A320 Diagnosis - Time management

Reference: 31.32.00006 Issue date: 22-JUN-2021 Last check date: 22-JUN-2021 Status: Closed
A/C type/serie: A318, A319, A320, A321 ATA: 31-32
Engine manufacturer: Supplier: THALES AVIONICS SAS
Purpose / Reason for revision: See record of revisions
Engineering Support Status: Closed

A320 Diagnosis – Time management

RECORD OF REVISIONS

Date Effect on Effect on Reasons for revision

page paragraph
22/06/2021 All All Creation of “A320 Diagnosis – Time management” ISI

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. GENERAL AND GLOSSARY 3

1.1 INTRODUCTION 3

1.2 GLOSSARY 3

2. TIME MANAGEMENT 5

2.1 TIME AND DATE USED BY CFDIU 6

2.1.1 Nominal case 6

2.1.2 Degraded case 6

2.1.3 Summary 9

2.1.4 Impact on CFDIU data 10

2.2 TIME AND DATE BROADCASTED BY THE CFDIU 11

2.3 FAILURE DECLARATION 12

2.3.1 Failure declaration by CFDIU 12

2.3.2 Other failures 12

3. LOSS OF TIME INDICATION ON LOWER ECAM DU 14

3.1 FOLLOWING A STORAGE PERIOD WITH A/C BATTERIES DISCONNECTED OR REMOVED 14

3.2 PROCEDURE TO RESTORE CFDIU CLOCK 15

1. GENERAL AND GLOSSARY

1.1 INTRODUCTION

The objective of this ISI is to provide explanations regarding time management by the CFDIU.

This ISI applies to A320 family.

1.2 GLOSSARY

A/C AirCraft
ACSC Air Conditioning System Controller
AMM Aircraft Maintenance Manual
ARINC Aeronautical Radio Incorporated
BITE Build In Test Equipment
CFDIU Centralized Fault Display Interface Unit
CFDS Centralized Fault Display System
CTL Controller
DMC Display Management Computer
DU Display Unit
ECAM Electronic Centralized Aircraft Monitoring
EIS Electronic Instrument System
EIU Engine Interface Unit
FCOM Flight Crew Operating Manual
FDIU Flight Data Interface Unit
FMCG Flight Management and Guidance Computer
FW Failure Warning
FWC Flight Warning Computer
FWS Flight Warning System
GMT Greenwich Mean Time
LRU Line Replaceable Unit
MCDU Multipurpose Control & Display Unit
NCD Non Computed Data
NO Normal Operation
NVM Non Volatile Memory
PFR Post Flight Report
SD System Display
SSM Sign/Status Matrix
TSM Trouble Shooting Manual
UTC Universal Coordinated Time
2. TIME MANAGEMENT

The aircraft time base, in normal operation, is the electrical CLOCK located on the main instrument panel (PNL 400VU).

The CLOCK performs 3 functions :

- It displays “UTC” (GMT) time in hours and minutes on the center counter. It can also display the date in place of the UTC time.
- It displays elapsed time (ET) (from engine startup) in hours and minutes on the lower counter, to monitor aircraft’s flight time.
- It drives the chronometer (CHR), which measures a time interval (from the pushing of the CHR button) in minutes and seconds and displays it on the upper counter.

Note : Different types of CLOCK can be installed in the A/C but all the types of CLOCK provide the 3 functions : UTC, ET and CHR.

The CLOCK provides UTC and Date to the FMGC 1 and 2, the FDIU and the CFDIU.

UTC is provided to the users in the form of an ARINC 429 bus.

The CFDIU uses particularly UTC to assign time to each event.
For each event memorized by the CFDIU, the latter associates with it the UTC (hour and minute) at which it is acquired.
The time, associated with the fault messages and the ECAM warnings, enables the correlation between the ECAM warnings and the fault messages memorized by the CFDIU.
The time and date are also used for report headers.

The CFDIU permanently acquires the UTC and Date and synchronizes its internal clock with it.
Moreover the CFDIU retransmits these data to the systems on its output buses.

In the event of loss of CLOCK operation or incorrect operation detected by the CFDIU, the CFDIU takes over and uses its internal clock for the time and date.

Finally, the electrical CLOCK provides the primary time base installed in the aircraft, but in case of failure of the CLOCK, the CFDIU provides a back-up based on its internal clock.

2.1 TIME AND DATE USED BY CFDIU

2.1.1 Nominal case

In nominal case, the CFDIU uses the UTC Time and Date transmitted by the CLOCK.

The CFDIU acquires each second from the CLOCK :

- the Time (hour, minute and tenth of minute) on label 125
- the Date (year, month and day) on label 260.

The Date is periodically memorized is CFDIU NVM in order to have a date reference in case of CLOCK issue.

2.1.2 Degraded case

In the event of fault of the main CLOCK detected by the CFDIU (using the scrutinization of the status matrices and/or refreshment rate), the CFDIU switches to its internal clock.
This transition does not require any reinitialization.
The drift of the CFDIU internal clock is 1 second / 24 hour.

In case the Time and Date are not correctly acquired from the CLOCK (i.e. labels detected not refreshed, or received with a SSM different from “NO”, or received with an incorrect
parity), the CFDIU switches on a degraded mode after one minute of confirmation.

In this degraded mode, there are 2 possibilities :

- either the CFDIU has received valid data from the clock before switching to the degraded mode :
 in this case, the CFDIU increments its internal clock from the last valid Time/Date received from the CLOCK.

- else :
 the Time of the CFDIU internal clock is set to the static value “79:99:9”,
 the Date of the CFDIU internal clock is set to the last value memorized in NVM by the CFDIU or to the value “39/19/99” if there is no value in NVM or corrupted.

In degraded mode, a menu called “GMT/DATE INIT” is added on the 2nd page of the CFDS main menu.

This menu enables the crew to manually reinitialize the CFDIU Time and Date on the MCDU.

The Time and Date values displayed on this “GMT/DATE INIT” menu are the values of the CFDIU internal clock.
They are, by default, the values set by the CFDIU during switching to degraded mode and those values of the CFDIU internal clock can be manually changed thanks to “<INIT
GMT” and “<MONTH/DAY” MCDU keys.

In the following example, the CFDIU was switched off on 18-MAR and when it was switched on again, no valid data was received from the CLOCK during more than 1 minute. So,
CFDIU internal clock was set to 79:99 for the time and to the value memorized in NVM (03/18) for the date.
When the CFDIU switches on its internal clock, it stays on it until the CFDIU is reset (even if the CLOCK has been recovered later on).

The “GMT/DATE INIT” menu allows performing a manual time/date initialization of the CFDIU internal clock (see procedure AMM 31-32-00-750-001-A ‘CFDIU TIME/DATE
Initialization). Once the Time and/or Date are validated on MCDU, they are set on CFDIU internal clock (see example in the below picture). They are then automatically incremented
by CFDIU and are broadcasted on labels 125 and 260 with a SSM “NO” until next CFDIU reset.
Note: If a wrong value is entered (i.e. a value that not corresponds to a date format or GMT format), the CFDIU displays "INVALID DATE" or "INVALID GMT" in the scratchpad.

2.1.3 Summary

The following table summarizes the different cases concerning time management by the CFDIU :

GMT/DATE TIME and DATE for CFDIU

CFDIU INIT menu
Electrical CLOCK status
mode available in CFDIU NVM valid CFDIU NVM invalid
MCDU

VALID CLOCK valid Source of TIME and DATE is the CLOCK 

Nominal
NO
mode
INVALID CLOCK invalid (< 1 min) Source of TIME and DATE remains the CLOCK 
 CLOCK invalid (> 1 min)
TIME and DATE incremented by CFDIU based on 
while valid at CFDIU Degraded
the last valid TIME and DATE received from the CLOCK
start-up mode
(CFDIU YES
internal
CLOCK invalid (> 1 min) clock) . TIME : 79:99:9  . TIME : 79:99:9 
at CFDIU start-up . DATE : last DATE recorded in NVM  . DATE : 39/19/99 

GMT/DATE
CFDIU INIT menu
TIME and DATE for CFDIU
mode available in
After manual time/date MCDU
initialization thanks to Degraded
GMT/DATE INIT menu mode
. TIME set on GMT/DATE INIT menu and incremented by CFDIU 
(CFDIU YES
. DATE set on GMT/DATE INIT menu and incremented by CFDIU 
internal
clock)

2.1.4 Impact on CFDIU data

As explained above, the CFDIU uses particularly UTC to assign time to each event and for report headers.

In case the CFDIU has switched to degraded mode with default values (see  and ), the CFDIU data will be impacted.

In the below example, a flight was performed while the CFDIU was on degraded mode :
- the PFR was generated with GMT 7999 for start and end of PFR
- all the warning/maintenance status/failure messages were tagged with GMT 7999
- the PFR was printed with GMT 7999 at time of the print
2.2 TIME AND DATE BROADCASTED BY THE CFDIU

The Time and Date values, processed in a nominal or a degraded way by the CFDIU, are then broadcasted.
They are broadcasted on the 4 CFDIU output busses on label 125 for time and label 260 for date.

- In nominal mode (see , ), the label 125 and 260 are broadcasted with a SSM “NO”.
- In degraded mode :
o During one minute, there are broadcasted with a SSM “NCD”
o Then :
 if there is a valid time/date reference (either from CLOCK before its invalidity  or from initialization through GMT/DATE INIT menu ) or if there is a valid
date reference (from CFDIU NVM ), the corresponding label(s) is(are) broadcasted with a SSM “NO”,
 else () the corresponding label(s) is(are) broadcasted with a SSM “NCD”
2.3 FAILURE DECLARATION

2.3.1 Failure declaration by CFDIU

The CFDIU monitors the CLOCK and if the label 125 or 260 from the CLOCK is :
- detected not refreshed,
- or received with a SSM different from “NO”,
- or received with an incorrect parity,
and if it is confirmed for ‘x’ seconds, the CFDIU triggers an internal fault message “31-21-21 CLOCK“, source “CFDS”.

‘x’ = 4 seconds for CFDIU 10A (C12860AA03), 11 (C12860AA04) and 12 (C12860AA06).

= 60 seconds from CFDIU 13 (C12860AA07)
When the clock failure message is triggered after CFDIU power up phase, this message is stored and presented in the PFR of the next flight.

The monitoring time of label 125 and 260 was extended from 4s to 1min on CFDIU standard 13, in order to limit the spurious clock messages, mainly at CFDIU power up phase. In
addition, monitoring time extension of those labels at 1min is consistent with the fact that CFDIU switches on its internal clock 1 min after the loss of the A/C clock.

2.3.2 Other failures

Several systems, connected to the CFDIU, uses the Time/Date broadcasted by the CFDIU.

It is, for example, the cases for the following systems :

- ACSC : ACSC2 expects the Time in the range of 00:00.0 and 23:59.9 (hh/mm/0.1m).
In case of data received out of this range (e.g. 79:99:9), the ACSC2 will trigger a CLASS 2 "CFDIU(1TW)" Failure Message and a "TEMP CTL 2" Status Message will be displayed
on ECAM.

- EIU : The EIU is using the Time and Date from CFDIU for BITE purpose only.
EIU uses this data in order to tag the detected failures in its internal memory. It is used to manage the priorities when the memory is full and it is used also to display, in the menu
mode reports, the failure messages in the correct order.
EIU is monitoring the Time coming from CFDIU. In case the Time is not correctly received (i.e. not refreshed, SSM different from “NO”), EIU triggers the "CFDIU BUS FAULT"
maintenance message (class 2), which is associated with Maintenance Status "ENG 1/2 EIU".

- EIS : The DMCs use and check the validity of Time broadcasted by the CFDIU to display the Time information on ECAM SD.
In case of the Time is not correctly received (i.e. not refreshed, SSM different from “NO”), EIS triggers the "DMCx : NO CFDIU DATA" failure message from source EISx for old
EIS standards or "CFDIU(1TW)/DMCx(1WTx)" failure message from source EISx for new EIS standards.
Moreover, amber crosses "XX H XX" will be displayed on ECAM SD (see below).

Finally, ENG 1/2 EIU and TEMP CTL 2 Maintenance Status Messages and CFDIU BUS FAULT (SOURCE EIU1/2FADEC, EIS 1/2) and CFDIU (SOURCE TEMP CTL) failure
messages can be consequences of the CLOCK issue detected by the CFDIU and particularly consequences of the transmission of the time 79:99 from CFDIU to all the subscribers.

Example of PFR with CLOCK issue :

3. LOSS OF TIME INDICATION ON LOWER ECAM DU

3.1 FOLLOWING A STORAGE PERIOD WITH A/C BATTERIES DISCONNECTED OR REMOVED

The A/C electrical CLOCK is supplied by two separate powers :

- one from the A/C batteries in order to keep the time running even when the A/C is power off,
- and the other from the A/C power to feed the interface network, the displays and the encoded output.

So, in normal operations, the CLOCK remains supplied by batteries (when connected) to avoid the loss of time reference during A/C power off.

But in case A/C batteries are disconnected or removed following a storage period, at next A/C power on, the CFDIU can detect an invalid time reference from the CLOCK and
without time reference, the CFDIU will switch to its internal clock. In this case the internal clock will be set to “79:99:9” and this value will be broadcasted with a SSM “NCD”.

Indeed, at A/C power on, after its power-up test (1mn) the CFDIU acquires the date/time coming from the main CLOCK to initialize its internal clock.
If over one-minute period the CFDIU does not receive any time reference from the electrical CLOCK, the CFDIU broadcasts on label 125 (Time) the value “79:99:9” with status
“NCD”.
The DMC uses and checks the validity of label 125 (Time) broadcasted by the CFDIU to display the Time information on ECAM SD.
If CFDIU label 125 is either not refreshed or “NCD”, then the Time value is considered as invalid, therefore the Lower ECAM DU will display amber cross marked time information
(i.e. "XX H XX" amber).

As the CFDIU internal clock initialization is done only once at its power on, the display of amber crosses "XX H XX" on Lower ECAM DU will then remain despite of the main
CLOCK being reset and until next CFDIU power on.

It is the reason why the procedure “Return to Operation After a Storage Period” (AMM 10-30-00-554-0-A) requires to have set the CLOCK (AM 31-21-00-750-002) after installation
of the batteries. And the “Procedure to set the Clock” (AMM 31-21-00-750-002) requires to power on CFDIU only once the CLOCK is set. Thanks to this procedure, the time
reference for the CFDIU will be the CLOCK and the time indication on Lower ECAM DU will be consistent with the CLOCK.

3.2 PROCEDURE TO RESTORE CFDIU CLOCK

In any case, when a loss of time indication is observed on Lower ECAM DU (i.e. the display of amber crosses "XX H XX") or when the time indication is inconsistent with the
CLOCK reference, it means that the CFDIU has probably detected an invalidity of the CLOCK over, at least, 1 minute and has switched to its internal clock.
In this case, the time indication displayed on Lower ECAM DU comes from the CFDIU internal clock.

There are two ways to restore the CFDIU clock and so the time displayed on Lower ECAM DU :

 Either by performing a manual reset of the CFDIU once the electrical CLOCK is setup that will force the CFDIU internal clock to an automatic synchronization with the
electrical CLOCK.
 see procedure TSM 31-21-00-810-806-A ‘Loss of the GMT Indication on the Lower ECAM DU’.

 Or by performing a manual time/date initialization of the CFDIU through the GMT/DATE INIT function that will allow to set a specific value for the Time and Date
parameters of the CFDIU internal clock.
 see procedure AMM 31-32-00-750-001-A ‘CFDIU TIME/DATE Initialization’ or procedure “GMT/DATE INITIALIZATION” provided in FCOM.
Note: In case of CFDIU failure, "XX H XX" will also be displayed on ECAM SD.
Survey for the Engineering Support section
 Annex

General Information
Potential impact:
Key information:
Solution benefit:
First issue date: 31-AUG-2012 Issue date: 22-JUN-2021 Last check date: 22-JUN-2021

Technical parameters
ATA: 31-32
A/C type/serie: A318, A319, A320, A321
Engine:
Engine manufacturer:
Fault code/ECAM
warning:
FIN: 1TW
Part Number:
Supplier: THALES AVIONICS SAS

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General:
- ISI_31.32.00006_Summary.docx

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