Avionics Rant

[Lance F]

My panel is acting up big time, and I am worried about my wallet.
1. #2 Nav-Com (KX-155) just shuts down randomly. It is still drawing power, but the display goes blank and it stops xmitting and receiving. Sometimes it comes back if I turn it off for a few minutes; sometimes not.
2. My MFD (MX-20) frequently comes on with the screen all scrambled. After it warms up, it is normal.
3. The altitude hold button on my S-TEC 50 autopilot is some kind of membrane switch. It is failing and sometimes you can't turn the altitude hold on or off.
4. Not an equipment problem, but when I had to replace my xponder a couple of years ago I got a Garmin GTX 327. Now I think that was a mistake. A GTX 330 would give me traffic (terminal areas) and is ready for ADS-B.
And of course I really need a Garmin 500.
Rant off. Thanks for listening.

 

[bbchien]

Check bus voltage or a proxy thereto....when it happens.

 

[Ted]

Lance,

I feel your pain. Avionics are expensive, and you expect to buy them once and have them last for a long time. It's a pain (and expensive) when they don't.

 

[SCCutler]

Lance:

Probably coincidence, and yet... two modern, solid-state devices acting up at the same time? Put a scope on the power, make sure it's proper and clean. Y'never know...

...as for the S-Tec, are you referencing an altitude-hold button on the yoke, or in the controller head? If you don't have a remote alt-hold button, get one. Likely to be a more robust switch, and easily replaced (as opposed to the one in the panel unit) if it fails.

 

[weilke]

What's the complaint, this sounds about average .



(voltage regulator acting up ? Loose ground-strap ?)

 

[tdager]

Lance that has GOT to be some sort of power issue. No way that many individual pieces would have such random failures independent of something common.