SafeSky overheating on iPad Mini. Especially when combined with SkyDemon

English
1

Guys,

do You also have problems with iPad overheating while flying with SkyDemon and SafeSky connected together.

I had this problem on older iPad Mini 4, changed to latest Mini 7 recently.

Now while sun is out again even in Norway, I can again feel the heat and experience the whole system slow down due to overheating.

When I run SkyDemon alone, it’s normal.

SafeSky - more heat than normal.

Both - then the overheating starts.

I’m worried that when in southern Europe in summer - that solution might be totally unusable.

2

I don’t have any experience with the iPad but suspect processing is being pushed quite hard. Are you running both apps in split screen mode?

Maybe try selecting the dark radar display mode in Safesky to see if it makes any difference?

Or minimise Safesky so only SkyDemon is running and use SkyDemon to display detected aircraft?

3

That’s how I’m using it. SafeSky in the background, just sending data to SkyDemon. SkyDemon for displaying traffic on top of chart.

Even my budget android phone (which is not as powerful as new iPad) is handling it better. It seems like optimization problem of SafeSky on iPads that causes it to use a lot of resources and causing overheating.

Wish the developers could check it and optimize if possible. Safesky seems to use a lot of resources just sitting in the background, providing GDL90 data strings to SkyDemon without actually displaying anything on the screen as the SkyDemon is doing all the hard work.

4

Hi @BartH !

This is most likely due to the continuous use of the GPS chip and antenna at a high rate in SafeSky. Even in the background, this is one of the main contributors to battery drain and heat generation, and when combined with SkyDemon it can lead to thermal throttling, especially in warm or sunny conditions.

Overheating can also vary quite a lot between devices, even newer ones.

We’re actively working on optimizations to reduce resource usage and heat, and improvements will come in an upcoming version.