SYSEVENT 20, HDX screen shut down during instrument approach

[Juvat]

Last week I was flying an instrument approach in actual IMC conditions when my HDX screen suddenly shut down! No warning indications led up to this. It just power cycled and went black at absolutely the worst possible time in a flight. There I was in the clouds and my screen went black.

I have a second HDX screen on the right side of the panel which was showing only the map display. I should have had the PFD display selected as a backup (I will from now on, that's for sure). For a precious few seconds I was in the weather with no flight instruments at all. I have a few adjectives I could write, but no need. You can all use your imaginations.

After landing I got a "SYSEVENT 20: SEE SETUP" message. I have no idea what this means. I am going to contact support to see what's going on. Just thought I'd share this with everyone here too. Be careful out there.

 

[Rhino]

SYSEVENT 20 , HDX went black

SysEvent 20 ?!! Does anyone know what this is about? I was flying "straight and level" with the autopilot engaged at Flight Level 65. In the USB slot, there was a memory stick containing navigation and approach charts. After about an hour of flight, the Dynon screen went black and rebooted...

forum.flydynon.com

Contact Dynon and add yourself to the list of those experiencing this problem.

 

[djones]

Karl,
Sent you an email directly to your yahoo address. Let us know if you didn't receive it.
Thanks

 

[CanardMulti]

It is this realization that crashed screens indeed can happen that prompted me to include a standby ADI when I planned and installed my full IFR upgrade several years ago. I adopted the worst case mindset of what would I do if one screen crashed and, since they are networked, it somehow managed to take the other screen with it. I find protestations that "That can't happen" largely wishful thinking. We simply don't know what we don't know. Black swan events and such.

The best solution I could come up with was a small EFIS from a different mfg. that exists within a totally different software ecosystem and has ZERO connection to SkyView in any way. At the time the best solution that would fit the available space was a G5. Today folks have several other good choices as well. Folks who integrate their ace in the hole with both the software and hardware of their primary system have not, IMHO, seen enough things break in flight.

If you fly long enough, you learn the hard way that 'organic fertilizer occurs'. I once had a *much* bigger airplane than we fly here that picked its primary attitude information off of its INS platforms generate 3 warning codes at the same time: 'INS Attitude 1 Fail', 'INS Attitude 2 Fail', and 'AHRS Attitude Fail'. We had lost all 3 of our attitude sources above a solid undercast. ATC at first thought I was joking when I told them we were looking for a hole to circle down through.

Ken

 

[Juvat]

Ken, it's true that black swan events happen and it's good to be prepared. Your philosophy is sound of course, but in the context of this thread it probably suffices to just reiterate "be careful out there". I am in contact with Dynon tech support, who very promptly addressed my issue. Their engineers are going through the diagnostic file and I'm sure there will be a resolution in short order. Meantime, I continue to happily use the Skyview system as I have done for the last 11 years in 5 different experimental aircraft.

 

[jfay]

I had my panel freeze during a instument hold. I won't trust my life to any one manufacturer, so I had to fly off my Garming G5 backup EFIS until I reset the screen. It then happened again on final during final taking it to the avionics shop. Dynon replaced the ADAHRS unit with a new one free of charge and it has not happened again. My altitude was showing 50K feet with zero KTS speed. I guess a GA piston world record!

So properly if it knew something had failed it should have shown a red x over any control that was not trustworthy. I hope they have made softeware updates to make this happen.

 

[Rhino]

My altitude was showing 50K feet with zero KTS speed. I guess a GA piston world record!

Some day you'll have to tell us how you managed to pressurize a CH 750 Cruzer. Make sure you note that as the max altitude in the POH. Maybe Zenith will add it to the aircraft specs too.

 

[jfay]

Some day you'll have to tell us how you managed to pressurize a CH 750 Cruzer. Make sure you note that as the max altitude in the POH. Maybe Zenith will add it to the aircraft specs too.

It's a secret. I will never tell!