Baro altitude not getting sent from AFS to Avidyne IFD

[vas4afs]

Hello,

I bought my RV-10 about 18 months ago with 2xAF-5600 and an Avidyne IFD540 Navigator. I had noticed that I have to manually sequence missed approaches which have an altitude restriction and recently figured out (from an IFD forum) that the reason is that my IFD is not getting a baro altitude and I am trying to figure out what I need to do to fix it.

It looks like the IFD can consume the baro altitude via ARINC (label 204) but I saw something in the AFS forum that indicates that the AFS unit does not transmit baro altitude via ARINC. That article was pretty old so I am trying to figure out if that is correct.

My plane apparently has the original AFS ARINC adapter. Will replacing it with the new SV-ARINC-429 adapter solve the issue? I have attached photos of the admin config pages from my PFD and MFD.

I had met Ken from AFS at OSH last year and when I mentioned to him that I wasn't seeing holds on my AFS unit, he said that the SV-ARINC-429 would solve that problem. I would like to upgrade to the new ARINC adapter especially if the baro altitude issue will also get resolved.

From a mechanics perspective, what do I need to do/be aware of to replace the old ARINC adapter with the new SV-ARINC-429?

Thanks,

Vas

[Jonathon]

Yes the SV-ARINC will draw holds and yes it will send label 204 baro alt to the navigator.

Upgrade is fairly simple, make sure you have a free port on your SV-Network hub you can plug the SV-ARINC into. On the other side of the adapter, DB-25 connector is the same as is used on the AF-ARINC, so you can get away with repinning the connector you already have. You'll need to swap pins to convert the harness from the AF to the SV ARINC as follows

AF ARINC --> SV ARINC
1 --> NOT USED
3 --> NOT USED
9 --> NOT USED
10 --> NOT USED
22 --> NOT USED
11 --> 22
23 --> 10
12 --> 23
24 --> 11
13 --> 24
25 --> 12


Additionally you'll need to either move pin 22 from your PFD display Main EFIS connector to the SV-ARINC pin 3, or you can splice in a tee from this wire to pin 3 on the SV-ARINC.


On the PFD, rescan the SV-Network from the SET --> CAL --> Advanced SV Network screen.

On both screens, change the GPS/NAV1 assignment to SV-ARINC

On the IFD, enter maintenance mode and change the ARINC out speed to high on both the MAIN ARINC 429 and on the VOR/LOC/ILS ARINC 429 config pages

[vas4afs]

Thanks, Jonathon!

I actually haven't looked behind my panel yet (and don't know how the various components are wired) so I have a possibly trivial question - regarding the SV-Network hub, would the AF ARINC (the old one) have also normally been plugged into the SV-Network hub or would it have been connected differently?

Regards,
Vas

[Jonathon]

The AF ARINC adapter predates the entire SkyView Network as a standard, and communicates with the EFIS instead via RS-232. Three of the no longer used pins as per the above conversion table are for the RS-232 TX, RX, and serial ground, the other two are for the device power and ground. They all get removed because they all get replaced by the power and data that comes over the separate SV-Network cable.

[vas4afs]

Thanks, Jonathon. I see references to SV in my configuration. Does that mean that there is likely an SV Network already present (for other components) or will I need something like SV-NET-HUB to plug the SV-ARINC (and the IFD) into?

Regards,
Vas

[rleffler]

Thanks, Jonathon. I see references to SV in my configuration. Does that mean that there is likely an SV Network already present (for other components) or will I need something like SV-NET-HUB to plug the SV-ARINC (and the IFD) into?

Regards,
Vas

Many AFS/Dynon devices are SV network capable and require being plugged into a SV-Hub to communicate with each other. In the CAL menu, from the SV Network option, you can view the devices that are currently attached to the SV Network. You’ll want to do this from your PFD if you have more than one EFIS. You will see a listing of all the devices currently defined and are know on the SV-Network. If you don’t see the device listed, it’s not connected. Like Jonathon mentioned, you’ll need to plug the sv-arinc into an open sv-hub port. You can daisy chain hubs if you need more ports.

Since the SV-Network is unique to AFS/Dynon, I’m not aware of any other vendors that supports it. your Avidyne gps would in turn be wired to the sv-arinc, which is connected to the sv-network. Look at the Avidyne schematics in the installation manual for more complete requirements for wiring your Avidyne gps.

[vas4afs]

Thanks, Bob!