darryl ramm’s blog

I like my Cambridge 302 electronic vario/logger, however there is a bug in the Cambridge 302 where flight logs are apparently OK but the security record is invalid. What I describe here is a way to use SeeYou Mobile running on a PDA connected to the 302 to clear the memory log to avoid recurrence of the problem.

If your 302 has this problem it does not matter if you download the flight trace using the Cambridge “300 Utility” software on a PDA or a Windows PC, or the Datacam2 and Valicam2 MS-DOS utilities, or something like Naviter ConnectMe or SeeYou. All files downloaded will have invalid digital signatures. If you have this problem the Cambridge utilities will show a “Security Fail” error when the download completes.

The problem is apparently related to the flight log memory filling up and wrapping around, and overwriting previous traces, which it is supposed to do. However when this happens the calculated log signatures (IGC G-records) seem to be incorrect, even though the flight trace data itself is valid. This makes the IGC flight trace useless for FAI badge, record and Online Contest purposes. This may not affect all 302s or maybe not affect them each time the memory wraps, but if you do see this problem all your future flight traces will also be invalid. The workaround is to erase the flight log memory, at least then future flight traces will be valid, however of course this means you loose any current flight traces. I’ve had this happen to two different  302 varios and in both cases, clearing log memory made the problem go away.

As a preventative measure then it seems a good idea with a Cambridge 302 to periodically erase flight log memory before it has a chance to fill up. It may also be a good idea to run a lower log rate so the memory fills up less rapidly.

The only way to clear the memory is to attach a terminal emulator to the 302 serial port, type CTRL-C to put the port in command mode and at the cmd> prompt  type CLEAR LOG.

I fly with Naviter SeeYou Mobile and the nice thing is it is possible to clear the 302 log memory using the simple terminal emulator built into SeeYou Mobile. So there is no need to run a separate terminal emulator program or connect a laptop with HyperTerminal etc.

To get started connect the PDA to the Cambridge 302 and make sure they are talking to each other (you get the “Cambridge 302 Connected” pop-up message  on the main SeeYou Mobile screen). Then in SeeYou Mobile go to Settings>Hardware>Terminal. This Terminal screen is shown in the screenshots on this page. Click on the the keyboard icon, this will let you type a string into the top text field. Then click on the Send button to actualy send this string to the Cambridge 302.

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Shoe Circus, the first Seinfeld-Gates Microsoft advertisement is just awful.  Crispin Porter + Bogusky the agency responsible for this, should be running for cover. Microsoft is trying to spin it as an attention getter and buzz creator. The only buzz this ad is going to create is of the bad kind, like WTF were they thinking? Are they that out of touch? Is that there best response to Apple and its hip Get a Mac campaign from agency TBWA\Chiat\Day, or to concerns about the perception of Vista? Could this be a deliberate bumbling looking first advertisement in a series that will turn around and be hip and creative? Yea sure, pigs fly.

In contast the Apple Get a Mac campaign uses humor and a minimalistic, hip style the helps focus attention on a simple product related message.  They are little vignettes that tell a simple story about how some feature of the Mac is better than a PC. You know, simple,  clearly explained, benefit focused, and many built on existing stereotypes or impressions (often unfair ones) of competing market dominant products. All good basic advertising stuff. (more…)