Brantel
Well Known Member
Since I can't fly due to medical issues and the weather has been awesome the past few days I flew into my panel to enable some features that did not exist back when I first went from the legacy Dynon system to the G3X system....
First I would like to say that I have no idea how the heck I ever completed all the prior panel upgrades in my airplane @ 340 plus pounds??? I have no idea how I ever built and wired the airplane in the first place at that weight?
I have also crossed over into the land of reading glasses being mandatory for close up work. Now I know what my father used to complain about!
That being said first thing was to remove the GTX23ES, GDL39 3D and the VP-X Pro because it sits just above my rudder pedals and blocks access to most of the wiring behind the sub-panel. This is no small chore since the bracket I made to hold them both spans the two ribs that run between the sub-panel and the firewall. The xponder will slide out but the VP-X Pro is bolted to the top of the bracket along with the GDL-39 3D. Getting to the connectors to unlatch them so I can pull it out is difficult. Wiring a new airplane with an open front deck would be so much easier!
Back when I built the original G3X panel, I followed the wiring suggestions very precisely and this left me with a uni directional connection between the GTN and the GDU for the MAPMX format. The latest firmware revision for the GTN enables G3X Touch tuning and control of the COM radio but it requires a bi-directional link to enable this feature. In went a new line to upgrade the link to go both ways.
While inside the GTN connectors, I added a discrete line to enable the TO/GA button integration to work with the G3X Touch. Never added this button before because it was just too difficult to get a new wire in there. I also had to crack open the GSU73 connector to install a similar discrete line that works with the one on the GTN to allow one button press missed approaches and some other nifty take off functions.
I also added the new cable that enables the Garmin Connext features to work with the G3X Touch, GTN and mobile devices. To do this I had to move one of my existing serial connections which I used to push frequencies to my A210 2nd COM because I was using all 5 ports. So I moved it over to the MFD screen. One side effect of adding the Touch Tuning of the GTN to the setup, I lost the ability to push frequencies on demand to the A210. When I touch a frequency like before to push it, it gets pushed to the GTN instead. The frequency list of the nearest airport is still making its way into the A210 however so that is good enough for me. Someday when the A210 dies I will have to upgrade to the GTR200. Not looking forward to tray swapping and rewiring that or I would have most likely already made the switch. However the A210 is working fine so I guess there is no reason to toss it.
While I was inside the PFD's connector, I replaced the original config module with the newer one that includes the proper chip to enable connection to iOS devices. The original did not have that ability. I have never put it in because I have been using an Android tablet. I am tired of waiting on the Android version of Garmin Pilot to catch up to the iOS version and I switched back to an Iphone due to very poor battery life issues with the LG G3 so back to Apple I go... Seems Foreflight has made some enhancements to work with Connext so I may give them another try.
After making all these changes and replacing everything, I fired up the panel and checked for smoke.... None found so I reconfigured all settings that needed tweaked and checked out my new features. Everything seems to work as advertised. I tried both Garmin Pilot and Foreflight and both seen to work fine on transferring flight plans. Still unsure about if Foreflight can use anything related to the GDL39 or not but it was getting GPS info from Connext so that is good. Touch tuning of the GTN works great as well. The only thing that I lost is the ability to push freqs to the A210 as mentioned above.
One thing is for sure. Those original gold pins provided with the original G3X connectors are a real pain (next to impossible) to remove from the connector without damaging the locking mechanism inside. I will never use those babies again in any wiring job I do!
This has been a ton of work to rework the wiring to enable these new features. I had really been procrastinating about making the mods to enable these particular features because when you have a G3X Touch and GTN combo, both have such nice easy to use native interfaces, there really is no huge advantage to being able to tune the GTN from the G3X and as far as flight plan transfer goes, the GTN is way better than the GNS series ever was so there is no huge advantage there either. The TO/GA button is cool but it is really no big deal to reach up and press a button on the GTN screen to go missed. Don't get me wrong, I am a tech geek and will enjoy all of these features, this is just why I was procrastinating!
I have two more things I want to do to call this job finished:
1. Add the backup RS232 serial link between my 2nd AHRS and the PFD. Never did this for some strange reason...
2. Add a switch to the MFD to be able to force it into reversionary mode. There is just some times when this is nice to be able to do on the fly in a 2 screen PFD/MFD setup.
First I would like to say that I have no idea how the heck I ever completed all the prior panel upgrades in my airplane @ 340 plus pounds??? I have no idea how I ever built and wired the airplane in the first place at that weight?
I have also crossed over into the land of reading glasses being mandatory for close up work. Now I know what my father used to complain about! That being said first thing was to remove the GTX23ES, GDL39 3D and the VP-X Pro because it sits just above my rudder pedals and blocks access to most of the wiring behind the sub-panel. This is no small chore since the bracket I made to hold them both spans the two ribs that run between the sub-panel and the firewall. The xponder will slide out but the VP-X Pro is bolted to the top of the bracket along with the GDL-39 3D. Getting to the connectors to unlatch them so I can pull it out is difficult. Wiring a new airplane with an open front deck would be so much easier!
Back when I built the original G3X panel, I followed the wiring suggestions very precisely and this left me with a uni directional connection between the GTN and the GDU for the MAPMX format. The latest firmware revision for the GTN enables G3X Touch tuning and control of the COM radio but it requires a bi-directional link to enable this feature. In went a new line to upgrade the link to go both ways.
While inside the GTN connectors, I added a discrete line to enable the TO/GA button integration to work with the G3X Touch. Never added this button before because it was just too difficult to get a new wire in there. I also had to crack open the GSU73 connector to install a similar discrete line that works with the one on the GTN to allow one button press missed approaches and some other nifty take off functions.
I also added the new cable that enables the Garmin Connext features to work with the G3X Touch, GTN and mobile devices. To do this I had to move one of my existing serial connections which I used to push frequencies to my A210 2nd COM because I was using all 5 ports. So I moved it over to the MFD screen. One side effect of adding the Touch Tuning of the GTN to the setup, I lost the ability to push frequencies on demand to the A210. When I touch a frequency like before to push it, it gets pushed to the GTN instead. The frequency list of the nearest airport is still making its way into the A210 however so that is good enough for me. Someday when the A210 dies I will have to upgrade to the GTR200. Not looking forward to tray swapping and rewiring that or I would have most likely already made the switch. However the A210 is working fine so I guess there is no reason to toss it.
While I was inside the PFD's connector, I replaced the original config module with the newer one that includes the proper chip to enable connection to iOS devices. The original did not have that ability. I have never put it in because I have been using an Android tablet. I am tired of waiting on the Android version of Garmin Pilot to catch up to the iOS version and I switched back to an Iphone due to very poor battery life issues with the LG G3 so back to Apple I go... Seems Foreflight has made some enhancements to work with Connext so I may give them another try.
After making all these changes and replacing everything, I fired up the panel and checked for smoke.... None found so I reconfigured all settings that needed tweaked and checked out my new features. Everything seems to work as advertised. I tried both Garmin Pilot and Foreflight and both seen to work fine on transferring flight plans. Still unsure about if Foreflight can use anything related to the GDL39 or not but it was getting GPS info from Connext so that is good. Touch tuning of the GTN works great as well. The only thing that I lost is the ability to push freqs to the A210 as mentioned above.
One thing is for sure. Those original gold pins provided with the original G3X connectors are a real pain (next to impossible) to remove from the connector without damaging the locking mechanism inside. I will never use those babies again in any wiring job I do!
This has been a ton of work to rework the wiring to enable these new features. I had really been procrastinating about making the mods to enable these particular features because when you have a G3X Touch and GTN combo, both have such nice easy to use native interfaces, there really is no huge advantage to being able to tune the GTN from the G3X and as far as flight plan transfer goes, the GTN is way better than the GNS series ever was so there is no huge advantage there either. The TO/GA button is cool but it is really no big deal to reach up and press a button on the GTN screen to go missed. Don't get me wrong, I am a tech geek and will enjoy all of these features, this is just why I was procrastinating!
I have two more things I want to do to call this job finished:
1. Add the backup RS232 serial link between my 2nd AHRS and the PFD. Never did this for some strange reason...
2. Add a switch to the MFD to be able to force it into reversionary mode. There is just some times when this is nice to be able to do on the fly in a 2 screen PFD/MFD setup.
