IC-A210 Wiring

[jsharkey]

I have an A210 with harness from Gulf Coast Avionics and have a couple of questions for anyone who has already made a successful installation.

There are Intercom switch and PTT switch leads. Do you need to activate the Intercom switch every time you want to talk or is it just for switching the intercom capability on and off? If you leave it on permanently will you be unable to transmit?

All of the switch, phones and mic leads are twisted pairs running in shields. At the radio end the blue and white cable of each pair is soldered to the shield. These are then daisy chained into two sets of three with the mics and PTT connected to Molex terminal 8 and the phones and Intercom switch connected to Molex terminal H. Both the RH and LH phones white wires are connected to terminal 7. After much study of the wiring diagram that came with the radio I believe that the two phones grounds should be connected to terminal 7 and the white wires to terminal H so I believe they are reversed. Also that the Intercom switch ground should be daisy chained into terminal 8 along with the mics and PTT and not with the phones. Can anyone confirm? Gulf Coast Avionics say that the harness was checked on a rig but it does not appear to be to plans. Perhaps both ground terminals are equivalent and they did what they did to even out the daisy chains. Does anyone else have experience with premade harness problems?

How should I terminate the shields at the far end? Solder the blue and white wire of the pair to the shield as per the radio end and pigtail to the appropriate jack or switch terminal?

Sorry for the long winded and detailed questions but someone out there has already done it.

Jim Sharkey
RV6 - Wiring

 

[ddurakovich]

How should I terminate the shields at the far end? Solder the blue and white wire of the pair to the shield as per the radio end and pigtail to the appropriate jack or switch terminal?


Jim Sharkey
RV6 - Wiring

Shields are normally terminated only at one end, and appear to be already done for you!

The grounds for the headphone jacks are another matter, and usually are run separately....

 

[Guy Prevost]

The intercom switch is just to turn the intercom function on and off. The A210 has a true voice activated intercom. You can also leave the switch out and turn the intercom function on and off by holding the DUAL button for a couple of seconds. (Check me on the last statement, it could be some button right next to the DUAL button.)

Guy

 

[jsharkey]

I spoke with Gulf Coast. They were very helpful.

You need to disable the intercom to transmit with the A210. It doesn't do it by its self.

Only one end of the shields need to be grounded and they had already done that at the radio end. The other end just gets tidied with heat shrink.

Pins 7 and 8 are generic grounds so it doesn't matter whether it's phones, mics or switches connected to them.

They had accidently switched pins 7 and H on the Molex connector.

Jim Sharkey
RV6 - Wiring

 

[Guy Prevost]

I'm feeding audio alerts from my EFIS into the the intercom function of my A210. I wound up not using the audio input, since it adds noise anytime its enabled. I can certainly transmit with the intercom turned on with my A210. Obviously the person at Gulf Coast and I have had different experiences, but I thought I would at least share mine with you.

Guy

 

[jsharkey]

I'm feeding audio alerts from my EFIS into the the intercom function of my A210. I wound up not using the audio input, since it adds noise anytime its enabled. I can certainly transmit with the intercom turned on with my A210. Obviously the person at Gulf Coast and I have had different experiences, but I thought I would at least share mine with you.

Guy

Thanks Guy,

That's good to know. The instructions aren't very clear - something lost in translation I think. I was considering a PTT switch that closed the intercom circuit in the normal position and then opened it and closed the transmit circuit when pressed

Jim Sharkey.

 

[jsharkey]

Looks like the intercom switch is to give the pilot the option of isolating any unwanted input from the co-pilot's mic during transmission. See extract from mypilotstore.com Q&A site below. (hope they don't mind - thanks anyway guys!)

"When the radio is wired for pilot and co-pilot, and when the VOX intercom is selected in the radio's set mode (along with the volume levels for each headset), the pilot and co-pilot will be able to communicate as long as the intercom switch is installed and closed. This is not a push-to-talk switch but a toggle switch that allows the pilot to isolate the co-pilot if he/she desires. If you wish to jumper between the contacts to keep the "switch" closed all of the time, you can do that and not install a separate switch at all."

Jim Sharkey
RV6 Tip-up - Still being educated and recreated!