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IFD 540 error message

mikerkba

Well Known Member
Today on startup for the return leg of a two leg vfr, I got an error message on my ifd 540 at boot up. While enroute home and again after landing, I did a shutdown/restart of the radio, with the same message appearing each time. (Took a photo, but no way to post here.) The radio has no issues on the first 35 minute leg.

The message which appeared on a banner at startup and in the alerts subsection of the AUX section says:
“No comm with VHF: No communication with VHF radio.”

And the two comm and two nav frequency blocks (all 4, in total) were red-X’d out. The GPS and all other screen functions appeared and performed normally.

Reviewing the manual at home provides no specific guidance, simply to call customer service if there is a vhf comm or nav error. I’ll do that tomorrow. But I wondered if anyone else ran into this error message.
 
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Power to the Comm Side

So does the COMM part of the 540 actually function during all this? If not, just a guess, but since the COMM side of the unit is powered separately from the GPS/NAV side of the unit, I might suspect a fuse, circuit breaker, broken wire, etc that feeds the COMM side.
 
power/ground and seating.

Good thoughts, thank you. I checked it for case seating (it appeared set in the tray properly and snugly) after the flight. As it was dark when I returned, I didnt check the connectors yet, but will do that next. I put a cutout in the baggage compartment rear wall right behind the 540 to ensure cable relief and access, so I can readily check it with the radio installed and removed.

Again, thanks for the ideas. I will post what I find, or what I learn from Avidyne.
 
The com side of the radio has lost power.
Check P1002-11 and 12 for power.

Rob Hickman
Advanced Flight Systems
 
Had a followup session today on the IFD540. Rob's guidance below that power source was correct based on symptoms, and made specific sense to me after talking to Avidyne and reviewing the IFD manual and wiring diagrams. Thanks again, Rob.

For onsite troubleshooting: I did nothing other than verify harness/connector integrity at the back of the IFD. Upon restart, the IFD "No COM communication" error message was gone, and the frequency blocks were displaying normally. The AFS Advanced Control Module electronic breaker page showed nothing unusual, even with a test of turning the com and nav circuit power supplies on and off, and recycling the IFD with its own power knob.

So, hopefully solved for the long term, though suspect for a while. If it recurs, I will start with further harness evaluation. The GPS side of the IFD had no issues, and with a second (Dynon) com running fine and the AFS 5600 GPS available, I feel ok getting back into the air for VFR flight as I continue to learn the system.
 
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