An old thread, but wondering if anyone has a WX500 IM/MM pdf they could share. Nothing found on the l3 web site and the links above are 5yrs old and of course now broken.
I don't doubt the WX500 itself is working, but without a heading going to it, it won't display anything on the MFD, except in the stormscope screen. It won't overlay onto the map.
And same with the TCAS.
you can test a stormscope by holding a regular battery powered drill about 4 feet from the antenna.
On another ground test today the system has behaved just fine, with everything except the engine running. Noise test (admittedly run for only seconds) shows nothing.
But I think there is something wrong with the heading information going to the MFD and the WX500 - see this (77MB video).
The antenna is passive. Most of the time error 18 is due to the antenna cable picking up aircraft noise.
It came back today.
The KMD550 is not receiving heading data. During flight the map is track-up, as it should be, but that comes from GPS data. If I go into the config page (password 3333) I can see the heading is INVALID. There is a heading flag which can be set HIGH or LOW and whatever I change that to, its actual value changes to the opposite state!
Obviously this needs to be looked at properly...
There is a bit of a history to the heading to the KMD550. In the early life of the TB20 it did not work, later I got it fixed, and it looks like it has now gone.
Today, the map display was showing everything correctly, except (a) no TCAS data on the map (which I know is a symptom of a lack of heading data to the MFD) and (b) the little aircraft icon, which normally points according to the actual heading (so you can see the wind offset from the track) would sometimes flip to point somewhere totally different.
This trouble started with the removal of the KI229 and I suspect the KI229 had a handy pullup / pulldown resistor in it which the system relied on without anybody knowing about it. It could be just the heading flag that is intermittent.
Interesting. Many thanks.
Is the antenna active, or passive?
It is easy enough to rewire, as the WX500 is in the rear of the aircraft. Laying some RG400 is no problem.
The fault log does show hours and the recabliration you referenced is for a SKY497 Skywatch traffic system. Your WX-500 appears to be working just like it should... the probable cause for error code 18 is your antenna is in a noisy location, a faulty antenna or a wiring problem. www.stormscopes.com
Update:
It turned out to be yet another intermittent fault, which disappeared next time I turned things on.
A stormscope doesn't do a huge amount but it very reassuring for long haul passengers who quickly learn which button on the MFD to press
Dubrovnik gets impressive thunderstorms. I flew in there a few years ago (VFR, for some reason) and the runway was disappearing in front of my eyes, getting gradually obscured by a dense downpour. I had asked if I could fly the ILS earlier which was approved, but ATC now warned that there is a CB in the missed approach area. Well... one could see it well enough. I just did a 180 and flew around in between the islands at ~ 1000ft until the storm cleared. Some Brit airbuses actually landed in those conditions.
