Not Logging

[emersom]

Hi,

I hope you can help.

We have used you DL1 for 2 years and think it's brilliant.

However, during a test day yesterday at a very soggy Mallory Park our system refused to log any data. Well to be more accurate it would light up and say it was logging and then almost immediately switch off the logging light again.

It is installed in a single seater race car. It powers up with the battery master switch, we have a remote switch to start it logging and have just added a remote LED logging status light. Any ideas?

What is the minimum battery voltage the system needs to log data? I checeked our battery voltage after the test and it was only 11.65 V.

Cheers!

[RTUSA]

Hi:

11.65V will definitely work - unless the voltage at the moment of trouble was much lower, that's not it.

Was either the DL1 or the CF card wet? I've seen the behavior you describe when a card had failed, and I've seen wet cards fail.

Can you try the system dry, and with a different card and let us know what happens?

[emersom]

Thnaks very much for getting back to me so quickly

There is a strong chance the card/logger got wet as it was a very rainy day.

Will try it out next week and report back then.

Thanks for your help!

[davel]

Thnaks very much for getting back to me so quickly

There is a strong chance the card/logger got wet as it was a very rainy day.

Will try it out next week and report back then.

Thanks for your help!

I've seen very similar things with a CF card that had failed. I've tried re-formating a number of times and it still fails to log as you described. I've thrown my dodgy card out and using a new one without issues.

Cheers,
Dave

[emersom]

Thanks for this. This week we went testing and had exactly the same problem as before and this time it was a dry day.

I will try a new card. Although I have since tried the card in my camera and it works fine in there! Any other ideas?

Cheers!

[davel]

Thanks for this. This week we went testing and had exactly the same problem as before and this time it was a dry day.

I will try a new card. Although I have since tried the card in my camera and it works fine in there! Any other ideas?

Cheers!

I think I tried mine in the camera and it worked fine as well, but the data logger it just wouldn't log to it for more than a few seconds. Tried another card and it was perfect. See if you can borrow one from a friend (must be formatted as FAT not FAT32! - very important!!!)

Cheers,
Dave

[RTUSA]

Dave's point re FAT (good) vs FAT32 (bad) is excellent, I should have pointed that out.

An easy trap to fall into, as WinXP will try to format using FAT32 every time, at least with cards above a certain size (I think).

Our loggers only work with FAT, a lot of cameras now work with FAT or FAT32.

You can right-click on the drive letter of your card in Explorer, select Properties and it will tell you the format type among other things. To change it just reformat (Quick Format is fine) selecting "FAT" under "File System".

[emersom]

No it is definitely formatted FAT!