Digitrak stopped working

[Jim Percy]

My Digitrak has worked fine for about 3.5 years. Yesterday it was happily tracking the magenta line when it suddenly disengaged and gave me three flashing dashes. It would not come back to life, even after switching the power off for a time then back on. The air was very smooth at the time. Once on the ground and inside the hangar I tried once more and it DID engage. Any ideas?

Thanks-
Jim Percy
RV-7A

[TrutrakTech]

Hi Jim,

Start with the basics. Check the connector on the back of the unit. Check the wires/pins in the connector. Check the system ground point. Check your CWS circuit. Let me know what you find.

[Jim Percy]

Thanks, I'll check those things next time I'm out later this week. Just to be clear, when I said it would not come back to life I meant that it didnt get past the flashing dashes and wouldn't engage. Power supply didn't seem to be an issue, but I'll still check continuity on the connections.

[TrutrakTech]

Bad ground or intermittant power can cause it to basically stay in the "boot" cycle. Let me know what you find. Thanks!

[Jim Percy]

Boy do I NOT like intermittent problems... I checked the power and ground connections and found them to be good- good continuity that didn't waver even when the wires were wiggled around. The problem has not recurred in two flights since, but other than disconnecting the 15-pin connector from the back I didn't really do or fix anything. Maybe disconnecting and reconnecting improved a connection, but I don't have a lot of confidence in that.

Any other suggestions, or perhaps something I should do/check if it does happen again?

One other puzzle piece- twice recently, when activated, the unit has commanded an abrupt left roll, and it was immediately deactivated. A second activation caused the same thing. After autopilot power was cycled it worked normally. My SOP is to power the autopilot immediately after startup, and I figured maybe these times I didn't hold still long enough or something...? Any thoughts on this?

Thanks again!

[TrutrakTech]

Jim,

You and me both!

First the immediate left turn. It's possible something happened during power up that could have caused it. Power cycle fixing it is a good clue to a pretty heft gyro offset. What a little longer before turning on the AP master. :)

Could have just been a pin and/or connector. If it happens again, I'll have you send it in for testing. Let's see what happens. Thanks!

[Jim Percy]

Sounds like a plan.
Thanks!