GI275 Battery Fault

[Mtns2Skies]

I've had my GI275's for almost a year now with no issues then suddenly for my latest two flights I have a battery fault warning on the screens. In-flight I checked the batteries which were at full charge (97%), and pulled the circuit breakers and watched them slowly drain as they should, popped the breakers back in and they charged back up as they should. So I'm not quite sure exactly why I'm getting a battery fault. Is this something simple I can check or am I going to have to take it in to an avionics shop?

Photos of error and battery status attached.

 

[Clip4]

I suspect there is a 12 month mandatory inspection. Only a tech can reset the error message.

https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1964279/Garmin-Gi-275.html?page=86#manual

 

[Timbeck2]

Something about flush mount screws used where pan heads should be just bugs me.

 

[bkspero]

I suspect there is a 12 month mandatory inspection. Only a tech can reset the error message.

Page 11 of the GI-275 Pilot's Guide (Rev G) says the battery must be tested every 392 days using the instructions provided in the Installation Manual for legal flight under IFR. So it is plausible that the fault is a result of missing this test. I would call Garmin Aviation tech support and ask them directly.

Update, on page 5-34 of the GI-275 maintenance manual (Rev. 1) it confirms that you will get a battery fault indication after 12 months without a backup battery check:

5.12.5 Backup Battery Check
This procedure will analyze the voltage and discharge qualities of the installed backup battery. The procedure is required to be completed on initial installation and every 12 calendar months when a backup battery is installed in the system. A fault indication message will be displayed in Normal mode until this procedure is completed.

 

[Mtns2Skies]

Page 11 of the GI-275 Pilot's Guide (Rev G) says the battery must be tested every 392 days using the instructions provided in the Installation Manual for legal flight under IFR. So it is plausible that the fault is a result of missing this test. I would call Garmin Aviation tech support and ask them directly.

Update, on page 5-34 of the GI-275 maintenance manual (Rev. 1) it confirms that you will get a battery fault indication after 12 months without a backup battery check:

5.12.5 Backup Battery Check
This procedure will analyze the voltage and discharge qualities of the installed backup battery. The procedure is required to be completed on initial installation and every 12 calendar months when a backup battery is installed in the system. A fault indication message will be displayed in Normal mode until this procedure is completed.

Thank you! I believe I was one of the first GI275 installs in the country, so I'm probably one of the first to run into this as well. This checks out, my logbook entry for these was just over 12 months ago. I was really worried something was seriously wrong.

Luckily I'm going into an avionics shop in a couple weeks for a GTX345 install (and GDL82 removal) so this will barely be an inconvenience this year.

 

[bkspero]

Glad to help.

 

[Clip4]

Page 11 of the GI-275 Pilot's Guide (Rev G) says the battery must be tested every 392 days using the instructions provided in the Installation Manual for legal flight under IFR. So it is plausible that the fault is a result of missing this test. I would call Garmin Aviation tech support and ask them directly.

Update, on page 5-34 of the GI-275 maintenance manual (Rev. 1) it confirms that you will get a battery fault indication after 12 months without a backup battery check:

5.12.5 Backup Battery Check
This procedure will analyze the voltage and discharge qualities of the installed backup battery. The procedure is required to be completed on initial installation and every 12 calendar months when a backup battery is installed in the system. A fault indication message will be displayed in Normal mode until this procedure is completed.

Yes, that’s what I read in the link I provided, except it doesn’t tell you what fault message you get. It could be another issue.

 

[bkspero]

Yes, that’s what I read in the link I provided, except it doesn’t tell you what fault message you get. It could be another issue.

The flight manual supplement (Rev. 6) on page 41 shows the annunciation for battery fault as the one in the OP's photos. So it seems reasonable that a condition that the Maintenance Manual describes as a fault indication message relating to the battery would show the message that way.

To your point, though, the FMS says that this battery fault indication can represent other issues that may not allow the battery to charge and discharge properly. In the OP's case the battery status showed that the battery was taking and holding a charge, and the discharge test showed that it was discharging normally. So other charge/discharge issues don't seem exist. Running the battery check to see if it resets the display would be the definitive final test.

 

[Mtns2Skies]

Following up on this albeit a bit late. The avionics shop performed this, but in the future they told me to put the GI275's into maintenance mode and perform a self-battery test. The test takes about 8 hours with the aircraft power off, so generally leave it overnight. In the morning the 275's will tell you if they passed or not. Of course they're only a year old so they did pass and that cleared the fault. FYI for anyone else that runs into this since Garmin's information on this is sparse at best.

 

[Joe_B1]

Following up on this albeit a bit late. The avionics shop performed this, but in the future they told me to put the GI275's into maintenance mode and perform a self-battery test. The test takes about 8 hours with the aircraft power off, so generally leave it overnight. In the morning the 275's will tell you if they passed or not. Of course they're only a year old so they did pass and that cleared the fault. FYI for anyone else that runs into this since Garmin's information on this is sparse at best.

Garmin is pretty poor at telling operators about a lot of things concerning fault remediation. I have spent a year going back and forth with my avionics installer about a myriad of minor annoyances. He has managed to correct them all with simple fixes but as a pilot, I only find out about a lot of these things when they become an issue. I thank the stars that my avionics guy has the patience to deal with me!