Trim Fault Error G3X

[Cluemeister]

Took a flight last evening, and on preflight everything was fine. Upon landing, a "Trim Fault" error came up. I taxied and shut off the engine, leaving the master on. I pushed on the trim switch, no motor sound, no trim movement. Flaps worked normally.

Has something like this happened to anyone else, and what was the diagnosis? Bad switch? Bad motor? Something else?

 

[kyleb]

This is my deep seated fear of integrated avionics. How to troubleshoot this kind of problem...

As I install my own G3X in the RV-10.

 

[asicer]

This is my deep seated fear of integrated avionics. How to troubleshoot this kind of problem...

As I install my own G3X in the RV-10.

With that big beautiful screen and all those smarts behind it, you'd think it would say something like:
"I applied power to the trim motor but I'm not detecting any voltage drop or current drain. You might want to check the power and control wires to the servo."
or
"The motor seems to be moving but I'm not detecting any activity on the limit switches. You might want to check those."
or
"The motor seems to be moving uncommanded so I cut power to it. You might want to check the servo itself."

Darned lazy engineers...

 

[MooneyDriver78]

Is there an error log of some sort than can be copied to the sdcard?

 

[Joe_B1]

Having designed many of these types of systems it has been my experience that it is not the engineers fault but management declaring that the product will be completed by a certain date. If left up to the engineering team, the product would be infinitely sophisticated and never reach completion.

 

[Larry in TN]

This is my deep seated fear of integrated avionics. How to troubleshoot this kind of problem...
As I install my own G3X in the RV-10.

Wouldn't the maintenance manual have a troubleshoot procedure for each fault message?

 

[kyleb]

Wouldn't the maintenance manual have a troubleshoot procedure for each fault message?

The manual for the G3X system is long. Real long. It doesn't include the non-Garmin stuff, like the trim servos (which are controlled by/through) the autopilot. I have no idea if it includes a troubleshooting session - I'm still miffed that first several (like 10 or more) pages are a list of what Garmin isn't responsible for.