GDL39 stopped working

[alcladrv]

My GDL39 appears to have quit working. Is there a reset button on the unit?

It is hard-wired to my G3X GDU 375 screen. The green power light illuminates, but the Wx screen shows no FIS-B weather and the Traffic screen says No Data. The update time in the lower left of the Map screen has dashes where the numbers should be.

Also, the blue Bluetooth button flashes while connecting and then shows steady blue with my iPad showing it as connected. The 2 small square icons in the upper left corner of the Map screen are present but with red Xs in them.

After 2.5 hrs. of cross-country flying at 9500' over Tennessee and Virginia, no ADS-B data showed up on the screens.

Any ideas? Especially from the G3Xpert guys?

Thanks,

Mike

[humptybump]

Hi Mike, I'll let the G3Xperts chime in on hardware diagnosis.

It may be unrelated but I will mention that the military is doing operations in the area of Virginia and south and there are several NOTAMs published thru October 1st. The operations affect ADSB.

https://www.nbaa.org/ops/airspace/re...eptember-2.php

On my flight yesterday - from VA to PA and back - I had difficulty getting ADSB from my GDL-39 for a of time, primarily while over the VA portion of the Eastern Shore.

[SmilingJack]

Today we flew APF to HXD with no issues with ADSb. 07:30 to 10:00 LCL.

[jmbrwn]

I've been using a GDL39 for a couple of months now. I've noticed that the unit quits working during every flight. I've been able to push the reset button on the top of unit to get it back to working every time...kinda annoying. Finally figured out that the unit was overheating. I've got it mounted on top of my glare shield next to the XM antenna. Yesterday, I pulled the unit down and placed in my lap. Worked fine the whole flight. I plan on relocating it somewhere in the cockpit to keep it shaded.

[humptybump]

Hi Jim,

I never thought about overheating. my GDL39 has been "burred" its entire life. Good thing to remember.

[SmilingJack]

Originally Posted by humptybump

Hi Jim,

I never thought about overheating. my GDL39 has been "burred" its entire life. Good thing to remember.

Ditto! Like Humpy, mine has been buried under the panel for a few years now.

[g3xpert]

Originally Posted by alcladrv

My GDL39 appears to have quit working. Is there a reset button on the unit?

It is hard-wired to my G3X GDU 375 screen. The green power light illuminates, but the Wx screen shows no FIS-B weather and the Traffic screen says No Data. The update time in the lower left of the Map screen has dashes where the numbers should be.

Also, the blue Bluetooth button flashes while connecting and then shows steady blue with my iPad showing it as connected. The 2 small square icons in the upper left corner of the Map screen are present but with red Xs in them.

After 2.5 hrs. of cross-country flying at 9500' over Tennessee and Virginia, no ADS-B data showed up on the screens.

Any ideas? Especially from the G3Xpert guys?

Thanks,

Mike

Hello Mike,

There isn't enough information here to troubleshoot the issue, but we are confident that if you contact us via email or phone we can efficiently get to the bottom of this.

Thanks,
Steve

[ka6dan]

Steve

When the problem is sorted out, please post the answer of VAF. As you may recall, I'm having very similar problems. At this time I'm going to pull the unit out from under the instrument panel and see if my GDL39 will function in a cooler environment. Not that there's much of cooler this time of year in Florida.

[g3xpert]

Originally Posted by ka6dan

Steve

When the problem is sorted out, please post the answer of VAF. As you may recall, I'm having very similar problems. At this time I'm going to pull the unit out from under the instrument panel and see if my GDL39 will function in a cooler environment. Not that there's much of cooler this time of year in Florida.

Dan,

With all due respect to those that are truly trying to be helpful, this is exactly why crowd sourced customer support has limited value. We know almost nothing about what issue may or may not be present in the original posters system, someone makes a posting speculating a temperature issue, and now you are saying you are going to be pulling your unit out from under the instrument panel to find a cooler location!

For every product we design, we take into account the operating environment as part of designing and testing the product. The GDL39 is black, not because we wanted to make a product that sits in the sun on the glare shield black, but because it needed to be a dark color so it doesn't reflect into the windshield and impair visibility.

Knowing it was a black product needing to operate in the sun was taken into account when the product was environmentally tested during development at temperatures far in excess of your present mounting location. We environmentally test every product we develop at both cold and hot temperature extremes sufficient to know that the product will operate reliably for the customer. It isn't at all uncommon for the design of heat sinks and other packaging features to be altered during development when testing demonstrates that improvements might be necessary.

Having said this, we all know that allowing electronic products to bake in the sun isn't ideal for anything, and many of us avoid an installation of this type whenever possible.

As you know, we found that the software in your system and GDL39 was very old and out of date, and addressing that as well as discussing the differences between your TIS-A and ADS-B traffic sources was the first step in making sure that your GDL39 is working as well as it should be in your plane.

These are complex systems and we work with every customer who contacts us on an individual basis to make sure that hardware and software is working as it should. The recent NOTAMS regarding ADS-B unreliability at various locations in the U.S. doesn't make this any easier!

Thanks,
Steve

[alcladrv]

I updated the GDL39 firmware from version 4.4 to 4.5 using the Connext function within Garmin Pilot on my iPad. After that, I could see some high altitude overflying traffic while seated in my living room. It appears that I'll need to go up for a flight to see if I can again see the FIS-B weather received from the ADS-B ground stations.