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Thanks a lot Graf for sharing your experience.

That's very interesting. And you say that you gained a very knots in cruise and improved the response of the ALT in the AP? Do you also have an STEC 55x? Thanks a lot, Graf!

Because I was experimenting with the AP in ALT mode to see if there was a problem with the TRIM servo. I wanted to remove that variable.

As part of these tests, at some point I disconnected the electric trim, and tried with different trim settings. First with what looked like a trimmed setting for level flight, then like one full turn nose up, and then nose down. The behavior of the STEC was the same in all tests. However, I noticed what you show in the picture about the elevator, and took a picture because I didn't know if that was normal. With the STEC on in ALT mode, the elevator is in a "nose up" attitude, like in your picture. I thought that when trimming nose up that will change, but it didn't. I'm attaching a picture on the elevator position in the last flight, and the ELEV TRIM setting in the MFD.

An update on our adventures with the S-TEC 55x in our Mooney Ovation 2 GX. We finally found a technician in our country that has some of the tools needed to diagnose the module. After 2 long months, they fixed some issues in the main board that had to do with pitch, then overhauled the pitch servo, gave the pitch cable the corresponding tension. After that, they noted that there was a problem with the trim servo, overhauled it, but after that realized that there was a false contact that damaged the module of the STEC 55x board that controls TRIM. After that fix, the STEC 55x started working almost perfectly. I say "almost" because we are still seeing some small porpoising (not more than +/- 100 fpm, and not diverging) when in ALT mode and VS. We tried turning off the electric TRIM switch, but it does the same symptom, so it looks it is not related to the TRIM servo, it looks like the pitch servo is lagging behind. Cable tension is fine, but it might be the case that either the internal accelerometer of the STEC is not working well (we understand it is used for small adjustments) or the pitch servo is not starting with small voltaje. Any other advice or test that we can do? Thanks a lot in advance!

Thanks a lot Paul, then we have hope of being able to upgrade to -34 and then have data logging. In our previous Mooney, an M20C, we had a JPI and that feature was really useful to diagnose and prevent issues. It's wonderful to know that it is possible te upgrade. We will contact our local Garmin shop. Last question: do you know what are the new features of the -37 update..? Or a link where I can find that information..? Thanks again!

Thanks a lot for the information, Paul. Just in case you know, it is possible to activate data logging in v30? Or is there a way to update the G1000 to 34 to have that feature? Thanks!

We have 0401.30 (SYS SOFTWARE VERSION). In any case, we included the checklists both in the old and new naming convention. The checklist was loaded fine (it was a 8 GB Sandisk, FAT32, empty, just with the checklist). The problem was that for some reason, it stopped reading the DB files from the lower slot (that always worked fine). Perhaps we need to try again.

Thanks a lot for the feedback. We are able to read data from both SD cards, it is just that it doesn't like the maps and the checklist being on different SD cards. We will keep doing tests and report back.

Thanks for your answer, Matthias. Then you suggest that we try again placing an SD card only with the checklist in the upper slot, and leave our usual SD card in the lower slot with all the databases, but trying with a different SD card for the upper? We could try that for sure. In our case, it looks that the G1000 was able to read both cards without any issues, it is just that it seemed that it was looking for the DB files in the upper card, ignoring that they were in the lower card.

I recently discovered this feature in the G1000 and one of the forum members kindly shared the file, but we are having issues enabling it. We first tried with an FAT32 empty SD, copied the checklist file, placed it in the MFD upper slot and loaded correctly, we were able to access the checklist BUT all the additional DB files (that have been, as always, sitting in the MFD lower SD card) didn't load. We tried, then, copying the checklist + the DB files to the new SD, and placing it in the upper slot, but no luck -- still loading the checklist but not the DBs (terrain, flight charts, etc). Does anybody know what is the expected way to place the checklist so it will also load the DBs? Perhaps copy it in the MFD lower SD card? I read in many forums that it should be in the upper, but perhaps it's a Mooney specific detail. The airplane is a 2005 Ovation 2 GX, with a NON-WAAS G1000. Thanks in advance!

We have had multiple issues with our Mooney Ovation 2 GX with S-TEC 55x autopilot for the last two years. Recently, the last symptom is a blank screen after showing the version number (7). Then, no button generates any action, and the display only shows TRIM ^ indicator when operating the electric trim. Previously, we had problems engaging the ALT mode, then FAIL when connecting GPSS, and others. We are suspecting about the computer, and given that we are in a country where there is no STEC dealer, we are planning to buy a new STEC 55x computer. The question is about the required HARDWARE / SOFTWARE MODs that are required for this setup. We know that the STEC needs to be configured for steering with the KCS 55A protocol, and we know that are current unit has the HARDWARE MOD AP AR AJ and SOFTWARE MOD AE AF. Do you know if, when looking for a new unit, we must get a computer with all those 5 or more? Or any of those are optional? Is there any documentation on them? Keep in mind that we don't have access to a dealer to reconfigure the computer. Thanks in advance!

Does anybody know how the ALT capture works in the combination G1000 + STEC 55x? I mean, how the G1000 sends the information about what is the selected ALT? Is that a kind of "table" of voltage and feet? Do you know which pin the G1000 is connected with the STEC55X computer for this purpose? Just curious, and perhaps could help me diagnose and issue with my AP. Thanks.

We finally were able to change the tubing. But no luck, the AP still is trying to "hunt" the altitude. It looks like the problem might be the transducer itself. We are also noticing that when the AP is activated in the ALT+VS mode, it begin displaying a weird FPS value, like -13 or -14 when the plan is climing at 200 FPM. Any advice, as always, is welcomed!

Thanks a lot @carusoam. We have the S-TEC 55. It has a main box, and then the transducer, that is a separate component. There is three-wire connection between them. The transducer receives the static system from a T just before the connection to the backup airspeed indicator. And yes, and you say, it uses a rubber tube for the final connection to the transducer. It looks aged, the airplane is from 2005, so close to 20 years. So we want to change it. The problem is that it is difficult to reach the transducer. Trying to find tools that will allow us to cut the current wire that fixes the rubber tube to the transducer, and then be able to "remotely" connect the new rubber tube. Of course, any advice is highly welcome.