Blue Raven Altimeter Testing/Troubleshooting

[mary]

Hello, I'm an engineering student on my school's high power solid rocket team and I wanted to see if anyone had input/feedback/advice on how to test a Blue Raven Featherweight Altimeter. We tried vacuum chamber testing but quickly discovered that the Blue Raven logs flight data based on the accel/gyro rather than measuring altitude barometrically. Is there a way to test the Blue Raven then without actually flying it? We're also having issues with determining whether the Blue Raven is ready for flight or not.

Another question we have is how to do a proper reset. We initiated a firmware update, but the update bugged and stopped. The Blue Raven stays off until the firmware update finishes but since the update didn't complete, we're having trouble turning it back on. Any advice?

 

[kjhambrick]

@mary --

Another question we have is how to do a proper reset. We initiated a firmware update, but the update bugged and stopped. The Blue Raven stays off until the firmware update finishes but since the update didn't complete, we're having trouble turning it back on. Any advice?

This sounds like an issue for @Adrian A to resolve, either here or via the Featherweight > Contact Us dialog.

As for testing the Blue Raven ...

There is a very nice Sim Feature in the Blue Raven App for IOS and Android.

And if you want to test your ejection charges, there is a Ground Testing App in the same Blue Raven Phone App.

You can download / share sim data .csv files the same as a real flight so you can see the format and content of the three Blue Raven files.

As you discovered, vacuum chamber testing does not work with the Blue Raven as it does with a baro-based altimeter.

When you boot your Blue Raven and connect via the Phone App, the App displays the status of your Battery and the Sensors.

This is what I saw this morning when I booted one of my Blue Ravens that's mounted in a Featherweight Power Perch with an incandescent XMass Tree Lite installed in the Apo and Main Ejection Charge Terminal Blocks:


Note the Green Apo and Main Buttons and the voltages as well as the Batt, Temp and Pressure Altitude,

These look normal for my setup.

My house is at 757 ft MSL but the barometric pressure is 30.32 this morning so the pressure altitude is in the ballpark.

The Temp value measures the temperature of the pressure transducer, not ambient temperature but it looks about right for my garage-office this morning.

The Accel 16g, Accel 400g and Gyro deg/sec look about right for a recently calibrated Blue Raven orientated vertically on a solid table.

These readings indicate that my Blue Raven sensors are working properly.

If you scroll down on the main screen, you'll see two setup apps ( Deploy and Accelerometer Calibration ) and two testing apps( Simulation and Ground Test ):


Run the Deploy App to set up your ejection charges or air start setup.

Run the Simulation with incandescent lite bulbs to test your Blue Raven.

Run the Ground Test to check your ejection charges and to capture a video of the events.

Finally, you can periodically run the Calibration to make sure your accelerometers are in the ballpark in the (x,y,z) directions.

There are a lot of helpful threads here on TRF and members are very helpful !

I would wait to hear from Adrian before you try too hard to recover from the failed firmware update.

He is very responsive and you should hear from him PDQ.

HTH.

-- kjh

 

[NTP2]

@mary --



This sounds like an issue for @Adrian A to resolve, either here or via the Featherweight > Contact Us dialog.

As for testing the Blue Raven ...

There is a very nice Sim Feature in the Blue Raven App for IOS and Android.

And if you want to test your ejection charges, there is a Ground Testing App in the same Blue Raven Phone App.

You can download / share sim data .csv files the same as a real flight so you can see the format and content of the three Blue Raven files.

As you discovered, vacuum chamber testing does not work with the Blue Raven as it does with a baro-based altimeter.

When you boot your Blue Raven and connect via the Phone App, the App displays the status of your Battery and the Sensors.

This is what I saw this morning when I booted one of my Blue Ravens that's mounted in a Featherweight Power Perch with an incandescent XMass Tree Lite installed in the Apo and Main Ejection Charge Terminal Blocks:
View attachment 679588

Note the Green Apo and Main Buttons and the voltages as well as the Batt, Temp and Pressure Altitude,

These look normal for my setup.

My house is at 757 ft MSL but the barometric pressure is 30.32 this morning so the pressure altitude is in the ballpark.

The Temp value measures the temperature of the pressure transducer, not ambient temperature but it looks about right for my garage-office this morning.

The Accel 16g, Accel 400g and Gyro deg/sec look about right for a recently calibrated Blue Raven orientated vertically on a solid table.

These readings indicate that my Blue Raven sensors are working properly.

If you scroll down on the main screen, you'll see two setup apps ( Deploy and Accelerometer Calibration ) and two testing apps( Simulation and Ground Test ):
View attachment 679589

Run the Deploy App to set up your ejection charges or air start setup.

Run the Simulation with incandescent lite bulbs to test your Blue Raven.

Run the Ground Test to check your ejection charges and to capture a video of the events.

Finally, you can periodically run the Calibration to make sure your accelerometers are in the ballpark in the (x,y,z) directions.

There are a lot of helpful threads here on TRF and members are very helpful !

I would wait to hear from Adrian before you try too hard to recover from the failed firmware update.

He is very responsive and you should hear from him PDQ.

HTH.

-- kjh

+1

 

[Art Upton]

Another question we have is how to do a proper reset. We initiated a firmware update, but the update bugged and stopped. The Blue Raven stays off until the firmware update finishes but since the update didn't complete, we're having trouble turning it back on. Any advice?

I did a quick goggle that pointed to this in the manual
https://www.featherweightaltimeters...0427/blue_raven_users_manual_september_15.pdf

 If an over-the-air firmware update is interrupted, the Blue Raven will revert to a firmware application that does not show any outward signs that the Blue Raven is powered on, (no LEDs for example) but is still accessible under the Devices screen as “STM_OTA”. Click on this device to connect to it, and then select “Update firmware” under the three-dot menu on the right. The Blue Raven only connects to one phone at a time, so if it’s not connecting to your phone, check that your Bluetooth is enabled, and it’s not already paired to another phone in the vicinity.

 

[kjhambrick]

Good Eye, @Art Upton !

I did not see that paragraph in the Quick Start section of the online User Guide !

-- kjh

 

[Adrian A]

Hello, I'm an engineering student on my school's high power solid rocket team and I wanted to see if anyone had input/feedback/advice on how to test a Blue Raven Featherweight Altimeter. We tried vacuum chamber testing but quickly discovered that the Blue Raven logs flight data based on the accel/gyro rather than measuring altitude barometrically. Is there a way to test the Blue Raven then without actually flying it? We're also having issues with determining whether the Blue Raven is ready for flight or not.

Another question we have is how to do a proper reset. We initiated a firmware update, but the update bugged and stopped. The Blue Raven stays off until the firmware update finishes but since the update didn't complete, we're having trouble turning it back on. Any advice?

The problem that was interfering with the the over-the-air updates has been fixed in the latest release, which is out on Google Play and is currently under review by Apple.

The flight simulation is the best way to make sure that your deployment settings are what you want, and that the Blue Raven and your battery will fire (bare) e-matches at the right time. The sensor health is always shown in the Altimeter page of the app, and you can verify it at any time, including at the pad.

The Ground Test feature is the best way to verify that you have the right size charge. It will take slow-motion video of the firing and record a few seconds of data as well.

 

[kjhambrick]

<EDIT>
Adrian --

I tried uninstalling the Featherweight UI and reinstalling it but no joy.

Still lost in an infinite loop.

I would be happy to ship SN827 back to you for debugging if that would be helpful.

One Screen Shot I failed to capture was this:


I tried [Skip] this morning and I saw this:



This screen just sat there for an hour without updating.

</EDIT>

@Adrian A --

I was able to update 3 -of- 4 Blue Ravens without any issues.

Now I am stuck in an infinite loop on number four -of- four.

The BLE wireless stack download for SN827 apparently worked:



But then the update seemed to fail on 'Install BLE stack':


Because there was a dialog that I did not see on the other three Blue Ravens ( SN236, SN828, SN829 ):


I chose the Blue Raven file and after running for a few minutes I see:


When I shut down the Blue Raven, wait until the connection goes down and the reboot, I see the SN0 STM_OTA device:
Screenshot_20241125_050352.jpg

It immediately begins the update process again but the next update fails the same way.

But note that the Ver Code on the SN0 STM_OTA device looks up-to-date.

I removed this Blue Raven from the 38mm Av-Bay and installed it on the Power Perch with a new battery and I am still stuck in the same loop.

Any Ideas for recovery ?

Thanks !

-- kjh

 

[Adrian A]

.

 

[Adrian A]

It immediately begins the update process again but the next update fails the same way.

But note that the Ver Code on the SN0 STM_OTA device looks up-to-date.

I removed this Blue Raven from the 38mm Av-Bay and installed it on the Power Perch with a new battery and I am still stuck in the same loop.

Any Ideas for recovery ?

Thanks !

-- kjh

Thanks for the screenshots.

The only recoverable thing that I can think of at the moment for your 4th unit is that it can take a long time for the CPU that handles BLE to get reset during a power cycle. Based on the screenshots it looks the STM_OTA firmware on the Blue Raven that does its side of the update process wasn't running correctly, so maybe if you try it again now that it has been off overnight and the Bluetooth CPU will be fully reset it will behave properly. Otherwise, possibly it got corrupted somehow, in which case I would need to exchange your unit to reprogram it over hardline.

Another thing I thought of is that in previous versions of the Android app we have sometimes seen the app think that the connection is lost even though the phone OS is keeping the connection active. Disabling the Bluetooth in the phone and re-enabling it can reset all the BLE connections so that it can get back in sync.

One other thing I'm curious about is if the iPhone version would behave any differently. If one more try doesn't work you can ship it back and I'll try the iPhone that on my side if you don't have one handy.

 

[kjhambrick]

Thanks for the screenshots.

You're welcome, Adrian.

Thanks for the GREAT support !

The only recoverable thing that I can think of at the moment for your 4th unit is that it can take a long time for the CPU that handles BLE to get reset during a power cycle. Based on the screenshots it looks the STM_OTA firmware on the Blue Raven that does its side of the update process wasn't running correctly, so maybe if you try it again now that it has been off overnight and the Bluetooth CPU will be fully reset it will behave properly. Otherwise, possibly it got corrupted somehow, in which case I would need to exchange your unit to reprogram it over hardline.

Another thing I thought of is that in previous versions of the Android app we have sometimes seen the app think that the connection is lost even though the phone OS is keeping the connection active. Disabling the Bluetooth in the phone and re-enabling it can reset all the BLE connections so that it can get back in sync.

So I rebooted my Phone just a little while ago and turned off BlueTooth on my phone and then turned BlueTooth back on.

Then I booted SN827 and when it connected to SN0 STM_OTA it started the update immediately but it followed the same path as before.

I've got screenshots if you want them but nothing new wrt the ones from my previous post.

One other thing I'm curious about is if the iPhone version would behave any differently. If one more try doesn't work you can ship it back and I'll try the iPhone that on my side if you don't have one handy.

I was wondering the same thing but I won't be near an iPhone until MAYBE this weekend, MAYBE and then I would have to convince my brother to let me install the FeatherweighUI on his phone

OTOH, Maybe you can glean something useful if you have Blue Raven SN827 in hand ?

So, if I was to return SN827, do I use the return address from one of your packages ?

Or is there a better To Address for shipping a package to you ?

And OBTW ...

Now that I am setting up my Blue Jay for testing, I wish I had purchased a Blue Jay Power Starter Kit with my Blue Jay

If I order one from the Featherweight Site with a note, can you ship the Blue Raven and the Blue Jay Power Starter Kit back to me in a single package ?

I would cover the shipping cost thru the Featherweight order form as usual.

Thanks Adrian !

-- kjh

 

[Adrian A]

Thanks for trying.

So, if I was to return SN827, do I use the return address from one of your packages ?

Yes

If I order one from the Featherweight Site with a note, can you ship the Blue Raven and the Blue Jay Power Starter Kit back to me in a single package ?

Yes, that would be great.

 

[Adrian A]

After another customer had a similar OTA problem, I was able to reproduce this for the case where the OTA update had been interrupted, and the app subsequently re-started such that it doesn't know what kind of device it's updating, which leads it to ask for which firmware to load using this dialog box:



In this sub-case, the connection is immediately lost after the selection, and the process starts over. If there is a power loss or other interruption during the OTA process and the app is not restarted, the new app successfully completes the update after power is applied again. It's apparently only if the app is restarted during that interruption so that it loses track of the device type, that it doesn't complete the update.

This is repeatable, so I think it's fixable. It may take a week or more though, for an update that takes care of this scenario.

 

[roytyson]

Ah, the joys of Blue Ravens. I had so many problems with updates and connections, I gave up and sold them. I wanted them to work so bad. But lost hope with endless updates and problems.

 

[kjhambrick]

Woo Hoo !

The 'select the firmware' looks VERY familiar and the loss of connection sounds like what I saw too.

SN827 is in the mailbox, waiting for the mailman and I placed my order for Blue Jay Power Starter Kit with a 'Note to seller'

Woo Hoo Hoo !

Thanks for all you do, Adrian !!

-- kjh

 

[kjhambrick]

Ah, the joys of Blue Ravens. I had so many problems with updates and connections, I gave up and sold them. I wanted them to work so bad. But lost hope with endless updates and problems.

Shucks, I wish I had known you were selling Blue Ravens, I would have snapped them up

This is the first time I've had a real issue with updates since I got my first Blue Raven in Apr 2023 or so.

And this issue only happened on one -of- four Blue Ravens -- the other three updated just fine.

I consider this a 'major' update because the same FeatherweightUI App is now interfacing with the Blue Jay along with the Blue Raven and the GPS so I am OK with a glitch or two.

I trust that Adrian will figure it out and provide a fix.

-- kjh( an unabashed Blue Raven Cheerleader )

 

[Adrian A]

I trust that Adrian will figure it out and provide a fix.

-- kjh( an unabashed Blue Raven Cheerleader )

I'm testing out a build that fixes this now. So far, so good. There was a Blue Raven whose OTA was stuck in the last build that is fully upgraded now. Now I'm just testing to make sure that nothing unrelated broke in this build.

 

[Hammeread_Ted]

I'm testing out a build that fixes this now. So far, so good. There was a Blue Raven whose OTA was stuck in the last build that is fully upgraded now. Now I'm just testing to make sure that nothing unrelated broke in this build.

Thanks for the screenshots.

The only recoverable thing that I can think of at the moment for your 4th unit is that it can take a long time for the CPU that handles BLE to get reset during a power cycle. Based on the screenshots it looks the STM_OTA firmware on the Blue Raven that does its side of the update process wasn't running correctly, so maybe if you try it again now that it has been off overnight and the Bluetooth CPU will be fully reset it will behave properly. Otherwise, possibly it got corrupted somehow, in which case I would need to exchange your unit to reprogram it over hardline.

Another thing I thought of is that in previous versions of the Android app we have sometimes seen the app think that the connection is lost even though the phone OS is keeping the connection active. Disabling the Bluetooth in the phone and re-enabling it can reset all the BLE connections so that it can get back in sync.

One other thing I'm curious about is if the iPhone version would behave any differently. If one more try doesn't work you can ship it back and I'll try the iPhone that on my side if you don't have one handy.

iPhone does exactly the same thing.

 

[Adrian A]

The build that fixed this, 1.0.15 was released a day or two ago.