On Jan 5, 7:49*am, Eric Greenwell wrote:
On 1/4/2011 9:01 PM, mattm wrote:





On Jan 4, 3:07 pm, *wrote:

Surely FLARM cannot believe that they will deliver in April fully
functional and bug free software for PowerFLARM. *Will owners have to
live with any bugs or missing functionality until 2015?

Is there some path by which PowerFLARM will be updated independently
of the main FLARM firmware update schedule?

Andy

I'll also point out that the FLARM protocol is patented, and supplied
to the vendors
as software that they include in their units. *The fact that
PowerFLARM will
come out with a stable and working FLARM protocol version is good
news.
The software that handles ADS-B and transponder traffic is separate
from
the supplied FLARM software indicated in the notice quoted above. *If
there's
any problems in that part it can be updated immediately.

That's a good point: the ADS-B and transponder stuff isn't really part
of FLARM. That information is just processed and delivered to the
pilot's display(s). None of it is used in the broadcasts to other FLARM
users.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
email me)- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

FLARM Software Maintenance 2011

Dear FLARM-user
Every few years, all FLARM devices have to undergo a scheduled
maintenance through software update. The next such free, but mandatory
update is due end February 2011. To inform you about this update the
units will, from Jan 1st
2011 on, issue a warning at startup, but then operate normally. This
is further explained in the operating manual.

We have been working hard on the new release 5 and had some of our
equipment and staff present for final, large scale tests at the
Australian National competitions in Lake Keepit in Nov / Dec 2010.
Unfortunately, the competition got cancelled due to continued bad
weather. Our team then moved north but was not able to get flight-time
due to weather. We thus moved our staff to the South African Nationals
in Welkom which had lots of rain but still had some flying days. As a
result, we got reasonable feedback, but not the wide test we require
for a full release. Overall efforts spent in time, money, sweat and
nerves to support these southern hemisphere flight testing was
immense.

The next steps towards the new release 5 are as follows:

Release 5 is expected to be released in early February 2011.
IF YOU DON’T USE YOUR FLARM UNTIL THEN, DON’T DO ANYTHING AND WAIT FOR
THIS RELEASE.

A release 4.10 is available for download for FLARM and all compatible
designs.
USE THIS RELEASE IF YOUR ARE FLYING NOW AND WANT TO REMOVE THE
MESSAGES AT STARTUP.
It is fully operational till end of Feb 2011, but will issue a warning
at startup after beginning of Feb 2011 and must be replaced with
release 5.00 then. There are no added features or changes in
functionality in it relative to earlier releases such as 4.07 or
higher.
http://www.flarm.com/support/updates/index_en.html (right side)

A public beta-release 4.90 (i.e. a preview of release 5.00) is
available for download for FLARM classic designs (incl. IGC and ENL
versions), not yet for compatible designs. The beta 4.90 is fully
compatible with all other units.
It is operational till end of Feb 2011 and must be replaced with
release 5.00 then. USE THIS RELEASE IF YOUR ARE FLYING NOW AND ARE
INTERESTED IN HELPING US TEST THE NEW RELEASE AND REPORT US BACK YOUR
OBSERVATION AND IGC LOG FILES to
http://www.flarm.com/support/updates/index_en.html (right side) A
similar public-beta release for compatible designs LX, Ediatec and RF-
Developments will be made available during January.

Release 5 contains a new, higher performance FLARM engine which will
be able to process more aircraft, a major redesign of the software
required for integration of FLARM-features into hang-gliders and
powered aircraft (PowerFLARM), its software-data-fusion with
transponder-data and related requirements from regulators like EASA
and FCC. This requires a modification to the radio communication
amongst the units where we introduce frequency hopping to increase the
radio bandwidth and reliability as well as some back-and-forth radio
bursts for checking radio communication quality. These improvements
would not be possible without a firmware update in all devices of the
FLARM network.
An updated obstacle database, which has grown to over 35’000 objects
will be available, too.

When is the next scheduled service update due?
Since its creation FLARM has maintained scheduled updates, initially
in a one year cycle, in 2006 a two year cycle, and last time in 2008 a
three year cycle. As the technology matures, we further extend this
period to now four years, i.e. March 1, 2015. This is more convenient
for some users, but slows down the innovation cycle, possibly delaying
the use in new applications.

Why scheduled, mandatory updates?
The ability to update the whole network without being limited by
constraints of the past is one of the key features of FLARM and has
allowed it to adapt to rapidly expanding requirements. Many parts of
aircraft require scheduled maintenance; this is not a concept which is
new to aviation.

Best wishes for 2011
The FLARM team


www.flarm.com


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