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Question for dynon d10a experts

Christopher Murphy

Well Known Member
Ive been having an issue with my battery draining after a week or 10 days without flying my airplane. I finally traced the culprit to be my dynon d10a

When i installed it 10 years ago ( or so) i just wired the back up power to the battery. It worked great.. ie it went to back up power when i shut down and i always shut the back up off after parking. No problems. I noticed after i had the firmware updated recently the shut down and back up power were different. When I checked for a battery drain I found the dynon was drawing power with a blank screen.

No back up battery installed

Is this something new?

Cm
 
Keep alive

To my knowledge there was no keep alive function. The only thing was a direct to battery connection that was used as a back up power source. Im wondering if the new firmware changed the function of that back up power system.
 
Hi Chris,

Nice seeing you today. I was just reading through the various revision notes on the Dynon site and noticed that Rev. 5.1 from 05/26/09 mentions that it is recommended that the keep alive wire should no longer be connected.

You mentioned that your unit was recently updated. If your prior firmware was older than 5.1, I think you?re on the way to solving the mystery. The update notes don?t say *why* the wire should be disconnected, but it certainly suggests that something about that function changed.

Just a thought...

I was looking on the site because I?m sure my firmware is outdated. My D10 doesn?t have the white lettering on the front, so I?m wondering if it is an older generation. I?ll need to look through the logs to find a model and serial number. I?ll also poke around the menu system and see which firmware version I?m running.

All this being said, based on your experience, I may just leave well enough alone. It seems to be working just fine!
 
Keep Alive and Backup Power

The D10A has both options. The Keep Alive was to keep the setting on the clock when no backup battery was installed OR a GPS was not connected to the unit. We don't recommend connecting this wire as it will very slowly drain the battery.

The Backup power allowed the unit to be powered by an independent / separate power source or emergency buss.

I am actually surprised you haven't been having issues before now. Nothing has been done with firmware that would effect the operation of this power source. With the Backup Power connected and powering the unit down with button 1 will typically not completely shut the unit down and will likely be drawing some current. In this situation I would recommend disconnecting this wire entirely, or putting a switch on the circuit so you could completely kill power to the unit.

Feel free to call me if you have questions
425-402-0433
 
Last edited:
Firmware update

Hey Rod

Id go ahead and update. Mine is much more stable now also added some features too. I would tell them to call you before they do anything else.

They were reponsive to my complaint.

I was reading a manual online last night too it mentions the stay alive feature and disconnecting it if you havecthe internal battery. I will check the maual i got with the unit but i dont think it even mentions a stay alive function
Cm
 
Thanks for the info

The D10A has both options. The Keep Alive was to keep the setting on the clock when no backup battery was installed OR a GPS was not connected to the unit. We don't recommend connecting this wire as it will very slowly drain the battery.

The Backup power allowed the unit to be powered by an independent / separate power source or emergency buss.

I am actually surprised you haven't been having issues before now. Nothing has been done with firmware that would effect the operation of this power source. With the Backup Power connected and powering the unit down with button 1 will typically not completely shut the unit down and will likely be drawing some current. In this situation I would recommend disconnecting this wire entirely, or putting a switch on the circuit so you could completely kill power to the unit.

Feel free to call me if you have questions
425-402-0433

Don,
Thanks for the info. I disconnected the back up power wire until I can install a switch on that circuit. I was baffled as I never had the battery drain down in the past. I thought maybe the update changed some logic.

Thanks again
Cm
 
Battery

Don,
Thanks for the info. I disconnected the back up power wire until I can install a switch on that circuit. I was baffled as I never had the battery drain down in the past. I thought maybe the update changed some logic.

Thanks again
Cm

How old is your battery? Could be a sign that it's going bad. Might be good enough to start the engine, but overall capacity (total energy storage) diminished?

Finn
 
Battery

How old is your battery? Could be a sign that it's going bad. Might be good enough to start the engine, but overall capacity (total energy storage) diminished?

Finn

It happened once...came out to dead battery. Load tested the 8 year old concorde RG 25 and it tested good but in the interest of reliability I replaced it with a brand new battery and a week later I came out to fly and it was dead as a door nail.

The only drain on it with the master relay off was the dynon. I disconnected the direct back up power and no issues since. I never had any problems in over 10 years and Id had the dynon firmware updated recently so I thought maybe that played a role.

Cm
 
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