L3 NGT 9000 Touchscreen Failure

[Ryanflyer]

Does anyone have experience with the failure of the touchscreen on the NGT 9000 transponder/ADS-B unit? The unit in question "freezes" and does not respond to touch. L3 advised recalibrating of the touchscreen, which was successful short term, but after a few flights it has returned to its failure state. I have had the same unit in another plane for years without problems. The unit is out of warranty. If you have experienced this, how was it resolved, and if you don't mind sharing, at what cost was it resolved?

 

[chemgeek]

My touchscreen became flaky and occasionally unresponsive after 18 months (still in warranty). Rebooting and recalibration worked temporarily, but the problem would always recur. I finally sent it in for warranty repair. They replaced my unit entirely. Zero problems since. I think it was just a faulty touchscreen. The techs were really helpful in diagnosing and dealing with the RMA for repair. It came back pretty quickly.

 

[Martin Pauly]

When I first got my NGT-9000+, half of the touchscreen was intermittent. It turned out to be a hardware issue, and the device was replaced under warranty. I would not want to live with an intermittent issue like this.

- Martin

 

[Clip4]

L3 isn’t known for inexpensive repairs - good luck.

 

[Ryanflyer]

My touchscreen became flaky and occasionally unresponsive after 18 months (still in warranty). Rebooting and recalibration worked temporarily, but the problem would always recur. I finally sent it in for warranty repair. They replaced my unit entirely. Zero problems since. I think it was just a faulty touchscreen. The techs were really helpful in diagnosing and dealing with the RMA for repair. It came back pretty quickly.

My touchscreen became flaky and occasionally unresponsive after 18 months (still in warranty). Rebooting and recalibration worked temporarily, but the problem would always recur. I finally sent it in for warranty repair. They replaced my unit entirely. Zero problems since. I think it was just a faulty touchscreen. The techs were really helpful in diagnosing and dealing with the RMA for repair. It came back pretty quickly.

Thanks for your reply. Currently working on a replacement, but unfortunately with the unit being out of warranty this will be expensive.

 

[Jmod100]

Does anyone have experience with the failure of the touchscreen on the NGT 9000 transponder/ADS-B unit? The unit in question "freezes" and does not respond to touch. L3 advised recalibrating of the touchscreen, which was successful short term, but after a few flights it has returned to its failure state. I have had the same unit in another plane for years without problems. The unit is out of warranty. If you have experienced this, how was it resolved, and if you don't mind sharing, at what cost was it resolved?

I have the same problem with the Lynx L3 9000. The repair is estimated to be over $3000 and the unit is out of warranty. I have decided to, despite the considerable added expense, replace it with a Garmin unit.

 

[zap]

My NGT-9000 touchscreen failed after 3 months. It happened after the plane was stuck in a humid hangar in the mid-west for three days. L3 tech support said to "recalibrate the screen" but since the screen wasn't taking ANY input that was a bit hard to do. After 15 min of flying the screen just started working again. The calibration was fine. It happened again 6 months later, again it was after the plane was in a humid hangar for a few days, and again it started working on its own after 15 min of flying. L3 fixed it in 2 weeks under warrantee but it took another 4 weeks to gain a slot at the avionics shop to have it reinstalled and checked out in the plane. The avionics shop said they had two other customers with touchscreen failures which seemed to be tied to high humidity as well. L3 seems to know about the problem and have hopefully replaced the parts with parts that wont fail again. I really like the box and would hate to swap it back out for a different transponder.

 

[chemgeek]

I have the impression that a lot of these innovative avionics units,made in relatively low volume, often have understandable but frustrating engineering/design issues that only become evident after it has been in service for a while. For early adopters (for me, G5s and the NGT-9000), we discover the problems. For the NGT-9000, it appeared to be touchscreen issues. (Fortunately, their 36 month warranty, and prompt service was a godsend.) For the G5s, it was a mysterious backup battery drain that plagued many of the early units. (When those batteries hit 0%, they were toast.) I contacted Garmin about this issue and provided detailed data about it shortly after installing mine, and they denied there was a problem until 2 years later an SB came out describing a hardware problem affecting a large number of units. They replaced them at no cost under the SB, but owners were on the hook for removal and re-installation (which also involves re-doing the IFR cert). And Garmin would only take return RMAs through a Garmin dealer, which complicated and delayed my replacement. (My G5s were installed by an independent avionics installer.) So kudos to L3, and a big stink-eye for Garmin. Since the replacements, I have had zero problems since, and they are great products. But basically, I was a beta tester.