Garmin Legacy Units

Ventucky Red

Ventucky Red

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Discussion over the week comes upon the continuing maintenance of the Garmin 530W and 430W units, as many of them are on the used market.

Some in our little sewing circle think that parts will remain available from third-market suppliers and that overhauling or repairing them should be fine.

I and a few others believe that cannibalizing and harvesting parts from other units will be OK for a while, but that will eventually dry up making them the next Narco MK 12

The only thing we agreed on is that these units are tanks, but to fix them will be a small king's ransom.

Thoughts from the group on this?
 
They are great units, but yes, eventually it will be hard to maintain them. I had the same issue with a KNS-80 years ago.
 
Another thing to consider: How long Garmin will provide updates to these data bases? I have no insight into either question.
 
Ventucky Red said:
Some in our little sewing circle think that parts will remain available from third-market suppliers and that overhauling or repairing them should be fine.

I and a few others believe that cannibalizing and harvesting parts from other units will be OK for a while, but that will eventually dry up making them the next Narco MK 12
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I think you’re the one that’s right. Electronics aren’t the same as the days where you throw together handfuls of transistors/capicitors/LEDs/etc and end up with a radio.
RockyMtnFlyer said:
Another thing to consider: How long Garmin will provide updates to these data bases?
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There’s always Jepp, right? GX50/55/60 updates went a long time but stopped when they said there’s more data than they can put on the outdated storage cards.
 
The database updates are not particular to the unit, so they should be available.

The problem is the screen. They are no longer made. So unless someone wants to reverse engineer and produce a replacement screen, the units will become unrepairable.
 
Pinecone said:
The database updates are not particular to the unit, so they should be available.

The problem is the screen. They are no longer made. So unless someone wants to reverse engineer and produce a replacement screen, the units will become unrepairable.
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I am wondering if the screen is the same one used on many other Garmin units in other applications, marine, auto, etc...?

Can't see them developing a whole new single application part when they probably had something sitting on the shelve that could do the job... Hells Bells, in his book, Ben Rich tells the story of the YF-117 that used a lot of "off the shelve parts" in the design and manufacture.

Just "spitballing here."
 
Maybe, but it is still a 25 year old product.

I would bet the marine units based on similar parts haven't been supported for years.
 
Seems similar in some ways to the Stratux build and repair myself vs Sratus it's new and just works debate.

If you get lucky the Stratux will work - mostly - maybe. If you can get the parts, and get them to work well together. You want it to be modern and just work?? Sratus.

You want to tinker and get/keep the GNS working? You might get lucky, and it will work - mostly - maybe. If you can get parts, and if they work well together.

You just want it to work with more modern features? Replace with a GTN.
 
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Pinecone said:
Maybe, but it is still a 25 year old product.

I would bet the marine units based on similar parts haven't been supported for years.
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Point taken.... sometimes boat owners are worse than pilots when it comes to tech stuff.. and always want to newest latest and greatest.
 
Ventucky Red said:
I am wondering if the screen is the same one used on many other Garmin units in other applications, marine, auto, etc...?

Can't see them developing a whole new single application part when they probably had something sitting on the shelve that could do the job... Hells Bells, in his book, Ben Rich tells the story of the YF-117 that used a lot of "off the shelve parts" in the design and manufacture.

Just "spitballing here."
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I doubt there is any screen commonality. It is common to get a custom screen made for an application and I can't imagine this being any exception. I seem to recall Garmin making it known that there was a limited supply of displays for the GNS units a number of years ago already. Other issues that will arise are when the custom IC and 1990s electronic component stockpile has been depleted. I'm sure there are plenty of components in these units that are end of life now and I doubt Garmin will put engineering effort into coming up with a new board design using 21st century components to breathe more life into a 25 year old product.

Garmin must have had a pretty good parts stockpile for the GNS units. They've continued support a lot longer than I expected they would.
 
I have a GNS430W, and will keep it until it dies. Then it will turn into an Avidyne IFD440. Garmin seems committed to supporting data updates for the foreseeable future, but it is inevitable that replacement parts will become scarce to the point that these legacy units are unrepairable. I would not consider installing a used one now--it's too late in the life cycle of the product.

It's seems like there would be a market for Garmin to offer a slide-in replacement for one of their most successful aviation products. But Avidyne is there if that doesn't happen, plus the Avidyne units will play nicer with my NGT-9000 transponder.
 
You know - great question there. Why didn’t Garmin make an adaptor of some type to make the current generation of GTNs slide in / easy to upgrade?
 
WDD said:
You know - great question there. Why didn’t Garmin make an adaptor of some type to make the current generation of GTNs slide in / easy to upgrade?
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With Garmin going more and more towards digital interfaces, particularly Ethernet, the GTN->whatever slide-in upgrade should theoretically be much easier to do in the future.

But for whatever reason, the GNS->GTN ship has sailed and it’s all water under the bridge now.
 
WDD said:
You know - great question there. Why didn’t Garmin make an adaptor of some type to make the current generation of GTNs slide in / easy to upgrade?
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Because the GTNs have more capability and more interconnection. You would have almost the same install price as just starting over.

Making things backwards compatible leads to serious compromise of features and performance going forward.
 
CANBUS is more common in vehicles.
 
as i have said before, when garmin says it over, its over. an ifr gps must be a tso,ed unit. to maintain the tso they must be serviced using approved manuals an procedures. those manuals have never, and never will be, been made available from garmin. so third party support will not happen. couple that with parts not made in the last 15 years, plus the lack of screens they are just about end of life. i suspect that it will happen sooner than later, garmin supported them well beyond the time frame of most manufacturers already.
 
WDD said:
You know - great question there. Why didn’t Garmin make an adaptor of some type to make the current generation of GTNs slide in / easy to upgrade?
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Avidyne owns the rights to the 430 backplate. Don't know how this happened. That's why the IDF can slide right into the existing backplate and replace a Garmin. It's also why Garmin's newer navigators require a DIFFERENT backplate - they know people are sliding in Avidyne units to replace their 430s. Garmin doesn't want to lose those sales the next time around.

This information is from the owner of an avionics shop that spoke to me. Is it true? Meh.
 
I have a 530W and I see no reason to rush out and drop $20k or so on a new GTN750. If I was installing new I certainly wouldn’t pay to buy a 430/530 now but what I have works just fine.

If I can still get it repaired for around $1k or less and DB updates remain available I plan to keep it. If it dies and can’t be fixed I’ll upgrade but I don’t see any urgent need to replace a working unit.
 
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