What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

G5 Mystery: Dead, then Alive

Mountain Time

Active Member
Last week I fired up the plane and saw that the G5 did not power up along with the G3XT and rest of the avionics. No sign of life at all, and no response to various efforts at button pushing. So I taxied back to the hangar to do some diagnostics.

Cycling the master and avionics power did nothing. I checked the connector on the G5 and it was securely in place. I disconnected the connector and the pitot-static tubes, pulled the G5 out of the panel, and checked for power and ground at the connector - both were good.

Plugged the connector back in and voila - the G5 powers up normally, and its backup battery shows ~98% charged. Appears to be working normally after several power on/off cycles, though I've not yet flown it due to our wonderful weather here in the Seattle area.

I could not find any info in the Garmin documentation or online that would explain this event, or that explains a "reboot" type of action to be performed if this happens again.

Any suggestions from the Garmin-knowledgeable folks? G3Expert???

Thanks -

John
 
I have 2 G5's and one day the AI did not come to life. The DG reverted to an AI as advertised. When I later checked with Garmin I was told to hold the power button in for like 5-10 secs to reset it. It worked and has been fine since.
 
this was a common problem some time back- generally solved by holding the power button for some time (~10s) when turning power on.

I used to see this problem occasionally (mostly in my dual g5 bonanza install), but haven't seen it in quite a while. Is your firmware up-to-date?
 
G5 Power

Last week I fired up the plane and saw that the G5 did not power up along with the G3XT and rest of the avionics. No sign of life at all, and no response to various efforts at button pushing. So I taxied back to the hangar to do some diagnostics.

Cycling the master and avionics power did nothing. I checked the connector on the G5 and it was securely in place. I disconnected the connector and the pitot-static tubes, pulled the G5 out of the panel, and checked for power and ground at the connector - both were good.

Plugged the connector back in and voila - the G5 powers up normally, and its backup battery shows ~98% charged. Appears to be working normally after several power on/off cycles, though I've not yet flown it due to our wonderful weather here in the Seattle area.

I could not find any info in the Garmin documentation or online that would explain this event, or that explains a "reboot" type of action to be performed if this happens again.

Any suggestions from the Garmin-knowledgeable folks? G3Expert???

Thanks -

John

John,

What software version do you currently have loaded on your G5?

Thanks,

Justin
 
I have 2 G5's and one day the AI did not come to life. The DG reverted to an AI as advertised. When I later checked with Garmin I was told to hold the power button in for like 5-10 secs to reset it. It worked and has been fine since.

This happened to me once using older software. Thought it was finger problem on my part. Once it was reset it worked fine and has not happened again.
 
I had a brand new G5 go haywire in a dual G5 install in a Comanche. The top G5 (AI) started sending crazy altitude data out to both the transponder and ADS-B system and resulted in a nastygram from the FAA for ADS-B errors. This G5, when turned on, would sit on the ramp with the altitude jumping thousands of feet each direction. I replaced it under warranty but it kind of shook my confidence in the things.
 
More Information

Thanks for the various responses, everyone.

Software is whatever came with the v.8.60 download for the G3XT, which I installed shortly after it came out. That install took some time, ~45 minutes IIRC, but went to completion without any known issues. I installed 8.61 the day after the G5 issue, but my understanding is that both versions contained the same software version for the G5. So in theory nothing changed there.

I am pretty sure that before pulling the G5 from the panel I ran the G3XT in configuration mode and the G5 did not show up on the device list. After disconnecting and reconnecting the G5, it did show up and all indications on the G3XT device list were normal - green check mark, 0% data error, etc.

I've not reported this to Garmin as a potential warranty issue yet, I thought I'd see what the G3Xpert team has to say.

Also, when this happened one thing I did try was holding the power button down a long time - although whether it was 10 seconds or more I can't say.

John
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the various responses, everyone.

Software is whatever came with the v.8.60 download for the G3XT, which I installed shortly after it came out. That install took some time, ~45 minutes IIRC, but went to completion without any known issues. I installed 8.61 the day after the G5 issue, but my understanding is that both versions contained the same software version for the G5. So in theory nothing changed there.

I am pretty sure that before pulling the G5 from the panel I ran the G3XT in configuration mode and the G5 did not show up on the device list. After disconnecting and reconnecting the G5, it did show up and all indications on the G3XT device list were normal - green check mark, 0% data error, etc.

I've not reported this to Garmin as a potential warranty issue yet, I thought I'd see what the G3Xpert team has to say.

Also, when this happened one thing I did try was holding the power button down a long time - although whether it was 10 seconds or more I can't say.

John

Since you had run the 8.60 software update which updated slowly on certain systems, can you double check the software version through the G5 screen directly? It may also be helpful to know which G3X Touch software version you updated from. Go ahead and email us your information at [email protected], including the serial number of the G5, so we can take a look at this for you.

Thanks,

Justin
 
Since you had run the 8.60 software update which updated slowly on certain systems, can you double check the software version through the G5 screen directly? It may also be helpful to know which G3X Touch software version you updated from. Go ahead and email us your information at [email protected], including the serial number of the G5, so we can take a look at this for you.

Thanks,

Justin

And on a Sunday no less. These G3xperts are the best.
 
Last edited:
One of the reasons I ended up leaning towards Garmin for the panel was the support they provide here on the forum, and also their documentation is very good.

Justin, I emailed you the info you requested. Thanks.

JHW
 
Last edited:
Back
Top