By hack I mean the fact that a power cycle is needed, there is no control over which files get copied (my understanding is that all files in powerflarm will get copied if they don't exist). On Sat. I had to get some files off and used a new USB stick and had to wait for it to copy all files. Also, other than the little LED on the brick itself I have no indication of whether the copy operation is done or not. The overall experience seems very poor with very little feedback to the user.

Making other non-frequent operations (FW, DB, license updates) more challenging might be acceptable, but even those I would love to use Oudie or the display device (in my case FlarmView).

Overall given the brick doesn't have a native user interface other than a single LED, all of these operations should be done via API/protocol where the front end devices like the Oudie or other displays can handle all these operations with proper user interface and feedback mechanism.

I hope this helps explain why I look at this as a "hack".


Cheers,
Morteza

On Thursday, June 6, 2013 5:47:14 PM UTC-5, wrote:
Morteza,



thanks for your feedback. Can you elaborate on the 'hack'?



PowerFLARM doesn't copy all logs, only the ones that are not

yet on the stick.



Firmware, obstacle DB and licence updates are via USB as well, so you may want to

have a cable anyway (cost: $10). In the past, it has turned out to be less than trivial

to teach a large number of third party developers how to correctly implement

the FLARM RS232 protocols. This is another reason why we are a bit reluctant in that area.



Best

--Gerhard (FLARM dev mgr)







Thanks Paul for the additional information. To be honest the whole model of how PowerFlarm handles logfile copying seems at best to be a hack! As such the next best alternate solution would be to let Oudie handle it. As of right now I don't have the USB port brought to the front of my panel and given how the USB stick copying of log files work, I really would prefer not to do that. I want to have some level of control (like every other device!) on what files get copied and when they get copied rather than plug the USB stick, power cycle and get ALL the logs...