power-up failure SV1000 - NOT firmware 3.1.1

[chrisbom]

I got my Skyview in March 2011 with firmware 2.6. Until my new airplane arrives, I did benchtesting the unit and setup all required parameters for EMS. Meanwhile I made some updates, so it had firmware 3.1 (not 3.1.1) installed.
I did several flights with the Skyview (SV-1000).
These components were installed initially:
- SV-ADHRS
- SV-GPS
- SV-EMS
- SV-XPDR
- Serial port connection of Garmin GPS, Zaon etc.
- NO SV-BAT at this moment, due to space requirements!!!
On 17.July2011 I took care about the battery-installation, also testing better places for the ADHRS. During that process, I had to switch off the SV1000 several times, NOW with SV-BAT connected.
After may be 5 times, the unit shows following failure:

- Power to SV1000 switched on
- 20 seconds black screen but fans running
- than white screen for 5 sec
- than powering down
- than the same procedure again
- after switching off the power, nothing happens, because it runs from the back-up battery

Sending in the unit, got back a repair-unit:
- same behaviour with firmware 3.0.
- without SV-BAT connected no issues!!!
- as soon as SV-BAT is connected, system f.…-up at next powering up.
BUT


- This time the screen shows white with several coloured stripes and remains on after cycling up and down 3 times.


Is that behavior solved when updating to firmware 3.1.1???


Background Information:

Could it be, that there is a problem with power-switching to SV-BAT of the SV-1000:

In my airplane all the avionics is connected to an avionics-bus and switched on by an Avionics-Master Switch.
The Avionics-Master solenoid is powered by the Master-Switch – so this Master has to be ON to activate the Avionics-Switch.
Additionally the Master powers an electric capacitor (ELCO) which prevents power-peacs destroying the avionics, also power lost to the avionics by high power demand (my assumption). Consequently, when power is lost due to failure of the battery or when the Master is switched off (while the Avionics-Master is ON), the power decreases slowly.

When the Master was switched off (with Avionics-Master ON), I recognized, that it takes several seconds, before the SV1000 shows the counter to shut-down and the SV-BAT takes over - thats because the SV1000 still sucks power out of the capacitor.
After powering up again, the SV didn`t power up and shows that behaviour mentioned before.

In no way the unit should fail even when power is decreasing slowly!!!

The new firmware 3.1.1 was available on 21. July 2011, so no chance for me to load it up before.


Chris

 

[dynonsupport]

This is the exact problem that 3.1.1 solves. Unfortunately, if your display is not powering on again, it will need to be fixed again. It took us a while to figure out the cause and solution here, so there are a few of you that have gotten back displays which have been promptly damaged again by the voltage transients in certain aircraft configurations. Give us a call at 435-402-0433, and please do mention that this isn't your first failure of the type. We'll try to help you out in whatever way we can to get you back up and running quickly.

 

[chrisbom]

If it will be fixed with firmware 3.1.1 we all could be happy!
Also I`am happy, that this failure doesn`t happen on an tiny Island somewhere in Croatia with postal-service once a year, no ferry-service so unable to transfer the airplane back home.  
Usually you will switch off the SV by use of button 1 or the Avionics-Master Switch. In  that rare case where you switch it of by use of the Master or just pulling the Battery-Disconnect (intentional or not) - you get this failure and lose all your instruments when you restart the unit.

BUT are you really really shure that it is fixed with 3.1.1???
Presently my SV1000 takes a long journey over the ocean and I don`t know when it will be back - during this time no flying because no engine-instruments  
So, in no way this should happen again!
How long it will take to fix that problem???

Unfortunatelly I got knowledge of the new update AFTER that failure happens.

Anyway, thanks for the quick support!

 

[Jamie]

firmware 3.1 (not 3.1.1) installed.


The unit shows following failure:

- Power to SV1000 switched on
- 20 seconds black screen but fans running
- than white screen for 5 sec
- than powering down
- than the same procedure again



This time the screen shows white with several coloured stripes

Is that behavior solved when updating to firmware 3.1.1 ?

*****
Mine now has the same fault :-[

The fault happened when I was looking in the setup menu. The screen had been running for around 10 mins while I did an export data option to USB.

My setup at the time, both 10" screens on, ems, adahrs, and backup battery connected to screen 1 ( the screen that failed ) bus volts 12.2, and the battery was in charge mode. I had the auto pilot servos power OFF, it was only after I turn them on, within 2 mins the screen went from the normal menu to fade out and then reboot with white screen and vert coloured lines. Firmware 3.1 installed.

I guess I need to return my unit also ?

From Dynon blog
"This is not considered to be a safety of flight issue, as the damage that is caused by this issue only occurs to SkyView displays as they are being powered on. No in-flight failures or degradations in performance have been experienced due to this issue"

Mine had been running for over 10 mins, not a power up fault.

I do hope Dynon can fix it fast and get it back to me in Australia soon.

 

[chrisbom]

Hi Jamie,
my failure only happens during the next power-up, so when I switch it off and the power-change to SV-BAT takes place. Am I right, that during normal operation your screen turns off by it-self?
If yes, this failure is different to that one I had.
In my opinion all the failures are not an issue concerning flight safety, BUT my airplane is now on ground for nearly 1 month!
If this would happen when not at my homebase, I would run into big problems, because no engine instruments - no flying!
If I buy equipment for 7.000 EUR, failures like this would be NO option!

BUT!
Presently Dynon sees that problem and do there best to help their customers out. So I am confident, that they will find a way to help you out.

Chris

 

[Jamie]

Hello Chris,

I had another look at your first post and seen,

"This time the screen shows white with several coloured stripes and remains on after cycling up and down 3 times"



I didnt try this at the time, so of to the field and on the second or third power down and back on the screen worked again. YAY   ;D

What changes I made.
1 ) screen two removed as it was the only working screen left.
2) remove backup batt from screen one.
3) turn auto pilot power off.
4) Put a charger onto the aircraft battery, as I noted the buss volts at time of fault was only around 12.1 V ( note also that the B/u Batt was still connected then )

After screen 1 was now working again , I was able to load 3.1.1 onto it, then refit screen 2 and load 3.1.1 also on it, then turn servos on and upgrade them also to 3.1.1
I still have not put the B/U batt back on screen one yet.
i have since turned the power back onto the servos and they seem ok now.
Im now going back to the field to see if it still is all working or not. I will post a reply if I still have faults.

"Am I right, that during normal operation your screen turns off by it-self"

Yes- the first time it turned off by itself, was while I was in the setup menu pages doing a backup/export data. Screen changed into very bright white all over, then rebooted, just back to white screens.

Hope you get yours working Chris,

all the best,
jamie

 

[trevpond]

HI Guys,

I had several failures, all caused by the Backup Battery. Disconnect it and at least 70% of your failure problems will disappear! Since I disconnected the battery, the new unit has been perfect. (touch wood)

Trev

 

[Jamie]

Update/notes, SW 3.1.1 installed on both. Screen 1 is about 1 year older than screen 2 ( same parts inside ??? )
With the backup Batt still disconnected. I have not tried it re-connected as yet.

Screen 1 needs power cycle on/off about 2 - 3 times before it with boot up correctly.( Holding down button 1,2&5 for reboot ) Screen 2 seems to always boot correctly first go. Screen 2 has never had the white screen of death, only screen 1 has.

Once the screens had booted up ok , we left the screens on for around 3 -4 hrs at at time and had AP servo power on for around 1 hr. The units did not fault once they had booted up in this 3 -4 hr test.

For the test I had the aircraft battery on a charger over the 3 -4 time frame. With all other electrical items turned off, I did not that 2 x skyviews turned on, they draw 4 amp, with both AP sv32 servos also powered on, total was now 5 amp.

I have had no reply from Dynon supports Email I sent as yet.

 

[dynonsupport]

Jamie,

Can you describe the sequence a bit more? Are you saying that you need to power cycle the screens 2-3 times before they come up, or that they reboot 2-3 times themselves before the system eventually works correctly. If the former, what happens to the displays when they fail to boot?

Also, we don't at this point have nominal weekend technical support, though sometimes someone will pop in on the forum when they're missing the workplace too much on the weeekends

 

[Jamie]

Im going back to the field in a few hrs time and will give another update.
Its only screen 1 that plays up. Screen 2 ( co-pilot side ) always boots.

Screen 1, turn aircraft buss power on, dynon starts to boot with software ver and misc info, this is where it stops before even showing the big dynon logo, the screen will just be all black, or white with some vertical lines. I leave it sit for a few mins and it does nothing, so I then hold 1,2 & 5 for a reboot. if it doesnt boot again, I redo the 1,2&5 reset, then on the second or third go it will go past the dynon logo and show EFIS page.

Backup Batt still disconnected. I will take notes when im back at the field, and post update later today.

I have since had an Email from you also, will keep you updated with my trouble shooting.

 

[Jamie]

Just got back from the field.
Here is what happens.
screen 2 always boots fine.
screen 1 , power on, dynon logo, then software ver , misc checks, then white screen with vertical multi color lines. It will just stay like that if nothing is done. So I then have to reboot ( holding buttons 1,2 & 5 ) then it re-boots to normal efis screen.

What do you think I should do now Dynon support ?

 

[mmarien]

That sounds similar to my boot since I updated to 3.1.1 and disconnected the backup battery.

I was booting, getting stuck and using the 1,2,5 reboot function. When I started the engine SV rebooted by itself. The last couple of times I flew I didn't wait for the SV to fully boot as it was rebooting on engne start anyhow. It doesn't get stuck when I start the engine before SV fully boots. Still takes extra long to boot, has scary vertical lines on right half of display but boots normally. I'm starting just after I see the Dynon logo come up.

3.1.1 with the backup battery connected was booting normally but serial port 1 (GTX327) wasn't working.

 

[dynonsupport]

Jamie - That doesn't sound like a known issue that is in 3.1.1, or that we expect 3.2 will change. So that might actually be a hardware issue. One more thing to check. Are you getting past the database load part of the boot (as all the lines of text blast by). If not, there might be some corruption there. So you might try removing the databases under SETUP > LOCAL DISPLAY SETUP > DATABASES and reloading them. All are available from our site except for the Jep database (if you're using it). The Jep database may reload after you've removed it. If it doesn't, you'll need to give Jep support a call so that you can download the installed cycle again (if it won't load, the USB stick needs to be reprogrammed).

 

[Jamie]

Jamie - That doesn't sound like a known issue that is in 3.1.1, or that we expect 3.2 will change. So that might actually be a hardware issue. One more thing to check. Are you getting past the database load part of the boot (as all the lines of text blast by). If not, there might be some corruption there. So you might try removing the databases under SETUP > LOCAL DISPLAY SETUP > DATABASES and reloading them. All are available from our site except for the Jep database (if you're using it). The Jep database may reload after you've removed it. If it doesn't, you'll need to give Jep support a call so that you can download the installed cycle again (if it won't load, the USB stick needs to be reprogrammed).

Screen 1 used to be the first screen to boot up, now it take about 20 second before it gets going and screen 2 has already finished with efis data on screen.

Screen 1 shows dynon logo then software ver & database files then white screen of death. ( 1,2&5 reboot ) now it boots to efis data.

Im just around the corner to start my phase1 flying so I dont want to send the screen in just yet. :-/

 

[jakej]

I'm having the same issues as Jamie, with/without batteries connected, on a customers plane. That 'white' screen scares me ;D

Jake J

 

[jakej]

I'm having the same issues as Jamie, with/without batteries connected, on a customers plane.  That 'white' screen scares me  ;D

Jake J

Should add these symptoms are with vers 3.1.1

 

[Jamie]

Hi Jake & Dynon,

I will be back at the field later today and will try and get a video of what happens.

I think screen 1 ( primary ) is searching for other devices or has a corrupt file that times out on first boot up, as it takes twice as long to boot than screen2.

Q for Dynon, would you have a restore to default files you could send me via email ( pm me ) and I could try again and load all my data back in.

Would my exported files of my setup be ok to re install, as I have made changes to sensor mapping and ems layout.

How do I get a screen capture picture, as I have seen others post ?

 

[Jamie]

Here is an update of the skyview boot problem on screen1.
This is a 9 min video with resets, to final boot up to show Efis.
Backup batt still not connected sw 3.1.1 installed on both.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2hXX_dV5AE[/media]

Once both screens booted up to show efis info all looked good for up to 3 - 4 hrs on our testing until today while in flight screen 1 went into the white screen of death. 1,2 &5 reset got it back online.
Before the lockup screen 2 was full EMS, when screen1 locked up, screen 2 would not show anything but ems.

This post is to help anyone else with the same problem that I have work it out. I know Dynon will help me fix this problem.

 

[jakej]

Jamie, DS

I have done a lot of testing in the last 24 hrs with some interesting results, in a certain config of screen/battery positions all is well (ie we haven't done any long flight tests yet) so will give more details in the next day or two as I'm traveling at moment.

Jake J

 

[jakej]

Jamie

Please pm me your contact numbers, I'll call you when I get home.

Jake J