D10 Compass gone crazy!!

[DBRV10]

I have an EFIS D10 that is 4 years old and has been updated to the latest applicable software 1.13 I think it was, anyway I have not performed a recalibration of the internal compass yet however I have found that in the past the compass behaved quite OK not calibrated, however now I think it will be necessary.

What I have observed is that when doing a steep turn of greater than 30 degrees, the compass loses the plot altogether. you can do a 360 degree turn and all the way through it is anything up to 180 degrees out and not until you roll out level again does it eventually recover.

Has anyone else seen this before?

I assume I will need to do another recalibration procedure however I would like to understand exactly what I have just seen before moving on.

I am just about to buy a complete panel of dynon gear for my RV-10 so anything I can learn now to maximise success with the new project is going to be worthwhile.

Cheers

David

 

[Etienne]

What happens during the calibration procedure is that you set the angle in the vertical plane between the magnetic flux lines and the ground. (The method of getting that value is in the manual and on the Dynon website)

With it in an uncalibrated state is that the compass assumes a specific angle between the ground and the flux lines (for arguments sake, lets say that they're parallel) and if you're flying near one of the magnetic poles (as in not at the equator) this angle becomes significant when not in level flight.

A calibration procedure takes 10 mins... Try it out and if it's still not fixed, then I'd suggest doing a software upgrade. If it's an external compass (EDC-10) then have a look at the service bulletin that was released and see if it applies to you. Maybe do that anyway! Also check where the compass is sitting. If it has ferrous metal pipes or structure nearby (within a 1m or so) they will bend the Earth's magnetic field into all sorts of weird shapes. The calibration procedure can account for most pieces of metal that are nearby and don't move relative to the compass. Odd things like heavy current carrying wires will cause intermittent errors with the heading reading.

Hope that helps explain what's going on. But really, do a calibration, it's quick, easy and will probably solve the problem!

 

[DBRV10]

Did a calibration and its not much better if at all.

Might need another go at it.

If anyone else on here has a D10 without the external compass I would be interested to know what happens if the do a 45 degree roll thru 360 degrees and if the compass is stable.

DB