What's new
Van's Air Force

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

496 - Voice out?

S

Steve Sampson

Well Known Member
On the 496 there is a wire in the plug (brown) for voice out. I am puzzling if the 496 has anything to say for itself related to aviation, because if not, I cant see any reason to connect it to the intercom. Anyone know? (Is it just for ground navigation in automobile mode?)

In Europe the XM weather feature does not exist, so if that is a reason it does not apply for me.

Thanks.
 
Steve Sampson said:
On the 496 there is a wire in the plug (brown) for voice out. I am puzzling if the 496 has anything to say for itself related to aviation,...
Click to expand...
Steve, some of the things I can think of offhand that the audio is used for are terrain warnings, obstruction warnings, sink rate warnings and even a 500 foot call-out on the landing approach. Makes me feel like I'm flying an airliner at times.

Sometimes she gets a little shrill and I have to temporarily shut her down. One of those times is sightseeing in mountainous country and another is when you land at a place that is not in the database as an airport. She actually uses a more and more urgent tone as she feels you are in more and more peril.
 
Larry - are using the voice out from the brown wire, or from the Audio jack? I could be wrong....but I think that the voice audio only comes over the audio plug - when I was researching the wiring for Louise's panel, that was the conclusion I came to. But as I said, I could be wrong.....

I know that I get Betty's voice in the Val using only the Audio jack plugged in to my audio panel.

Paul
 
If you have a compatible traffic detection device connected, you can also get audible traffic warnings from the 396/496.

mcb
 
Ironflight said:
Larry - are using the voice out from the brown wire, or from the Audio jack? I could be wrong....but I think that the voice audio only comes over the audio plug - when I was researching the wiring for Louise's panel, that was the conclusion I came to. But as I said, I could be wrong.....

I know that I get Betty's voice in the Val using only the Audio jack plugged in to my audio panel.

Paul
Click to expand...
I use the audio plug. It never occurred to me that there might be different audio in different places.
 
I thought I saw/read somewhere that the brown wire was for auto, not for aviation alerts. But I'm not really sure of this.

Can anyone confirm or deny this ?
 
Wicked Stick said:
I thought I saw/read somewhere that the brown wire was for auto, not for aviation alerts. But I'm not really sure of this.

Can anyone confirm or deny this ?
Click to expand...

The 1/8" stereo audio jack on the back of the 396/496 gives you both XM audio and voice alerts. The output levels from this jack should be compatible with most anything you care to connect it to.

The orange/brown "audio" wires in the power/data cable are primarily used for driving the speaker in the talkbox cable (included with the 496, optional for the 396) for giving voice guidance in a car. By virtue of the way the sound hardware on the 396/496 works, you also get aviation voice alerts on these pins.

Some people have used this to their advantage by connecting the 1/8" audio jack output to a switched input on their audio panel, and running the audio wires from the power/data cable to an unswitched input - the goal being to have the ability to hear voice alerts regardless of whether XM audio is being muted by intercom or radio activity. I think this is a clever idea and it's possible that someone at Garmin even had this in mind when designing the unit. However, since the brown/orange wires are designed to drive a speaker directly, their voltage and impedance may be harmful to other devices that are not expecting speaker-level signals. You would be well advised to check with the manufacturer of your audio panel/intercom before connecting it to the 396/496 in this way. It may or may not be okay - only the folks who build and support your audio panel would know for sure.

Hope that helps.

mcb
 
Last edited:
I thought the response to my enquiery to PS Eng - follow up to the previous post - might interest others:

Thanks for writing and I'm glad you did.

You asked
would like to know if your system can accept the 'orange/brown' input, and if 'yes' how?
Unfortunately, this output is designed for a speaker (typically the one found in the automotive charger/speaker you get from GARMIN.

It is highly recommended NOT to use this output for it will most probably destroy the 510 input impedance device that PM3000 is using.

Sorry about that.

Mark Scheuer​

Hope that helps someone, Steve.
 
Hooking up brown/orange from my 496 to my PS Eng audio panel did not work for me. For what it is worth, it didn't hurt anything either.

Luis Luciani
RV8 - N188LC
 
If you can grab a view of the XM signal I believe you can pick up the "sample" channel from them.
 
Sure but I have the brown/orange wires wired up so I can switch off the XM from the 1/8" jack but still get voice alerts.
 
You still get voice alerts/alarms/etc. from the mini plug even with XM turned off.
 
Couple of other inputs

I have the same setup, 496 into PS 3000, I also received the same answer from PS about the input level using the audio cable (brown) wire. I researched the web and found a couple of level shifter designs on the web that would allow me to match the inputs but in the end decided to connect via the rear audio plug.
It works fine but as noted if you reduce the volume of the 496 for the XM music you also reduce the volume of the voice alerts but in my setup this has never really been a problem as with the ANR headsets the alerts are very clear.
The unit provides useful alerts and coupled with the Dynon alerts provides a complete range of voice alerts and warnings.
 
I used the 1/8" plug into my PMA8000B unswitched input. I use volume control on 496 with two button pushes. It provides mono only. Mine tells me to "pull up" after a steep rv climbout while turning downwind at pattern altitude. It never did this in the 172.
 
rocketbob said:
Is there a way to test voice alerts in the shop on a 396/496 so I can validate my wiring?
Click to expand...

Simply changing the volume level using the on-screen controls should cause the unit to speak the new volume setting: "one", "two", etc. If you specifically want to hear terrain alerts, you can use simulator mode.

uk_figs said:
[...] as noted if you reduce the volume of the 496 for the XM music you also reduce the volume of the voice alerts
Click to expand...

You can use the Sound Setup page in the main menu to make the terrain and traffic alerts play at a louder volume, independent of the master volume.

mcb
 
Hi Matt, thanks for the info. You are correct. The main volume control will announce the volume levels. But...only when not plugged into the audio port.

I was able to put it in simulator mode and set the altitude low to get obstacle alerts.

The alerts come through the orange/black wires as you described, with no XM audio on those wires. But only when something is plugged into the audio port. Otherwise XM and alerts both come on the orange and black wires.

The audio levels are not independently adjustable so I will have to change the resistor values of the divider circuit I have to get the obstacle/terrain alerts a little lower in volume. So as you adjust volume on Sound Setup, both XM and alerts are changed together, not independently.
 
Last edited:
rocketbob said:
The audio levels are not independently adjustable so I will have to change the resistor values of the divider circuit I have to get the obstacle/terrain alerts a little lower in volume. So as you adjust volume on Sound Setup, both XM and alerts are changed together, not independently.
Click to expand...

Take a look at the Sound Setup page - you can change the terrain and traffic alert volumes independently by setting them to "Low", "Medium", or "High", instead of "On".

mcb
 
Actually its Loud, Medium, and On, but Loud and On are the same level. Medium definitely cuts the volume down.
 
I understand for some Garmin's you can get celebrity voices to give you turn-by-turn driving directions. Does this work for aviation?

I'd love to hear Snoop telling my to "pull up my shizzle"
 
Adapting the Brown/Orange to 500 Ohm out for Audio Panels

I made the harness I posted about in this thread for adapting the orange/brown wires to my KMA24 in my spam can, I was not able to get it in yet while my annual was being done a weekend ago, but coming soon.

I was interested in getting all the critical alerts over my audio panel full time rather than porting the audio through my intercom which mutes the aux in when radio is active.

If I get XM radio at some point, I will port the music out from the 496 via the 1/8" jack to my intercom aux in so that it WILL mute the music when radio traffic is happening just like any other entertainment in.

I have seen it work in my friends C182 and it is a nice solution.
 
Last edited:
396 connection to unswitched input

Wayne Gillispie said:
I used the 1/8" plug into my PMA8000B unswitched input. I use volume control on 496 with two button pushes. It provides mono only. Mine tells me to "pull up" after a steep rv climbout while turning downwind at pattern altitude. It never did this in the 172.
Click to expand...

I was doing a search on this topic and came upon this thread and this particular post. I am wiring my 1/8 jack from my 396 to an unswitched input on my PMA 8000B.

The 396 output is stero. The plug that goes into the 396 has places to attach wires for left, right, and lo. The audio panel unswitched ports are either two pin, or one pin. The two pin inputs are labled as "audio" and "lo". The one pin port is just labeled "audio".

My question is, what connections do you make between the jack and the unswitched input? Since there is only one audio input on the unswitched input, do you connect it to the left, the right, or try to connect it to both? Do you connect the ground tab on the jack to lo? Do you hve to use a lo?

Thanks for any information
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top