Multi-Screen SV issues/features

[dabear]

I had to reconfigure my installation last night and ran into some interesting … features.  This raised a couple of questions:
1. Where is the fuel tank calibration information saved?
2. Can it be input into the system via text file?
3. When there is a difference in configuration between screens, which screen is the “winner?”
4. Are the “non-controlling” screens able to save the “new” data?

I have 3 10” SV EFIS, 2 ADHARS, 1 EMS, 1 GPS, 1 Dynon XPR.  When trying to reconfigure the sensors (from capacitance to resistance ) and move them to new pins/sensor locations I ran into a problem.  I changed the configuration on my primary screen and saved the data.  Upon rebooting the screen the information went away and was back to the original install version.

This happened a few times, and then I decided to leave screen 2 & 3 OFF while doing the config.  I then copied the config files over to the other screens prior to booting all 3 together.   I saw this behavior when doing the first install (EMS layout) but didn’t try and track it down.  I thought it might be the “first” screen that boots gets the control, but it didn’t work last night.  What I think I saw was that the screen with the lowest S/N got the “control.”

I was able to calibrate the fuel tanks with the primary screen.  But now I’m worried about where that configuration is so that I can transfer it over to the other screens before the primary gets over written.  Where is that information held?

While configuration changes should be rare, for those of us with multiple SV screens can I ask for a feature change?  
1. Assign a screen the default “lead” and all other screens take their configuration from that screen unless its not up.  
2. Be able to “PUSH” the configuration from the primary screen to all others in the system.
3. Upon boot of the screens, they talk and confirm they are all using the same configuration/data files

Thanks for listening.

 

[dabear]

Bad form to reply to my own message, but I had another question/suggestion.

Should the install/pilot manuals be changed in multi-screen SV systems to recommend configuration be done with only a single screen on and then upload the configuration to the other screens one at a time (only single screen on at a time)?

Am I the only one seeing this? (i.e. nut behind the SV issue ;D )

 

[dynonsupport]

In a normal multi-screen SkyView system, no copying of settings files should be needed to sync your settings between your different displays. As far as the setup experience goes, there's only one SkyView system with some number of displays, and setup/configuration can be done from any displays, provided they're properly networked and talking to each other. Then, all other displays will receive settings as they changed and saved.

There are lots of reasons for doing things this way, primarily rooted in the desire to provide a delightful user experience where the typical, non-technical customer doesn't need to think about masters, slaves, configuration files, and other geeky stuff. So that said, here are a pile of facts that should help:

-Displays technically have their individual copies of configuration files, but, they're automatically kept in sync with each other via the magic of SkyView Network. Hence, you should never need to copy among them. This has not been true since the beginning of SkyView, so having the latest SkyView software installed is important.
-Displays only share and synchronize settings when they're connected via SkyView Network and have the same tail number set under SYSTEM SETUP > AIRCRAFT INFORMATION.
-Once a SkyView system is in the above, happy, normal state, the configuration files that you can export from any screen will be the same. If you change a setting in the Setup Menu on one screen (which in turn edits a configuration file behind the scenes), all of the other displays get those same configuration file updates. This happens seamlessly behind the scenes.
-The syncing of settings actually happens between the moment you press the EXIT button to leave setup, and normal non-setup operation resuming. Therefore, it is important that you exit the Setup Menu cleanly for everything to happen correctly.
-Only one display can be in Setup at a time when displays are correctly talking to each other. This is in part to insure that settings aren't changed on multiple displays simultaneously. Testing this behavior by trying to get each of your other displays into Setup mode while a first display is already there can tell you whether everything is talking properly.
-Displays that have DYNON as their tail number will have their settings obliterated and paved over by a display that has had the actual aircraft tail number programmed in.
-Therefore, the normal procedure, which is to set a tail number on a single display, then configure the SkyView Network, then continue setup, will cause all of the displays to network, sync up,their configurations.

So there are a few possibilities here. Either the tail numbers on the displays aren't perfectly the same, or possibly some of the troubleshooting you've done has gotten things fouled up, or maybe we have a bug (that maybe only affects >2 screens?) Given all of the above, here's a prescription that should get things into the desired state:

-Turn on all 3 of your displays
-Take a settings backup of the display that you think is in the best state, just to have it. We'll call that display 1.
-Turn display 1 off by holding the left button.
-Set the tail numbers of displays 2 and 3 to DYNON. They may or may not sync this setting, depending. So do check both.
-Turn everything off
-Turn everything on.
-From display 1, configure the SkyView network under SYSTEM SETUP > NETWORK SETUP > CONFIGURE...
- Confirm that all displays are seen by SkyView Network.
- Exit setup.
- Re-enter Setup on any screen.
- Confirm that neither of the other displays can enter Setup at the same time
- Change some setting (like an IAS v-speed). Exit setup.
- Check that the other two displays have received that setting.

Incidentally, the fuel tank calibration is saved in the settings file. Once you have a calibration, you can actually edit the values from within SkyView Setup, so you can just go through a placeholder calibration (with nothing connected, not actually doing anything with fuel or sensors) with the amount of points that you want to be able to edit, and then just go and edit it and change both the voltage and gallons for each point. Alternatively, create a placeholder calibration, export the settings file, and go find it and edit it by hand. All config files are plain text.

 

[dabear]

I wasn't able to recreate the issue I had the other day with screen 1 configuration being removed for an old config. Pushing new configs from screen 1 to screen 2 and screen 3 worked.

However, the configuration that doesn't get pushed is the serial configuration for the screens. Since they are all now wired together, could you put that in a future release?

Thanks for listening.

 

[dynonsupport]

Anything under LOCAL SCREEN SETUP does indeed need to be setup per display at the moment.