Q400 RemoteCDU startup problems

[aua668 5]

Hi,

 

I use the remoteCDU for the Q400 (Pro version, P3Dv5). At some flights I have a strange problem. If I power up the plane and the FMC, I see the startup screen appearing ("UNS" at the top) but then the display is not further updating, although in the simulator it's running normally continuing. And this is the same for both CDUs (left and right). All the keys on the FMC are working and produce the correct reactions on the FMC - but the display is not further updating.

I tried in that state to restart the server, restart the browser on the Samsung Tab (with Chrome as the browser), choose different browsers, access the server from another laptop, and a lot more things.

Nothing changes. The keys are working but the display is frozen at the startup screen. If I continue with my procedures in the simulator to come from the cold & dark state to ready for flight, suddenly after 5-10 minutes everything works normally on the remoteCDU and this stays until the end of the flight stable. I can then operate the FMC as intended and the display is always updated. So it looks for me, that suddenly the remoteCDU catches the output stream produced by the server without any special action from my side. And this doesn't happen at every flight (sometimes it works from the beginning) but quite often it does nort.

I know, that this is very difficult to reproduce. Is there any debugging option, which I can enable, to find out, why the display is not updated in the beginning?

Rgds
Reinhard

 

 

[marcom 139]

On 9/28/2020 at 2:55 PM, aua668 said:

Hi,

 

I use the remoteCDU for the Q400 (Pro version, P3Dv5). At some flights I have a strange problem. If I power up the plane and the FMC, I see the startup screen appearing ("UNS" at the top) but then the display is not further updating, although in the simulator it's running normally continuing. And this is the same for both CDUs (left and right). All the keys on the FMC are working and produce the correct reactions on the FMC - but the display is not further updating.

I tried in that state to restart the server, restart the browser on the Samsung Tab (with Chrome as the browser), choose different browsers, access the server from another laptop, and a lot more things.

Nothing changes. The keys are working but the display is frozen at the startup screen. If I continue with my procedures in the simulator to come from the cold & dark state to ready for flight, suddenly after 5-10 minutes everything works normally on the remoteCDU and this stays until the end of the flight stable. I can then operate the FMC as intended and the display is always updated. So it looks for me, that suddenly the remoteCDU catches the output stream produced by the server without any special action from my side. And this doesn't happen at every flight (sometimes it works from the beginning) but quite often it does nort.

I know, that this is very difficult to reproduce. Is there any debugging option, which I can enable, to find out, why the display is not updated in the beginning?

Rgds
Reinhard

 

 

Hi Reinhard,

are you still seeing this issue?

[aua668 5]

Hi,

The last update of the server app might have eliminated the problem. At the moment I have not experienced it again. I will let you know, if it should happen again. Thanks for taking care.

Btw: An implementation for the RXP GTN 750 would be a great addition to your product...

Rgds
Reinhard

[aua668 5]

Hi,

I was too optimistic: I had now several flights, where the connection at startup doesn't work again. Suddenly (let's say about 20 Minutes after first use) the communication gets in sync and is working until the end of the flight without any problem. I tried several variants: starting aviaServer before P3D, starting it via FSUIPC RunIf command, starting it after P3D has completely started - it makes no difference. Also a restart of the browser on my Android tablet and eslecting different browsers or using a second PC to access the CDU doesn't help. As it is a problem, which I can't reproduce permanently, it's hard to track down.

Rgds
Reinhard

[marcom 139]

Hi Reinhard,

next time it happens, try the following:

close aviaServer and restart it - does that help?

And if it doesn't, please send me your logfile.

We need to figure out if the issue is on aviaServer or the Q400 side...

[aua668 5]

Hi,

I did try to close and restart the server. This didn't help. I will send you the log file, if this occurs the next time.

Rgds
Reinhard

 

[aua668 5]

Hi Mark,

I have posted my problem at the Majestic forum. I got some hints, how to test, if UDP is working, if the error occurs. The last flights have been without problems and therefore I could not debug.

One question: Is it relevant for your application, if it receives the UDP broadcast via the localhost interface (127.0.0.1) or via the LAN IP of the system? Normally this should be no factor but in your configuration sample I see, that you use 127.0.0.1.  I had configured the broadcast mask of my local LAN segment, as I plan to read the UDP stream also with some hardware of my cockpit in future. At the moment I have switched back to localhost and since then I was not able to get the error.

It obviously does work in both configurations, as I have worked with the CDU in both configurations - but maybe there are minor differences showing such side effects. Just an idea...

Rgds
Reinhard

 

[aua668 5]

Hi Mark,

I had changed the broadcast address back from 127.0.0.1 to 192.168.1.255 to send the UDP packets to my LAN. And the phenomenon returned back. In the beginning the RemoteCDU did not work and suddenly after some time it started and did work until the end of the flight without any problem.

During the first phase, where it was not working I did another test, which Majestic advised me to do: I checked, if the Q400 system control panel was working on a remote PC. The SCP uses also the UDP broadcast stream to get the information and I configured there on a different port the same broadcast mask. And it worked fine without any problem. So UDP stream from Majestic and my network seem to be ok. And if I only broadcast to the localhost address 127.0.0.1 it's also ok for AviaServer. So maybe you could check, if there is a difference receiving the packets via localhost IP or the IP address of the server machine.

I have saved the Logfile. I sent you a PN, where you can download it.

Rgds
Reinhard

 

Edited January 15, 2021 by aua668