Primarily for general aviation discussion, but other aviation topics are also welcome.
By RobertPBham
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1850006
Hi all,

Today I went flying with my SkyEcho and iPad Mini 2 and although the SkyEcho WIFI was visible and the iPad connected, SkyDemon was just displaying ‘Waiting for Device’. Upon investigation the iPad was receiving DHCP private IP address (169.x.x.x) and wouldn’t receive a proper IP address (192.x.x.x).

No matter what I tried... restarting the iPad, forgetting the network and reconnecting - exactly the same issue. So eventually I connected on my iPhone 8 without any issue and went flying.

Upon landing, I powered off the SkyEcho and iPad. Powered on the SkyEcho and left for about 20 minutes and then powered on the iPad - the iPad connected fine, SkyDemon connected and off I went flying again.

I just don’t understand the cause and wondered if any one else had similar as it’s happened before, albeit when testing the setup at home.

Initial thoughts were the iPad Mini 2 is old and only runs iOS 12 whereas my iPhone 8 has the latest iOS, so could be a WIFI issue on the iPad. However, it’s odd that a complete restart of SkyEcho resolves the issue. Although I can’t point the finger at SkyEcho as my iPhone connected without issue when the iPad wouldn’t.... it’s just odd and an annoyance.

The other side to this (and not to start a debate on products) is I’ve always flown with PAW previously and never had an issue connecting to WIFI from my iPad and connecting via SkyDemon.

Any thoughts? I’m more intrigued than anything and it would be an annoyance I’d like to resolve. :)

Thanks
Rob
By RobertPBham
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1852571
Just thought it’d update this as I had exactly the same issue again today - iPad Mini 2 would not receive an IP address from SkyEcho but iPhone 8 was fine.

Although needs further testing the fix was:
Remove the WIFI password I had set on SkyEcho and leave as an open device

Preamble
Arrived for a flight today and got everything setup. The iPad Mini 2 would connect to the SkyEcho WIFI but not receive an IP address. Tested with iPhone and all was fine. Tried resetting iPad and SkyEcho but no success - iPhone fine every time. So went flying with iPhone connected.

So now I’m thinking I need to find out what is going on and do as much testing as possible once I’ve landed and probably time to purchase a new iPad....

iPad was updated to iOS 12.5.3 yesterday in the hope this might fix the issue as I had a feeling it would come back.

Once landed, I changed the SkyEcho WIFI channel from auto to manual and rebooted everything and the iPad connected okay - thinking I’d resolved the issue, I tried multiple reboots (SkyEcho and iPad) and the issue returned after two restarts of both devices. Again, iPhone fine.

Next I reset the iPad network setting but still the same issue.

All along, the iPad can connect successfully to all other WIFI networks (home, flying school WIFI and iPhone hotspot).

Tried removing any special characters from the SkyEcho WIFI password and still the same issue.

Finally I decided to remove the SkyEcho WIFI password and have an open WIFI network and after multiple reboots (SkyEcho and iPad), the iPad connects successfully every time.....

Obviously further real world testing required but looks very promising.

Now I’m not blaming SkyEcho but there must be a real oddity with the iPad Mini 2, iOS 12 and SkyEcho using a WIFI password.

Hopefully this will help any one experiencing similar issues and certainly worth a try.

I’m sure someone will ask why do you bother with a password on the SkyEcho WIFI - honest truth is security and I don’t trust any one! :lol:

Thanks
Rob