Jim8JD
I love flying!
Recently when I powered up my D1000T it came up with Boot Error - Please Restart - Contact Dynon Avionics if problem persists (photo attached). The unit powered down and restarted a couple times and hung with the same message at the top of the display with the Dynon logo on the screen. More attempts the next day found the problem was solid and the unit was dead in the water and couldn't be booted up. I contacted Dynon Avionics support and they issued a RMA. I shipped the unit to them and they diagnosed, repaired the problem and charged me the fixed rate out of warranty repair fee. I talked to support yesterday to understand the nature of the problem that was found and was told SV software/firmware is stored on a SolidStateDisk (SSD). The SSD had been experiencing data errors over time and had reached a threshold that had been set in the code, indicating a malfunction or failure is likely in the near future, which triggered the hard Boot Error message and halted boot. Support replaced the SSD, reloaded the firmware and the unit tested good. They return shipped it to me.
Background and Food for Thought:
My RV6A has one 10" SV Touch unit in the panel, so this hard boot error grounded me for 2 weeks without warning. More importantly I have recently taken 2500 and 3000 nm x/c trips. If this Boot Error had happened at startup in Ohio or Iowa, I would have been faced with a decision whether to fly back to Tucson without EMS data. I have other backup Nav devices (phone and tablet), but there is no backup for EMS data. This is a case where having dual SV's wouldn't have helped. Since the primary SV couldn't boot up, the EMS data couldn't be displayed on a 2nd unit, since EMS data only comes into the primary unit if my understanding is correct.
Given the nature of this problem I would have preferred to have received advanced warning of the SSD problem via a message at boot time, that I would need to acknowledge to continue, telling me to contact support with a code that they could look up, but then continuing to finish boot-up instead of a threshold being reached with no prior indication and the unit cannot boot up, when actually the unit is still functional but has been experiencing abnormal numbers of intermittent errors over time. This method would allow pilots to fly back to their home base and have the problem repaired by Dynon Avionics (a deferred maintenance approach).
This was a remanufactured unit that was received after the original new SVT unit was RMA'd back to Dynon with different issues after very little usage . From the discussion with support I understood that there is no check of the actual number of SSD data errors in the remanufacturing process... I was told there were not significant enough errors to trigger this threshold at time of remanufacturing, which doesn't say there weren't abnormal numbers of data errors occurring previously. SSD internal errors were likely occurring in a previous aircraft installation before the unit was repaired for a different issue and shipped as a remanufactured replacement for a new unit that was RMA'd for a different issue.
Given that this appears to be a single point of failure, even for a dual SV setup, I recommend the SSD area be re-looked-at in the design and changes be made to give advanced warning of the problem without throwing a hard boot error. I was lucky that this boot error happened when my plane was parked in the hangar at home. Checking the actual number of data errors in the SSD and replacing it if there are abnormally high numbers of errors logged should be added to the remanufacturing process to ensure intermittent SSD's are not shipped in remanufactured units as replacements for new units that were RMA'd for different issues, later on experiencing this issue, requiring out of warranty repair service.
I would be interested in hearing if this problem has been seen by others.
Background and Food for Thought:
My RV6A has one 10" SV Touch unit in the panel, so this hard boot error grounded me for 2 weeks without warning. More importantly I have recently taken 2500 and 3000 nm x/c trips. If this Boot Error had happened at startup in Ohio or Iowa, I would have been faced with a decision whether to fly back to Tucson without EMS data. I have other backup Nav devices (phone and tablet), but there is no backup for EMS data. This is a case where having dual SV's wouldn't have helped. Since the primary SV couldn't boot up, the EMS data couldn't be displayed on a 2nd unit, since EMS data only comes into the primary unit if my understanding is correct.
Given the nature of this problem I would have preferred to have received advanced warning of the SSD problem via a message at boot time, that I would need to acknowledge to continue, telling me to contact support with a code that they could look up, but then continuing to finish boot-up instead of a threshold being reached with no prior indication and the unit cannot boot up, when actually the unit is still functional but has been experiencing abnormal numbers of intermittent errors over time. This method would allow pilots to fly back to their home base and have the problem repaired by Dynon Avionics (a deferred maintenance approach).
This was a remanufactured unit that was received after the original new SVT unit was RMA'd back to Dynon with different issues after very little usage . From the discussion with support I understood that there is no check of the actual number of SSD data errors in the remanufacturing process... I was told there were not significant enough errors to trigger this threshold at time of remanufacturing, which doesn't say there weren't abnormal numbers of data errors occurring previously. SSD internal errors were likely occurring in a previous aircraft installation before the unit was repaired for a different issue and shipped as a remanufactured replacement for a new unit that was RMA'd for a different issue.
Given that this appears to be a single point of failure, even for a dual SV setup, I recommend the SSD area be re-looked-at in the design and changes be made to give advanced warning of the problem without throwing a hard boot error. I was lucky that this boot error happened when my plane was parked in the hangar at home. Checking the actual number of data errors in the SSD and replacing it if there are abnormally high numbers of errors logged should be added to the remanufacturing process to ensure intermittent SSD's are not shipped in remanufactured units as replacements for new units that were RMA'd for different issues, later on experiencing this issue, requiring out of warranty repair service.
I would be interested in hearing if this problem has been seen by others.