Early Pirep on Garmin 430 and 496 Integration

I finally put in the Airgizmos panel dock. I had the work done while I did
the WAAS upgrade to my Garmin 430 at Penn Avionics.

I opted to get the angled bracket because the screen on the 496 tends to
make the terrain and some of the weather disappear at a certain viewing
angle. The non-angled dock looks much cleaner to me but function won over
form.

I picked up the airplane near the end of the business day so I couldn't get
a thorough system check in with the tech that installed my unit. I paid for
that shortcoming by scratching head for a day trying to figure out why the
496 was not displaying the flight plan I put in my 430. A not-so-quick
search on the web made me aware to the fact that I had not set my "Serial
Data Format" under the Setup/Interface Tab to "Aviation In" from the "Garmin
Data Transfer" default setting.

Viola! Flight plan crossfill without the need to select "crossfill" in the
430.

I have the audio out from the 496 connected though my seldom-used (as in not
once) music input and it has worked during my initial tests. I can still use
the music input but not at the same time. Now I have to find the time to
head towards some mountains in VMC to check out the aural warning function.
However, there is a potential conflict here in that my 430W also has terrain
with aural warnings. I'll have to see how that plays out. Hopefully the
aural warnings won't step on each other.

The Airgizmos dock could use a little more room for the wiring. With
everything plugged in, it takes quite a bit of maneuvering to make sure the
wires are not pinched or get unplugged. That could be attributed to my
inexperience with the panel dock though.

A nice thing I noticed about the integration is that the flight plan will
stay in the 496 under a flight plan name of "Aviation In" even after the
interface cable is unplugged. This would be quite useful in the event of an
electrical failure. It kind of takes the 496 a step-up from a "back-up"
towards a real-time "fail-over" system (but not quite a real fail-over
system since the 496 is not TSO-146a of course).

I have four LPV approaches scheduled to arrive at my home airport later this
year and a number of others coming to area airports (look for your area's
future IAPs he http://avnweb.jccbi.gov/schedule/production) so I'm eager
to try them out after the Warrior gets out of annual.

I'll post about anything new I find later.

Marco

I'll post about anything new I find later.

Please do. I'll have this configuration as well, and will be really
interested to see just what the capabilities are.

Is there any Garmin documentation on how the two work together?
--
Jay Maynard, K5ZC http://www.conmicro.com
http://jmaynard.livejournal.com http://www.tronguy.net
Fairmont, MN (FRM) (Yes, that's me!)
AMD Zodiac CH601XLi N55ZC (ordered 17 March, delivery 2 June)

I think there's just the paragraph in the 496 manual under Main Menu/Setup
Tab/Interface Sub Tab: "Aviation In - the proprietary format used for
connection to a Garmin panel-mounted GPS receiver. Allows the GPSMAP 496 to
show a Go To or route selected in the panel-mounted GPS receiver. This
eliminates the need to enter the destination on both units."

Did you get the WAAS upgrade to your 430 and/or 530 yet? In most of the
upgrade cases, the shop will need to replace the antenna cable connecting to
the GPS to conform with the new standard. I had the shop keep my old antenna
and use that for the 496. I notice that almost all the GPS signal bars are
maxed-out at start-up and it initializes its position much quicker with this
configuration so it's a nice little benefit.

Marco


"Jay Maynard" wrote in message
...
I'll post about anything new I find later.

Please do. I'll have this configuration as well, and will be really
interested to see just what the capabilities are.

Is there any Garmin documentation on how the two work together?
--
Jay Maynard, K5ZC http://www.conmicro.com
http://jmaynard.livejournal.com http://www.tronguy.net
Fairmont, MN (FRM) (Yes, that's me!)
AMD Zodiac CH601XLi N55ZC (ordered 17 March, delivery 2 June)

On 2008-05-01, Marco Leon wrote:
I think there's just the paragraph in the 496 manual under Main Menu/Setup
Tab/Interface Sub Tab: "Aviation In - the proprietary format used for
connection to a Garmin panel-mounted GPS receiver. Allows the GPSMAP 496 to
show a Go To or route selected in the panel-mounted GPS receiver. This
eliminates the need to enter the destination on both units."

I was hoping there was a more complete document somewhere.

Did you get the WAAS upgrade to your 430 and/or 530 yet?

The aircraft hasn't been built yet (they tell me they'll start on the
airframe in a couple of weeks). When it is, it'll get a brand new GNS430W.
The 430's antenna will be just forward of the canopy. The 496 will be
mounted on a short pedestal mount on an arm rest between the Zodiac's seats;
since the Zodiac canopy is all Plexiglass (aside from a couple of aluminum
tubing stiffeners at the front and back ends), the antenna on the 496 will
have no trouble seeing satellites. The GXM30A will go on an AirGizmo
removable mount on top of the panel.
--
Jay Maynard, K5ZC http://www.conmicro.com
http://jmaynard.livejournal.com http://www.tronguy.net
Fairmont, MN (FRM) (Yes, that's me!)
AMD Zodiac CH601XLi N55ZC (ordered 17 March, delivery 2 June)