IFD540 PMA450a PIREP

[gsxrpilot]

Finally after days of heavy rain, low clouds and thunderstorms, I was able to get 252AD back in the air again. Unfortunately it was a short 82 mile flight to drop it off for a tank reseal. So that's no more flying for another three weeks.

But I did get fly a bit more with the new IFD 540 and the PMA 450a that I recently installed.  This won't be a full PIREP but I gotta say, both are better than advertised. There was a short comparison for me between the IFD 540 in my plane and then a GTN 650 in the chase plane on the ride home. I know they don't exactly compare, but I found the IFD much easier to use. There are more buttons to supplement the touch screen. Which to me makes it easier to navigate. Of course I'm mostly comparing the IFD to unit it replaced which was the GNS 530W. Again, not a fair comparison, but if I knew how much better it would be, I'd upgraded much sooner.

The Comms features are amazing. The correct freq is always just a button push away. There's no more need to look up freq's in ForeFlight either before departure or enroute. Just push the Freq button and all the relevant frequencies for your local area are listed in order of probably usage. When I fire up on the ground, it's already listing in order, ATIS, Clearance, Ground, and Tower for the local field. The IFD also lists the Name of the facility under the Frequency. So as I selected the Twr Freq for KHYI, 126.82, under the number is displayed San Marcos Twr. Easy to make sure you're on the correct freq. My destination, KELA uses 122.9 which is used by every little airport in the area. I tuned it in early in the flight and noticed that as I crossed the area, the name of the facility under the number was constantly updated depending on my position. So while flying over 84R, 122.9 was listed as Smithville CTAF, but as I got closer to KELA it changed to show Eagle Lake CTAF. There is also the ability to have any number of Standby frequencies. It's often useful to have two or three freq's displayed.

I've been having lots of electronic gremlins making noise in my panel. I not sure if it's some sort of feed back or alternator noise or what it is. When it goes in for the avionics work upcoming, I hope to get it sorted out. But I gotta say the PMA 450a is doing an amazing job of filtering out the noise. I didn't know this was a feature of the product, but I knew about the auto squelch features.  But I had no idea it would be so good at filtering out all the various noises and delivering a clear comms stream to the headsets. The cockpit has never been so quiet.

Lastly, one benefit of both of these boxes is the installation cost, which was $0. The IFD slides right into the GNS 530W slot without any modification, and the PMA 450a slides into the GMA 340 tray. Both worked perfectly immediately including driving the autopilot, etc.

More later when I get to actually fly it more. But now a 3 week wait while the tank is done.

[StevenL757]

Pics, Paul, pics!  :-)

[gsxrpilot]

22 minutes ago, StevenL757 said:

Pics, Paul, pics!  :-)

Sorry, but no pics until the panel is done. It's a wreck right now with patches over holes, where the ADF, OBS, EDM700 were, the EDM900 just stuck into another hole, and a gap in the radio stack where the KNS 80 was. 

As soon as the tank is patched, then the avionics shop has a couple of weeks to finish up the panel. There is an Aspen to install, recessed, recess the EDM900 into the panel, remove the ADF radio and KT76a, and close up all the holes and gaps.

Then there will be the requisite before and after pictures.

[tony]

Paul,

if you are going to have some avionics work done, have them add the extra wire for the special alerts and tones from the 540 to the 450.  You'll be glad you did.  The best one I like is the tones that are played for the Top of descent.  And the 500 foot callout is cool too.  

Edited January 21, 2017 by tony

[gsxrpilot]

1 minute ago, tony said:

Paul,

if you are going to have some avionics work done, have them add the extra wire for the special alerts and tones from the 540 to the 450.  You'll be glad you did.  The best one I like is the tones that are played for the Top of descent.  And the 500 foot callout is cool too.  

Good advice.  Thanks!

[Piloto]

The 530W also shows the frequency listing for the airport you are currently in. You see them on the last page of the NAV mode. Click on the frequency and it is loaded in the COM.

José

[gsxrpilot]

4 minutes ago, Piloto said:

The 530W also shows the frequency listing for the airport you are currently in. You see them on the last page of the NAV mode. Click on the frequency and it is loaded in the COM.

José

True, just not as quick and easy to get to.  I find the IFD 540 to be much more logically organized. It just always seems that the action I need at a given time is either already on the screen or one button push away.

[Piloto]

2 minutes ago, gsxrpilot said:

True, just not as quick and easy to get to.  I find the IFD 540 to be much more logically organized. It just always seems that the action I need at a given time is either already on the screen or one button push away.

You are just getting older. Take Omega III.

José

[gsxrpilot]

9 minutes ago, Piloto said:

You are just getting older. Take Omega III.

José

Truth!

[carusoam]

Nice Pirep in the making, Rocket!

Best regards,

-a-

[NotarPilot]

Paul, did you happen to try out the stand by freq monitoring feature on the PMA450A? Apparently you can listen to the stand by freq AND active freq at the same time from the same IFD unit!

[gsxrpilot]

6 minutes ago, NotarPilot said:

Paul, did you happen to try out the stand by freq monitoring feature on the PMA450A? Apparently you can listen to the stand by freq AND active freq at the same time from the same IFD unit!

I haven't tried that. I was wondering if I'd need an additional connection wired in from the IFD to the PMA? But regardless, I didn't get a chance to try it out.

[LANCECASPER]

1 hour ago, gsxrpilot said:

I haven't tried that. I was wondering if I'd need an additional connection wired in from the IFD to the PMA? But regardless, I didn't get a chance to try it out.

Yes I think you need another connection wired for that. Add it to the list . . lol

[gsxrpilot]

15 minutes ago, LANCECASPER said:

Yes I think you need another connection wired for that. Add it to the list . . lol

Yep, added... the list is so long, it might be next winter before I fly again :-(

[Marauder]

I haven't tried that. I was wondering if I'd need an additional connection wired in from the IFD to the PMA? But regardless, I didn't get a chance to try it out.

Yes I think you need another connection wired for that. Add it to the list . . lol

The 450 was a slide in replacement for my 8000BT so I am not sure if a separate wire is needed or not.

To turn on the second radio monitoring, you start by selecting both radio's receive button (top button). Then push the "IntelliAudio" button. You then have two choices, if you turn "monitor" to the "on" position, you will be monitoring the second radio (the one where the XMT is not selected). If radio transmission begins on the primary radio, the second radio is muted.

The other way is to select "IntelliAudio" and then select "IntelliAudio" again to either turn it on or put it in auto mode. Once in IntelliAudio mode you can move the location of either radio's sound location in your headset. My YouTube video on the 450 goes through most of this.

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[gsxrpilot]

3 hours ago, NotarPilot said:

Paul, did you happen to try out the stand by freq monitoring feature on the PMA450A? Apparently you can listen to the stand by freq AND active freq at the same time from the same IFD unit!

 

1 hour ago, Marauder said:

To turn on the second radio monitoring, you start by selecting both radio's receive button (top button). Then push the "IntelliAudio" button. You then have two choices, if you turn "monitor" to the "on" position, you will be monitoring the second radio (the one where the XMT is not selected). If radio transmission begins on the primary radio, the second radio is muted.

The other way is to select "IntelliAudio" and then select "IntelliAudio" again to either turn it on or put it in auto mode. Once in IntelliAudio mode you can move the location of either radio's sound location in your headset. My YouTube video on the 450 goes through most of this.

 

So I'm confused. I know how to monitor the second radio using the PMA 450a. And I was able to set up the IntelliAudio to move the secondary around in the headset.

But is there an option that would allow me to monitor the Standby frequency on the IFD540 flipping it to Active? That would seem to be an IFD function? If this is indeed the case, I don't know how to do it.

And after some reading of the install doco's for both the IFD540 and the PMA450a, sure enough the option exists. And seems easy enough to enable on both units.  This could be a very valuable feature. Especially when flying formation with the Caravan guys.

Edited January 22, 2017 by gsxrpilot

[Marauder]

So I'm confused. I know how to monitor the second radio using the PMA 450a. And I was able to set up the IntelliAudio to move the secondary around in the headset.
But is there an option that would allow me to monitor the Standby frequency on the IFD540 flipping it to Active? That would seem to be an IFD function? If this is indeed the case, I don't know how to do it.
And after some reading of the install doco's for both the IFD540 and the PMA450a, sure enough the option exists. And seems easy enough to enable on both units.  This could be a very valuable feature. Especially when flying formation with the Caravan guys.

The ability to monitor the com's standby is also available on the GTN and GNC 255. In theory, I guess you could monitor 4 frequencies at one time!






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[Jerry 5TJ]

53 minutes ago, Marauder said:

 

The ability to monitor the com's standby is also available on the GTN and GNC 255. In theory, I guess you could monitor 4 frequencies at one time!

 

If you select NAV audio as well you could monitor six.  Not counting 60s on 6 from the GDL-69....

Edited January 22, 2017 by Jerry 5TJ

[NotarPilot]

17 hours ago, Marauder said:

 

The ability to monitor the com's standby is also available on the GTN and GNC 255. In theory, I guess you could monitor 4 frequencies at one time!






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Chris, I didn't know the GTN allowed you to monitor the stand by frequency like the IFDs. I'm going to have to try that out next week at work. However I think the difference is the monitoring of the stand by is a function though the GTN whereas on the IFD it's a function only accessible through the audio panel. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Steve

[Marauder]

16 minutes ago, NotarPilot said:

Chris, I didn't know the GTN allowed you to monitor the stand by frequency like the IFDs. I'm going to have to try that out next week at work. However I think the difference is the monitoring of the stand by is a function though the GTN whereas on the IFD it's a function only accessible through the audio panel. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Steve

Not sure. I think it sounded like it has the same capabilities as the GTN.

[gsxrpilot]

From studying the install manual for the IFD last night, it seems that the Standby frequency can be broadcast out of the IFD through a specific pin/wire. Of course that wire has to be connected to something that will turn it into sound. They suggest any audio panel that supports switched inputs will work. So both units have to work together. The Comm (IFD) has to output the freq on standby. And the Audio panel has to have a port/switch/button above and beyond the normal com1,2,etc so it can be broadcast.

[LANCECASPER]

21 hours ago, LANCECASPER said:

Yes I think you need another connection wired for that. Add it to the list . . lol

Having an IFD540 myself I'm sure you'll need another wire for that

[tony]

the same extra wire will give you the standby audio and the special alerts.  It would be money well spent Paul and I think you will be tickled with the results.  

[Mscheuer]

On 1/22/2017 at 4:04 PM, gsxrpilot said:

From studying the install manual for the IFD last night, it seems that the Standby frequency can be broadcast out of the IFD through a specific pin/wire. Of course that wire has to be connected to something that will turn it into sound. They suggest any audio panel that supports switched inputs will work. So both units have to work together. The Comm (IFD) has to output the freq on standby. And the Audio panel has to have a port/switch/button above and beyond the normal com1,2,etc so it can be broadcast.

Paul, first, thank you very much for selecting our PMA450A. To answer your question about monitoring the standby frequency of the IFD, there are actually 3 switched inputs (selected by the Radio Softkey) that you can label them as MON 1 and MON 2. 

So you can use these switched inputs if you wanted to listen to more than two cons at one time. 

Not owning an IFD, I am not sure of the process to implement monitoring the standby frequency using the radio, but I bet someone on this board knows how!

Thanks again for trusting us with your audio stuff.

Sincerely,

Mark Scheuer

PS Engineering