gismo
Touchdown! Greaser!
Well, it's happened to me now. I'm talking about the automatic "deactivation" of the Heads Up XM weather receiver in my plane. I was told previously that as long as I used the receiver (IE flew the plane) every two weeks or so it wouldn't "time out" and require re-activation. NOT SO! I flew for nearly an hour last weekend and yesterday when I was ready to depart for Michigan I noticed a little "activation" icon in the lower left corner of the EX 500 display which I (correctly) guessed meant the wx receiver needed to be "refreshed" by XM. I tried to reach XM on my cellphone before taking off but had some difficulty and didn't want to sit in the runnup area with engines running much longer so I departed without getting through. Attempts in the air were futile as well (my GSM phone never seems to work in the air). I even got Minneapolis Center to attempt contacting XM but they said they were unable to get through either. So I called XM as soon as I landed and got them to send a "refresh" as I was taxiing in. The instructions they give are to leave the radio on for at least 20 minutes and of course the refresh hadn't occurred by the time I was ready to shut down. I even switched the avionics back on for another 5 minutes after killing the engines to no avail. Curiously the XM audio receiver in the plane was still working and didn't need a "refresh" even though it's never on unless the wx receiver is also on.
Today I went online to initiate another refresh and learned that:
1> XM's website checks the user's browser ID and won't accept Firefox.
2> Once you log in and wade through the links you get to a page that lists all the Radio ID's assigned to your account along with a "refresh" link for each ID as well as an ID for "all".
3> Selecting a specific "refresh" link takes opens a window that requires you to enter the stoopid ID that you just selected from the list. Also it turns out you can reach this link directly (without ever logging in) using the URL: "www.xmradio.com/refresh".
4> Once you get to the refresh page and enter an ID, you eventually get a new page that either says the refresh occurred or a page that says they are "sorry but it didn't work, please check the ID and try again or call on the phone".
5> It appears that once you have initiated a refresh with a particular ID, you will get the "sorry..." response on subsequent attempts although nothing in their apology says to expect this behavior.
6> Now I guess I'll have to go back to the airport and fire up the XM receiver until it gets "refreshed" if I want to have weather available on the flight home tomorrow.
7> Sheesh!
Today I went online to initiate another refresh and learned that:
1> XM's website checks the user's browser ID and won't accept Firefox.
2> Once you log in and wade through the links you get to a page that lists all the Radio ID's assigned to your account along with a "refresh" link for each ID as well as an ID for "all".
3> Selecting a specific "refresh" link takes opens a window that requires you to enter the stoopid ID that you just selected from the list. Also it turns out you can reach this link directly (without ever logging in) using the URL: "www.xmradio.com/refresh".
4> Once you get to the refresh page and enter an ID, you eventually get a new page that either says the refresh occurred or a page that says they are "sorry but it didn't work, please check the ID and try again or call on the phone".
5> It appears that once you have initiated a refresh with a particular ID, you will get the "sorry..." response on subsequent attempts although nothing in their apology says to expect this behavior.
6> Now I guess I'll have to go back to the airport and fire up the XM receiver until it gets "refreshed" if I want to have weather available on the flight home tomorrow.
7> Sheesh!