This is a long story ? you might want to get a coke?.and an aspirin....
As we finished up Louise?s RV-6 (AKA Mikey) panel upgrade two weeks ago, the only open squawk we had was that the two Dynon boxes ? the D-10A that she had installed a couple years ago, and the new D180 ? weren?t communicating over the DSAB bus. This was annoying, but not show-stopping, as quite frankly, when we designed the panel, we didn?t know that was a capability. However, I wanted to pursue getting this working, especially after flying a few times and trying to keep the two altimeter settings in sync ? it?s so much easier if you only have to do it once!
Now we actually had a small problem before the DSAB issue arose. After getting the panel powered up, and test-flying the plane for the first time, we deiced that with everythign working, it was time to bring both Dynons up to the latest software configuration. We hooked up the laptop, and the D10A uploaded without a hitch. Next came the D180 ? and spirit?s fell. The unit locked up in a really annoying way ? flashing screens that told us nothing, and no way to turn it off. Fortunately, it was the afternoon of a workday, and after talking to both Stein (who supplied the unit) and Dynon, and emphasizing that we were on a tight schedule, with Louise heading home in a couple days, we had a new D-180 on it?s way, overnight, Saturday delivery (at Dynon?s expense). The problem was diagnosed as a display board failure, and the new unit worked as soon as it went in. - - but we couldn?t get it to talk to the D10A?.
After some nice flying to round out the Holidays, Louise headed home, and I dove back into the troubleshooting. Eric, at Dynon, was a big help on things to try, but I ended up with a D10A that was stuck in a ?hung? donation that could only be resolved by pulling both the normal power and the backup battery connector. The problem was repeatable, so Eric put a new D10A in the mail ? again, Overnight, Saturday delivery. At the time, I was hoping to ferry the plan that weekend, but this was overcome by other events. The new unit arrived, and when we hooked it up, the same lock-up resulted when trying to configure the DSAB. AT this point, Eric suspected the D180, and suggested that I send BOTH units back to him, but due to the upcoming trip, and the fact that the plane was flyable, I elected to put further T/S on hold. Sometimes you just need to step away from the problem for a few days.
Unfortunately, it is hard for me not to want to solve a problem when I have an idea, so a few days later, I was underneath the panel, unbundling the wire harness to make absolutely sure that I had hooked up the DSAB lines correctly. Sure enough, blue to blue, green to green, and no shorts to ground. I tied everythign back up and sent Eric an email, suggesting that rather than me taking both boxes out and sending them to him, maybe he could take two known-good boxes, set them up on the bench, make sure they talked to each other, and send them to me. Within about an hour or two, he responded and said that I?d have them the next day, in time to install and test before my new planned trip date of this weekend! Now THAT is attention to the customer! (All of this shipping back and forth ended up on Dynon?s nickel by the way).
Sure enough, the package arrived at 10:00 this morning, and since I didn?t have to be at work until mid afternoon, I headed to the airport, greatly anticipating a working panel. I pulled the old units, popped the connectors on to the new ones, powered up and?..got the SAME results! OK, now we KNOW for sure that the problem is in the harness, but where? With the units out of the panel, I once again was looking into the business end of the DSUB connectors on the harness. Pin #4 on the D10A goes to pin #4 on the D180?.?Beeeeeeep? goes the meter. Pin #5 goes to Pin #5?.?Beeeeeeep?. OK, WHAT GIVES. They are connected, but won?t talk! Out came the magnifier, and the problem became clear. One of the d-sub sockets on the D10A harness (pin #4) looked different than the other ? in fact, it didn?t look like there was a socket in there. But I had continuity?!?! I put a probe in both sockets, and sure enough, the #4 socket was DEEPER. OK, all you techies, you know the answer now. I pulled the back shell off the connector and voila ? the socket was not fully inserted into the connector body. When I stuck a probe in to check continuity, it went in far enough to touch the recessed socket, and tested good. But when it was connected to the D10A, the pin wasn?t long enough to reach the socket, there was no connection, and no DSAB communication. The only way to figure this out was to look at it ? very closely. I pushed the socket in from the back with a tiny probe, listening for the ?click? and the first couple of times, it didn?t want to take. It finally stayed in, with more of ?soft? click, telling me that the retainer clip on that connector body was probably a little mal-formed. It did stay in however, I put the back shell on, connected everything back up and Bingo ? DSAB works!
More in part 2....
As we finished up Louise?s RV-6 (AKA Mikey) panel upgrade two weeks ago, the only open squawk we had was that the two Dynon boxes ? the D-10A that she had installed a couple years ago, and the new D180 ? weren?t communicating over the DSAB bus. This was annoying, but not show-stopping, as quite frankly, when we designed the panel, we didn?t know that was a capability. However, I wanted to pursue getting this working, especially after flying a few times and trying to keep the two altimeter settings in sync ? it?s so much easier if you only have to do it once!
Now we actually had a small problem before the DSAB issue arose. After getting the panel powered up, and test-flying the plane for the first time, we deiced that with everythign working, it was time to bring both Dynons up to the latest software configuration. We hooked up the laptop, and the D10A uploaded without a hitch. Next came the D180 ? and spirit?s fell. The unit locked up in a really annoying way ? flashing screens that told us nothing, and no way to turn it off. Fortunately, it was the afternoon of a workday, and after talking to both Stein (who supplied the unit) and Dynon, and emphasizing that we were on a tight schedule, with Louise heading home in a couple days, we had a new D-180 on it?s way, overnight, Saturday delivery (at Dynon?s expense). The problem was diagnosed as a display board failure, and the new unit worked as soon as it went in. - - but we couldn?t get it to talk to the D10A?.
After some nice flying to round out the Holidays, Louise headed home, and I dove back into the troubleshooting. Eric, at Dynon, was a big help on things to try, but I ended up with a D10A that was stuck in a ?hung? donation that could only be resolved by pulling both the normal power and the backup battery connector. The problem was repeatable, so Eric put a new D10A in the mail ? again, Overnight, Saturday delivery. At the time, I was hoping to ferry the plan that weekend, but this was overcome by other events. The new unit arrived, and when we hooked it up, the same lock-up resulted when trying to configure the DSAB. AT this point, Eric suspected the D180, and suggested that I send BOTH units back to him, but due to the upcoming trip, and the fact that the plane was flyable, I elected to put further T/S on hold. Sometimes you just need to step away from the problem for a few days.
Unfortunately, it is hard for me not to want to solve a problem when I have an idea, so a few days later, I was underneath the panel, unbundling the wire harness to make absolutely sure that I had hooked up the DSAB lines correctly. Sure enough, blue to blue, green to green, and no shorts to ground. I tied everythign back up and sent Eric an email, suggesting that rather than me taking both boxes out and sending them to him, maybe he could take two known-good boxes, set them up on the bench, make sure they talked to each other, and send them to me. Within about an hour or two, he responded and said that I?d have them the next day, in time to install and test before my new planned trip date of this weekend! Now THAT is attention to the customer! (All of this shipping back and forth ended up on Dynon?s nickel by the way).
Sure enough, the package arrived at 10:00 this morning, and since I didn?t have to be at work until mid afternoon, I headed to the airport, greatly anticipating a working panel. I pulled the old units, popped the connectors on to the new ones, powered up and?..got the SAME results! OK, now we KNOW for sure that the problem is in the harness, but where? With the units out of the panel, I once again was looking into the business end of the DSUB connectors on the harness. Pin #4 on the D10A goes to pin #4 on the D180?.?Beeeeeeep? goes the meter. Pin #5 goes to Pin #5?.?Beeeeeeep?. OK, WHAT GIVES. They are connected, but won?t talk! Out came the magnifier, and the problem became clear. One of the d-sub sockets on the D10A harness (pin #4) looked different than the other ? in fact, it didn?t look like there was a socket in there. But I had continuity?!?! I put a probe in both sockets, and sure enough, the #4 socket was DEEPER. OK, all you techies, you know the answer now. I pulled the back shell off the connector and voila ? the socket was not fully inserted into the connector body. When I stuck a probe in to check continuity, it went in far enough to touch the recessed socket, and tested good. But when it was connected to the D10A, the pin wasn?t long enough to reach the socket, there was no connection, and no DSAB communication. The only way to figure this out was to look at it ? very closely. I pushed the socket in from the back with a tiny probe, listening for the ?click? and the first couple of times, it didn?t want to take. It finally stayed in, with more of ?soft? click, telling me that the retainer clip on that connector body was probably a little mal-formed. It did stay in however, I put the back shell on, connected everything back up and Bingo ? DSAB works!
More in part 2....