New 540 Install Issues

Keep in mind, all I did was remove the 530 and install the 540.  My installer and I carefully copied the 530 settings into the 540, and everything seemed fine on the ground check.

The first thing that happened while taxiing out to the runway, was that the 540 displayed an "Integrity Error", but that yellow box disappeared and I never saw that again.  The next thing was that my G500 displayed a big red X on the PFD and said Attitude Failure. I've never seen that before.  

In the run-up area, I cycled avionics power and the RED X went away.

During the flight, I was able to navigate with the 540, and setup an approach, etc.  That went pretty well, except it was a little bit bumpy and my fingers were moving around on the screen.

The next thing that happened is that I got a Datalink failure message on the 540.  I was seeing traffic on the screen, so I assume it was something to do with the GDL-69A XM datalink.

After landing, as I was taxiing back to my hanger, the G500 Attitude Failure RED X reappeared on and off a couple of times.

I guess overall, I was a little disappointed since before switching out the 530, everything worked perfectly.  I was hoping for a true "Plug and Play" experience, but the 540 has so much capability as compared with the 530. I am hopeful that these minor issues can be resolved easily.

Yesterday, I did some ground testing to see if I could nail down what is going on both with the 540 and the G500 Attitude failure.

The first thing that I checked was the GPS signal strength screen, and that seems to be good, however, the GPS indicator in the upper right hand corner of the 540 screen is Yellow.  In reading the 540 documentation, isn't that supposed to be Green indicating a GPS Lock? I only saw green for a few moments.

The next thing I did was check the status of the G500 LRU's and they all showed Green.  I taxied the aircraft to the fuel farm for fuel and while doing that, I once again got the RED X Attitude Failure on the G500, but the LRU's were all green.  Is it possible that the Attitude Failure has something to do with the installation of the 540 GPS? All we did was remove the 530 and install the 540.  I have never had an Attitude failure before. 

While doing the ground test, I did not see a Datalink Failure message, however I was not able to see the XM weather products.  

After some additional reading, I have discovered that there is a Datalink Status page and I am going to do another ground test and check the status of the XM datalink on this page, however I have also discovered that my GDL-69A software version is 3.20.  The Avidyne Documentation says that I need GDL-69A version 4.01, but not the latest software which is 5.xx.  Will the XM datalink work with 3.20 on the 540?

The next issue is that I set the 540 to Track Up.  The Map screen is following the heading.  Is this something to do with the GPS not being locked?

I have the Garmin GTS-800 TAS.  During my test flight, I was receiving traffic, however, I did not see the Traffic thumbnail.  How is that set up?

Is there special settings for the GTS-800 or the GDL-69A other than the setting that we copied from the 530?

So, to sum up my questions:

(1) Should I be getting a "Green" indication on the GPS indicator?

(2) Is my Attitude Failure on the G500 some how related to the 540 GPS install?

(3) Why is the Track Up on the Map not working?

(4) Will my XM datalink work with GDL-69A version 3.20?

(5) How is the Traffic Thumbnail setup?

(6) Are there special installation settings for the GTS-800 or GDL-69A other than the settings copied from the 530?

I am new to the forum, so thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Here's just my own opinion, others here may have a different take or might know immediately exactly what your solutions are - I don't I'm sorry to say.  So for what it's worth, it's always going to be tricky to get a new box with advanced software to work with older, out-of-date and/or obsolete equipment that an older box was designed to work with, plug and play or not.  And getting anything Garmin currently has on the market now to work with any competitor's products will require defeating all the barriers Garmin has put up to prevent that success.  Avionics shops have the IFD install manual that lists what other manufacturer's products and versions of products it is compatible with, and hopefully such shops make their customers aware of any such issues before the commitment to install the IDF box is made.  Avidyne tech support is a good resource to use when any such issues arise.  Have your avionics tech give them a call if you haven't already.  I would expect every problem you have can be tracked down and fixed, provided you are willing to do some updating you might not have been told would be necessary.  In that sense, the IFD is plug and play compatible, but it's not a copy of the 530W entirely or none of us would buy it.  Come back here with any unresolved issues.  Good luck!

Thanks for the reply's.  

Haven't spoken to Tech Support yet.  Just made the flight and it is a holiday weekend.  I did send in my email above.

I did solve 1 and 3.  Thanks for those suggestions.

Regarding the XM datalink.  I did verify that I am receiving the XM signal, but it isn't being decoded, so the answer is apparently, I will need to update to version 4.01 on the GLD-69A. My G500/530 was working just fine with 3.20, but I will talk with tech support.  Hopefully, version 4.01 is still available from Garmin since they are now up to 5.xx and the Avidyne doc says that version will not work.

Yes, we did have trouble with the Garmin 530 rack.  It took several tries  to get it seated.  Maybe it still isn't seated properly and that is causing the intermittent G500 Altitude Failure issue?

 I agree, there is a lot to learn on the 540.

Thanks again for the help.