iFly GPS Forum

I've been cruising the AP forums and there is conflicting and confusing information about whether it is adviseable to simply "pull the plug" to turn off a Stratux or whether it should have a "soft" shutdown via a software command which I believe is now available on the latest iteration of iFly software.

"Pulling the plug" has been alleged to cause Stratux software and/or card corruption, etc. However, I had also heard that Chris Young, the developer of Stratux, routinely "pulls the plug" during the thousands of Stratux development cycles and says it is not a problem. I was concerned because I remotely mounted my Stratux (it is not accessible from the pilot's seat) to replace my NavWorx box and power it via a 3A/5V UBEC wired to my avionics master. I routinely "pull the plug" by shutting down my avionics master and have had no problems. I recently was corresponding with Chris and asked him about the conflicting advice. Here's his email response to me (emphasis mine):

Hi John,

It's fine to pull the plug. Earlier Pis (Raspberry Pi 1) had issues with SD card corruption, so this idea that one must safely shut down the Pi is pretty well ingrained for many people. With the Pi3 and a decent quality SD card, there should not be a problem.

I don't really encourage users to do a "safe shutdown". The main reason is that some battery packs actually do the opposite. You shut down the unit via software, the power consumption goes to zero, the battery pack shuts down. After a few seconds, the battery pack "forgets" and senses a load is connected, then re-starts the unit!

Hope that helps,

Chris

So there you have it from whom I consider the single most authoritative source for Stratux information!

John

N750A

(Apologies to Will Shakespeare!)