audio mixer

[dougknight]

Anybody have experience with the ?Aviation audio mixer? available from Van?s? Catalog # AV GA-AM.

My i-pod volume is very low and I thought this might help to crank things up a bit so I purchased one without knowing much about it. Upon receiving it, it looks like I must wire my comm radio thru it before going to the intercom. This would make radio communications totally dependant on this unit which goes against my nature of KISS (keep it simple silly). Just one more link in the chain to go wrong.
It seems like a simple amplifier between the i-pod and intercom could solve the problem (I thought that?s what I was getting) without re-wireing my comm radio thru it becoming totally reliant on its function to maintain radio communications. I guess I would still be able to transmit, I just wouldn?t be able to receive, but this is still a less than desireable option as far as I?m concerned.

I have no other audio input devices, just the comm and the i-pod.
Radio=Icom A210, intercom=flightcom 403-mc

Any opinions or suggestions would be appreciated.
Doug
Rv-9a
160hrs

 

[vlittle]

Hi Doug. Here's a shameless plug for Vx Aviation products: http://www.vx-aviation.com.

We make audio mixers and amplifiers, including an iPod adapter that can be wired between your intercom and headset jacks.

Fail-safe can be achieved by adding a dpdt switch to the audio lines to bypass the unit if desired. Alternatively, that's what the Aux headphone jack is used for in certified aircraft.

Thanks,
Vern Little

 

[N941WR]

Doug,

One of the problems may be that your intercom is a mono only unit. You might want to think about swaping that out for a stereo intercom. However, if you do that, you may also need to change out your headsets.

When using my iPod in either the plane or my truck (which has an input jack for the factory stereo) I have to turn up the iPod almost all the way.

BTW, I have a Sigtronics Sport 200S in my -9.

You might want to look at Vern's mixer, that may solve your problem but you still have a mono system.

Click on this image to see how mine is wired:

 

[jdeas]

Might be worth a try...

Radio Shack sells a small audio transformer 1K:8Ohm. My bet is the Ipod is low voltage low impedance while the aux in your plane a higher voltage high impedance. Transformer are made specifically for this task!
Specific transformers are hard to come by but this $3 part may be close enough to do the job. Place the low impedance side of the xformer to the Ipod to boost the voltage to the aux input. The transformer does not really increase the power, it just converts it to a better match for your higher voltage high impedance radio increasing the volume of the system.
This old school simple solution takes no power or additional lines.

 

[dougknight]

Jdeas:

By any chance would you have a part number? sounds like this might be a solution worth trying. If it doesn't work, not much loss and I wouldn't have to re wire half the airplane just to get a few more decibles of music.

doug

 

[breister]

You can build your own audio mixer simply. In the diagram below, I mixed both mono and stereo inputs into my stereo Sport 200S intercom music input. For more inputs, simply duplicate either the stereo or mono inputs shown in the diagram.

Some of the stereo volume controls even have an "Off" position on the knob to isolate individual inputs.

Impedance matching is still important. On the Sport 200S, the Music input automatically mutes (20db? 30db?) when an incoming radio transmission is received. This prevents you from "missing" radio calls.