XC-Tracer Mini II User manual

User Manual XC Tracer Mini II Rev 02 4.6.2020
User Manual XC Tracer Mini II

User Manual XC Tracer Mini II Rev 02 4.6.2020
Quick Start Guide
XC Tracer Mini II is an acoustic variometer powered by a solar cell. Whilst you’re waiting to take off,
point the device at the sun in such a way that the solar cell catches as much sunlight as possible.
Use the velcro to attach XC Tracer Mini II to the shoulder strap of your harness, or to your cockpit,
or onto your thigh. (NB. Do not attach it to your helmet or hang it round your neck using a cord!).
Position the device in such a way that the solar cell catches as much sunlight as possible during the
flight.
Switch on XC Tracer Mini II by pressing and holding the red button until you hear beep-beep. The
vario will make some beeping sounds, and the white LED will start blinking every 2-3 seconds. Don’t
worry if you forget to switch on XC Tracer Mini II before taking off, you can switch it on whilst flying.
The vario won’t beep on the ground, but as soon as you’re flying then XC Tracer Mini II will indicate
the lift / sink rate with beeping tones. XC Tracer Mini II has four volume settings: mute, gentle,
medium and loud. You can change the volume setting with a short push of the red button, always
cycling from mute –gentle - medium –loud –mute –gentle etc.
Once you’ve landed, turn off XC Tracer Mini II by pressing and holding the red button until you hear
beep-beep (after approximately 3 seconds). XC Tracer Mini II will then switch off and the LED will
stop blinking.
WARNING: If necessary, charge the battery with the USB cable on the PC or on a 5V charger. Only
a 5V connection / charger may be used, do not use Fast Charge / Quick Charge / Super Charge
/ Turbo Power or whatever. If a voltage higher than 5V is used while charging, the electronics will
be destroyed.
We accept no responsibility for damage which occurs when not using the correct voltage for
charging!

User Manual XC Tracer Mini II Rev 02 4.6.2020
Introduction
XC Tracer Mini II is an acoustic variometer powered by a solar cell. The lag-free indication of lift /
sink makes it much easier to find and core thermals than when using a conventional variometer.
XC Tracer Mini II has a built-in solar cell that delivers 3x more energy than is needed for running the
device (when oriented perpendicular to the sun). The surplus energy is stored in a lithium polymer
battery. The variometer will run for 8-12 hours with a fully charged battery without any sun,
depending on the sound level. The built-in battery can be charged over the Micro USB connector
should this ever be necessary.
Normally there is enough energy available from the sun to power XC Tracer Mini II and to even
charge the battery while you are flying. Please don’t expose the variometer unnecessary to sun
light, and please take care that the vario does not get warmer than your hands.
Important: XC Tracer Mini II charges the battery even when it’s not switched on!
Mounting
XC Tracer Mini II uses data from a 9-DOF IMU (9 Degrees Of Freedom Inertial Measurement Unit),
and from a pressure sensor, to compute the real-time climb rate and altitude, avoiding the
undesired time lag that conventional variometers suffer (due to data filtering). For this reason
mount your XC Tracer Mini II in such a way that it moves as little as possible whilst you’re flying.
It’s therefore important that the XC Tracer Mini II isn’t dangling from a cord or attached to your
helmet. The best approach is to attach XC Tracer Mini II to your cockpit, or on the shoulder strap of
your harness, or on your thigh.
But when attaching XC Tracer Mini II, please remember that it needs to have the best possible view
of the sun in order to maximize solar charging.
Switch On / Switch Off
Turn XC Tracer Mini II on by pressing and holding the red button until you hear beep-beep. Next the
battery charge status is indicated by a series of beeps (this feature is described further below).
Finally XC Tracer Mini II makes a beep-beep-beeeeeep and it’s now ready for flight.
Turning XC Tracer Mini II off is just the same - press and hold the red button until you hear beep-
beep.
If you forget to switch off the vario after a flight then it will switch off automatically if it hasn’t
detected lift or sink for 1 minute.

User Manual XC Tracer Mini II Rev 02 4.6.2020
Battery Indicator
After switching the device on, the battery charge status is indicated with a sequence of short
beeps:
5x Beep means that the battery is charged 95% or more.
4x Beep means that the battery is charged 75% or more.
3x Beep means that the battery is charged 55% or more.
2x Beep means that the battery is charged 35% or more.
1x Beep means that the battery is charged 15% or more.
When the battery is less than 15% charged you will hear a constant beep for one second after
switching the device on.
XC Tracer Mini II will make a beep-beep-beeeeeep after indicating the battery charge –this means
it’s now ready for flight.
Energy Management
Normally the solar cell delivers enough energy to power XC Tracer Mini II and charge the battery at
the same time when flying. But on occasion the device might slowly discharge during a flight if it’s
been in your shadow for long periods, or if the sun is low, or if the sky is overcast etc. Perhaps the
next flight might be different, with enough sunshine to power the device and charge the battery;
however it’s always a good idea to switch off the device immediately after landing.
Should it ever be necessary you can charge XC Tracer Mini II using a Micro USB cable. It takes
approximately 2 hours to fully charge the battery so it's best to leave it charging overnight.
WARNING: attempting to charge your XC Tracer Mini II by placing it in hot sunshine when not flying
may result in it overheating and damaging the battery any other components!
WARNING: If necessary, charge the battery with the USB cable on the PC or on a 5V charger. Only
a 5V connection / charger may be used, do not use Fast Charge / Quick Charge / Super Charge
/ Turbo Power or whatever. If a voltage higher than 5V is used while charging, the electronics will
be destroyed.
We accept no responsibility for damage which occurs when not using the correct voltage for
charging!
Automatic Switch-Off
Automatic switch off is disabled during the first 15 minutes after switching XC Tracer Mini II on,
however after that it will turn itself off if it hasn't detected lift or sink for 1 minute –ie. after you’ve
landed. In addition, low-voltage detection will switch the device off if the battery voltage drops below
3.3V.

User Manual XC Tracer Mini II Rev 02 4.6.2020
Adjusting The Volume
XC Tracer Mini II has 4 volume settings: Mute, gentle, medium and loud. You can change the
volume setting with a short push of the red button, always from mute –gentle - medium –loud –
mute –gentle etc.
XC Tracer Mini II Configuration File
Connect XC Tracer Mini II to a computer using a Micro USB Cable and once connected, switch the
device on by briefly pressing the red button until you hear a beep-beep-beep. XC Tracer Mini II is now
running in USB-MSD (Mass Storage Device) mode. XC Tracer Mini II’s internal Micro SD Card will
appear as an external drive in Windows Explorer or the Mac Finder. On the SD Card you will find a
PDF copy of the user manual, and also the XC_TRACER_MINI.TXT configuration file. Editing this file
in Notepad (Windows) or Text Editor (Mac) allows you to adjust XC Tracer Mini II’s settings. The
various options are described below:
# XC Tracer Mini II Configuration File
serialNumber=90612F5278AA
Serial number of the variometer
firmwareVersion=XC_Tracer_Mini_II_R01
Indicates the device’s firmware version..
reset=no
Setting reset=yes resets XC Tracer Mini II to the factory default settings. In order for this to work all
the entries below reset=yes must be deleted, otherwise the same settings will be read in again.
Reset=no is the default setting.
# create your own vario tone settings below
beepOnlyWhenFlying=yes
When this is set XC Tracer Mini II will be silent before takeoff. This is very helpful when you have
configured some kind of a thermal sniffer. With beepOnlyWhenFlying=yes the variometer will be
silent until XC Tracer Mini II detects a climb/sink rate of +/- 0.75m/s for roughly 2-3 seconds.
With beepOnlyWhenFlying=no the variometer will beep not only in flight, but also when you walk or
move.
setVolume=2
There are four volume settings, 0-3. With this option you set the volume that the vario will use for
beeping. When beepOnlyWhenFlying=yes is set then the vario will be silent until you fly. Once you’re
flying the vario will beep with the volume that you have set. Remember though, that you can change
the volume during flight with a short press of the red button.
dampingFactor=0.00

User Manual XC Tracer Mini II Rev 02 4.6.2020
Here you can set a number from 0 to 10. 0 is no damping, the vario reacts very fast. But if this is
too fast for you then you can play with this damping factor. 10 is like an old acoustic vario with 1-2
seconds of timelag.
ClimbToneOnThreshold=0.2
With this setting the vario will begin to beep when the climb rate is higher than 0.2m/s. When you
want to use a thermal sniffer then you can set ClimbToneOnThreshold=-0.5 for example. In this
case the vario will begin to beep when the sink rate is less than -0.5m/s. In this way you can adjust
the beeping tone so that you know when you’re flying in lifting air, despite the fact that you’re
actually sinking gently. This can be helpful to find and core thermals in weak conditions.
ClimbToneOffThreshold=0.1
With this setting the vario will stop beeping when the climb rate is below 0.1m/s. You can also use
negative values here, for example -0.51m/s when you use a thermal sniffer.
SinkToneOnThreshold=-3.0
The sink tone will be activated when the sink rate is below -3m/s.
SinkToneOffThreshold=-3.0
The sink tone will be deactivated when the sink rate is less than -3m/s.
tone=-10.0,200
tone=-3.0,280
tone=-0.51,300
tone=-0.5,300,800,5
tone=0.09,510,600,5
tone=0.1,510,600,50
tone=1.16,579,527,50
tone=2.67,698,450,50
tone=4.24,824,360,50
tone=6.0,1037,283,50
tone=8.0,1314,219,50
tone=10.0,1661,190,50
You must define exactly 12 tones. Additional tones will be deleted from the configuration file, and
missing tones will be complemented with values stored in the Eeprom. The tones must be defined
ascending from tone 1 of -10m/s to tone 10m/s of tone 12.
Important: Please avoid using exactly the same climb rate on adjacent tones as it will create
problems.

User Manual XC Tracer Mini II Rev 02 4.6.2020
tone=1.16,579,527,50 means that with a climb rate of 1.16m/s the vario will beep with a
frequency of 579Hz, that the complete tone interval will last 527ms, and that the tone will be
audible for 50% of the tone interval. This is a typical tone that is used when indicating climbing.
tone=-3.0,280 means that with a sink rate of -3.0m/s a tone of 280Hz will be emitted. As soon as
the sink rate changes the tone frequency also changes, depending on the configuration. It‘s a good
idea to only set sink rate and frequency for the sink alarm, and not set tone interval and duty cycle.
This creates a nicer sink tone (not that a sink tone is ever nice!)
You can create your own tone settings using the tone simulator on www.xctracer.com, however you
can also copy and paste other people's tone settings to the configuration file.
XC Tracer Mini II doesn't actually save the new configuration into its internal memory until it starts
up in normal flight mode. So, press the red button briefly to unmount / eject the device from your
computer, disconnect it from the USB cable, then turn XC Tracer Mini II on as normal.
Important: Always close the configuration file before you unmount / eject XC Tracer Mini II!!!

User Manual XC Tracer Mini II Rev 02 4.6.2020
XC Tracer Mini II Firmware Update
Connect XC Tracer Mini II to a computer using a Micro USB Cable and once connected, switch the
device on by briefly pressing the red button until you hear a beep-beep-beep. XC Tracer Mini II is now
running in USB-MSD (Mass Storage Device) mode. XC Tracer Mini II’s internal Micro SD Card will
appear as an external drive in Windows Explorer or the Mac Finder. Download the newest firmware
for XC Tracer Mini II V1.0 from www.xctracer.com and copy the new firmware using drag and drop
to the SD card. Now press the red button briefly and the new firmware will start to be installed.
During installation XC Tracer Mini II will make a few beeps, then delete the firmware file from the SD
card and finally switch off. The new firmware is now installed and the device is now ready to use.
Important: The information about the firmware version will only be updated once the device has
been started up in normal flight mode.
If the firmware you copy to the SD card is the same version as the one that is already installed then
XC Tracer Mini II will simply delete the firmware from the SD card. It’s impossible to install incorrect
firmware on the XC Tracer Mini II –all that happens is that the incompatible firmware remains on
the SD card waiting to be deleted by the user.
Troubleshooting
In the rare event that XC Tracer Mini II doesn’t respond when you push the red button, you can
perform a hard-reset by pressing and holding the red button for approximately 1 minute. The
battery will then get disconnected from the electronics. After that you can restart XC Tracer Mini II
in flight mode, and the device will be functional again.
Warranty
XC Tracer grants a 24 month warranty for material and workmanship. Unsuitable or improper use
(for example strong impact, water landing, opened enclosure, software modification etc.) normal
wear and tear (battery) are excluded from the guarantee.
Technical specification
Time-lag free indication of climb / sink rate
Extremely easy operation
Firmware update by Drag & Drop
User configurable acoustics / tone simulator at www.xctracer.com
State of the art electronics including a 9-DOF IMU and mems pressure sensor
Solar cell with 22.5% efficiency
Runtime with fully charged battery and without sunshine 20h,
Size: 44.5 x 44.5 x 16.5 mm
Weight 32g