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(EFIS) Heart Transplant!

Ironflight

VAF Moderator / Line Boy
Mentor
Even the most hardened warriors can have medical issues, and such is the case for our RV-3 “Tsamsiyu”; the “heart” of the EFIS package, the GSU 73 failed about ten days ago - dead as a door nail. it provides attitude and heading references and engine data (we have a backup for the AHRS functions - but the engine monitoring is single string) to the rest of the system and it quit during boot-up. Even though it has two power sources going into the box (from different busses), it simply disappeared from the system configuration page, so I figured something inside the box died. I did some pin-out testing on the harness just to make sure I hadn’t developed a CAN bus problem, then called in the experts - G3Xpert to be specific.

A quick email exchange confirmed the box was dead, and I had it boxed and in the mail back to Olathe that afternoon. As soon as they received it (two days later), the charged my credit card for the exchange unit and had it on its way back. Showed up last night and I installed it in about ten minutes this morning. Good heartbeat, good engine data, and the AHRS seems happy!

For those G3X users that aren’t familiar with the GSU73, it was the original AHRS/EIS that was “stolen” from the certified world when the underground experimental revolutionaries within Garmin created the original G3X. I like the current architecture of having separate AHRS and EIS boxes better.

Oh well - 13 years and 850 hours of heat, cold, cross-country and significant aerobatics can take a toll on things. Fortunately, Garmin Experimental guys were right on top of it and had the fresh unit for transplant shipped right away - no ice required……

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