Today I was out testing a complex flight plan with ~60 waypoints for a project. The flight took place at 1,000' over a local river, and I had flown a similar pattern the day before. About midway through, I noticed that the GDL-39R traffic page on the PFD said "Traffic Coasting," then the MFD rebooted. The MFD ran for another minute or so, then I got a message that the VP-X had lost comm with the PFD. Then my radio X'ed out. Then some other EIS instruments X'ed out. Then the transponder X'ed out. However, the radio was still receiving the nearby tower comms, and the autopilot was following the flight plan perfectly. The radio freq box came back. Then the MFD rebooted again. I decided to call it quits for the day and head back home, and called the tower. Thankfully they heard, and confirmed the transponder was working. On the way back, the MFD rebooted again, then froze. I entered the pattern, and on final, the MFD rebooted again and seemed to be working for the short time between landing and getting back to the shed.
I called Garmin after I pushed back into the hangar, and spoke to one of the reps - not sure if he was an G3X guy, or a general support person even though I was calling the EXP line. Basically I explained the problem, then he asked if I had the latest software - which I thought I did - 8.3. Nope, new version 8.4 just came out to fix some issue they were having. He also suggested not having SD cards in the slots because that has been causing some rebooting apparently (I use SD cards to record flight data and screenshots, and load fpls.) If these steps don't fix the problem, I was told to send in the unit for an exchange for $350.
1. Obviously I will update the software.
2. I will only keep an SD card in the PFD (not both as I had today.)
3. I don't want to send in the MFD until more troubleshooting is performed.
I had a similar problem with this MFD two summers ago (although not particularly hot over the mountains at the time,) but it came back after rebooting. I'm wondering if this might be a temperature issue. It was pretty hot in the cockpit at 1000 ft and a bubble canopy, and the G3X screens get pretty hot all on their own. On the last go around, Garmin asked me to download a file from the unit and send it to them - no such request this time. Anybody have other suggestions?
Thanks,
Charley
Attaching a pic for your amusement (not sure it will work though.)
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0eMpyaAhSCLu9GPP6TyRFTzoQ
I called Garmin after I pushed back into the hangar, and spoke to one of the reps - not sure if he was an G3X guy, or a general support person even though I was calling the EXP line. Basically I explained the problem, then he asked if I had the latest software - which I thought I did - 8.3. Nope, new version 8.4 just came out to fix some issue they were having. He also suggested not having SD cards in the slots because that has been causing some rebooting apparently (I use SD cards to record flight data and screenshots, and load fpls.) If these steps don't fix the problem, I was told to send in the unit for an exchange for $350.
1. Obviously I will update the software.
2. I will only keep an SD card in the PFD (not both as I had today.)
3. I don't want to send in the MFD until more troubleshooting is performed.
I had a similar problem with this MFD two summers ago (although not particularly hot over the mountains at the time,) but it came back after rebooting. I'm wondering if this might be a temperature issue. It was pretty hot in the cockpit at 1000 ft and a bubble canopy, and the G3X screens get pretty hot all on their own. On the last go around, Garmin asked me to download a file from the unit and send it to them - no such request this time. Anybody have other suggestions?
Thanks,
Charley
Attaching a pic for your amusement (not sure it will work though.)
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0eMpyaAhSCLu9GPP6TyRFTzoQ