Labor Hours To Install a PMA350B

[GeneralT001]

Just wondering how big a job it is to remove the existing audio panel and install a PMA350B? How many labor hours would be expected?

[LANCECASPER]

12 minutes ago, GeneralT001 said:

Just wondering how big a job it is to remove the existing audio panel and install a PMA350B? How many labor hours would be expected?

 

Not familiar with a PMA350B, but if it's a 450B, I've heard of anywhere between 30 and 60 hours. Audio Panels touch everything in the panel and are very labor intensive plus they include 4 place stereo intercoms with a music input jack or two in addition to the bluetooth.  I have never heard of anyone sorry that they installed the 450B.

If you do it in a complete panel overhaul you could probably expect the lower end of that time estimate since all of the wiring between the devices is being done at once.

[carusoam]

Sooooo many wires…

Let’s find Mark… @Mscheuer (install question for PMA450B)

He can probably enlighten us to any secrets to make this easy…

Best regards,

-a-

[GeneralT001]

18 minutes ago, LANCECASPER said:

Not familiar with a PMA350B, but if it's a 450B, I've heard of anywhere between 30 and 60 hours. Audio Panels touch everything in the panel and are very labor intensive plus they include 4 place stereo intercoms with a music input jack or two in addition to the bluetooth.  I have never heard of anyone sorry that they installed the 450B.

If you do it in a complete panel overhaul you could probably expect the lower end of that time estimate since all of the wiring between the devices is being done at once.

Oops, sorry...yes the 450B

 

Thanks

[GeneralT001]

17 minutes ago, carusoam said:

Sooooo many wires…

Let’s find Mark… @Mscheuer (install question for PMA350B)

He can probably enlighten us to any secrets to make this easy…

Best regards,

-a-

I've reached out to a few others and it seems anywhere from 30 - 60 depending on particular setup...thats labor intensive!!

[GeneralT001]

Thanks All

[PT20J]

18 minutes ago, LANCECASPER said:

Not familiar with a PMA350B, but if it's a 450B, I've heard of anywhere between 30 and 60 hours. Audio Panels touch everything in the panel and are very labor intensive plus they include 4 place stereo intercoms with a music input jack or two in addition to the bluetooth.  I have never heard of anyone sorry that they installed the 450B.

If you do it in a complete panel overhaul you could probably expect the lower end of that time estimate since all of the wiring between the devices is being done at once.

THIS ^^^^ It’s a lot of work. Personally, I wouldn’t do it unless upgrading the entire panel if the current audio panel snd intercom are working well. 

[McMooney]

I think it took like two days to install my pma8000g, whole job, audio panel, gns480, antennae, indicator, davtron, wiring fuel flow took 5 days.

I did give the installer a bit of a head start by purchasing a prebuilt harness from spruce

 

[carusoam]

The interesting part…

Is there an easy way to transfer the ship’s wiring from the back of the old BK unit to the back of the PSEngineering unit…?

This can save a few days of work…

Expect a few extra new wires and hardware to include stereo all around the ship…

The good news… there isn’t a better audio panel for a Mooney than this one… 

Best regards,

-a-

[GeneralT001]

13 hours ago, carusoam said:

The interesting part…

Is there an easy way to transfer the ship’s wiring from the back of the old BK unit to the back of the PSEngineering unit…?

This can save a few days of work…

Expect a few extra new wires and hardware to include stereo all around the ship…

The good news… there isn’t a better audio panel for a Mooney than this one… 

Best regards,

-a-

I did get the PMA450B wiring harness that they require IOT get the warranty. It will be all new wiring from start to finish.

[Andy95W]

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems odd to install a 21st century audio panel and then connect it to 1980s avionics.

[GeneralT001]

4 minutes ago, Andy95W said:

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems odd to install a 21st century audio panel and then connect it to 1980s avionics.

Well, those fossilized avionics will be replaced....eventually

[LANCECASPER]

3 hours ago, GeneralT001 said:

Well, those fossilized avionics will be replaced....eventually

There are enough KMA24 Audio Panels out there that have come out for replacements to keep you going until you can do the whole panel at once. Doing all of that work only to tear it all apart later does not make a lot of sense.

If you're looking for a bluetooth panel in the meantime, and since you have a separate intercom right now, just do an owner plug and play PS Engineering PMA 7000BT (https://www.ps-engineering.com/PMA7000_Series.html). It takes 5 minutes to swap out the KMA24 for the PMA7000BT. Sell it when you do the whole panel for 3/4 of what you paid for it.

[chriscalandro]

60 is a good estimate. Especially if adding the music jacks and replacing the old mono jacks with stereo. 
 

it’s worth the upgrade even with the old radios. 

[Aerodon]

Just wondering what you are trying to achieve?  Are you still doing your glass panel update, wait until then?

An older PMA7000 will be a better plug and play with the KMA24, it would not be too hard to remove the separate intercom.  But all this might get you is stereo audio and a couple of music inputs.  And a bit of panel space.

Aerodon

[0TreeLemur]

If redoing the panel, then the audio panel shall be the last upgrade you plan.  By then, almost everything else is already wired into the old panel. 

We just had a PMA450B added to our panel as the last part of an upgrade, and it took about 24 hours of Tron¹ time.

¹what my A&P calls his avionics guy