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Onslaught of "traffic sensor fault" messages
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paulr View Drop Down
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    Posted: 22 Dec 2023 at 2:26pm
This is 100% not Avidyne's issue, it's mine, thanks to my shop. I've opened a ticket with Avi support but I am hoping they're all taking a well-deserved holiday break, so I decided to ask here too.

Until November, I had an IFD440 and a GNS430W, both wired to a GTX345. They both displayed TIS-B and FIS-B. Life was good.

 

I had a nearby avionics shop put in an Aspen 2000 MAX. The MFD is wired to accept TIS-B/FIS-B, but I didn’t buy the Aspen unlock yet. The GNS430W still shows weather and traffic. The 440 (and thus the IFD100) only showed traffic. Life was slightly less good.

 

I asked the shop to look at this yesterday. First they said the IFD wasn’t even wired for weather display, but I sent them some screen shots showing it working earlier this year. They changed something in the settings and now I get continual “ADS-B traffic sensor fault” alerts.

 

I’m still getting traffic on the 430W and in ForeFlight (via the 430W, I guess). I’d like to see if I can undo whatever setting the shop changed. They’re closed until 2 January or I’d just ask them. Any idea where I might start looking?
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Melohn View Drop Down
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Originally posted by paulr paulr wrote:

This is 100% not Avidyne's issue, it's mine, thanks to my shop. I've opened a ticket with Avi support but I am hoping they're all taking a well-deserved holiday break, so I decided to ask here too.

Until November, I had an IFD440 and a GNS430W, both wired to a GTX345. They both displayed TIS-B and FIS-B. Life was good.

 

I had a nearby avionics shop put in an Aspen 2000 MAX. The MFD is wired to accept TIS-B/FIS-B, but I didn’t buy the Aspen unlock yet. The GNS430W still shows weather and traffic. The 440 (and thus the IFD100) only showed traffic. Life was slightly less good.

 

I asked the shop to look at this yesterday. First they said the IFD wasn’t even wired for weather display, but I sent them some screen shots showing it working earlier this year. They changed something in the settings and now I get continual “ADS-B traffic sensor fault” alerts.

 

I’m still getting traffic on the 430W and in ForeFlight (via the 430W, I guess). I’d like to see if I can undo whatever setting the shop changed. They’re closed until 2 January or I’d just ask them. Any idea where I might start looking?


I had a 440/GNS 430W/GTX 345 combo until just recently as well. I just changed out the 430W for a second IFD. 

My guess is that they moved the single RS422 line out of the 345 from your IFD440 to the Aspen. This would explain the loss of weather on the IFD but not the GNS, which uses a Garmin proprietary signal between the 345 and the GNS. That 422 line must be connected to both IFD and your Aspen to see traffic and weather on both.

You most likely get traffic and weather on your iPad from the 345 over Bluetooth, which wouldn’t have changed.

Traffic on the IFD probably comes via ARINC 429. What do your traffic targets look like? If they are diamonds with a track vector, they are coming in via 429 from the 345.

You’re getting the errors because the IFD is configured for ADS-B input, but the input is not there. That alone should have convinced the shop that they changed a connection. 




Edited by Melohn - 22 Dec 2023 at 4:02pm
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AviSteve View Drop Down
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When you get that message, you should look at the alerts tab to see what the long message says.  I'm guessing it will say "No communication with traffic sensor", but you should double check.  If that's the case, they probably changed one of the port configuration settings.  How to set it up depends on your aircraft wiring and the GTX configuration.  Here's an excerpt from the IFD install manual:

·        If the GTX 345 has an internal GPS receiver, the RS 232 position output connection and configuration setup is not required

·        IFD RS232 output setting: ADS-B+ (G2)…. GTX 345 RS 232 input setting: ADS-B+ FMT 2

·        IFD RS232 input setting: Capstone HS Wx …. GTX 345 RS 422 output setting: Optimized Legacy ADS-B

·        IFD ARINC429 receive setting: GDL 88 Traffic at High Speed…. GTX 345 ARINC429 transmit setting: Traffic

·        Minimum Software Versions Required: IFD v10.2.1 or higher….GTX 345 v2.05 or higher
Steve Lindsley
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paulr View Drop Down
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Thanks, Steve.

I was getting the arrow-style traffic symbols before this change. I don't think they would have moved the RS422 wiring, but they might have out of ignorance; they mostly do Garmin installs. I'll check the port settings later today.
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Originally posted by paulr paulr wrote:

Thanks, Steve.

I was getting the arrow-style traffic symbols before this change. I don't think they would have moved the RS422 wiring, but they might have out of ignorance; they mostly do Garmin installs. I'll check the port settings later today.

If you were getting the delta symbols, perhaps with flight ID, on the IFD, and now are getting the diamonds with vector lines, it almost certainly points to a disconnect of the 422 line for the 345.
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paulr View Drop Down
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Originally posted by Melohn Melohn wrote:


If you were getting the delta symbols, perhaps with flight ID, on the IFD, and now are getting the diamonds with vector lines, it almost certainly points to a disconnect of the 422 line for the 345.


I'm not getting any traffic on the IFD now. That's what makes me think it's a port thing, esp. since the shop first said "oh, there's no wiring for TIS/FIS to the IFD" and then wrote back to say that, yes, there was.
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How does the IFD determine the source of the traffic data input on the RS232 port?

The IFD presents a "flash" screen at power-on indicating that this data is coming from an uncertified source. I'm guessing that this is somehow identified from the GDL90 datastream but confirmation would be nice.

I have Capstone HS Trfc+Wx configured. The device is an ADL200 which is is an uncertified device that provides satellite weather and GDL90 traffic containing Flarm and ADS-B data received from other aircraft.


Edited by chflyer - 10 Jan 2024 at 2:50am
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Points: 2252 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote AviSteve Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Jan 2024 at 10:27am
The IFD uses the configuration that is set in maintenance mode.  It does not evaluate the content of the stream to figure out what's connected.

If you're getting "The IFD is configured to receive data from an UNCERTIFIED external wireless device..." that means the IFD is configured to get capstone over WiFi.  Recheck your configuration in maintenance mode, including the "Wireless Portables" page.
Steve Lindsley
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paulr View Drop Down
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I'm still puzzled by this.

Here's what my settings look like:





With this configuration, everything works except FIS-B weather, which used to work.

Earlier in the thread, Steve posted an excerpt from the IFD install manual. These settings seem to match.

The plane went in to the shop on 6 October. Starting on 17 October, I see the following message in the logs, and I no longer have weather:

  Lev:2 Cmd:0 Pri:010/001 Rpt:01 Own:00 Sent:00 IssueTm:74146 Dur:0 AD:0 ID:          WxRcvr sMsg:<DatalinkReceiver Fault> lMsg:<Broadcast datalink receiverfailure>

The diagnostics show 0 packets received on RS232 channel 4. 

I'm trying to figure out what other tests or checks I can perform on my own before flying back to the shop. They are willing, but they're not Avi dealers so I need as much self-education as possible to keep them from wasting our shared time on figuring this out. Any suggestions would be very helpful.
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