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John, have you verified that the 430's fan is working?
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I forgot about that. I live in the southeast and it gets way hotter than Washington state and I have never had an issue.
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Garmin 430W Overheating - Update
Following is an update based on a 1.5 hour flight today.
Before going out, I manually set the contrast on the 430W to 125, something I picked up while researching this issue in the past. This overcomes the tendency for the screen to fade out. I suspect if the unit gets hot enough even this will not work. Garmin recommends increasing the contrast as a solution to screen fade cause by high heat. Garmin also specifies that the maximum continuous operating temperature is 55 degrees centigrade (131 degrees Fahrenheit) , 70 (155 degrees Fahrenheit) for short periods of time. I am not able to measure how hot my unit gets, but to the touch it is very hot. During this flight the unit again became very hot to the touch. The screen however remained very readable. I landed mid-way in the flight to check the temperature. I did the same at the end of the flight. My observation is that there is very little heating coming from the glare shield. Also, the air temperature between the panel and subpanel and in front of the subpanel was warm, but not excessively. What were very hot were the firewall and the subpanel and the Garmin case both of which face the firewall (the Garmin chase protrudes through the subpanel). It is clear to me that the heat radiating from the firewall is the main cause of the Garmin getting hot. While adding vents to the glare shield may allow the warm air to escape, I doubt that it will be sufficient to reduce the high temperatures cause heat radiating from the firewall. The solution, in my mind, is to cover the backside of the firewall with insulating material. During the build, I cut out sections of an insulating mat to fit between the various angle pieces on the firewall. However, I never installed them. Over the next couple of days, I will be installing the material to see if this will mitigate the heat issue. So in short, my approach will be 1) when parking out in the sun, open the canopy and/or use a canopy cover to reduce the heating in the cabin 2) adjust the Garmin's contrast to improve the readability of the screen, and 3) install insulating material on the firewall to cut down the amount of radiant heating projected onto the subpanel and the Garmin case. I will update this thread with the results. John |
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Yes, the fan is working. John |
John,
I have a full Garmin stack that includes a GNS530W and I have not had any heating issues here in Washington or while traveling to AirVenture2012 where I landed and heat soaked my RV-9A in 100+ temps. I contribute this to having a single 2.5" defrost vent on the glareshield on the pilot side. I believe is helps the trapped heated air to exit. I also have turned on the defrost fan while running on the ground to help circulate the air until I'm flying in cooler air. I'm considering adding a 2nd defrost grill on the co-pilot side to further help vent trapped air although it's probably not necessary. For my glareshield, I have the padded edge from ClassicAero and simply painted my glareshield flat black. I do plan on adding some black velvet on top of the glareshield in the future to avoid scratching the paint. Hope this helps. |
I couldn't decide and finally started drilling holes to make a grill, computer fans mounted underneath.
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While the radiant heat may be a part of the issue, I'd guess it to be very small amount, because the actual exposed backplate isn't part of the 430 itself. It's also covered in connectors and is only connected to the actual unit through part of the tray and friction connections from all the pins. Your solution certainly can't hurt (I'm a huge fan of firewall insulation for lots of reasons), but you'd be surprised how little air movement it takes around your avionics to cool them. Keep us posted as to your progress....I'd still urge some sort of at least basic ventilation!
Cheers, Stein |
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In the mean time, I will continue with my plan to insulate the firewall. Will be interesting to see if I get a noticeable reduction in heating. John |
Since you live in WA I'd suggest you just bite the bullet and put in the vent. (I used computer fans, always on unless the CB is pulled). Sooner or later you are going to want the defroster.
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Another hole pattern
Cutting these fan holes was a slow and tedious process that I wouldn't want to attempt on a completed airplane but I'm happy with the results. I've never had a problem, even after sitting on the ground several times in 100+ degree heat.
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