WORK AROUND- USB Drive formatted using the Seattle Avionic ChartData Manager prevents Skyview from booting

owenssonex

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I purchased a 64 GB SanDisk USB drive for data log storage and Seattle Avionics maps. After selecting the 'Prepare USB flash drive for Dynon Skyview' in the ChartData Manager my skyview HDX1100 will not boot. The initial HDX image will appear and stay there for about 90 seconds, the screen dims and then HDX appears again. This pattern will repeat indefinitely, the system will not boot. If I remove the USB drive, boot the HDX, and then install the USB everything works perfectly.

I had another 64 GB drive of the exact same type and manufacture. I did NOT do the Seattle Avionic drive format. I connected this USB and booted the Skyview. No issues- booted just fine.

After a bit of digging (a lot more than it should have been) I realized that a SanDisk 64 GB cannot be formatted as FAT32- only exFAT is supported. The Seattle drive format appears to be doing half of the formatting. It probably should detect the incompatible drive size.

I will purchase a 32 GB drive and I will have plenty of space. I'll use the drives I have for log file backup.

I'm hoping this post will save others a bit of grief.

Don from Dynon, I'm the customer that asked you about this at AirVenture
 

Raymo

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You should also be able to partition the drive into 2 or more drives to reduce the drive size to less than 32 GB.
 

swatson999

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So do I read this correctly? If you format it (as exFAT) using anything other than the SA tool, it will work just fine for downloading SA charts and such, and load/display them correctly on SV? But if you use the SA tool to format it, it fails?
 

owenssonex

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64GB, exFAT, SA formatted, SA maps via SA tool=> cannot boot Skyview with USB inserted, maps are functional if I insert USB after boot up.
64GB, exFAT, NOT SA formatted, SA maps copied=> Skyview boots with no issues with USB inserted, drive can be used for data logs, SA maps not detected by skyview, ever.
Sandisk indicates a 64GB drive cannot be formatted to FAT32, Windows workstation drive format tool behavior agrees with this.
 

kellym

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I ran into this problem with new SanDisk UltraFit 32 drive, formated to FAT32. Friend has 2 aircraft, one with Classic 10", one with HDX 10". With this drive neither system would boot with the drive inserted. However, I take drive to my system with 2 Classic 10" screens. No problem booting either screen with this drive. Take my own UltraFit 32 drive to his systems. Boots with both systems. Reformatting and reloading with SA charts made no difference. 2 identical drives other than the drive label, works with one system, not two other systems. Problem did not surface with 16 GB drives, only this one 32GB drive. Question is what about the boot cycle even looks at whether there is a drive in one of the USB ports, and does it matter whether it is a port wired to the 37 pin plug or one connected to the back of screen ports?
 
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I will try the method posted by HFMan and report back. I have had the same non boot issue. Maybe Dynon can fix this requirement in the next hardware update.

Update: Formating the drive with Fat32 on a 128gb Sandisk did not work on the HDX.
 
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cherokee140c

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I will try the method posted by HFMan and report back. I have had the same non boot issue. Maybe Dynon can fix this requirement in the next hardware update.

Update: Formating the drive with Fat32 on a 128gb Sandisk did not work on the HDX.
I ran into this problem with new SanDisk UltraFit 32 drive, formated to FAT32. Friend has 2 aircraft, one with Classic 10", one with HDX 10". With this drive neither system would boot with the drive inserted. However, I take drive to my system with 2 Classic 10" screens. No problem booting either screen with this drive. Take my own UltraFit 32 drive to his systems. Boots with both systems. Reformatting and reloading with SA charts made no difference. 2 identical drives other than the drive label, works with one system, not two other systems. Problem did not surface with 16 GB drives, only this one 32GB drive. Question is what about the boot cycle even looks at whether there is a drive in one of the USB ports, and does it matter whether it is a port wired to the 37 pin plug or one connected to the back of screen ports?

I had the same problem. I put a SanDisk UltraFit 32GB drive into my Touch, installed an update, backed up some system settings and tried to reboot the displays (10 inch touch and a 7 inch classic). The the 10 inch classic hung on a power off/on boot up. At the time I thought it had something to do with mounting the file system on boot. The routines you use for mounting file systems during boot are not necessary the same ones you use after the operating system is up and running. Someone at Dynon, hopefully a systems programmer, needs to reproduce the problem and review the boot log to see what the problem is.
 

cherokee140c

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Please see ForumsPrevious Forums and Content ArchiveGeneral CategorySkyView General DiscussionDual Screen updateForumsPrevious Forums and Content ArchiveGeneral CategorySkyView General DiscussionDual Screen update. It is a re-statement of the same problem.
 

swatson999

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Well, same problem with two brand new Sandisk 32 GB USB 3.0 thumb drives. They weren't "formatted" by anything, just straight out of the box, added the SkyViewUS folder and downloaded the latest charts from SA onto them.

Now, with either drive inserted, I get the never-ending cycle of "Skyview" splash screens. With the drive out, it boots fine, and then I can insert the drive and all the charts are there.

Dynon, any word on this problem? It's a bit disconcerting to see so many people with similar problems and no postings from Dynon Support on this issue.
 

RVDan

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Since the new forum has been up, it seems as Dynon isn’t monitoring it as closely as they did in earlier years. Best to call customer support. Maybe they will get the idea that a presence on the forum is more cost effective than answering individual phone calls.
 

swatson999

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Since the new forum has been up, it seems as Dynon isn’t monitoring it as closely as they did in earlier years. Best to call customer support. Maybe they will get the idea that a presence on the forum is more cost effective than answering individual phone calls.

Sent a message via their email to support, with this thread link as well as a comment about the decreased Support presence. Others with the same issue may wish to do the same :)
 

djones

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I have been working this problem trying to find the root cause and here is what I know right now.
It appears Sandisk 32 GB drives that are USB 3.1 cause SkyView to not boot. I did have a customer who sent me his
and I am testing to see if there is any quick fix, but it appears engineering will have to look into it. They are formatted correctly and even with
no data what so ever on it, SkyView won't boot with it installed. The customer purchased another brand and all is well. I have older versions of these (mine are USB 3.0) that I use in my RV with the SA charts and they work fine.
Also, we DO NOT recommend drives larger that 32 GB due to the limitation that larger drives can't be formatted FAT32
(at least not that will work with SkyView)
I am going to pass it over to engineering to look into, but in the meantime avoid using this particular brand in USB 3.1

As to monitoring of the forums.....while we do try to check in here often, it was never set up to be an official support channel. It was set up to be able to find answers to common questions from knowledgeable users and as a quick resource to search for answers to questions that have been asked before. Often our normal tech support channels get quite busy and we don't monitor the forums as we would like. I encourage you if you have an issue that isn't simple or not found on the forums, contact us directly through our support e-mail at support@dynonavionics.com, or call our new dedicated support phone number 425-224-6736. If you call and can't get us on the phone, leave a detailed voicemail and you will get a call back.

https://forum.flydynon.com/threads/forum-guidelines-rules.12191/
 

swatson999

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Just FYI...the drives I just tried are Sandisk USB 3.0 drives, so it's not just USB 3.1 models that have the issue. (Emailed this info to Support, as well).
 

HFMan

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I have been using PNY USB 3.0 drives, both 16GB and 32GB- cheap and work great.
 

swatson999

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FWIW, many years ago when I was developing GPS receivers for consumer/boating/aviation markets, I learned that the "innards" of all of these USB, Flash, CF, whatever form factor devices was usually all the same parts from the same manufacturer. So if you go buy a brand X USB drive, chances are really good that the chips inside are the exact same as brand Y, and they both come from company Z.

Also, FWIW, I had two other USB 3.0 drives, also from Sandisk, which I've misplaced and thus the reason for buying two new ones. The *old* ones always worked just fine.

So I'd hazard a guess that something has changed with the chipsets that are being sourced for these drives, sometime in the last few months or so, to cause several users here to have the same issue. I'd be tempted to take a working drive and a non-working drive and tear into 'em to see what the part numbers are, and maybe investigate that a little deeper.
 

bpattison

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I have been trying to get my new 32GB Sandisk USB drives to work with my Skyview in our 172 and having the same problem as above. The display hangs on boot up.
Will try the exFSAT formatting. Thanks for the posts. Will report back if it solves the problem. It's nice to know it isn't just me.
 

bpattison

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Okay, did the exFAT formatting and reloaded everything. Still same problem. The Skyview will not boot up. Any other ideas?
 

swatson999

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About the only thing anyone has come up with, as far as I can tell, is to try a different drive. Maybe try a 32GB drive (so as not to "push the envelope" of the system...we *know* 32GB sticks work without any special splitting or formatting), and what I found was that "identical" 32GB sticks from SanDisk would work (the two that worked were marked Made in China) or not (the two that *didn't* work were marked Made in Malaysia). Otherwise, no difference (so it must be something different with the chip...maybe a different supplier or something).
I did send one of the non-working ones to Dynon for their debugging, but like everyone else, haven't heard anything back. I have two that work now, so I keep them safe, but it would be nice to at least know what the problem is and which drives to avoid.
 

cherokee140c

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Short Answer: I have seen this problem many times on LINUX systems. The most frequent cause is the file system type. The boot programs used by LINUX (yes there are several of them) don't support all of the file systems that a fully configured LINUX system does. Early FAT file systems are pretty safe during boot, NTFS should be avoided. Linux has it own file systems, such as EXTx, but you can't read them with a Windows system(not easily). FAT32 should work for most of the LINUX boot loaders.

The other problem you see with USB sticks is that they have an AUTORUN feature that can cause the system to hang if the boot process tries to mount the thumb drive. Just because you cant see an AUTORUN.INF file doesn't mean something doesn't exist. Re-initializing the thumb drive can usually get around this problem. Reinit it on a Windows machine. I have re-inited thumb drives in a LINUX machine and had problems getting them to mount on a Windows machine.

I have suggested to DYNON that they upgrade to the LINUX GRUB2 boot loader. That should get rid of most of the problems.
 
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