Engine Monitor and VPX cutting out

I have 3 EFIS Screens, 2 5600 and 1 5500 installed with a VPX-Pro. My middle screen is 5500 and has the engine monitor board and where the VPX info is connected through. This last week I was up for a flight and noticed while viewing the VPX Electrical screen, the circuits would go away and then immediately re-populate. Over about a 45 minute flight, it happened 4 times. Returning to the hangar I pulled the efis and checked the wiring between the 5500 and the VPX and could not find any loose connections.

Then last week on the way to Airventure I had that electrical screen up again and once again it was doing the same thing. Then to add to this, every so often I would get a warning "check oil pressure" or check fuel pressure", etc. and then they warning would immediately go away. Everything looked normal and seemed to be just a wiring issue so continued. Now it seemed to be more of a communication wire though the Ethernet so checked all the connections to and from and they all seemed to be working fine.

When returning home from Airventure, it continued to happen only more often and for longer times. Once the engine info was out for about 3 seconds. Once back on the ground pulled all the EFIS systems from the panel and left connected. Turned everything on to see if I could find a loose wire or something else. I continued to happen while testing, but never when I was fiddling with the wiring. After pulling every wire to check, and re-connecting everything, it still did the same thing.

From what I can tell, this must be something with the 5500 screen and the communications it is sending to the other screens. Could this possibly be something within the EFIS itself since it has to do with both the engine monitor and the vpx?

Any help to further investigate the issue is greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Brian

I have pretty much the same setup as you although not flying yet. Just curious if you disconnect Ethernet connections from other screens if your 5500 reacts the same? Also it might be worth resaving "VP-X Pro" in admin/ serial port settings on the 5500 / engine module efis. Just a thought. Btw I know from experience that J1 p20, 21, 22 of VP-X are most important along with data lines connecting to efis. I'm sure you know that but those are the most important to verify solid connections. Although if it's only engine data and not electrical info I would think more of an issue with engine module/sensor communications. I've had electrical data go away but for me it was data connections from J1.

Another testing option is to fly with a notebook wired to the management port of the VP/X. This will validate whether there is an issue with the VP/X or if the issue is external to the VP/X.

I would be suspicious of connections within the 5500 too, since you are having issues with both the engine module and the serial ports. But I'll leave that troubleshooting to the AFS folks to assist you with.

I did disconnect the 5500 from the ethernet port and did get the same results. I also did do the V12 software upgrade so went and checked all the settings and they were all good. Do not think this is an issue as it did it before the upgrade. Going to also check J1 pins again to make sure I did not miss anything.

Weather permitting today, I plan to take the plan up and try it with the notebook hooked to the VP/X. As this may determine that there is the possibility of two issues, one with the engine management and one with the VP/X.

The screen will reset the VP-X display if:
The EFIS receives no serial data from the VP-X for 3 seconds OR
If the VP-X fails its internal integrity check during system startup OR
If the VP-X doesn't receive external data messages from the EFIS for more than two seconds.

I would start with rewiring the serial connection.

Shawn, I do plan to work on the connections again this evening and just redo them. However, this does not explain also why the engine information is doing the same thing. Cannot be that every connection decided to go bad all at the same time. Any ideas on this.

If you send over your flight and system logs I can look to see if there is any other indications for the engine readings.