What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

GMA-340 high gain music select

Scott Will

Scott Will

Well Known Member
Today I added a wire to pin 15 of the #2 connector on my GMA-340 to enable the "high gain music select". I connected it to aircraft ground but didn't hear the audio boost. Trying to figure out why... you do connect it to aircraft ground, right?

Reading the manual page 2-8 it says that unit mods 2 and 5 provide 10 times gain (20 db). But it goes on about unit mod 5 provides the switching between 0 and 10 times gain. I know mine is at least mod 2 because I saw the mark on it today but forget if I saw mod 5.

At any rate, I'd like to make my iPod(like) device louder. Any suggestions?

Thanks!
Scott
 
Quick note

Scott,

Glad to meet you today... I remember, while on the Cessna forums, that people who made the "audio" mod on the Garmin Audiopanel, didn't like the distortion that was introduced. As a result, most oppted for something call a "boostaroo". It's a small "strip device" that allows one more more things to be plugged into it and in in turns provides a preamp level boost to the signal.

http://www.boostaroo.com/

You would think that what it does is the same as the Garmin, but most of the guys that had put 340's in their Cessna's reverse the higain mod and went for the boostaroo for XM and for Ipod...

I think this was fixed in the 347, but not sure...
 
Alan, good to meet you too. Do you know if the Cessna guys wired the boostaroo to aircraft power? Brian Wallis brought over his Radio Shack version of the same thing and it definitely worked. Just wondered how I could get around the battery issue. Thought I'd probe into the 340 some more.

Just got a SanDisk Sansa e260 as a gift. I like it cuz it has an FM tuner in it as well. Now I can listen to the Braves games or whatever while cutting the grass.

- Scott
 
Scott Will said:
Alan, good to meet you too. Do you know if the Cessna guys wired the boostaroo to aircraft power? Brian Wallis brought over his Radio Shack version of the same thing and it definitely worked. Just wondered how I could get around the battery issue. Thought I'd probe into the 340 some more.

Just got a SanDisk Sansa e260 as a gift. I like it cuz it has an FM tuner in it as well. Now I can listen to the Braves games or whatever while cutting the grass.

- Scott
Click to expand...

Scott, they did, somehow... If memory serves me correctly, they used to have a version that could be externally powered. I'd drop them an email and ask those types of questions. It might require a little wiring, and perhaps a way to drop the voltage (looked like they were all 3v devices), but that should be pretty easy to do...

BTW, I dropped you an email to the email address listed on your website.
 
BTW

I was just doing a quick google on "garmin 340 high gain audio mod" and it looks like it's only in the Mod 5 and newer. This goes back a ways, but it seems that there were 2 mods, one for something, but not audio levels, and then the one for the levels.... If memory serves me correctly, I think the first was for Karaoke mode (bypasses the audio muting so you can sing alone without muting occuring), and the second was for the high gain audio output. Some people put a switch on the muting thing, that's why it was one of the mods.
 
Scott his is exactly why I went with the PS Engineering Audio Panel.
I tried helping a friend with this exact issue on his 340 and it was decided in the end to use the external device.

Best,
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top