PT20J Posted February 22, 2020 Report Posted February 22, 2020 Anyone noticed problems with this? I have the GTX 345 linked via Bluetooth to my iPad running Foreflight. On the Foreflight synthetic vision display during a left level standard rate turn, the pitch slowly increases to maybe 30 deg up and the bank indication eventually rolls level and then opposite the turn. In a right standard rate turn, the pitch decreases to about 30 deg down and the bank again slowly decreases and then shows an opposite turn. All the while the bank and pitch on the Apsen PFD and KG 258 are steady. I tried the same thing with Garmin Pilot and it does the same except that when the pitch gets greater than about 30 deg it removed the indication and just says DEGRADED. Needless to say, it is totally unusable. Looks like the AHRS in the GTX 345 failed in less than a year since installation. Skip Quote
Vance Harral Posted February 22, 2020 Report Posted February 22, 2020 While ours isn't nearly as bad as yours, I've found the AHRS in the GTX 345 to be sloppy vs. certified primary attitude indicators. It frequently indicates several degrees of pitch or bank in straight and level flight, and it's not just an offset or leveling issue - it actively "wanders" over time. I've tried flying under the hood using only the 345 output displayed on Foreflight , and found it more difficult than any other steam or glass AI I've flown with. Frankly, I find it easier to just fly partial panel with needle/ball/airspeed than to use the 345. I've read similar complaints in other forums, and have come to the conclusion the AHRS in the 345 isn't really a serious IFR tool. Quote
takair Posted February 22, 2020 Report Posted February 22, 2020 9 hours ago, PT20J said: Anyone noticed problems with this? I have the GTX 345 linked via Bluetooth to my iPad running Foreflight. On the Foreflight synthetic vision display during a left level standard rate turn, the pitch slowly increases to maybe 30 deg up and the bank indication eventually rolls level and then opposite the turn. In a right standard rate turn, the pitch decreases to about 30 deg down and the bank again slowly decreases and then shows an opposite turn. All the while the bank and pitch on the Apsen PFD and KG 258 are steady. I tried the same thing with Garmin Pilot and it does the same except that when the pitch gets greater than about 30 deg it removed the indication and just says DEGRADED. Needless to say, it is totally unusable. Looks like the AHRS in the GTX 345 failed in less than a year since installation. Skip Skip Did it work at some point and then stop working? I just upgraded my Foreflight subscription for the SV and have seen very similar results using a portable. Have tried various things and was coming to the conclusion that it is the GPS in the Stratux, but if you see this with the GTX I wonder if it may be partially be an integration thing? Will be curious if others see this or if they have good results? Quote
Jerry 5TJ Posted February 22, 2020 Report Posted February 22, 2020 Good results with the FlightStream 210’s AHRS and ForeFlight: The display of attitude on the iPad matches those on panel. 1 Quote
MBDiagMan Posted February 22, 2020 Report Posted February 22, 2020 I have had a 345 for several years. The tech was in my hangar about a year ago and he tweaked the setup a little bit. It wasn’t bad before, but right on the money now. Last August I lost vacuum while over a couple hundred miles of solid overcast. I had no reason to punch through because my destination was VFR, but I started closely watching the FF SV. It was amazingly usable. I have tested it more since then to see how well it works when maneuvering. It works great! I don’t plan on shooting an approach with it, but if it came down to it, I would be happy to have it as a fallback position. Quote
EricJ Posted February 22, 2020 Report Posted February 22, 2020 The AHRS add-on for a Stratux is about $15-$20. Quote
carusoam Posted February 22, 2020 Report Posted February 22, 2020 One of the things to watch for... The connection to the AHRS... Is it Blue Tooth? Or WiFi... Is the iPad locked on it? Or does it look for a different source if it drops the signal? Some people have had difficulty with the BT signal coming from remote mounted transponders in the tail... There are threads on that topic... Best regards, -a- Quote
PT20J Posted February 22, 2020 Author Report Posted February 22, 2020 Talked with Garmin support and since it does exactly the same thing with Foreflght and Garmin Pilot, he felt it was the 345. He didn’t exactly say that they’ve had problems, but he didn’t seem surprised. That’s why I was interested if others have experienced this - I’m curious how common it might be. Since it’s under warranty, I’m taking it back to the radio shop next week. I’m pretty sure it worked fine after installation. I haven’t used it again until just recently. Skip 1 Quote
B-17 Posted March 13, 2021 Report Posted March 13, 2021 (edited) Solved - We have a GTX345 on the EAA B-17, "Aluminum Overcast". We had a real struggle trying to find out why the AHRS Bluetooth feed to the Foreflight attitude indicator was not working correctly. All other GTX345 Bluetooth-to-Foreflight functions seemed fine. We had the same Foreflight attitude issues everyone is reporting here - sloppy, wandering, giving completely erroneous indications, etc. It took MANY months to track down the problem, but we finally did. What we learned is that the early firmware versions on the GTX345 were not compatible with the attitude feature in Foreflight. We had the Garmin Repair Center in New Smyrna Beach do a quick firmware update on our GTX345 while they were doing the normal 24 mo transponder cert. That fixed the problem. Edited March 13, 2021 by B-17 2 Quote
carusoam Posted March 13, 2021 Report Posted March 13, 2021 Great first post B17! You are adding to the community knowledge already! Stand by for the real responses to roll in... It’s busy around here today. Seeing if Skip is in the neighborhood.... @PT20J Best regards, -a- Quote
PT20J Posted March 13, 2021 Author Report Posted March 13, 2021 2 hours ago, B-17 said: Solved - We have a GTX345 on the EAA B-17, "Aluminum Overcast". We had a real struggle trying to find out why the AHRS Bluetooth feed to the Foreflight attitude indicator was not working correctly. All other GTX345 Bluetooth-to-Foreflight functions seemed fine. We had the same Foreflight attitude issues everyone is reporting here - sloppy, wandering, giving completely erroneous indications, etc. It took MANY months to track down the problem, but we finally did. What we learned is that the early firmware versions on the GTX345 were not compatible with the attitude feature in Foreflight. We had the Garmin Repair Center in New Smyrna Beach do a quick firmware update on our GTX345 while they were doing the normal 24 mo transponder cert. That fixed the problem. Curious if you tried it with Garmin Pilot. In my case, it did exactly the same thing with both Pilot and Foreflight which is why Garmin determined that it was a bad unit. Anyway, mine works much better now that Garmin replaced it. There was a Garmin service bulletin SB 1964 rev A a while back to update the main software to v2.54 which I believe is the latest. It did not improve my AHRS issue. I sent an enhancement request to Foreflight to allow calibration on the ground by entering offsets for pitch and roll. Skip Quote
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