Menu Sign In Contact FAQ
Banner
Welcome to our forums

Powerflarm firmware upgrade failed... (time expired firmware)

Dear All,

I have a Powerflarm which is wonderful when it works, and it used to work almost all the time. However, the Flarm people, being very protective of their software I guess, choose to make their equipment run on firmware that time-expires, approximately every 18 months – annual free “upgrade”, with a grace period and then a lockout. The free upgrade is done using a Micro-SD memory card that one attaches to a PC, downloads the firmware from Flarm’s website, and then put the card into the Powerflarm and tell it to upgrade itself. This process worked each year albeit some years with lots of fiddling and swearing, until 2020, when my Flarm device said something like “Firmware not present” on the card. The installed firmware has since expired and the Flarm device is now a rather useless and expensive paperweight.

At home I run Macs and this is probably the problem. Flarm warn that Mac OS drops invisible files onto Micro-SD cards (to help the OS to manage directories etc) and the Flarm devices complain about such strange files and refuse to ignore them. I have an IT degree from the 1980s, and can remove invisible files from SD cards, but that hasn’t worked this time. Perhaps it’s a new problem with newer versions of Mac OS…whatever it is, it is very annoying. I am more annoyed with Flarm of course. Why make their machines dependent on free firmware upgrades each year?

Question: does anyone know where I go from here? I have tried Flarm support in years past and they offer a back and forward email-only problem solving service that starts with an exchange where they question whether one knows how to insert an SD card, or similar….no practical help. What I want is a fresh Micro-SD card from a Flarm dealer or the like, duplicating all my licence options, that I can just plug in so that my device upgrades. Does anyone know someone who can help?

Thanks in advance,

Howard

Flying a TB20 out of EGTR
Elstree (EGTR), United Kingdom

Hi @Howard,
I could send you the update file on a micro SD card. I updated my powerflarm in January vers. 7.03.
Do you have the (mobile) powerflarm portable ?
regards
nobbi

Last Edited by nobbi at 26 Feb 17:00
EDxx, Germany

I have had no issues updating mine, last did it over Christmas.
I have read of other devices expecting a certain file system, but can’t remember if it’s the case for the FLARMs. It should say in the install instructions.

ESMK, Sweden

Arne,
on the PowerFlarm download site it says :

PowerFLARM Core and PowerFLARM Portable

Note: If updating from firmware version 6.42 or earlier, the firmware file has to be downloaded and saved to the USB stick or SD card on a PC. It does not work on Mac.

EDxx, Germany

This is a rubbish policy by Flarm. It is amazing it has such a fanatical following, in a community in which certain elements ritually boycott every airfield charging more than £10 landing fee I guess the proliferation of these boxes has confused people and everybody thinks “their” box can see everything.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I took advantage of the EU grant and bought a SkyEcho II which can run FLARM via a flight planning app. A search took me to the ForeFlight instructions for activation

https://support.foreflight.com/hc/en-us/articles/360050274413-How-do-I-receive-and-display-FLARM-traffic-with-the-SkyEcho-2-

Have not investigated how much the licence will cost, but was glad I don’t need to navigate uploading an SD card, not having any IT nous.

The decoding licence costs £25 am guessing p.a.

Last Edited by RobertL18C at 27 Feb 08:34
Oxford (EGTK), United Kingdom

£30 I believe

EHLE / Lelystad, Netherlands, Netherlands

RobertL18C wrote:

I took advantage of the EU grant

Very generous of the EU……. I presume you meant EC…..

EDL*, Germany

Howard wrote:

Does anyone know someone who can help?

I suggest the easiest way is to find someone in your neighborhood or your maintenance organization with a PC. Then repeat the whole thing and you are done. As it’s portable you can take it with you, so you can also walk into a local avionics shop and they can also do it for you.

My maintenance guy also happens to update a club fleet and usually does as part of the workflow whenever the airplane is in. He has the SD card on him basically all the time or in his office so whenever he sees a power flarm on an airplane it trigger his friendly helper side :) .

Or find yourself a 2nd hand laptop for £50 or so for the purpose, all it needs to have is card reader and be able to run 20 minutes at a time. I also carry over one old laptop which only gets started up for one particular software task every few years. In comparison to buying expensive stuff like the Skybound readers for jeppesen e.t.c. it’s a comparatively small investment…

LSZH(work) LSZF (GA base), Switzerland

Thanks all.

@Mooney_Driver : I tried my SD card on a PC. It seems that the “corruption” by my Mac taints a subsequent use of the SD card by a PC! I should also add, that the SD card that goes into the Powerflarm Portable has a record of my other flarm add-on licences (such as the add-on for output sound) I believe, so I can’t just use a brand new SD card on a PC….I think.

@nobbi : thank you. I will be in touch via the user-to-user system on this board. I will gratefully try your card, notwithstanding the licence issues referred to above.

Howard

Last Edited by Howard at 28 Feb 21:33
Flying a TB20 out of EGTR
Elstree (EGTR), United Kingdom
22 Posts
Sign in to add your message

Back to Top