Dynon D180 compass gone crazy

[namjab]

Good morning Avcom.

Was hoping someone may have experienced something like this before.

My D180 remote compass has gone a bit haywire. I have followed all instructions to redo the magnetic calibration.
In fact, I have done it three times already and no improvement. Magnetic inclination and intensity were all set as per the instructions.

The behaviour is odd. When you fly very straight, it runs true. If there is any turbulence, it swings around wildy like a real compass would. When you turn, it takes around a minutes to stabilize on a magnetic heading. Due to the swinging, the auto pilot is of course useless. It causes the plane to bank heave left to compensate, then right and this repeats constantly.

Quite bad timing as I am busy with solo nav training, lol.

Have a great day everyone.

[nic]

I had a very informative walkaround the J430 with one of the Jab Factory avionics engineers. He pointed out to me that the Dynon Magnetic Compass is almost always installed behind the plastic panel behind the rear seats (the rear wall of the cabin), on the pilot's side. In other words, behind the head of the rear passenger on the pilot's side. He warned me to always avoid placing metal objects (tools, wheel jack, jumper cables etc) in that part of the luggage shelf. you do not have anything lying around there maybe that could cause magnetic interference?

[JPGrobler]

I have exactly the same issue on my D180 installed in the Lancair 360.

I spoke to a mulitple-aircraft builder who installed a few Dynons before and he recommended I move the external magnetometer to a more suitable location. Will see if that works!

[Alan stewart]

I have a D180

I suggest you mail Dynon , they are fantastic and will point you in the right direction to trouble shoot the issue (with out chasing your tail for hours only to find it is a simple fix, got that T-Shirt)
They replaced mine a couple years ago (NO CHARGE) for something we could not figure out what the issue was.( read brilliant customer service)

Auto pilot , my experience is ,the auto pilot fly's terrible in HDG mode especially in turbulence the compass sways exactly like an old fashioned compass and the auto pilot tries to chase it.(it sounds like this is your problem , could very well be just the auto pilot in HDG mode and nothing wrong with compass ,just a thought)

Auto pilot fly's BEST in TRK or NAV mode ,in smooth and turbulent air.

Another thought check your setting for the auto pilot servos (try get settings for a similar plane and use that as a starting point to set up how you like) that auto pilot will do WILD stuff if not set with setting for your plane.

DITTO the above comments about installation / position magnetometer.

Call me happy to assist (I am no expert but have many many hours behind my dynon and AP)

Alan Stewart

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