RV7Guy

RV7Guy

Well Known Member
I'm wrapping up the panel and am leaning toward an XM radio system for tunes, news etc... Just curious what some of you are using and why. FYI, I'm not interested in a CD player.

Darwin N. Barrie
Chandler AZ
 
Don't buy PS Engineering, go with Eclipse or Pioneer

Don't buy PS Engineering, go with Eclipse or Pioneer. Auto stuff has more options/features and is cheaper.
 
I'm not sure if this is the info you're looking for, but I have both Sirius and XM in our two vehicles. For what I use a radio for, both companies are similar in their content, the big difference between them for me is how the radio is intergrated into the vehicle.

My XM came factory installed and the layout and general ergonomics of the controls is first rate. On my wifes vehicle, we added Sirius and it is royal pain in the rear to use simply because of the way it was installed. To be fair, my wife has adjusted to it but when I go from my truck to her truck, I just cringe when I have to mess with her controls.

I plan on adding one of them to my RV-8 and the most important criteria will be the *ease of use* of the unit once installed. This is gonna sound silly, but stand in front of the radio and hold your arm straight out. Now jump up and down and try to work the controls. Most of the units have incredibly small buttons, and it's impossible to hit the correct one while being bounced around. I do not want to take my eyes off the *road* and search for a micro button.

Big buttons spaced far apart.

Hope this helps.

Lee Jordan
RV-8
empennage
 
I know a lot of us here in SoCAL are flying with the compact XM Roady and liking it! :) Rosie

PS: Since we all here are part of the RV Family, I would suggest you find 4 close, RV family members, order 5 Roadys then get them all on the Family plan to have extra money for fuel. XM Satellite Weather is also available ;)
 
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Roady

Hey Dan,

Can I tie that into my 340 audio panel? I want to have dedicated power for this and not plug it into my cigarette lighter adapter, what size circuit breaker would I need?

Darwin
 
Dunno

I just bought mine 10 minutes ago...should be here next week. :)

You can definitely tie it into the GMA-340, though, through the music input. I plan on just plugging it into the 3.5 mm stereo jack I have under my panel, like I've been doing with my ipod.

As for power, the specs for the Roady 2 say 6V DC, 600 mA average, positive polarity. I figure if you don't want to use the cigarette lighter adapter, you could just take it apart and wire it directly into your bus using the guts, or just build your own 6V voltage regulator. I'm sure somebody else on this forum has dealt with this and has good ideas!

)_( Dan
RV-7 N714D
http://www.rvproject.com
 
I use an iPod. On the other hand, what is wrong with the PS Engineering approach? I know the display leaves something to be desired, but at least there isn't much clutter.
 
The XM fan store has an adapter you can buy to power it off your main bus without going through the cigarette lighter adapter.

yhst-67720110273938_1859_149752


You can click here to go to the order page. They also have lots of other neat things there...power level boosters, ground loop isolators, etc.

All The Best,
 
Be Careful

Most audio panels have a line in for an "amplified signal". In my case, I had a Roady and since it only had an unamplified line out signal, you could not hear it in flight. I had to get a unit that had a headset output that allowed for an amplified signal out to interface into my PS engineering entertainment input.

Im very surprised the SoCal guys are hearing anything. How do you adjust the volume Rosie? Do you have the aftermarket amplifier in line with your Roady Line out? From Rosie: "I run it through my PS Engineering intercom."

Kahuna
Ended up putting in the MyFi unit and giving the Roady to Wife Michelle. She loves me for it and I got a cooler gismo. Win WIn.
 
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Morning all,

Just in from a before work flight in Flash (beautiful sunrise!).

I've been flying lately with one of these (no moving parts, battery lasts a LONG time and it has a voice recorder for those impromptu 'need to do' reminders). I've flown with iPods, iPaqs, XM roadies and portable CD players and I'm liking this one the best to date, if only because it doesn't have many cables - just one plugging into my generic input on the panel:

t10-straight.jpg
picture courtesy www.iriveramerica.com​

I have a XM Roadie in the truck and find it nice. But, since I have a pretty good collection of music I find I'm using the iRiver more often (less cables).

This thing is keychain size also, so I leave it in my pocket as a voice recorder when I need to get some audio (like a RVTalk in the field). Works easier on a long walk or jog, too. I've found that sometimes the best ideas come to me when I'm away from pen/paper.

Just another choice....all perfectly good.

Have a great Friday!

B,
 
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Re: the problem with XM - you can never leave

Hi,

I agree that the XM hardware is great. However, let me relate a warning about XM customer service: never ever cancel your XM contract.

When I purchased my latest car, it came with a free 90 day trial of XM. I decided XM was not for me - the selection of music for any particular genre seemed very 'safe' and bland. Therefore, I decided not to activate XM service once my trial was over.

Woe unto me.

For the last six months, XM has been repeatedly calling my cellphone (the phone number I gave when I purchased my car) trying to convince me to come back. At first I was polite when I told them I didn't want their service. Then I became more angry and told them never to call me again. Each time I tell them to never call again they say "ok, I'll add you to our do not call list - though it may take up to 30 days (um, why?)". Amazingly after many months, they keep calling - at least twice a week.

I've gone to their website to complain, still they call.

In short: an evil company to be careful with. :D

Kevin

PS: I like my iPod . :)
 
kevinh said:
Hi,

When I purchased my latest car, it came with a free 90 day trial of XM. I decided XM was not for me - the selection of music for any particular genre seemed very 'safe' and bland. Therefore, I decided not to activate XM service once my trial was over.
Click to expand...

I've been running XM radio for nearly two years now. In my Chevy Silverado as well as a "boom box" which I use on job sites. With nearly 150 channels, I've found it to be "anything" but bland. In fact, I've even ordered CD's from Europe for selections I had never heard before XM, and not readily available in the states. IMO, XM offers much more, than regular AM/FM. Besides, when they fix a few customer related glitches concerning accounts & XM weather, I'll be getting a Garmin 396 too!

L.Adamson
 
The problem I've had is that no matter what device I've tried, I've found that there's not enough power in these little portable devices to drive the aviation headsets via the intercom. If you have an audio panel, you have a build-in amplifier for your music input. But if you have a PS Engineering intercom, you are basically out of luck. I haven't really found a suitable amplifier/booster for my MP/3 player yet. What are others doing?
 
FM Modulation?

Sorry, don't mean to hijack this thread, but...

How do you Roady2 users find sound quality of the FM modulation to be?
 
electronic kits

f1rocket said:
The problem I've had is that no matter what device I've tried, I've found that there's not enough power in these little portable devices to drive the aviation headsets via the intercom. If you have an audio panel, you have a build-in amplifier for your music input. But if you have a PS Engineering intercom, you are basically out of luck. I haven't really found a suitable amplifier/booster for my MP/3 player yet. What are others doing?
Click to expand...
You can make a little audio amp, stereo or mono to boost the audio. They make do-it-yourself kits from a number of places that sell electronic kits. G

http://velleman.hobbytron.net/vseries.html?source=1279
http://www.electrokits.com/electronics/amplifiers/5.htm
http://www.quasarelectronics.com/audio_amplifiers.htm



G
 
RV7Factory said:
Sorry, don't mean to hijack this thread, but...

How do you Roady2 users find sound quality of the FM modulation to be?
Click to expand...

I have a SkiFi2 in my pick-up. When I bought mine XM was having a buy one, get one 'free' special (you had to pre-pay three months worth of service on the second radio). Went all out with the installation of the SkiFi2 of my Tundra by using a Blitzsafe aux input adapter for my factory stereo, etc. but they don't make those available for my wife's Mazda. We drove the Mazda three weeks ago from Atlanta to Virginia and back and let me tell you...the Roady2 was really getting on my nerves with the FM modulation -- basically because I had to keep changing the station every 10 minutes or so. If you're trying to retro an XM into your panel-mounted auto stereo system, I would investigate if they have a direct line-in capability or as a last resort use an in-line FM modulator.

Back to the original topic of amplification, I guess I just don't understand electronics. When I plug regular headphones (i.e. non-aviation) into the Roady2 I can hear it perfectly. I can also turn the gain up (line-out level) and it gets rather loud. I guess I don't understand why this is a non-amplified unit whereas as Kahuna described the Roady and MyFi working differently in his airplane. Seems like if the headphones work fine in both units, they should both be amplified. Of course I'm talking about the Roady2, which may have different output from the original Roady.
 
I didn't like the FM modulation, but I use the audio tape converter in my 4Runner and it works great. I drive to CO from IN frequently and I don't know how I ever made it thru W KS without XM! I will definitely have it in the -8 and in any cars I have in the future.

Thomas
-8 wings
 
I love to listen to music, but not when I'm flying. When I've listened to music in flight, I find myself getting easily irritated and short with passengers and controllers. I turn off the music and everything is fine. When flying, all I want to hear is engine and communications, and definately not the music from "Top Gun" pounding in my brain.

Bob
 
We use a Sirius in our 9A

My wife is a nervous flyer and the single best thing that I've done for her is to install music in the airplane. I made an "L" shaped bracket out of aluminum sheet about .080 and drilled holes matching the ones in the back of the docking station for the sirius for a mount. It is placed under the panel where the panel bends 90 degrees backwards and is held in place with cleco clamps. It is wired into the avionics bus for power. This is nice and secure, simple, and comes out easily if I need to work under the panel. As for the sound, well cutting the left/right wires out of the sirius and twisting them together and then a single run to the music input of the PS engineering audio panel gives pretty darn good sound at the headsets. I also wired in the soft mute to a toggle switch on her side so that there is the choice of any audio from our voice or from the aircraft radios to quiet the music for the duration of the audio. Set up like this we each have a volume control on the audio panel for the intercom/music, the ability to have the aircraft radios louder than the music, or to mute the music when receiving anything. Then there is the ultimate control which is the "Isolate" switch on the audio panel in case she starts to do something like sing! Ohhhh, just kidding. Anyway, she can distract herself with what 120 channels of music/news/etc.. As for the XM vs. Sirius debate.... Make a choice and enjoy.

Regards,
Bryan 9A "Flyin The Flag"
 
Delphi antenna wiring...just coax?

I just installed my Delphi Roady2 XM radio this past weekend, and I love it.

I managed to install the antenna without cutting the wire (despite the sorta big connector), but I've been curious...is that sucker just a small coax wire, with a center conductor and shielding? I'm basing that assumption on the appearance of the connector, which looks much like a BNC type (not really BNC, but you know what I mean).

I'm curious if I ever do need to cut that wire whether it's as simple as it looks...

)_( Dan
RV-7 N714D (630 hours)
http://www.rvproject.com
 
Dan

The antenna connector on my Sirius base station, in the hanger, broke off one day. It was just a small coax cable so I hard wired it to the board in the docking station, it's worked great ever sense. I don't see why the XM antenna would be any different. I haven't gotten around to hard wiring my Sirius in the plane yet, maybe that should be my last project before the big move out to California.

As far as the volume on the Sirius Sportster, I have to turn it down when I plug it in my intercom. No need for an extra amp. I have a Flight Tech intercom.

Cam
 
I've read to never shorten the antenna. Re-splicing it may work, but the antenna is expecting a certain impedence which is of course a function of the length of the wire. To shorten the wire you need to add resisters to 'simulate' the length of the wire. If you're looking for a certain length of wire, I would recommend that you just buy one that's close to the length you need. You can buy antennas of varying lengths at myradiostore.us.

Take all of this with a grain of salt, it's just what I've read on some XM forums.

I've been thinking about mounting my antenna under the VS tip (and installing the tip w/ screws). Anyone have any thoughts on this? Obviously I'll need to make sure I don't use metallic paint, but this is true if I'm going to use a wing-tip mounted NAV antenna as well...so that's no big deal.
 
Fat connector

Jamie,

The issue isn't shortening the antenna wire. It's that it has this fat connector on there, which makes running the wire almost an impossibility in some spots. If it were just the wire END being run, it could pass through tiny spaces. But getting that connector through snap bushings, grommets, whatever, requires a pretty big hole. Maybe different XM radio mfrs use different connectors, but this one seems to be about as small as it could be, despite my complaints about its size.

I've already managed to install the antenna and keep the wire hidden, but it's not the spot of choice for me. If were able to chop the antenna wire and then re-splice it, it would open up significantly more wiring options.

You'll see what I mean if and when you try to run the wire from the VS tip like you mentioned...

)_( Dan
RV-7 N714D
http://www.rvproject.com
 
N916K said:
Dan

The antenna connector on my Sirius base station, in the hanger, broke off one day. It was just a small coax cable so I hard wired it to the board in the docking station, it's worked great ever sense. I don't see why the XM antenna would be any different. I haven't gotten around to hard wiring my Sirius in the plane yet, maybe that should be my last project before the big move out to California.

As far as the volume on the Sirius Sportster, I have to turn it down when I plug it in my intercom. No need for an extra amp. I have a Flight Tech intercom.

Cam
Click to expand...
Are you listening to your intercom via aviation headsets? That's where the amp becomes necessary in order to drive the higher impedence headsets. I'd love to get some music in my cockpit but I don't want to construct an AMP and there isn't one off the shelf to buy, that I can find anyway.
 
f1rocket said:
Are you listening to your intercom via aviation headsets? That's where the amp becomes necessary in order to drive the higher impedence headsets.
Click to expand...

I have the Sirius radio output line running into an aux input plug that goes directly to the intercom (Flight Tech 402P). My headsets (Lightspeed 20XLC) are plugged into the intercom. There is nothing unusually about the setup and the sound is great. I've also tried an MP3 player and it worked well also. I do know that a friend with XM has to run an amp to make his work. I installed one in the panel with a nice power/volume control pot. Turns out I didn't need it, so I can't report on how well it works. I know it works well in my friends 4. try http://www.canakit.com/ they make the kit that I built. I believe that I actually got it from Hobbytron.

I'm not an avionics person but maybe it also has to do with the intercom used.

Also the Sirius runs 12 volts, I think XM runs like 5 volts, maybe that has something to do with output volume. Like I said, this isn't my area, I just know what works for my plane.

Good luck
Cam
 
New Low Price on XM Roady 2: 12/14/2005

I was shopping for another XM receiver and see they are down to $24.98 at XM Fan store for those of you considering one for Christmas ;) Rosie
 
Xm or Sirrus....... ? Hard call for me because XM seems like they are going to be the company with more features and spunk and the one to have in the future, plus the weather feature is pretty darn nice. Sirrus on the other hand signed on the King of all Media Howard Stern and for fans of his show Sirrus will be the only place to hear him - Here in Charlotte N.C. area he has been off the air for years :mad: Music and talk wise I believe both are about the same.

I have considered getting one or the other for a while, but then I ask myself do I really want another stinking bill in the mail and more equipment to deal with. Here in the Charlotte area we have some good regular Fm stations and that makes it even harder to justify going over to pay to listen service.

What I use in my plane...... I bought a cheap portable CD player that has a built in digital AM-FM radio. I started out by buying a pair of Lightspeed 15G headsets and plugging in the player to my front headset, but the rear passenger was out of the loop and the volume wasn't all that loud either. So I bought a mini amp from Radio Shack that plugs into the CD player and has three output jacks. This way I could plug into both front and rear lightspeed headsets and the volume was okay - I say okay, but it wasn't really as loud as I would have liked it.

Then, I began to dislike my lightspeed headsets more and more - found them to be uncomfortable and too hot in my RV with the greenhouse canopy. Lightspeed offered to take the headsets back for a refund and I was left with one old Flightcom and one old Pilot plain jane headsets that had come with a previous plane I used to own. I tried these headsets in my RV and was impressed, they worked pretty good and were comfortable. Of course I had no music input built into them so I had to go into my intercom to wire up a jack for a AUX input. I didn't know how easy that was to do, and had I known that before I would have never messed around with the radio shack amp and the lightspeed headsets. Now I have the CD player plugged into a AUX jack in the panel to the intercom and both I and any passengers can hear music easily. I think the intercom is a Flightcom or something to that effect.....

If you got a MP3 player or Walkman etc... and need a little more volume, the AMP from radio shack did work good and really boosted the volume. It ran off 2 aa batteries and lasted a long time before needed them changed. I velcro'ed mine to the top of the CD player and Velcro'ed a 6 inch square block of soft foam to the bottom of the CD player to help the CD player from skipping and to allow me to just lay it on the floor of the plane without it moving all around. It works and is cheap....
 
PS Engineering Intercom

Dear Randy:

Wanting to make sure our customers are happy with our products, my number one priority is to work with our customers who's expectations haven't been met.

While it may not always be possible, I enjoy figuring things out and trying to make things better. And it sounds like there is some room for improvement with your PS Engineering intercom right now.

You said:

f1rocket said:
But if you have a PS Engineering intercom, you are basically out of luck. I haven't really found a suitable amplifier/booster for my MP/3 player yet. What are others doing?
Click to expand...

Actually, something is wrong with your intercom/installation. Please let me try to come up with the fix for you.

If you could please tell me what model you have, and let me know that I'm correct in assuming that your entertainment device is not loud enough right now.

Unless you have our discontinued PM2000 or our entry level PM501, you have a product that should provide ample volume for you.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
Mark Scheuer
PS Engineering, Inc.
 
Simple Amplifiers

Been seeing the comments about driving the garmin (340) with low level audio from ipods or XM Rx's. I don't know if Garmin fixed it in the 347 or not, but on the 340, there are mods that the factory will do to change the input drive from what it is to 10x that amount to support these low level devices. Or some people use the follow to do the same externally...

Boosteroo link

RVMV

Alan
 
Xm vs SIrrius

Forget that obnoxious wierdo Stern, the real reason to go with Sirrius is that they are the only ones with Radio Margaritaville.

Mike
 
XM and PS Engineering INtercom

I've been reading this thread and thought I would post my experience. I've always been happy with the PS Engineering intercoms, for both clarity and the music input. On the RV-10 I used the 7000 CD, and then wired 2 more input jacks on the front panel with switches so I could use multiple inputs for the front and rear seats. We take the XM Roady2 along, or CD's, or my son has even watched a movie in the backseat while we listened to the CD or the XM in the front seats. The audio has been more than adequate. The volume on the music is normally about 1/2 volume. With it cranked up all of the way we probably wouldn't hear the engine failure. :)

Vic
 
Quick followup

As a quick followup to my post about audio levels with the garmin 340 Audio panel... The PS Engineering ones *do not* have this problem. Also, you'll find that the audio reproduction is *much* better in the PSE than the Garmin... Course, you'd have to be wearing Bose Series II's to hear the difference :)

Alan
 
WxWorx antenna

All,
The WxWorx reciever has 2 antenna connections. One is antenna IN and the other is OUT. The OUT is supposed to be used to hook up a radio. Can someone help with the type of antenna wire I'll need to connect a Roady type radio to the WxWorx reciever OUT channel. It needs to have the large pink connector on one end for the WxWorx reciever.

Thanks,
Gary
 
Doubt it works that way

The roady, uses a powered antenna, and I doubt you can just hook it to the WXworks RX. I would expect that is some kind of Digital out on the Wxworx, but I wouldn't just go connecting it to anything. You run the risk of damaging the Wxworx box.

Just a guess tho, I know the roady needs just an antenna, and it's powered, but I don't know much about the WXworx box. I was not aware however that they supported the audio channels over the same box.. The GDL69 (data only) and GDL-69A (data and radio) from garmin work as advertised tho. I have a GDL69A in the a 2004 C182, it's awesome, they even integrated the muting into the system. Forget to mute as you come down the ILS and at 200 feet (doesn't matter ILS or not), XM mutes, sure a life saver when you forget and then have to deal with unicom or ground control, etc. Course, that's in the G1000 with the integrated audio panel. :)

Alan
 
Update

Well, they couldn't be more confusing in their website. I googled "xm radio wxworx" and there is a reference on the Wxworx site... Text below

Will the WxWorx receiver also give me XM Satellite Radio's music and news programming?

The WxWorx receiver is only capable of receiving the XM WX weather data service. To receive XM Radio music and news programming you need a separate XM radio receiver that you can purchase elsewhere, and establish a separate subscription with XM for that service. If you have both an XM WX weather data service package and XM radio subscription, XM will give you a $3.00 per month discount on your radio subscription if activated under the same account. You can use the one XM antenna that is provided with your receiver kit to provide signal to your XM radio receiver. You will need to purchase a patch cable that connects your WxWorx receiver to your XM radio receiver.
Click to expand...

I know that doesn't help much, it's the last sentence which seems to be a "leftover" or something as it' seem out of context. Go figure.

Alan
 
XM cable

The following cable is the one you need to attach an XM radio receiver, like Roady, to the XM weather receiver.

Tom Lewis
____________________________________

http://store.wxworx.com/Merchant2/m...9c72fc1e83c6d30&Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=102

3 ft. FAKRA to FAKRA Patch Cable
Price: $15.99
Quantity in Basket: none
Violet FAKRA (WxWorx receiver) to Violet FAKRA (Audio receiver) patch cable in 3, 6 and 12 foot lengths. Use to connect the RF Out port of the WxWorx receiver to new audio radios that have the FAKRA (violet) single connector. The WxWorx receiver passes the satellite signal on to the audio radio.

6 ft. FAKRA to FAKRA Patch Cable
Price: $17.99
Quantity in Basket: none
Violet FAKRA (WxWorx receiver) to Violet FAKRA (Audio receiver) patch cable in 3, 6 and 12 foot lengths. Use to connect the RF Out port of the WxWorx receiver to new audio radios that have the FAKRA (violet) single connector. The WxWorx receiver passes the satellite signal on to the audio radio.
 
WxWorx to Roady2

Tom,
That's just what I was looking for. Thanks....

I have the WxWorx antenna mounted on a small bracket just forward of the firewall along with the 2 GPS antennas. Using the same antenna just makes it cleaner.

Gary
N715AB (100+ hours)
 
Xm

There seems to be two kinds of people
- those that listen to XM.
- those that listen to MP3's.
I fall into the latter and use an IPod Nano - solid state memory so it's not affected by altitude (hard drives need air pressure to not crash. 8000' seems to be the limit but I've experienced problems about 5000').
Regardless, the Garmin 396 has a lot of nice stuff packed into one unit: GPS, XM weather, XM radio, Terrain, approaches, etc. Doesn't seem to be panel space for all this stuff unless it's in one box, but then I'm limited with the postage stamp sized panel in the 4.
 
Xm / Mp3

I have a Pioneer AM / FM XM Ready / CD that plays MP3 on CD. I can add Pioner box that will pick up XM that would be controlled through the radio but am too cheap to pay the monthly fee. I have been taking CDs and converting them to MP3 on a CD-RW that I play in the airplane. The CD works great. Flight tests show the CD cuts out at 4 Gs but starts playing again once G load drops below 4. For FM reception, I have the radio tied into a wing tip nav antenna. Works great. I never listen to AM so do not know if it works.

The radio is connected into the intercom. I had to use two audio matching transformers to isolate the radio from ground. The radio will not work if any of the speaker wires are tied to ground. When you connect the radio to the intercom, you are tying at least one of the speaker wires for each speaker to ground. This part of the installation (audio matching / isolation transormers) may be beyond the engineering abilities of the average person but most airplane builders should be able to figure it out with only a little help.

Gary
 
XM way south of the border

In case anybody is wondering about XM signal outside of the U.S., I had uninterrupted XM signal all the way down to Guadalajara today. My Roady2 quit receiving around Obregon, but the Garmin 396 kept on playing the whole way down.

I have no idea what the satellite setup is (nor do I care to waste time trying to find out), but I'm happy to have music south of the border!

On a related note, XM weather was working great the whole way, except METARs and TAFs for Mexico airports were not available. Winds aloft data pretty much just ends somewhere between Culiacan and Mazatlan. I was surprised it went down as far south as it did. But satellite imagery was live the whole way. I continue to be impressed with this 396/XM setup.

)_( Dan
RV-7 N714D (793 hours)
http://www.rvproject.com
 
What amp

GyroRon said:
If you got a MP3 player or Walkman etc... and need a little more volume, the AMP from radio shack did work good and really boosted the volume. It ran off 2 aa batteries and lasted a long time before needed them changed. I velcro'ed mine to the top of the CD player and Velcro'ed a 6 inch square block of soft foam to the bottom of the CD player to help the CD player from skipping and to allow me to just lay it on the floor of the plane without it moving all around. It works and is cheap....
Click to expand...
Ron What amp is that I looked online and had a hard time finding it. I dread going to RS because most of the sales staff are just not in the proper vocation and usually of little help. G
 
gmcjetpilot said:
What amp is that I looked online and had a hard time finding it. I dread going to RS because most of the sales staff are just not in the proper vocation and usually of little help. G
Click to expand...

Second that question...
 
I've used my iPods up to 10,500 without a problem... I fall into the MP3 category. I can't bring myself to pay for music I don't own...
 
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