G-900X goes T.U.

Took a little flight for breakfast this morning, and when we fired up for the return trip I had all red X's on the engine page. Everything MAP, RPM, trim, EGT, CHT, fuel gages... All X'd out.

http://tinyurl.com/l7d3q7z

Anyone?

~Marc

Thanks Carl, I'll definitely size the pics that I post in the forums.

Guess I'll have to wait til tomorrow to see what Garmin/Stein/whoever has to say about the display.

~Marc

Looks like either a GEA failure or a comm failure with the MFD's GIA. Not sure about the 900 but in the G1000 the GEA 71 receives and processes all of the engine/airframe senor inputs so I assume the 900 has a similar architecture.

Did you attempt a screen reversion to see if it was a GEA-GIA comm problem?

Of course I tried re-booting with the avionics master, then the PFD, and separately the EIS circuit breakers. No joy. I'm hoping that this will be a config glitch and all they have to do is go into the set-up menu and make sure a box is "checked". Somehow I think that it may not be that simple.

When I had my g-1000 172 we lost the transponder once. Same issue, it red-Xed out. Took them all of 3 minutes to fix.

-Marc

Plummit said:

Of course I tried re-booting with the avionics master, then the PFD, and separately the EIS circuit breakers. No joy. I'm hoping that this will be a config glitch and all they have to do is go into the set-up menu and make sure a box is "checked". Somehow I think that it may not be that simple.

When I had my g-1000 172 we lost the transponder once. Same issue, it red-Xed out. Took them all of 3 minutes to fix.

-Marc

Click to expand...

So to be sure I understand, with the MFD off, you still had red "X's" for engine sensors when the EIS reverted to the PFD? If so that tells me that it's not a GEA-GIA interface problem as the PFD and MFD GIAs are separate units but more likely a problem with the GEA LRU itself.

Thanks Todd. I'm pretty sure that it still didn't work in revisionary mode but I'll run by the airport and check. I always go into revisionary mode at the end of a flight to get my tach time, which only shows on the MFD in that mode. I *think* I tried it.

I flew the airplane home with no engine instruments using TFAR and TLAR. It was a short flight, maybe 20 minutes, and I throttled back after take off. With no temp, RPM, MAP or fuel flow gauges, I didn't want to cause any heat issues with the engine as it was a pretty warm day.

We sure get dependent on our flight instruments: When I soloed in a J-3 cub last century, we didn't have a fuel flow gauge, and the cork-on-a-stick fuel quantity was easy enough to use: If the bent wire was at the bottom it's time to land!

~Marc

Garmin experimental product support contact...

Plummit said:

Took a little flight for breakfast this morning, and when we fired up for the return trip I had all red X's on the engine page. Everything MAP, RPM, trim, EGT, CHT, fuel gages... All X'd out.

http://tinyurl.com/l7d3q7z

Anyone?

~Marc

Click to expand...

Hi Marc,

Please work directly with our experimental support team for troubleshooting assistance. Their contact information is in the signature below.

Thanks,
Brian

g3xpert said:

Hi Marc,

Please work directly with our experimental support team for troubleshooting assistance. Their contact information is in the signature below.

Thanks,
Brian

Click to expand...

Thanks Brian, I called and will check it out according to the instructions I got. The only reason I posted here was it happened on the weekend so I was stuck until this morning.

~Marc

Garmin and Stein Rock!

Thanks to G3X boys and Stein, I traced the problem down to the tach sensor. I will admit that a certain amount of luck played a hand in there too.

It turns out that the G-900X GEA 71 puts out 3 voltages (5v, 10v 12v) but going into the config menu showed the 5v was "dashed" out. The only thing that used 5v on my plane is the tach sensor.

Crawling under the dash last night I look at the firewall pass-through wires and there is a molex connector right by a wire labeled "TACH". I unplugged the molex connector and the system booted up normally! Woo hoo!

Now I just need to get a tach sensor for a Bendix 1200 series mag.

The support I've had from Garmin and Stein is just over the top! Thanks guys!

-Marc