Anyone install 5.3?

[Alfio]

I have autopilot roll oscillations on our RV-9A.  Servos are 'summer of 2009' vintage, with less than 1 deg. of motion (slop) on the control surfaces with the servos locked.  Magnetometer is well calibrated. When I spoke to Dynon last year, they told me to wait for the new software release (Ver. 5.2). No joy.

Did anyone with similar issues install the Ver. 5.3 yet? I'm planning for maybe this weekend to try it out.

Meanwhile, has anybody(who has had similar autopilot anomalies) install the new version 5.3 and had the opportunity to test out the autopilot performance?

Thanks.

Alfio

 

[DBRV10]

We have a -10 and we have no roll issues at all.

The interesting thing for us was torque, and we needed a lot more, but the 7,8,9 seems to be lighter in the controls.

DB

 

[RVN128CE]

Yes 5.3 tested today RV-9A .9 test. Set the roll rate to zero, sens=9 Very nice in both nav & hdg.
Nice job Dynon!!

 

[dynonsupport]

Great to hear RVN128CE! That are the reports we're looking for!

 

[lindsayj]

I installed 5.3 Tuesday and flew with zero rate. AP would not respond to Hdg Bug. Put rate back to 3 degrees and it flies better than it did and rolls out pretty much on heading selected...better than before as it would overshoot about 10 degrees. Settings: torque 100, sens 17. RV-8A, D10A, SV 32 servos. AP installed last week.
Jack L

 

[godspeed]

RVN128CE , would you mind sharing or emailing me your settings , mine is brand new and not flown, RV9A, D-180, 32 servo's , 696 and 430 non waas ,ap74 & hs34 would love to have something to start from that is already working for you..
I do plan to install 5.3 before 1st flight and testing.
Danny

 

[lindsayj]

I installed 5.3 Tuesday and flew with zero rate. AP would not respond to Hdg Bug. Put rate back to 3 degrees and it flies better than it did and rolls out pretty much on heading selected...better than before as it would overshoot about 10 degrees. Settings: torque 100, sens 17. RV-8A, D10A, SV 32 servos. AP installed last week.
Jack L

My mistake. Tested again today at zero rate and it works fine, does not overbank, and rolls out within 2 degrees of the selected heading. Must have mistakenly rolled the heading bug more than 180 degrees the other day in which case the AP doesn't know which way to turn.
Jack L

 

[dynonsupport]

Jack, even when you cross that 180 degree mark, it should still choose a direction. It may well unbank the airplane and go the other way, but if you think you have a repeatable scenario that causes the AP to not track a selected bug value, please let us know.

 

[Alfio]

Have installed 5.3 in our RV-9A, and of course had to do some cross-country flying for test purposes. With 0 roll rate selected, the autopilot is now useable. No twitching and quite accurate in the direction (minimal wandering). Thanks guys.

Am looking forward to more autopilot selection parameters in the next firmware version. I have no doubt that Dynon can achieve rock solid performance as in the Trutrak autpilots over a highly divergent fleet of aircraft.

 

[Brantel]

Looks like Dynon has a winner in the roll axis!!!

Now if they can do the same for pitch....

Let me know if you need another beta tester Dynon!!!

 

[dedgemon]

updated last night and flew today (RV-8). I'd say the oscillations that I'd noticed while acquiring course are basically gone. Seems much more damped.

But now I'm having Nav source lost messages (and back to HDG mode) that I almost never had before. If its not one thing its another.

Any thoughts on the Nav source lost thing?

 

[dedgemon]

I just noticed a comment that the Nav source lost issue that existed in 5.1 was fixed in 5.2 (Indeed, I don't remember ever seeing it). So I wonder if this is a regression bug in 5.3.

What I'm seeing is a Nav source lost message and the AP74 pops back to HDG mode. The 696 is still locked on with about a million satellites. You can immediately punch the Nav button and it'll continue in Nav mode just fine. Maybe for a long while, maybe for a couple of minutes, seems somewhat random.

 

[dynonsupport]

There isn't a known bug there, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Which data output format are you using on your GPS?

 

[dedgemon]

Well, without going to the hangar I'll have to guess that its set to
TIS in / NMEA & VHF out but I'll have to check it. I'm running Garmin's latest software ver (3.1).

Note: that whatever the setting is, its been running that way with 5.2 also. I don't ever recall seeing the Nav source lost message with 5.2 and I'm seeing it frequently (every few minutes, random) with 5.3. The system flies fine, just goes to HDG mode and if I push the Nav button, right back into Nav with no hicups.

 

[rvmills]

Another data point to pass along. RV-6, D100, D10A, AP-74, 2-SV-32s. Baseline settings are Tq=100% (both), and sensitivity is 16 (pitch), 8 (roll).

I installed 5.3 just before going on a 2500NM X-C, and did note better performance in the roll axis. HDG was better than I'd seen in before (both in turns to headings and in maintaining headings). I have my roll rate set to 2.5 d/s, and forgot to mess with that setting to test it further...but it was working well as is). Pitch was what I typically see...usually well behaved, occasional oscilations (usually with bumps, very occasionally with no bumps).

Overall, very good performance.

Never saw the dual EFIS + AP-74 issue, before or after 5.3, even with all of them on DSAB continuously.

I did see those pesky NAV Source Off messages after 5.3 on that X-C, though less often. Only one between Reno and TX, and then 5 or 6 times on the way home. Far less than before, but still there. Sometimes it happens when I'm hitting or updating the "direct to" a fix (NAV SRC OFF pops up when I hit "direct to" then "enter" on the G396). Other times it'll happen out of the blue. Defaults to TRK, and hitting NAV will re-engage it in NAV right away, and turn off the warning.

Hope this helps continue to refine things in roll and pitch, and helps you find and extermintate that pesky (but not horrid) bug.

Thanks!

Cheers,
Bob

 

[dynonsupport]

Hi all,

We're for folks that have autopilots installed and flying, particularly D10/D100 series customers, who are running the latest firmware (5.3 currently), and have tried everything they can to dial in the autopilot - particularly in pitch - but aren't quite seeing the performance they would like. If this is you and:
-you're fairly technical - you understand how to use the Dynon Support Program to load firmware into your unit and you're comfortable with that process
-you're available to fly and iterate firmware and report back at least a few times over the coming weeks and months
-you're patient and fault-tolerant, and understand that testing "beta" firmware is an experimental thing

...then we want to hear from you. Please email betatest at dynonavionics dot com with the following information:
-airplane type
-dynon equipment, particularly, which servos you have
-roll axis setup:
servo type
short description of mounting method
all settings from the roll axis page in the ap setup menu
your performance notes/issues (in turbulence and smooth air if they're different)
what you've done so far (settings tweaked, results,etc) to try to dial it in
-pitch axis setup:
servo type
short description of mounting method
all settings from the roll axis page in the ap setup menu
your performance notes/issues (in turbulence and smooth air if they're different)
what you've done so far (settings tweaked, results,etc) to try to dial it in

Thanks!