Stopping logging can take over 5 minutes? Why. ALso, why is log data lost....

[martymonster]

I have a HTC Sensation phone which connects via Bluetooth to the unit purchased from Palmer Performance.

I start up DshCommand and connect to the unit.
I go to logging and then press START (I do log nearly everything so Ican play it back with ScanXL).

If I only go on a short trip, say 10 minutes and then press STOP, the log data is saved pretty quick.
But if I go for say 30 minutes and then press STOP, I have to wait over 5 minutes for it to actually stop.
If I unplug the unit from the car before it has stopped, the log data is lost.

First.
Since it is logging in realtime (or it should be), then why does it take a long time to actually stop when you press STOP on the logging page on long trips?

Second
Why is the log data lost in the above mentioned scenario when the logging should be in realtime and the log file should already exist?

Third
If you disconnect the unit from the car, Dashcommand should stop logging and close the log file, not just throw it away.

Marty

[John@PPE]

Hi Marty. Let me look into this.

[Weston@PPE]

It has to go over the log and save it out to your SD card still, which is what happens when you push stop. It takes longer for longer logs.

It seems to me as well that it takes longer and longer for a larger log (a 20 minute log seems to take more than double the time a 10 minute log would). If this is true, it would be a bug. I haven't tested this though, only what I've observed personally. We will look into this and see if there are any ways we can speed it up.

[John@PPE]

I just tried this out. On HTC Evo. After recording for 30 minutes, I pressed stop and it took about 20 seconds to save and finish. This seemed reasonable.

How many times have you seen it hang? Also how accurate do you think your times you mentioned are?

[martymonster]

I just tried this out. On HTC Evo. After recording for 30 minutes, I pressed stop and it took about 20 seconds to save and finish. This seemed reasonable.

How many times have you seen it hang? Also how accurate do you think your times you mentioned are?

Hi,

Thanks for testing.
20 seconds would be great, that is around the time it takes for a short drive.

My mentioned times are pretty accurate.

Every long distance trip takes ages.

I will do some more tests and keep an accurate log of what I am doing and the times involved.

When I try it next, is there any logs etc that I can save and send to help look into it?

[martymonster]

Did 2 drives today.

First drive
Approx 2Km in 7:07, the log file is 7.98MB and it took 25 seconds to process after I pressed the stop button.

Second drive
Approx 26Km in 28:33, the log file is 33.43MB, after I pressed STOP, 2:30 went by and I saw the bluetooth activity lights start flashing on the unit, then at 2:45 a message said 'Dashcommand has stopped processing", but it did save the log file.

I tried to email the log files to myself but this has a problem, the first file (7.98 Mb) was attached to the email but the larger file would never attach so it could not be sent.

This would seem like a good idea to add a Save log file to the menu instead of just Load, Send and Delete.


Weston said 'It has to go over the log and save it out to your SD card still, which is what happens when you push stop. It takes longer for longer logs.
'.
This is what I said in my post, why does it need to do this when it should be writing to the SDcard in realtime or every 5 or 10 seconds, Open file, write buffer, close file.

I plan on a long trip very soon, over 2,000 Kms with a stop every 2 hours or so, I do not want (should not have to) wait for ages after each stop for the log file to be saved.
If a 28 minute trip has a log file of 33Mb, imagine how big a 2 or 3 hour log file would be and how long it would take to process.

Remeber, I said in my initial post that I am logging nearly every piece of data to the log file, did your test log everything?

The car is a 2010 Mercedes E350 Coupe.

[John@PPE]

So from your number it appears that the extra save time is just due to the larger logfile.

I think that DashCommand was designed with smaller log files in mind, so maybe 30 MB is a bit larger than we planned for.

I'll add this to our list of features to implement, saving while driving. I'm not promising that it will get done, but at least we'll consider it and it might get done.

Now, as to another concern, when you disconnect the interface the log file is not saved. I'm testing this and DashCommand appears to be crashing. I'll try to get a fix out for this in the next release so you can disconnect the interface while it is saving.

[martymonster]

Thanks for the response.