Flight Mode?


paradyne

Still Fresh
Joined
Oct 15, 2008
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Hi, I'm sorry if this has been dealt with already but a search here and the wiki faq drew a blank for me, I was just wondering if the Pandora has a hardware switch to disable the wifi/bluetooth (for flight mode and maximum powersaving). I see the rev 1.1 board has a new 3 pad space on the left that looks like it might be for a small slide switch.. Not a deal breaker for me, I ordered anyway :D
 
its not like it even matters... wifi has pretty much been proven not to affect planes etc (nothing i know of on a plane operates at 2.4ghz they have dedicated com and radar bands) ... and many planes allow it now...
 
Theres two things here..

1) The reality is no EM-interference is going to mess with a plane, unless its Serious Shit like electrical arcing or something :) Consider how safe planes are, and the standards in place .. if you could turn on a radio and crash a plane, would you fly in it? More to point, its a closed system from control to avionics.

2) The rest of the peeps on board, and the flight staff, and even some stupid Austrialian airlines, still like to blame public EMI for problems; but they're just pointing fingers or being ignorant.. but you still have to abide by their rules, or risk being slapped around as a terrorist :/

jeff
 
The reason why cell phones aren't allowed inside planes are the crappy cell phone systems we have in place which would simply freak out with mobile phones moving almost at the speed of sound.
 
even if there wasn't a quick key combo, just... turn wifi and bluetooth off. It's not like they need to be on 24/7 anyway. :)
 
Squidge said:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/...laptop-use.html

"Investigators believe that electromagnetic waves from laptops or handheld computer games could have interfered with the Airbus A330-300's autopilot, "

:eek:



No, investigators were hoping to find a scapegoat. The reality is that "incorrect information from a faulty air data inertial reference system (ADIRS) triggered a series of alarms and then prompted the Airbus A330-300's flight control computers to put the jet into a 197m nosedive"

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/10/15/la...tas_jet_plunge/

If it was possible to bring down a plane with EMI interference, I doubt that there'd be all the hullabaloo about liquids on a plane: we'd all be stripped of mobiles before getting on...
 
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cb88 said:
its not like it even matters... wifi has pretty much been proven not to affect planes etc (nothing i know of on a plane operates at 2.4ghz they have dedicated com and radar bands) ... and many planes allow it now...
Well, in USA 1.2ghz is reserved for aircraft navigation. (This surprises a lot of R/C plane enthusiasts who import their transmitters from overseas.) In theory a malfunctioning transmitter could start leaking onto harmonics of the frequency it's supposed to be on.

I don't think there's too much risk of that with solid-state digital transmitters.

Wouldn't take down the plane anyway, it would just irritate the pilot.

QUOTE
The reason why cell phones aren't allowed inside planes are the crappy cell phone systems we have in place which would simply freak out with mobile phones moving almost at the speed of sound.

Crappy? It wouldn't really be a "cell phone system" if it didn't depend on the world being reliably divided up into cells. If you're in the air not only are you moving from cell to cell, but you've got line-of-site to a large number of cells. The network can't gracefully handle that kind of overlap, the cells are supposed to be arranged so that you can't hit two of them on the same channel.

-Andy
 
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chiark said:
No, investigators were hoping to find a scapegoat. The reality is that "incorrect information from a faulty air
I thought it was someone assuming "I have a computer at home, I can fix it!".

Remember last year, when it was claimed that a passenger clicking a wireless mouse during a flight sent a Qantas jumbo jet off course on a three-degree bank? :D
 
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Flight.jpg

Pandora Flight Mode?
 
Etinin said:
The reason why cell phones aren't allowed inside planes are the crappy cell phone systems we have in place which would simply freak out with mobile phones moving almost at the speed of sound.
It's also for the sanity of the passengers. People using mobile phones in confined crowded places such as planes need to be shot.
 
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