more than enough room on it, IF you tell the operating system to use it all.

Jeff Nokomis Clark, Mooney M20G, iFly app on ASUS ZenPad Z8s, ASUS ZenFone AR, ASUS Windows 10 tablet, Stratux ADS-B w AHRS