Maintenance Briefing Notes 04/12/2014

Airbus Customer Services

Engineering & Maintenance

Maintenance Briefing
Note

Hidden emergency light failures

due to EPSU disconnection /
reconnection

This Maintenance Briefing Note raises awareness

that Emergency Power Supply Unit (EPSU)
disconnection / reconnection, e.g. during trouble
shooting can lead to non-detected emergency light
failures.
Also, attention is drawn to the use of black market
batteries which can lead to EPSU malfunction.
Maintenance Briefing Notes 04/12/2014

EPSU disconnection / reconnection

• What happened
A number of A380 Emergency Power Supply Units (EPSU) were returned to the vendor further to
reported load faults.
The analysis performed by the vendor did not confirm any EPSU faults and that they were not at
the origin of the reported load faults.
Further investigations revealed that the EPSU’s were dis-connected and re-connected , or have
been changed positions in order to clear a fault message.
However, dis-connecting and re-connecting or switching positions of the EPSU’s is not the right
trouble shooting procedure to detect defective lights on the aircraft.
It will even lead that the defective lights will remain hidden installed on the aircraft although the
fault light indication is removed.

• Why did it happen?

Swapping of LRU’s is still a practices applied for trouble shooting purpose although not the
recommended one from Airbus.
In the case of the EPSU’s the swapping of units can lead to a situation where the failed
emergency lights remain hidden on the aircraft.

As per design, the ESPU’s have an automatic logic called the “Teach In Function” and is launched
at the initialization of the EPSU during removal / installation of this unit or the battery.
Note: On the A350XWB, the teach-in function is launched when the test button on
the EPSU is pressed for more than 5 seconds, and not be removing / installing the
battery or disconnecting the EPSU connector.
This logic allows to “teach” the EPSU the nominal current value (consumption) of the dedicated
Emergency Lighting circuit it controls.
If a defective light is present in the circuit, this will change the current value of the concerned
circuit.
However, if the EPSU is swapped, the newly installed EPSU will record the new current value due
to the present fault as the “nominal” one, and consequently the fault is no more indicated as such
and remains hidden.

© AIRBUS S.A.S. All rights reserved. Confidential and proprietary document.

Maintenance Briefing Notes 04/12/2014

EPSU disconnection / reconnection

Lesson learned
In the A380, A320 Family, and A330/A340 Trouble Shooting Manual (TSM)
task located at 33-51-00 PB 201, it is requested that:

Caution: Do not use the teach-in procedure as an alternative

for trouble shooting. A teach-in procedure is not a
reset procedure. Before you do a teach-in
procedure, make sure that you corrected all
failures. If you do not obey this, failures can cause
a malfunction of the cabin emergency lightning
system.

Refer also to Operator Information Transmission: OIT 999.0019/14 – Prevent EPSU Teach-In
Procedure for Trouble Shooting.

Airbus does not recommend swapping of LRU’s for trouble shooting.

The introduction in the TSM states that:
Quote
4 Do not replace (swap) LRU’s as a trouble shooting step unless the TSM tells you to do so.
Note: After carrying out the fault isolation in accordance with the TSM, to prevent a NO GO
situation in the dispatch of the aircraft when no spares available, swapping of LRU’s is permissible
in accordance with operator policy.
Unquote
As an exception, Airbus allows swapping for some specific A380 LRU’s:
• TASK 42-11-34-040-801-A Swapping of CPIOM-C1 and CPIOM-C2, when CPIOM-C1 is
Defective
• TASK 42-11-34-040-802-A Swapping of CPIOM-G1 and CPIOM-G2, when CPIOM-G1 is
Defective
• TASK 42-11-34-040-803-A Swapping of CPIOM-G3 and CPIOM-G4, when CPIOM-G3 is
Defective
• TASK 42-31-34-040-801-A Swapping of AFDX Switches
• TASK 46-71-00-040-802-A Swapping of a Defective Router and a Serviceable Router

© AIRBUS S.A.S. All rights reserved. Confidential and proprietary document.

Maintenance Briefing Notes 04/12/2014

EPSU disconnection / reconnection

• Identification of original EPSU batteries installed on A310, A320 Family, A330 and A340

It was reported that various types of batteries similar to the original batteries provided by DIEHL
Aerospace have become available on the international market for aircraft spare parts.
Many of those batteries are copies from the original supplier equipment. The copy batteries can
lead to considerable malfunction. Customers are advised to not use any battery imitations.
The Vendor Service Information Letter ref. 3214-30-01/01, published by DIEHL Aerospace
provides additional recommendations.

© AIRBUS S.A.S. All rights reserved. Confidential and proprietary document.

Maintenance Briefing Notes 04/12/2014

© Airbus S.A.S. All rights reserved. Confidential and proprietary document. This document and all information contained herein is the sole property of AIRBUS. No intellectual property rights
are granted by the delivery of this document or the disclosure of its content. This document shall not be reproduced or disclosed to a third party without the express written consent of AIRBUS
S.A.S. This document and its content shall not be used for any purpose other than that for which it is supplied. The statements made herein do not constitute an offer. They are based on the
mentioned assumptions and are expressed in good faith. Where the supporting grounds for these statements are not shown, AIRBUS S.A.S. will be pleased to explain the basis thereof.
AIRBUS, its logo, A300, A310, A318, A319, A320, A321, A330, A340, A350, A380, A400M are registered trademarks.

We appreciate receiving feedback to this issue of the Maintenance Briefing Notes.

Uwe Eggerling
Senior Director Safety
Engineering & Maintenance
Customer Services

Uwe.eggerling@airbus.com

This Maintenance Briefing Note (MBN) is part of a set of Briefing Notes that provide an overview of the applicable standards, techniques,
best practices, human factors, suggested company prevention strategies and personal lines-of-defense related to major threats and hazards
that may affect maintenance.

This MBN is intended to enhance the reader's safety awareness but it shall not supersede the applicable regulations and the Airbus or
airline's maintenance documentation; should any deviation appear between this MBN and the Airbus or airline’s maintenance
documentation, the latter shall prevail at all times.

In the interest of aviation safety, this MBN may be reproduced in whole or in part - in all media - or translated; any use of this MBN shall not
modify its contents or alter an excerpt from its original context. Any commercial use is strictly excluded. All uses shall credit Airbus.

Airbus shall have no liability or responsibility for the use of this MBN, the correctness of the duplication, adaptation or translation and for
the updating and revision of any duplicated version.

Airbus Customer Services

Maintenance Engineering Services
1 Rond Point Maurice Bellonte - 31707 BLAGNAC CEDEX FRANCE

© AIRBUS S.A.S. All rights reserved. Confidential and proprietary document.