Sectionals no longer clear and bright

[BalsaBat]

I have twin 10" HDX displays and a GTN650 in a "new" experimental with 40.5 hobbs hours. I normally keep a Seattle avionics sectional chart on the right screen, which up to now has been clear and sharp. However, now the display is too dim to read (even in the hanger), kind of "pinkish" in color, and seems a little blurred. If I swap panels, the dim sectional stays dim, i.e. just as dim as on the other screen. The EMS, PFD, and dynon maps seem fine on either screen. I first noticed the dim screen issue about when I loaded the last Seattle Avionics update, but I could just as easily have screwed up some obscure setup feature that i can't find. Dim offset seems to function, but not as the solution. I'm pretty new to this stuff, but it seems like there is more to go wrong than right.

Anyhow, any ideas what I screwed up?

Ted

 

[maartenversteeg]

Could it be that you have activated the weather overlay?

 

[BalsaBat]

Yes altogether possible --,I'll check in the morning. Is weather not compatible with the sectional? Now that you mention it, I don't think I have ever seen weather displayed at all, and that was going to be a question once I got to it and could honestly say "its not working" vs. "I'm too dumb to turn it on properly". I was thinking that weather is not received until at altitude, and since I have really only flown on clear days while just getting comfortable with flying the airplane, maybe there was no local weather to see.

 

[skysailor]

The weather is not received until the ADSB 472 sees the ground station towers. If the weather layer is not selected on, your map will look normal on the ground. If the weather layer is selected on the ground, the entire map will have a light purple hue although all other elements will be displayed (airports, airspace boundaries etc.). This purple hue goes away as the ADSB data becomes valid. I agree it is likely you turned on the Weather layer. From the main screen select MAP then look for a label of WEATHER to the right.

 

[airguy]

If weather is selected on, and you're on the ground without ADSB-IN weather data, this is very likely the cause. Once you take off and climb several hundred feet the ADSB should pick up the local weather data and the issue will clear itself. The local (regional) weather data populates first as a priority, then the full contiguous US populates. If you zoom out on the map page early in the flight you can watch this process happening as the data comes in - initially you'll have just a clear patch around you for a couple hundred miles for the regional data.

 

[BalsaBat]

Magic!! Thanks guys- that was it! Trying to figure it out, I spent 1-1/2 hours in the airplane (with aux power supply) going through menus, programming, etc. and a couple hours in the manual, and didn't see any clear reason for the pink/purple screen. I hadn't much fretted not seeing weather yet, since as I said, it's always been clear skies so far in phase 1 when I flew --- and I had enough other things to contend with. But I now recall turning weather on, hoping to see something on the next flight, which as life would have it was 3 weeks later. I have to wonder what on earth the Dynon guys hoped to convey by making the screen go to crap, but usually there is a reason (if not a great one) for such decisions. I also wonder why the map related choices are spread between the "menu" and "map" screens -- especially with lot of unused real estate on the "map" screen, but that's one I can live with. Of course, I did pick up a few other items I didn't know, so the time wasn't entirely lost. Thanks again!

 

[swatson999]

You may have hit on something they should look at...the overlay for missing weather data is not a problem when displaying the Dynon map data, but maybe it looks really bad overlaid on a sectional. Would be a pretty easy fix to use a more transparent setting for sectionals, I'd guess. Suggest it to them, see what they say?

That said, once you know what it is, it's one button press to turn it off, so maybe not worth a lot of effort to recode.

 

[skysailor]

There is a valid reason for the purple shading you see. The shading can occur in flight for any areas where ADSB data is no longer current/valid. The weather depiction is not removed in these areas but you know the information is no longer current in the area of the purple tint. Far easier than trying to provide an update time which must be checked for each area of your screen. I consider it to be a safety enhancement.

 

[BalsaBat]

Ahhhh... As I said, there must be a reason. If it was always a full screen shading, then the simple flag that weather is not available would suffice. But if you can have PARTIAL shading for specific area, it makes sense. Just goes to show you need to be as smart (or almost as smart) as your equipment. And now I know how to turn it off.

 

[swatson999]

Ahhhh... As I said, there must be a reason. If it was always a full screen shading, then the simple flag that weather is not available would suffice. But if you can have PARTIAL shading for specific area, it makes sense. Just goes to show you need to be as smart (or almost as smart) as your equipment. And now I know how to turn it off.

And might I suggest thoroughly reading the User's Manual? All the info you need is in there, including how to turn on and off the weather overlay.

 

[BalsaBat]

And might I suggest thoroughly reading the User's Manual? All the info you need is in there, including how to turn on and off the weather overlay.

Well, yes, it is there and I stand chastised. Knowing how to turn the weather overlay on/off was not the problem to me. It was knowing what would happen with no weather input, i.e -- on the ground. And yes, that is there in the manual, too. And going back over one of the youtube videos that covered the topic actually showed it on the screen with a brief mention that I missed on two earlier viewings. But sometimes when I read a passage without sufficient bqckground, or go to the wrong sections, I can miss key points and not know I missed them. I had thought that was sort of the purpose of this forum-- not just for actual failures and "expert level" questions. Anyhow, not understanding the "issue"(i.e. was this possibly a system fault?) was making me reluctant to fly, and that delayed actually getting the signal that would have cleared the screen and cued me as to the possible cause.

 

[airguy]

Well, yes, it is there and I stand chastised. Knowing how to turn the weather overlay on/off was not the problem to me. It was knowing what would happen with no weather input, i.e -- on the ground. And yes, that is there in the manual, too. And going back over one of the youtube videos that covered the topic actually showed it on the screen with a brief mention that I missed on two earlier viewings. But sometimes when I read a passage without sufficient bqckground, or go to the wrong sections, I can miss key points and not know I missed them. I had thought that was sort of the purpose of this forum-- not just for actual failures and "expert level" questions. Anyhow, not understanding the "issue"(i.e. was this possibly a system fault?) was making me reluctant to fly, and that delayed actually getting the signal that would have cleared the screen and cued me as to the possible cause.

You are supposed to be so intensely eaten up with excitement and curiosity about your new toys that you will read and re-read everything about them repeatedly. You will watch every video available and go to every fly-in with that vendor booth available and make a general nuisance of yourself until they escort you out. You will obsess over this new toy to the extent that you ignore your job, your family, even personal hygiene. You will end up broke, divorced, living under a bridge and smelling like my dog. Anything less than this, and you are not a TRUE believer....

 

[Rhino]

Don't sweat it BalsaBat. This forum exists for questions like yours. But there have been some questions asked in this forum in the past, about information that was far more prominently obvious in the manuals than yours, so naturally there is going to be at least some frustration on the part of those who try to offer assistance here. It just kind of goes with the territory. Besides, swatson was offering that as a suggestion, not an admonition. That’s why he used the smiley face. Sometimes it's very difficult, or even impossible, to get intent or inference across in a forum post. That's pretty much been the case since the written word was invented, and the internet has just made it glaringly obvious. It's not you.

 

[swatson999]

Rhino is correct, I didn't mean to come across as chastising you. It was simply a suggestion, one that I think everyone should follow, to read the manuals for anything on your aircraft...engine, prop, each piece of avionics, etc....front to back before using whatever it is, and then referencing the manuals when trying to troubleshoot a problem or set up a system. It's not just this forum, but pretty much every one I'm on, where quite a few people will sign up and with their very first posts ask questions about things that are clearly spelled out in the manual. Oftentimes they haven't even cracked the spine on the docs, and sometimes they didn't bother to get them *at all*.

We've all had issues or questions that stumped us, and we couldn't find in the manuals (sometimes they're there, and we missed them or misread them), and *that's* the time to post a question (or, if necessary, call the support line at the company). Your situation was kind of a corner case and was not, in fact, clear in the user's guide. So apologies if I came across as lecturing you.

 

[Dynon]

You are supposed to be so intensely eaten up with excitement and curiosity about your new toys that you will read and re-read everything about them repeatedly. You will watch every video available and go to every fly-in with that vendor booth available and make a general nuisance of yourself until they escort you out. You will obsess over this new toy to the extent that you ignore your job, your family, even personal hygiene. You will end up broke, divorced, living under a bridge and smelling like my dog. Anything less than this, and you are not a TRUE believer....