Garmin G3X etc. lighting control

[PT20J]

I'm planning my installation of a G3X, G5, GTN 650Xi, GNC 255A, GTX 345 and GFC 500. One would think that all this stuff would have a common backlighting scheme, but Nooooooooooo. Each appears to have been designed by a different engineer. About the only common mode is letting the photocell do it's thing. Still, I'm thinking of hooking the lighting bus inputs (some devices have one some have two) to the panel lights control so that I could set them up for manual control if I wanted.

Anyone done this and care to comment?

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[Ragsf15e]

3 hours ago, PT20J said:

I'm planning my installation of a G3X, G5, GTN 650Xi, GNC 255A, GTX 345 and GFC 500. One would think that all this stuff would have a common backlighting scheme, but Nooooooooooo. Each appears to have been designed by a different engineer. About the only common mode is letting the photocell do it's thing. Still, I'm thinking of hooking the lighting bus inputs (some devices have one some have two) to the panel lights control so that I could set them up for manual control if I wanted.

Anyone done this and care to comment?

Skip

While I understand your desire for control, have you had any issues with your gtx-345?  My -430, 345 and G5s all work off the photocell and stay pretty even.  I believe you can manually bias them up or down too but not positive.  You want more control than that, huh?  I don’t fault you, but you might not even find a perfect scenario with all lighting controlled in a new car.

[PT20J]

16 minutes ago, Ragsf15e said:

While I understand your desire for control, have you had any issues with your gtx-345?  My -430, 345 and G5s all work off the photocell and stay pretty even.  I believe you can manually bias them up or down too but not positive.  You want more control than that, huh?  I don’t fault you, but you might not even find a perfect scenario with all lighting controlled in a new car.

Actually, I think the GTX 345 works pretty well on the photocell as does the current GNS 430W and doubt I would need to change it, but I always like to keep my options open.

And, it’s pretty cool on a clear night to turn everything down and look at the stars — closest I’ll get to space flight .

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[Ragsf15e]

35 minutes ago, PT20J said:

Actually, I think the GTX 345 works pretty well on the photocell as does the current GNS 430W and doubt I would need to change it, but I always like to keep my options open.

And, it’s pretty cool on a clear night to turn everything down and look at the stars — closest I’ll get to space flight .

Skip

Well that part I definitely agree with!  I will never forget a night sortie in afghanistan where I turned off all the inside and outside lights on the way back from kandahar to bagram (about 45 minutes at 450kts).  20,000’, zero cultural lights, and unbelievable view of the milky way.  I tried it with nvgs as well and you can see even more but it was best with wide view normal vision.  My wingman was 2 miles in radar trail doing the same thing.

[carusoam]

Great details shared, Rags!

Thanks,

-a-