MGL Avionics User Forum

Hello,
on my iefis explorer I can’t upload plates. I’ve the error message : plates not supported on this device.
I was never able to display plates list on the efis (from system or sd) it’s always blank. Sometimes in the past I could display plates, I don’t know how, but now I can see name and date of a plate but I get this error message when I want to display.
My pocket fms licence is active and the efis serial number is correct.
I created plates index
What can I do?

Here are some thoughts.

If you are seeing plate files on your IEFIS, the file still may not be in the MGL plate format. Make sure you are using plate/plates from a known supplier that support the MGL plate format.

I would then test your plate in the MGL iEFIS Computer Sim with your iEFIS design loaded. If that works, I would then try the test plate in your planes iEFIS. If that does not work, then try the following.

Check your iEFIS's plate screen design on your computer Sim''s in Design Mode and check that your plate viewer item is installed, most likely it will be if you are seeing plate files.

If you find it is, try removing it from the screen design and re-install it again and then load that screen design file back into your aircraft's iEFIS.

The thinking behind removing and installing the plate viewer, it may have been corrupted on the last install, or if you have tried loading an incorrect plate format a number of times in your plane. This could be leaving software artefacts that could now be causing even the correct MGL plate file format not to load correctly.


Cheers
JimJab

Thanks I’ll check that

Hello quick update:
I share a solution found by an user:
you must rename plates names to remove the date (file name is too long for the efis.)
You can use a soft like renamer.

update : solution described doesn’t work.

Is anybody can give me the right plate file name format readable by the iefis?

Are you able to see list of plates in your efis? I can’t, either in the simulator, which can display a plate but never a list

The issue has been investigated - the length of some plate filenames has increased due to a date being added. This pushes the length of the filename beyond the limits the system is designed to handle and it is unable to find/handle the file.
Renaming the filenames to make them shorter (the limit is typically 30 characters) does work but there is a XML file that contains the filename as well that needs to be altered to match any changed filenames.

The system creates an index on first use (you will be familiar with the message). Effectively it creates a list allowing the system to go directly to the relevant entry in the XML file when you select a plate to view. This avoids having to scan the entire file in order to find an entry. Once it has the entry it then knows the filename to use and uses that to open the file.

If you view the XML file from PocketFMS you will see the plate description and other useful entries which are used in the plate selector dialogs in the EFIS. One line per plate. The last entry in a line is the relevant filename to open.

PocketFMS is aware of the issue but they are not in a position to change the firmware of the VFR3 product - it will be fixed in the VFR4 version release.

Changing it in the EFIS system is tricky as it affects the entire file system handling - the limitation of a 30 character filename is historical and really based on the Early EFIS systems which where short of memory. Nearly all filenames in our systems use the old DOS 8:3 format as this is still the most efficient and fast way to deal with directories. Long filenames in our system where introduced before the Microsoft patent ran out so to not violate the patent we used a completely different way to store long filenames in a directory. This is where the original 30 character limitation originates. In later versions, once the patent ran out, we implemented Microsoft's way of storing the names but the backend still used the 30 character storage. This is used throughout the FlightOps operating system as well as the EFIS application.
It is possible of course to change this but I'm not going to do that as there is a good chance of unintended side effects.

There are other ways of working around the problem so I will be looking at that.

Thank you for the explanation. I understand now why the solution described doesn't work .Pocket FMS also confirmed to me that it's a priority for the new version of EASYVFR4.

I also understood why it's not possible to see a list of plates in a folder, it's because the efis can only read the sd card content and doesn't download the plates in the system.

I hope the patch will come soon !

Hi everybody

I had the same problem described here.

My initial solution was to rename the plates and keep the former xml file. that works, but not 100% because the xml file doesn't match exactly with the new plates.

I am a lucky man ! My engineer son developed for me a little python script that renames the files, suppresses the duplicates, and modifies accordingly the xml file !

it works great ! I download the plates on pocketFms (EasyVFR) then run the script, and get a fully MGL compatible PFMSMGLData folder.

If you are interested, I can send it to you.

Just send me a mp.

Cheers

Didier (France)