Garmin 530 issues

[TuomoMooneyFlying]

I have a non-WAAS 530 that suddenly started acting weird. At startup, it first wasn’t acquiring satellites and then rebooting by itself over and over again after it got to the satellite aquisition page. Self test was normal each time.

Then after about 5 times of doing that, I shut down the system and restarted everything, it found the satellites but it would not show distance to anything and the fuel flow went from gal’s to pounds. Once airborne it started showing distance only about a mile and a half from the waypoint and only in feet, not nm. I tried accessing the configuration page but it immediately rebooted itself.

I’m guessing it’s a software issue but wondered if anyone had better ideas?

[LANCECASPER]

The "not finding satellites" symptom on the 530/430 is sometimes that the internal battery needs to be replaced (soldered in I believe), or that the antenna has failed, but not sure about the other symptoms.

[Fly Boomer]

2 hours ago, TuomoMooneyFlying said:

I’m guessing it’s a software issue but wondered if anyone had better ideas?

Unless you just loaded some new software, this seems unlikely.  Right or wrong, software just does what it does.  There is no mechanism for software to develop new behaviors without external help.  Now, once we get AI flying our airplanes for us, it's Katy bar the door.

[TuomoMooneyFlying]

1 hour ago, Fly Boomer said:

Unless you just loaded some new software, this seems unlikely.  Right or wrong, software just does what it does.  There is no mechanism for software to develop new behaviors without external help.  Now, once we get AI flying our airplanes for us, it's Katy bar the door.

Ugh, AI could get mad at you if you don’t speak nicely

Agreed that this dinosaur doesn’t have a mind of its own but two days earlier it worked fine and now completely haywire. Something broke, but what?

[kortopates]

Taking forever to find satellites is a function of the almanac of satellite positions whose memory uses the internal battery to keep alive. So when it suddenly takes forever to find them it’s typically the internal battery as Lance described.
I don’t know if Garmin is still servicing the old non-waas units but you’d probably be better off finding an old school
avionics tech willing to replace the battery for you to see if that solves it for you. But you could have more than that going on.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DCarlton]

I didn't experience rebooting during start up but I did experience the same satellite acquisition issues and had my battery replaced.  It's worth a shot if no one can diagnose the problem since it's the potentially the cheapest solution.  

[rickseeman]

The last time I needed 530 maintenance Garmin said they wouldn't work on it unless they converted it to WAAS. $5,000. Which was fine with me because I love 530's. And WAAS. I'm still stoked every time I watch the 530 shoot the LPV approach. It's magical. My first airplane had a coffee grinder.