Iefis wont restart after dead battery

Post here anything related to the MGL EFIS systems
Forum rules
Please keep your posts friendly and on topic. No politics or discussions of a controversial nature not related to our favorite subject of flying and avionics. Offending posts may be removed or moderated.
Post Reply
Allan
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2021 8:02 am

Iefis wont restart after dead battery

Post by Allan »

Hi,
I left the avionics on and killed the aircraft battery. With a new aircraft battery my stratomaster challenger screen will no longer work. There is a faint colour change but nothing shows up.
I have replaced the cr battery, no change. The ibox, engine module all flash green lights, the arhis flashes red. Cant see any lights on the power regulator module, dont think there is one? Radio works, separate to iefis.

Is there a reset or something to trigger at least something on the screen. There is no main backup battery to unplug or charge.

Allan
rainier
Site Admin
Posts: 662
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2020 7:03 pm

Re: Iefis wont restart after dead battery

Post by rainier »

One of the possible scenarios is a situation where a dead battery runs out of joice, voltage collapses and EFIS shuts down - that immediately reduces the load and voltage rises - EFIS starts up and voltage collapses. As the battery gets worse this continues at a rapid pace. The resultant surge currents could conceivably cause damage eventually.
Do you know if your EFIS has a G2 or G3 processor system ?
Allan
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2021 8:02 am

Re: Iefis wont restart after dead battery

Post by Allan »

Its probably a G2 as its 6-7 years old. Ser no iC130900030
That doesn’t sound good. In this case even a backup battery would not have saved it after a couple weeks.
rainier
Site Admin
Posts: 662
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2020 7:03 pm

Re: Iefis wont restart after dead battery

Post by rainier »

I do remember one of them many years ago where a similar thing happened. In that case we needed to reflash the boot loader. It's stored in a special flash memory chip on the CPU card itself (a plug in card). It's a process we can only do here as it requires special equipment.

The easiest path would perhaps be to upgrade the panel to a G3 - it's a matter of plugging in a new CPU card or if your distributor has in stock perhaps a G2 card from a unit that has been upgraded to G3.
If you can get hold of a G2 card that would be the easiest as you can continue using your existing internal SD card and no changes are needed.

We do still have new G2 CPU cards in stock here.

I suggest opening the rear panel and have a peak inside just to make sure it is in fact a G2 - if it is a G3 there is no bootloader chip and everything resides on an internal SD card.

Just a question to make sure - if you switch on - is there any time right at the beginning when you see a black screen with white writing at the top left corner (even if just briefly) ? If yes then your boot system is alive and the issue likely that the internal SD card is damaged - in that case it is fairly easy to rebuild - instructions are on our website under the Odyssey G2 firmware tab.
Post Reply