v14 "Caution" audio alerts

[Carl_Froehlich]

Just did a 2 hour hop with v14 (dual 10" install). Everything worked fine except a got ~20 audio "Caution" alerts that were so short that I did not get a message as to what the alert was for. This is a new twist compared to v13.

The transponder was also updated per the v14 instructions.

Is there a setting I should look at?

The plane has Dynon ADS-B in, ADS-B out (via GTN-650), Dynon transponder and autopilot servos, and Dynon radio (comm #2).

 

[dynonsupport]

If you export your user data logs, there is an alert log also exported and it will tell you what the alarms were for.

 

[Carl_Froehlich]

Ok - exported the User Data Log and found the alerts. They say:
Alert type: Audio
Action: Play
Description: Sys Caution

Just before these and at the about the same log time I also have these alerts:
Alert type: Text
Action: Hide
Description: Com Radio Panl Offline
Then,
Alert type: Text
Action: Show
Description: alert Com Radio Panl Of

I suspect I got the text alert as I think I saw something flash up in the comm area, but it was gone before I could see it.

So now I know what the alerts were for, but I don't know why I got them. The Dynon radio has always worked perfectly and as far as I can tell did so again today.

Carl

 

[Carl_Froehlich]

Re: v14 "Caution" audio alerts - Plus AP turns off

This problem is still present. This last week I did two 1.6 hour flights and both had a 15 minute or so period where I got 4 or more "caution" audio alerts with no message.

Now a new problem. On the second flight the autopilot disengaged by itself. It happened four times over a 30 minute period. The plane was in level flight, smooth are and in trim. The autopilot has been flawless before v14 but I do not know if v14 is the issue. The autopilot disengaging did not happen when I was getting the "caution" audio alarms so I assume they are not related.

Thoughts to address these issues?
Carl

 

[Dynon]

Are you getting an audible disconnect or on-screen annunciation when the AP disconnects?

On the other alert - that sounds like an issue with the COM radio panel or perhaps the power going to it. Can you follow up with our technical support staff directly at 425-402-0433 or at support at dynonavionics dot com so what we can give you some more personalized help on this issue?

 

[Carl_Froehlich]

Are you getting an audible disconnect or on-screen annunciation when the AP disconnects?

On the other alert - that sounds like an issue with the COM radio panel or perhaps the power going to it. Can you follow up with our technical support staff directly at 425-402-0433 or at support at dynonavionics dot com so what we can give you some more personalized help on this issue?

Diagnostic files sent in (Case #221485).

I did receive a "Autopilot Disconnect" each time.

On the "caution" the only thing I see on the display is a split second flash, I believe in the upper right of the display. It is not there long enough to tell for sure.

Carl

 

[Schorsch]

I had two very annoying instances of excessive audio alerts with v14 as well - distracted a lot from radio communications. my CHT went between yellow and red for a while (on the low end in cold weather descent), so Skyview spit out about 20+ audio engine alerts within maybe a minute... Suggest that if its for the same sensor to suppress repeat audio alerts after a few.

 

[bbtapb]

Since 14.0, I noticed what seemed like a lack of any filtering of the engine data, a couple parameters hanging around the yellow/red flashed back and forth so much, I imagine it would generate many messages.

 

[Dynon]

I don't think we've changed any filtering on the alerts. The only thing I do know we changed was a feature that stops a pileup of alerts (such as can happen with engine things at times) doesn't fire an endless stream of audio. I'll ping our development team to see if there's any artifact here that we might have accidentally introduced.

 

[Dynon]

So it sounds like we didn't change any behavior there. It is true that if you have a value that bounces in and out of a red zone that you will get multiple alerts. This is behavior that we can certainly look into improving.

 

[GlennB]

So it sounds like we didn't change any behavior there. It is true that if you have a value that bounces in and out of a red zone that you will get multiple alerts. This is behavior that we can certainly look into improving.

On that topic, could I suggest a product refinement to deal with the case of any recurring warning which keeps triggering?   That could occur in the case of a value hovering about the alert point as you mention, or simply an intermittent wiring fault.

My proposal is, in addition to pressing button 8 to read and clear the message each time, we have another function (press 8 and hold, for example) which would suppress that warning until the next system restart.  That would remove the distraction caused by nuisance messages of which the pilot is already aware.

I wish I could claim responsibility for the idea, but Airbus beat me to it 

 

[dynonsupport]

You can set an alarm as latching so it will not reoccur until you acknowledge it.

 

[GlennB]

You can set an alarm as latching so it will not reoccur until you acknowledge it.

I might not have articulated that as well as I hoped.

I'm talking about the alert triggered by a sensor that's starting to go bad, so that on a given flight you get repeated warnings of the same fault.  I've had this with a VDO oil pressure sender, as an example.  It was intermittently reading high, and while its indications were clearly incorrect, the Skyview didn't know that.

With the means to suppress that specific warning, there'd be no need to delve into the setup menus inflight to locate and reconfigure the alarm for the particular fault.  An appropriately programmed hotkey would do the job by being pressed while the message was active.

 

[dynonsupport]

How does the airbus handle it if there are two alerts active and you want to disable only one of them?

 

[GlennB]

How does the airbus handle it if there are two alerts active and you want to disable only one of them?

Alerts are read, acted on and then cleared.  Thus the only one left is the recurring nuisance message, to be dealt with by the special function.

Clearly this is a pretty rare event on either platform, but when you need to stop the incessant nagging, you really need it!

Didn't intend to hijack the thread BTW, but it seemed relevant to the context.

 

[dynonsupport]

That sounds like the airbus has a user interface to select and work with individual alerts. Right now, SkyView assumes any time you open the message window that all messages are read and acknowledged. Thus if you open the message window and there are two messages you'd have no way to cancel just one. On top of that we keep showing alerts where the condition still exists so you can see if it's resolved.

 

[GlennB]

That sounds like the airbus has a user interface to select and work with individual alerts. Right now, SkyView assumes any time you open the message window that all messages are read and acknowledged. Thus if you open the message window and there are two messages you'd have no way to cancel just one. On top of that we keep showing alerts where the condition still exists so you can see if it's resolved.

It's more of a queuing arrangement, where each press of the "cancel" key removes only one message in order from the list.  Cancelled messages can all be restored with a "recall" key.  Their existence could be indicated on Skyview by keeping the main annunciation above key 8 highlighted, as at present.

Again this would mean the persistent spurious alert is addressed using the special function.  I'll admit that this adds the need to program an extra key for recall, which is perhaps more complexity than you want to add.

Hmmm... seems we have created a monster here, which I didn't really intend.   

 

[taildrgr]

Just to add another data point, I also got 2 audio caution alerts yesterday.  No message in the message box, but looking at the Alert file later showed the same "com radio panl offline" message twice.  I sent a note to Dynon support and they requested the diagnostic file which I will send.  Using v14 release.
Note: I have not used the autopilot since v14.