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Pilottonny

Well Known Member
Today I was on a flight in controlled airspace at FL080, when I noticed that the display of my SL30 was first blinking than going dim, blinking some more and going completely black in between. Transmission and reception were OK all the time. I was wondering what frequency change ATC were going to give me next and how I would be able to set it if the display was going completely black. Then after a few minutes the display went back to normal and was fine for the rest of the flight??!!.

If I have the unit checked, they will probably not find anything at all! Has anybody seen this before? Up to now I was very happy with the SL30 but??. I am wondering If I should buy a hand held as a back-up?

Thanks in advance for your input.

Regards, Tonny.
 
I had a scare that turned out to be nothing

My display was so dim it was unusable but I adjusted the display illumination levels and it is now the same brightness as the SL-60 right above it in night and day operations. Good luck.

Bob Axsom
 
Next Time

Next time you are powered up, take your finger and cover the electric eye that controls the brightness of the display. Covering it up should dim the display, uncovering it and or shining a flash light on it should brighten the LED display. It should be a round hole over on the LH side. I suspect when it was acting up you had direct sunlight shining on the face of it. I have put small patch of self adhesive black velcro with a hole in it around the same item on my GX 60. Your local Garmin dealer might replace the item for about $500. In my case at night or in low light it is a non issue. In direct exposure to sunlight flight paths, the velcro softens the intensity to where the display only gets slightly brighter, but not to the point of overload. Please let me know what you find in your case. The former owner returned the GX 60 while under warrantee and the"intermittent"display was replaced. However, the display was not the problem.

Best of Luck,
 
Direct sunlight.......

Direct sunlight???hm.,?. Maybe possible, the sun was setting so that may have been why the problem went away after a while. I will take a flashlight next time and try to simulate it. If that is indeed the case, at least I know how to deal with it, if it happens again.

This event made me think about back-up though.

Regards, Tonny.
 
No.... not direct sunlight.

I went flying again yesterday and right after start-up the display started flickering again (no sun). Blocking the light sensor made the display go dim, but did not effect the flickering. After a while it was fine again and stayed OK during the entire 1,1/2 hr flight.

Regards, Tonny.
 
Bad service and expensive repairs!

Well,.........finally I took the unit to an "Authorised Garmin repair station". And I only had to wait four and a half weeks to get it back! (and of course it was the best flying weather ever)

And guess what? Yes....... only 25 hrs. of flight on it, but no warrenty........ of course not,....... for such a cheap unit (only approx. $ 3.500,- !). And I only had to pay the "small" amount of $ 950,- to get the display fixed! Thank you very much Garmin!

Please let us cherrish companies like: Van's, Dynon, Trutrak, Airflow Performance, CAD, etc. for their honnesty and service!

Regards, Tonny
 
Garmin Service

This is one of the things I don't like about Garmin. They have a minimum charge no matter what is wrong. I had the GPS portion go out on my 430 less than 6 months after first flight and approximately 100 hours. It was one month out of Warranty. Base price $750. More than 10% of the cost of the unit when I bought it.

My neighbor thought his 430 squelch was broken. Sent it in only to learn he had inadvertently pulled the volume causing the squelch to be on full time. Didn't catch it. $750!!!

They have probably gone up on the base price now. They have you by the eggs no doubt. And, there's no talking them out of it.
 
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