wi spy 2.4 crashes/closes

[Chris Norris]

I am running wi spy 2.4x with chanalyser V.3.3.2.0911 which I have just downloaded from the website, previous version of software came in the box with the usb antenna, I believe it was 3.3.0.

Whilst running the original chanalyser software [3.3.0] I was conducting a wifi survey in my car running my laptop off of an inverter from the cigarette/12 Volt supply in the vehicle. When the car was stationary and after starting up the programme and clicking "start scan" the programme closed immediately and presented me with an error message.

We tried this again when we were mobile in the car and the program started scanning with no problem???

Is there an issue with voltage/power fluctuations or draw required to power the usb antenna that would cause the program to crash?

Does the new software rectify this problem?

Any suggestions please?

[Trent]

Hi Chris, I just sent you an email, feel free to respond here or there. I think this issue occurs with your wireless card and not the Wi-Spy 2.4x. The start scan button is for the wireless card, which then adds the SSIDs over the Wi-Spy 2.4x data.

Perhaps the difference in the two events is whether the wireless card was turned off or on? Either way, it shouldn't be crashing, so if you can get us an error report we would love to resolve the issue.

[Chris Norris]

the software was working in the vehicle whilst mobile, as soon as we came to a standstill it crashed when starting to scan.

Since the laptop was running off an inverter powered by the cigarette lighter could this be the problem?

[Trent]

No, I don't think that could be the issue. If you experience again, can you send me the crash report? Thank you.

[spiffyjumper]

Chris...
A few things to check out:
1) what is the health of your Laptop Battery?
If your battery is in poor health, then the inverter is carrying most of the load;

2) how clean is your cigarrette socket?
If your cigarrette socket is grungy or corroded, the inverter will have problems, and, well, see #1, above;

3) what is the rating of your inverter?
If your inverter is too small, it will have problems, and, well, see #1 above;
If your inverter is too big, the cigarrette lighter will not provide enough current to run the inverter, and it will have problems, and, again, see #1, above;

4) When the engine is revved, as it is when moving, more voltage will be available to the car's alternator, which will make the inverter happier; normally this wouldn't matter if:
a) your car's alternator has all of it's diodes working (there will be between 6 and 12 of them)--when they fail, they don't fail "open", the fail "short", which results in AC being applied to your car's battery--and it doesn't charge well under this condition;
b) your car's battery is healthy--which will help supply instantaeous load support, and engine RPM won't be such a big deal;
c) if your laptop's battery is healthy, neither a) nor b) will matter--at least for a little while;

Bottom line--if your laptop battery is healthy, then engine RPM will not matter...

Hope that was useful--