Ed_Wischmeyer
Well Known Member
Here’s how you can avoid the pain I encountered when I had to send my avionics back to the manufacturer. It was a rude shock when I got them back. Very rude.
In my case, the GPS and transponder went sent in as they might have suffered soot inhalation from a fire in a nearby hangar. But when they came back, they sort of worked, mostly. Kind of, as the factory reset everything for their convenience for doing the tests, and they couldn’t be bothered to save and restore the settings, a trivial task. To be fair, this is apparently standard industry practice.
VAF member and expert/guru Brian Decker was my savior, and it helped that I was a semi-tech as well, and that I could work on my Experimental plane myself. And he had access to others. I don’t know that factory phone support could have done as good a job. Even so, it took forever and multiple test flights. And if I had a certificated airplane, it would have all had to be done at an avionic$ $hop, if I could get an appointment.
Lessons learned:
* There may be no documentation on line for your older system. It may have been replaced by documentation for the latest components.
* For resetting your system, you will focus on port numbers (RS232, ARINC 429). Pin numbers of individual wires requires you to look up each connector pinout to see what port that wire goes to. A wiring diagram is great for installation, but terrible for configuration.
* You can make the best documentation when things are working and before you send the boxes in, by taking picture of each configuration screen and putting the data into a spreadsheet so that the spreadsheet layout corresponds as closely as possible to the configuration screens. (It’s lots easier to restore settings with one spreadsheet than with multiple pictures.)
* Don’t expect things to make sense. For example, Box #1 may output data in Format A going to Box #2, where the corresponding input format is called Format B. And the wiring diagram refers to ARINC ports a and b, but the configuration screen refers to them as 1 and 2.
* The documentation may be at the rote level, with no information to help you understand how it works, or what data comes from where. This can slow debugging…
Some of the things we uncovered were that the Mode 3/C didn’t work because the serial port settings had been wiped at the factory. Brian found the configuration information in the documentation for the display screen. Why did they put it there?
If I was the manager in charge and my team turned out this quality of work, I would not expect to keep my job.
No idea why the sample spreadsheet didn't upload...
https://edwischmeyer.smugmug.com/My-Homepage-Slideshow/n-Tc3Wdg/i-bNDD962
In my case, the GPS and transponder went sent in as they might have suffered soot inhalation from a fire in a nearby hangar. But when they came back, they sort of worked, mostly. Kind of, as the factory reset everything for their convenience for doing the tests, and they couldn’t be bothered to save and restore the settings, a trivial task. To be fair, this is apparently standard industry practice.
VAF member and expert/guru Brian Decker was my savior, and it helped that I was a semi-tech as well, and that I could work on my Experimental plane myself. And he had access to others. I don’t know that factory phone support could have done as good a job. Even so, it took forever and multiple test flights. And if I had a certificated airplane, it would have all had to be done at an avionic$ $hop, if I could get an appointment.
Lessons learned:
* There may be no documentation on line for your older system. It may have been replaced by documentation for the latest components.
* For resetting your system, you will focus on port numbers (RS232, ARINC 429). Pin numbers of individual wires requires you to look up each connector pinout to see what port that wire goes to. A wiring diagram is great for installation, but terrible for configuration.
* You can make the best documentation when things are working and before you send the boxes in, by taking picture of each configuration screen and putting the data into a spreadsheet so that the spreadsheet layout corresponds as closely as possible to the configuration screens. (It’s lots easier to restore settings with one spreadsheet than with multiple pictures.)
* Don’t expect things to make sense. For example, Box #1 may output data in Format A going to Box #2, where the corresponding input format is called Format B. And the wiring diagram refers to ARINC ports a and b, but the configuration screen refers to them as 1 and 2.
* The documentation may be at the rote level, with no information to help you understand how it works, or what data comes from where. This can slow debugging…
Some of the things we uncovered were that the Mode 3/C didn’t work because the serial port settings had been wiped at the factory. Brian found the configuration information in the documentation for the display screen. Why did they put it there?
If I was the manager in charge and my team turned out this quality of work, I would not expect to keep my job.
No idea why the sample spreadsheet didn't upload...
https://edwischmeyer.smugmug.com/My-Homepage-Slideshow/n-Tc3Wdg/i-bNDD962
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