Screen too Dark to read in cold

[Brantel]

I just got my new Dynon D6 to replace the Gemini PFD and I left it in the hangar sitting in the airplane for the past 2 days.

Today it was in the mid 50's all day and tonight it is 45?F.

When I turned the unit on using the backup battery which is at 15v, the screen was so dim I could barely see it.

This was not my experience with the D100/D120 series.

I left it on for about 15 minutes and it never did warm up much. I sat it in front of a space heater and as it warmed up, it got back to normal brightness.

So is this normal for the D10A/D6 or ???

[java]

Originally Posted by gerrychuck

No kidding! That's practically tropical compared to our winter temps up here! Any system that starts crapping out at 35 F wouldn't be on a plane at our latitude for very long For what it's worth, my hangar partner has a D100 and I've never heard him complain of having a problem with screen brightness at any temps that we actually fly in.

I hear you Gerry. Just checked and it's warmed up to -26C (-15F) here right now.

My general rule is that I stop flying around -10C. Before that, it's some of the best flying out there. Plane performs awesome in the thick air, usually smooth as silk (no thermals), and less busy at the airport. Much colder than that and it's hard on equipment and chilly in the cockpit.

J.

[BobTurner]

I have a D6, at 45F it is not dim.
I can't recall the full voltage of the Li battery, was it fully charged?

[Brantel]

Originally Posted by BobTurner

I have a D6, at 45F it is not dim.
I can't recall the full voltage of the Li battery, was it fully charged?

No it was not. Dynon has historically said that the internal D??? battery is > or = 16v. Dynon recommends fully charging before deciding there is an issue and I will follow their recommendation.

I don't have ship power to it yet so I could not try the main battery.

It did however warm up and go to normal brightness after I heated it up with a space heater.

I will follow their recommendations and report back. Hopefully this is a non issue....

[Wayne Gillispie]

My D6 has worked great from 20F-105F ambient temps.

[RV6_flyer]

Originally Posted by dynonsupport

Gary,
That isn't normal, and as someone said, 35 isn't cold, unless you forgot a minus sign in front of it!

We test every device here to temperatures much colder than this. We also have thousands of EFIS units in the field in places like Northern Minnesota and they work fine. So something is up with your unit.

The only thing I could think that might not be a issue with the unit is if it was somehow set to dim and had nothing to do with the temp. Did you happen to try pressing BRIGHT or do you happen to have an HS34 or AP74 which can auto dim the screen?

Originally Posted by SteinAir

My experience with that D10 series box in my old RV6 has been that it takes weather down in the single digits or below zero for it to get to that point (and have it soaked for some time at those temps). In my case, I can only be comfortable down to the single digits without many extra layers of cloths anyway, so it hasn't been a very common occurrence! Tonight is supposed to get down to the single digits and tomorrow night around zero, so I'll go check these again...but so far it's like I said. It has to be REALLY cold for it to get that bad - and at those temps a whole bunch of things get cranky.

I'd give Dynon or that darned dealer who sold you that (especially since that darned dealer has some cold weather experience with said box) a call and have them get you fixed up!

Cheers,
Stein

I left the airplane in a borrowed Pennsylvania hangar after I posted this and traveled Southwest Airlines back to Kalifornia.

Display was kind too dim to find the brightness. After it warmed up, I went through the menu to the brightness and turned it as bright as it would go. No change in display brightness.

When I get back in PA in a few weeks, I will do some more testing and phone the manufacturer. Would like to fly but not knowing what engine parameters are is a show stopper. With the holidays, nothing may get done till the first week of next year. I know that working people like to take off around the end / beginning of the new year with the holidays.

Still looking for my own hangar / workshop in Southwestern Pennsylvania. I am starting to see the need for an insulated and heated hangar like Jeff Point has for the northern locations. May have to find a place in TX, AZ, or UT that has warmer winter weather for the cold season. Must be a state like PA, TX, AZ, and UT that value the 2nd amendment and unlike Kalifornia that does not.

Yes Mike, I retired. PA like TX, has no income tax on retirement income.

Still packing up the last 20-years of stuff in my hangar.

[Brantel]

Did more testing this afternoon with a ~ 35°F cold soaked D6.

Just as Dynon had reported, when firing up on the internal backup battery that they said was almost depleted, the unit fires up but is very dim. Almost unreadable. It does not warm up on its own at least not in 15 minutes I waited. This tells me that when the battery is down, don't expect a normal screen when the unit is cold.

Now after that I plugged the unit into 15V on the main power connector and it instantly went to normal brightness.

It is my understanding that the full charge of the internal backup battery is > = 16v and that was normal back in my D100 days. Dynon tells me that the screen will react normally with a fully charged backup battery.

So I consider the case closed on this non-issue. It is working as designed. I should not have any problems in normal use.

Thanks Dynon support.