Odd G3X Failure Mode - Any Thoughts?

[Dad's RV-10]

This is a non-Touch G3X system with two GDU-370's and a single GSU-25 ADAHRS. There is no G5 installed.

I had just refueled after flying for an hour and had this occur after switching-on the Master. I switched it Off before it fully booted and repowered, hoping it was a glitch. It came back the same way.

Sorry for the washed out picture. I was scrambling to grab my phone and I was parked directly into the sun.

Ultimately, after it fully booted, the problem went away and all was back to normal. But I'm trying to make sense of the failure mode. My first thought was an ADAHRS failure, but you can see it aligning on the MFD.

The PFD normally reverts to the MFD if the PFD fails, but the PFD is not fully failed.

What's most confusing is it appears that not only did the PFD info revert to the MFD but it looks like the MFD info also reverted to the PFD (the engine info is shown at the top of the PFD and the database verification is shown at the bottom of the PFD).

I did have the screens out of the panel prior to the is flight, so my only guess is that maybe one of the GDU connectors is not fully seated (I will investigate today).

I coincidentally have new GDU-470's on their way, so I'm hoping this issue is contained within the GDU-370's and not within other components of the system.

Any insight as to what was going on is this pic:

 

[Walt]

Looks like trying to load database's, there should not be data base cards left in the screens. Update then remove them.

 

[Dad's RV-10]

Looks like trying to load database's, there should not be data base cards left in the screens. Update then remove them.

That's an interesting observation. I never leave a card with a database update inserted in the system. But the first thing I did earlier in the day was attempt to update a database (only one G3X database needed updating).

No matter what I did, the system would not recognize the update. I'd never had that happen before. After several attempts repowering and swapping the card from the MFD to the PFD, I did lose track of which card was previously in the PFD for datalogging and which card I'd brought from home with the database update.

I hope it's simply that I left the wrong card in the PFD (although I still don't know why it wouldn't update). I brought the cards home and reformatted both, so I'll make another attempt at updating the database today.

Thanks!

 

[Ed_Wischmeyer]

Looks like trying to load database's, there should not be data base cards left in the screens. Update then remove them.

Hmm. I’ve never removed the cards after an update snd no problems. (G3X Touch). Am I missing something or is the Touch enough different that it makes no difference?

 

[D-Dubya]

Hmm. I’ve never removed the cards after an update snd no problems. (G3X Touch). Am I missing something or is the Touch enough different that it makes no difference?

In my experience, it's just "one of those things". Sometimes you can leave the database update on the card and it works fine. Sometimes it doesn't. Just like Garmin instructs us to use 8G data cards for best performance--however, sometimes it will work with a 16G or even a 32G card. But to give it the best shot with the least risk of something going amiss, use a clean 8G card to store flight data.

 

[Dad's RV-10]

It might have been a simple as Walt suggested. I'm not sure why the database update wasn't detected yesterday but after the failed update attempts, I might have mistakenly left the card with the update in the unit, rather than the card I use to datalog.

I reformatted the database card, downloaded the update again and was able to load the update into both GDU's. I power cycled the G3X half a dozen times and it booted normally each time.