Help! never stopping compass hdg rose - D10A

3dbuster

I love flying!
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Feb 13, 2017
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6
Hello to all the good people of the Dynon forums.

Few days from delivering a brand new plane with a new D10A with remote compass installed and after its first test flight, I encountered an issue with the compass and therefore with the autopilot.

The problem is that the compass rose seems to fluctuate a lot, or will not change at all for some degree despite the aircraft turning - this results in the autopilot trying to chase the HDG bug with increasing amount of displacement every time.

I initially believed it was the roll axis servo setting and spend two hours trying to fine tune with no improvement.

We then re-calibrated the compass and made sure both the MAGINC and MAGINT checked for our location as well as made sure the remote compass was detected and the latest version applied to the D10A - again with no luck.

The issue is mainly apparent when I try to utilize the HDG mode on the autopilot, as the aircraft is not equipped with a GPS, no Nav or Trk mode are available for us
Needless to say - the ALT mode works a treat.

The remote compass location was checked, and the installation was cross-checked to make sure its level and the unit is not moving it all.

I have recorded a short video showcasing the issue in the youtube link below.
https://youtu.be/KjappWEvxNs

The local avionics shop is not really sure what to do, so I would love to get any ideas and feedback

Thank you! :)
 

Dynon

Dynon Staff
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Jan 14, 2013
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Woodinville, WA
Where are you in the world, and what are the values that you used for the MAGINT and MAGINC? Also, note that you need to do the calibration after setting these numbers correctly. In other words, changing the values after a calibration won't have any effects.

Where is the compass in the aircraft? Is it away from all ferrous metal and power sources?
 

3dbuster

I love flying!
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Feb 13, 2017
Messages
6
Thanks for the quick reply!

I am based out of Melbourne, Australia
I set INC to -11 and INT to 59990

The D10A is installed on the panel of a LSA aircraft -see picture attached
 

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3dbuster

I love flying!
Joined
Feb 13, 2017
Messages
6
Quick Update - problem not yet resolved.

Had the Avionics company with me for four hours trying to re calibrate and to identify the issue. It definitely seems to be the compass/remote compass and mostly apparent while flying.
Taxing on the ground and stopping at a certain HDG the compass behaves great, however when flying the compass vary a lot in HDG and constantly moving!
We re did ground calibration after cross checking the settings with no improvement.

Please also see this video and let us know if this is normal
https://youtu.be/w6Oc-wNW_tg

Please Dynon - help us!
 

Bomar

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Jun 2, 2017
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When I lookup the magnetic inclination for Melbourne Australia, I get a value of -69.0 Where did you get -11 from ?

Your magnetic intensity value looks correct (59990)
 

Dynon

Dynon Staff
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Location
Woodinville, WA
What Bomar says. You want inclination, not declination, from the lookup tool. For your location, you want to use -69 for inclination, and 59990 for total intensity. After setting these correctly, do a new calibration.
 
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