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Problem with D180 Fuel Display...

Piper J3

Well Known Member
I have dual screen Dynon D180 and D100 in my RV-12. I just recently recalibrated my fuel quantity gage per Dynon instructions. Now I notice that I no longer get a yellow box around the digital number of gallons remaining at 7, nor do I get a red box (steady or blinking) around the digital number of gallons remaining at 3.5. This used to work fine and I would also get warning on bottom of screen which needed acknowledgement.

I have contacted Dynon and they tell me that the unit they have on bench does exact same thing. They were a little surprised and don't have a solution.

Anybody else having this problem?



 
Maybe change that 7 and 3.5 to something else,now that you have re calibrated sensor, then you can move both back to 7 and 3.5 . Thinking that the re calibration may have voided those original limits for red and yellow. Just a shot in the dark
 
Probably unrelated, but do you have 2 fuel pressure readings?

I'm not following your question. The screen shot in my first post is the EMS screen and I guess it shows fuel pressure in two locations. Fuel quantity is also shown in two locations on the same screen.
 
I'm not following your question. The screen shot in my first post is the EMS screen and I guess it shows fuel pressure in two locations. Fuel quantity is also shown in two locations on the same screen.

I thought if during your recalibrating of your fuel level, perhaps you erred in some way, ie 2 indications of fuel pressure, one beneath the oil temp indicator, and one in the lower right of screen.
 
Having worked with Dynon for a while as a beta-tester, I can tell you that if (A) their on-the-bench unit did the same thing, and (B) it was a thing that it shouldn't be doing, AND (C) they couldn't tell you what to do next, then they are certainly digging into the software code behind it and will have an answer shortly.
 
Having worked with Dynon for a while as a beta-tester, I can tell you that if (A) their on-the-bench unit did the same thing, and (B) it was a thing that it shouldn't be doing, AND (C) they couldn't tell you what to do next, then they are certainly digging into the software code behind it and will have an answer shortly.

I hope so... I'm afraid there is limited support for the legacy equipment.

Just strange that all the other warnings are working - oil press, temps, but not low fuel quantity.
 
I contacted Dynon about my D-180 fuel gage problem (see post #1 above) and they tell me none of the software engineers who designed the D-180 are working at Dynon on anymore. Dynon also tells me they have powered up several more D-180's in-house and none of them have the yellow/red boxes around the digital number for gallons remaining in tank.

So, maybe I don't remember this correctly... Can anyone verify that they see yellow square and red square & red square blinking around gallons remaining digital number for a D-180? Also, do you get visual warning on bottom of screen for minimal gallons remaining (in my case - 4 gallons)? And while we're at it... do you get audible low fuel warning in your headset?

Maybe I'm getting too old for flying...
 
D180

I ran my right tank low in my 8. My D180 goes green, yellow, red flashing, with audible and visual screen flashes.


Don
 
Thanks guys. Today Dynon said they got their in-house D-180 fuel gage working correctly by re-loading Van's locked settings file. I'm going to put this task off until end of flying season. Good to know there's a fix...
 
I bought my 12 from the original builder and haven’t had the pleasure of connecting a laptop up the comm port connector. I’ve been researching how to update D-180 and the task looks a little daunting. I recently installed OS updates and data bases on a friend’s Skyview HDX and it was a piece of cake. The instructions for the D-180 tell you to take photos of every screen before pushing buttons. There are probably a hundred screens with the pull-down menus. I keep re-reading the RV-12-Dynon D-180 Support Program download instructions and I’m starting to get nervous.

I have an old windows laptop with 9-pin serial port and CDROM drive and a 9-pin serial extension cable. I have Dynon’s disc for the serial driver. I can download the locked settings file from Van's.

So, my question is… am I over-thinking this and it’s not as bad as it appears? I can just start the process, and if it goes badly, I send the unit back to Dynon. Or, stick with my original plan to send unit to Dynon at the end of the flying season. I'm running 5.5.0 and just need to reload the locked (unlocked) settings. I'm getting too old for this...
 
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Upgrade

Jim,
You love your RV-12 and you only live once. Why don?t you spend your money for the good and upgrade your panel to Skyview like Tony T. did at the end of the flying season.:)
 
Jim,
You love your RV-12 and you only live once. Why don’t you spend your money for the good and upgrade your panel to Skyview like Tony T. did at the end of the flying season.:)

Actually, I bought Tony's D-100 when he upgraded to have dual displays and I like them a lot. I just need to fix the yellow/red boxes on the fuel gage and the audible/visual warning for low fuel level.
 
D-180 updating

Jim,

Yeah, unlike the SV you have to hook up a computer to the D-180 to do the software update. The process is a bit scary the first time you do it, and it has been several years since I did it but here are a couple of tips that I remember.

I used my old WinXP laptop and it works fine for this. You have to have the Dynon Support Program loaded on the laptop and you should use the Dynon dongle with the blue connectors, if you have that.
i-XvQ7QJk-L.jpg

In this picture I was running my D-180 on the bench when I first got it way back in 2009. Geez, I can't believe that was 10 years ago already!

The dongle is short so I used an extension serial cable so I could put the laptop on the wing while doing the updates after the unit was in the airplane. Also be sure to have that old laptop connected to a charger. If the laptop battery dies during the update you probably will have to send the D-180/100 to Dynon. Stuff can happen, that is why the advice to photograph your settings. My file of those settings has 43 photos in it, not hundreds.

I don't remember if you have to update both the D-180 and the D-100 for them to work together but it's probably a good idea. I know only the D-180 has EMS and the D-100 gets the data from it so it may be that you don't need to do them both to see the EMS updates you are looking for but I would plan to do them both. I know the with the SV and two screens you have to do them both or they don't work with each other.

You are already ahead because you have been reading the documentation. It should go smoothly with the D-180. However when I first updated the D-100, the support program wanted to know if I had a magnetometer. I answered yes, since I did have a magnetometer and then the D-100 froze up. I had to call Dynon. The issue was that although there is the one magnetometer in the system you do not have a second magnetometer for the D-100. So the correct answer to that question is NO for the D-100 update.

I would not do the updates on a weekend. Do them on a weekday when you can get phone support if needed. If you shut down the update process without it completing you will probably brick the unit and have to send it in.
 
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There is a list of default settings from Vans...Know your current K value for fuel flow, the Vans default is not even close..I went thru this too, my D180 is at 5.6...I sent it to Dynon because I had them repair my pitch servo and it came back at 5.6 so the only way was to send them the D180, Vans locks it at 5.5 so when I got it back I re ran the 5.6 update with auto pilot master switch on so it would update roll servo and compass to 5.6, no big deal but your laptop will need a driver downloaded for the serial port cable. If you have issues call Dynon when your at your aircraft. Have a battery charger hooked up and a charger for your laptop, they will get you thru it...
 
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