SonexBuilders.net

I've been playing wack-a-mole ever since I got this sonex flying. Now that the engine is running smooth (carb swap) it's time to eliminate what seems to be the last major issue, the MX1 resetting in flight. Adam at Michigan avionics as Rainier at MGL have not been able figure out why only my MX1 reboots and locks up. They even swapped my unit with a new one but it did the same thing. The bugger is that when it resets it locks up and it takes some effort to get it going again in flight. I really like having airspeed and altitude when landing an aircraft I've not yet mastered.

So. I'm thinking the MX1 will have to get the boot and replaced. Since I have the RDAC and all setup it seems best to just purchase a handful of the vegas/blaze units. But then an eXtreme would be much cheaper. What do you think?

I hate having to do this but the MX1 is trying to get me hurt and the wiring all seems to be in order. What to do.

So if you think the original MX1 might have been OK
And a "known good" (to make an assumption about the replacement) is also giving the same trouble

Then that suggests the problem is not the MX1 - but lies somewhere else in your system - like your wiring or the RDAC or?

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So putting other gear on the wiring / RDAC may not solve the problem.

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My Sonex came with the ENIGMA system and the V10 radio. First to go was that PoS radio. I finally traced the intermittent functionality to a hairline crack in a trace on the circuit board. Reflowing solder over it fixed it for a while. But when I was on a base leg in a Class C and the world went quiet and I found myself squawking 7600 and turning to exit the Charlie - that radio nearly went over the side - there and then. (I was actually landed by light gun and departed later in the day when it was quiet by hand set and cell phone - thank you PVD controllers)

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So in the 28 months I have had the Sonex - I have replaced EVERY part of the MGL Enigma system. EFIS Control Head, RDAC, AHRS, Magnetometer - each progressively failing and causing headaches till I figured which bit had gone bad and replaced it. And there is the rub. By carefully watching Barnstormers or trading on here - I can get a complete used ENIGMA system for about $1,000. Which is a lot cheaper than starting again.

If I was starting from scratch I'd probably go with a Dynon setup. I have a 10 year old D1 Pocket EFIS as my emergency GPS derived instrumentation for the next time the ENIGMA goes bad. And it is flawless and silky smooth in a 4 x 4 x 1 package. And 10 years old. So Dynon would be where I will/would go next. Except I can still pick up ENIGMA setups for parts for about $1,000......

But I am still not enamored of MGL.....

GraemeSmith wrote:So if you think the original MX1 might have been OK
And a "known good" (to make an assumption about the replacement) is also giving the same trouble

Then that suggests the problem is not the MX1 - but lies somewhere else in your system - like your wiring or the RDAC or?

Yes Graeme, those were my assumptions and I've tried disconnecting everything etc. Even though I have a past in avionics the problem still dogs me. Thanks though for the reminder of logic. What you are saying is correct and really I should not give up to get this to work. It's very frustrating as mgl has not been able to point me to any kind of logs or other that might help narrow things down. I had thought that I had solved the problem by preventing flight-recording from starting (crashes every time I start it) but yet the other day (first flight with aeroInjector installed) I found myself without any instruments. Bother.

I too have the MX1...a few months away from flying.
Did you try the MGL users forum? There is an individual on there that responds to the posts, goes by the name "rainier". Perhaps that forum can help.

Peter

By "reboots and locks up", is it a sudden thing that could be explained by a bad power connection or is it like the software crashes and reboots? How does it lock up? Does it get stuck on a boot screen?

[quote="pfhoeycfi" There is an individual on there that responds to the posts, goes by the name "rainier".

Peter[/quote]

Rainier runs the company. Develops all the hardware and software. Probably sweeps the floor at the end of the day.

pfhoeycfi wrote:I too have the MX1...a few months away from flying.
Did you try the MGL users forum? There is an individual on there that responds to the posts, goes by the name "rainier". Perhaps that forum can help.

Peter

Yes, I checkin and post on the MGL forum from time to time. Rainier doesn't offer suggestions unless he knows what's going on. He has been silent.

An advanced system log would be nice. Perhaps it's there but not evident, if a log could show why or what was the last thing to happen...

I wonder if you are getting brownouts on the supply bus? Not enough to APPARENTLY turn off radios, lights etc - but enough to lock up a computer.

Something like a highish usage with a lot of stuff on and then a pulsing drop caused by a strobe or pressing the PTT. Turn a couple of items off and the pulse is not enough to lock up the computer, be at high current draw and something triggers and drops the voltage....

Have you tried a voltage logger to see how clean your power is?

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Jim Weir has an interesting article in Oct 22 Kitplanes arguing that protecting an equipment bus with a regulated power supply can avoid problems with sensitive equipment. Here (subscription required):

https://www.kitplanes.com/power-scotty- ... ore-power/

GraemeSmith wrote:...

Have you tried a voltage logger to see how clean your power is?

https://www.kitplanes.com/power-scotty- ... ore-power/

I did put on an oscilloscope then later my fluke during runups. I was concerned about spikes. Turns out my power only fluctuates by a half volt. MGL is good to 30volts. I also took off and flew with the alternators off once to be sure they were not being a problem. Still reset. I thought I had figured it out the flight before last when I had no resets the entire flight but then my last flight (first flight with the aeroinjector) it reset several times. I know for sure it freaks out every time data recording starts (Action/Start-new-flight). Disabling that is what seemed to solve that. Perhaps it still got started somehow.

I still think its a software issue, one that is evident with certain configurations. Now if I could only narrow it down and find out which configuration or connected external device triggers this. So not only does my system reboot/lock/bootloop, I can't use data logging which was one of the items I wanted most.

BRS wrote:I know for sure it freaks out every time data recording starts (Action/Start-new-flight). Disabling that is what seemed to solve that.

This is just a shot in the dark, but ---

When the data recording starts it, of course, starts to write to the SD card. There are other times the system writes to the SD card, but these are not as common.

Have you tried to fly without an SD card? The device should still run. If it runs without locking up and rebooting you'll know it's due to a bad SD card (most likely) or bad programming. Hopefully, it's a bad SD card - you can do something about that. If it's a software bug you're out of luck.

If you determine it's a bad SD card buy the smallest capacity you can from a well know brand. It's a well known issue that MGL devices have trouble with large capacity SD cards.