Rich Carlson wrote:

A couple of months ago I had the same problem. I called and talked to
Cambridge and they suggested I look at the altitude readings on screen
#6. There are 3 alt readings on this screen: Flight Level, GPS, and
Pressure. Mine read FL=590 ft, GPS=600 Ft, and PR=6000 ft. The needle
and audio would make large up/down movements at random times. I
returned the 302 to the factory for repair.

Thanks Rich, I will get someone to check this out. But, from what
I've seen the difference between pressure and GPS altitudes from
several IGC files we've downloaded is typically only a few hundred
feet if someone forgot to calibrate the pressure altitude on screen #2
on startup following a change in air pressure.

Marc Ramsey then wrote:

General comment to all with 302 problems. I had my 302 fail when I
arrived at
a contest last season. On power up, 9 times out of 10 it wouldn't
get past the
initial serial number screen. Those few times when it did start up,
it acted
very strangely. I flew the practice day using a handheld GPS. I
spent hours
looking at the wiring, and calling around to find a loaner. I
finally noticed
that the temperature probe plug wasn't quite seated properly (about 1
mm of the
barrel was exposed above the connector). I pulled it out and pushed
it in,
and the 302 magically started working again. Given that a slight tug
is all
that is needed to unseat it, you may want to look at it carefully...

More good advice thanks Marc. I must say that we've not had any
problems on power-up. Each time it just goes through the startup and
switches to screen #2 as per the manual.

Peter Cutting wrote:

I had a case of wild needle - discovered during launch on a comp day.
suspected rain in the static (it had rained plenty night before!). I
blew it out as quick as i could (loads of water came out). Re-light -
same problem. In desperation I went through the 302 settings and saw
that compensation was set to 95 or 105 (dont remember which). I had
been messing around with compensation a few days earlier and forgot
to
put it back to 100 - afterall its only 5% off 100 so the effect
should
be negligable anyway.

In desperation I set it back to 100 (ILEC tube) and the needle
settled
down noticeably so I could start the comp. That evenening I pumped
out the static for good measure (more water). The next day same
problem!! I checked the compensation and it had moved off 100 to the
earlier value all by itself!! Couldnt believe it. Anyway put it back
on 100 and no more problems since.

I have also seen some values not "stick" after being set up on the
configuration screens. Powering the unit off and on restored the
previous settings rather than the new ones. I think there must be a
glitch in how the 302 tries to write them to configuration EEPROM /
Flash. Maybe it's scheduled ever "X" seconds and we've turned the
unit off too fast. There's nothing in the manual about this, and
we've NEVER seen the settings come up randomly (which might suggest a
configuration memory corruption problem)

I think there might be a problem with water in the pressure / static
lines.

Can anyone suggest a good and proper (SAFE to instruments !) method
for testing, and if necessary clearing this ?

Mike Borgelt wrote:

Have you checked that you are getting at least whatever the minimum
voltage ought to be at the vario terminals (not at the battery which
may be OK) Check the fuses, fuseholders, switches and wiring. The
German glider factories are good at building composite
structures(mostly anyway) not so good at electrical wiring,
instrument
plumbing etc. If you did the wiring yourself(or your club did it)
that's an even better reason to check the above.

Good points Mike - the 302's internal voltmeter indicates 12.6 V,
which should be more than satisfactory. There's only a 0.2V dip when
the radio is transmitting, which again is OK. The wiring was done by
a couple of QANTAS LAMEs, so it certainly wasn't a hastily cobbled
together backyard job. They used all the right tools, ran the wiring
neatly, and connected it correctly.

Mikes other points about actual vs advertised response times, and the
problems of combined logger + vario instrumentation, I will take with
a grain of salt. All I will say is that it is good to see some healthy
rivalry in the glider instrumentation business !!!

Perhaps Mike, you'd like to suggest a suitable IGC/FAI approved
stand-alone logger unit. We're going to need a few for our other
gliders and are open to suggestions.

Once again, thanks to everyone for their posts. I will let you all
know when we find the cause of this rather bizarre 302 behaviour.

Regards

Jason Armistead