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Digitrak going bonkers !

mike newall

Well Known Member
Sponsor
We have a basic DigiTrak in our RV7.

All good except every so often, you turn it on - smooth conditions - and once you engage it, it dives left or right, won't hold heading etc etc.

Turn off, leave it 20 mins, then it is fine :confused:

Any suggestions for diagnostic ?
 
Make sure that you are powering it up on the ground, while stationary. If it’s powered up and you turn the aircraft within about 10 seconds (while the gyros are centering), it won’t fly the aircraft well.
 
I find that I need to fly the magnetic calibration in the first flight setup occasionally to keep the unit working well.
 
Any chance you have condensation\water in pitot static port? I had some vertical diversons in my A\P that I attributed to muniscous\slug of water in the first inch of the static port.

Took me a while to figure out this was happening only mornings after I had the plane parked outside during a heavy rain event.
 
So,

Through this, Andrew from Honeywell has been emailing me with suggestions and work alongs.

We agreed to go back to base settings - complete new install etc etc.

Erect the unit while still on the ground, phnarr phnarr

All worked fine and we are back up and running.

Thanks Andrew, a Gold Star !!!!!
 
So,

Through this, Andrew from Honeywell has been emailing me with suggestions and work alongs.

We agreed to go back to base settings - complete new install etc etc.

Erect the unit while still on the ground, phnarr phnarr

All worked fine and we are back up and running.

Thanks Andrew, a Gold Star !!!!!

I had a similar problem years ago, and Andrew told me “don’t move it until it finishes its power up and says “off” (which only takes about30 seconds)”, and I haven’t had a problem since.
 
Same issue with AFS Pilot / DigiFlight II

I have an AFS pilot (TruTrak DigiFlight II) and very occasionally have had the same thing happen, maybe five times in 800 hours. Good to know about the startup / stationary thing; I'll pay attention to that. I'd be interested to know if any others have seen it with this model.
 
I have an AFS pilot (TruTrak DigiFlight II) and very occasionally have had the same thing happen, maybe five times in 800 hours. Good to know about the startup / stationary thing; I'll pay attention to that. I'd be interested to know if any others have seen it with this model.

Yep - happened a couple of flights ago for the first time in 300 hrs. Couldn’t figure what was the issue. It has worked fine since then.
 
Hi folks - I am back :(


Despite many attempts at resetting, our Digitrak wing leveller autopilot has expired. Will test fine on the ground, servo runs correctly and smoothly, but once airborne just continuously rolls one way or the other. can't get it to do the mag calibration - it won't hold any heading. Tried activity from 1 to 6, no difference. Torque has been set between 10 and 12.



Questions

Anyone seen this before and rectified it ?

Anyone got a spare head after an upgrade ?


Or - I need a plug and play replacement as an alternative. Pins need to be same as we route avionics via a hub.
 
Sounds like the gyro has failed or something along those lines. Unfortunately, they aren't repairable anymore (The Murata gyro has been out of production for many years)

Although I am sure that there are some great Digitrak units sitting on shelves, unfortunately, I don't have one.

Worth noting, the Pictorial Pilot is also a plug-and-play replacement for the Digitrak.
 
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