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Deployment bios_minnie-20171212T1422
Pilot Notes
SEABIRD reply: Hi Ruth, Thank You for your email ! Sorry to hear about this problem. Indeed it appears to be a failure to turn on the lamp. It is most likely the lamp is failing to illuminate and SUNA does not see the expected power use and ceases to keep trying to turn it on. But I am not aware of very many premature lamp failures in V2 SUNAs. However as a last ditch effort, it appears you are able to get a connection to the SUNA, so we could try something if you are interested... For some understanding of the operation: When SUNA is first built, there is an entry made in the memory which contains the expected power usage of the lamp installed. The SUNA expects to see this power use to determine whether or not the lamp is turning on. The firmware allows for some possible decrease in power usage of the lamp over time. I believe firmware allows a decrease to 75% of original value. What if the SUNA's lamp power is lower than original ? It might be that the lamp is actually on, but fell below the threshold. It could also be that the power is way lower and the lamp is indeed not illuminating - but you could alter the "hidden" threshold value fairly easily to explore this. When you have a serial connection to the SUNA, enter the command "special getlamppower" SUNA should respond with something like: Lamp power: 5901.958008 (Make note of this value as you might want to switch it back to original later) You could program this value to ~ half of original. Example: Enter the command "special setlamppower 3000" You can then do "special getlamppower" again to ensure value is retained. And follow up with a selftest again. Note: If it works and the lamp is actually illuminating, the time the SUNA will take to ensure the lamp is warmed up will change slightly. I don't see this as being a problem through. Other: Seeing the SUNA reports Voltage supplied to it from the glider, and also Current (Amps) used in its data frame, in principle one could calculate the power usage over time. It should be possible to see if the SUNA is indeed using less power over timeframe (year perhaps) and you could assume the lamp has changed its power usage as it is the major component of power use in the SUNA. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments. Kind Regards, Darrell
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