Anyone moved from the IFR‑6000/4000 combo to the VIAVI AVX‑10K for rotorcraft? I’m chasing intermittent ADS‑B squitters and radar alt dropouts on H125s and a 407 on the ramp at −5°C, and want to know if the AVX’s ARINC 429/RS‑422 decode speeds AFCS/SAS troubleshooting and whether the battery and warm‑up time hold up.
We moved from the 6000/4000 to the AVX‑10K this spring; the 429/422 monitor with label filtering and timestamps is a dashcam — let it run and you’ll see the RA flag flip right when the squitters hiccup. Concrete step: clip in at the AFCS input, filter the RA labels and squat/discretes, then dump the capture to USB to align with the ADS‑B log; warm‑up is near‑instant and we get about 3 hrs at room temp, about 2 hrs at “−5°C on the ramp.” Small caveat: the 429/422 option is a license and I sometimes have to set bit rate manually — does your 407 only act up after a cold soak?
On our H125s in “−5°C”, the AVX‑10K warmed in about a minute but the internal battery sagged — — so I bring a USB‑C PD pack and keep serial + ADS‑B logs rolling with GPS time to catch the intermittent. It did speed AFCS/SAS hunting; we caught RA blips coincident with a noisy power lead, so don’t ignore grounding while you’re decoding labels. Solid unit, but for long ramp sessions I park it in the cabin; latest firmware helped: https://www.viavisolutions.com/en-us/products/avx-10k — have you loaded it yet?
Quick tip: set the VIAVI’s ARINC monitor to auto‑speed and arm a trigger on the RA status bit; the trigger drops a bookmark so you can line it up with ADS‑B burst gaps later — @philip_k45, did you find the bookmark useful or do you free‑run?