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GMA 245 and G5 pirep

jthocker

Well Known Member
Completed my panel finally! Changed out the GMA 240 for the new 245 and the GRT Mini X for the G5. The GMA 245 is great. 1st, the auto squelch works as advertised and the ability to select noisy cockpit seems to reduce the background hiss while using intercom. 2nd, the bluetooth to my iPhone works superbly. I was able to have a 5 minute conversation at 2500 ft msl while enroute to an air show last weekend. 3rd, the 3D audio is especially helpful in our air show environment in that the 2 coms are separated in my head, Air Boss is in my right ear and lead is in my left ear. 4th, dedicated music volumes for pilot and copilot will be welcome to my wife. 5th, bluetoothing to our Garmin Virb XE's will make our videos more interesting by adding our cockpit audio.

The G5 is the perfect compliment to my G3X touch. Should I lose the main display, I will still have autopilot capability along with moving map and approach capability via the GTN 650. But, best of all is a full time dedicated "Baro" knob for both displays via the G5 multi function knob that is defaulted to "Baro" until pushed. It also changes the Touch baro setting via Can Bus.

Hopefully this is my last panel upgrade for a while!


 
Completed my panel finally!

Hopefully this is my last panel upgrade for a while!



Jon,

Your the only guy I know that is as bad as I am when it comes to panel upgrades!

My panel is getting a G5 soon!

That last statement you made could be impacted by whatever is next from TeamX! :)

Sure am glad you added a true backup a while back when you installed the Mini with all the real IMC you fly in! The integration of the G5 with the Touch should prove valuable!
 
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Brian,
I admit I'm a little conflicted when it comes to Team X! I look forward to seeing what's up their sleeve, but dread the work they cause me! 😂😀😳😍😜
Although the Mini is a fine unit, it's capabilities were never going to be used in my panel. For the last few months I never touched it in flight. The G5 is a wonderful compliment to my Garmin panel. The mini is/will be a nice compliment to an existing GRT system, or as a stand alone. Although the G5 also makes a lot of sense as a dissimilar backup to GRT and the others.
Personally, I prefer the horizon depiction better on the G5 than the mini though.
 
I added one of those but no pitot tubes. 5 minute install. Says 8 hr battery backup. I like it. Autopilot is Trio.

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I have yet to fly with a G5, but I slid a 245 in to the RV-3 last week in place of the 240, and agree with all you said about it Jon - a really useful and nice panel. I too thought that the phone connection just....worked! Intercom functions aren't quite so important in a single seat airplane, of course.... ;)

Paul
 
I have yet to fly with a G5, but I slid a 245 in to the RV-3 last week in place of the 240, and agree with all you said about it Jon - a really useful and nice panel. I too thought that the phone connection just....worked! Intercom functions aren't quite so important in a single seat airplane, of course.... ;)

Paul

You need to start answering yourself..
 
Nice panel. Amazing you have almost everything my panel has but your panel looks uncluttered. Great layout. I have the second G3X Touch in an RV-7A panel. What you built looks great and should be a wonderful IFR machine. Can't wait to finish my build so I can enjoy the great avionics.
 
Cool

Thanks; It is nice to see we are not alone on this. we did much the same thing but, put the A.P. controller at the top of the left stack and used a TSO'ed audio panel right under that so we would have ILS-Marked beacon at the ready. A nice Rami antenna on the belly was all that was needed.
I like to see good work, even if I don't have a wing wag controller installed.
Yours, R.E.A. III #80888
 
I'm curious about the benefits of the G5 integration with the G3x versus having the Mini-x. Can anyone provide some details and background. My panel currently has the Mini-x combination.
 
I'm curious about the benefits of the G5 integration with the G3x versus having the Mini-x. Can anyone provide some details and background. My panel currently has the Mini-x combination.

All the normal stuff like baro, bugs, hdg, flight director and AP status sync across the displays including the G5.

The G5 can consume and/or provide GPS source from or to the rest of the system.

The G5 can stand in as a backup ADAHRS source for the G3X system if the G3X ADAHRS units all fail.

If the other GDU's go offline, the G5 can display the CDI/GS/GP

If the G3X displays all fail, the G5 can stand in as a backup PFD solution as well as act as the AP controller as long as your G3X system has a GMC305/307 included.

Sure there are more but these are the big ones that I can think of right now...
 
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Sounds like I need to do some reading on the G5. Unfortunately I already have a hole in my panel for a mini-x.

I should also note that my panel is not currently in my aircraft or is the fuse far enough along to be ready for it.
 
Sounds like I need to do some reading on the G5. Unfortunately I already have a hole in my panel for a mini-x.

I should also note that my panel is not currently in my aircraft or is the fuse far enough along to be ready for it.

It would be easy to make an adapter plate that fills that Mini hole and provides the round 3.125" hole that the G5 needs. You could even double layer it to ensure that the plug ends up flush to the face of the panel. Stein can cut and fabricate these. He did one for me when I plugged my original non touch PFD #2 hole.
 
Great writeup! I too just swapped from the PS Engineering PMA450 to the GMA245, and I LOVE IT!

I'd really like to get a G5 for a backup to my G3XTs, but Garmin needs to get going on releasing the TARDIS function so I can fit it somewhere...
 
I am in the market to replace my GMA 240 as well. Maybe someone can answer these questions about the 245.

1. Is the 245 a drop-in replacement for the 240? Pin for pin compatible? How much bigger/smaller is the tray?

2. Without a Garmin EFIS, is it still worth getting the 245? From the product videos, it sure seemed like a lot of the functions were intended to integrated with G3X or Touch. What if you dont have G3X or Touch? Are those functions not available or hard-wired? Still not clear on that.

Panel looks great!
 
I am in the market to replace my GMA 240 as well. Maybe someone can answer these questions about the 245.

1. Is the 245 a drop-in replacement for the 240? Pin for pin compatible? How much bigger/smaller is the tray?

2. Without a Garmin EFIS, is it still worth getting the 245? From the product videos, it sure seemed like a lot of the functions were intended to integrated with G3X or Touch. What if you dont have G3X or Touch? Are those functions not available or hard-wired? Still not clear on that.

Panel looks great!

Jay,
It is in fact a drop in replacement. I used it that way 2 weeks ago until I had time to wire it into the existing Can Bus. The can bus tie in is via 2 unused pins.
Grab the install and pilot guide from the Garmin site to check features without a G3X
 
It would be easy to make an adapter plate that fills that Mini hole and provides the round 3.125" hole that the G5 needs. You could even double layer it to ensure that the plug ends up flush to the face of the panel. Stein can cut and fabricate these. He did one for me when I plugged my original non touch PFD #2 hole.

Stein makes the adapter plate! We are using one in the other Redline RV8. I opted for a whole new panel as I wanted to move the ELT switch also. That switch was inadvertently activated during aerobatic practice. Wife got call from air force, not good!!!!


 
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Where are you guys getting the gma245's from? I've had one on order since the end of sun and fun along with a G5, backup battery and the G5 install kit and so far have only received the G5. It seems like quite a few people have received their units.
 
I've done a little reading on the G5 now and I have more questions.

If you want to the G5 as your backup and as the autopilot controller, which is the configuration I'm thinking about, can you keep have two separate CAN busses? As a backup I would be concerned about sharing the CAN Bus with the primary instruments.

If you did use this configuration what would you lose? I'm not sure exactly what data goes across the CAN interface to the G3x versus what comes across the RS-232 connection.
 
Where are you guys getting the gma245's from? I've had one on order since the end of sun and fun along with a G5, backup battery and the G5 install kit and so far have only received the G5. It seems like quite a few people have received their units.

Same here. I've had mine ordered through Stein for a few months now. Can't seem to get a straight answer on when it will ship.
 
I've done a little reading on the G5 now and I have more questions.

If you want to the G5 as your backup and as the autopilot controller, which is the configuration I'm thinking about, can you keep have two separate CAN busses? As a backup I would be concerned about sharing the CAN Bus with the primary instruments.

If you did use this configuration what would you lose? I'm not sure exactly what data goes across the CAN interface to the G3x versus what comes across the RS-232 connection.

No you can't have two separate CAN buses to the G5. It can either operate in stand alone mode or as part of a complete G3X system.

It is my understanding that the G5 was designed to protect itself from CAN bus induced failure modes.

The RS-232 connection is for sharing navigation information with the G5 from a compatible device. It allows the G5 to display its own HSI and coupling of the AP to the navigation source when the G5 is controlling the AP.

The CAN bus allows the G3X System to share all of its related configuration parameters with the G5. It enables automatic syncing of bugs, heading and baro. It also allows the G5 to use GPS data from the GDU(s) as well as allows the G3X to use the G5's GPS if needed. In addition to all that it allows the G3X system to use the AHRS data from the G5 in the event that the G3X's AHRS(s) fail. Finally the CAN bus is what allows the G5 to be able to take over control of the AP if the GDU(s) fail as long as the servo(s) are online, at least one AHRS is working and you have a GMC30? installed and operating.

In the stand alone mode where the G5 is the AP controller, the CAN bus is what allows the G5 to communicate with the servo(s) and the GMC30?. It also enables GPSS/GPSV coupling if you add the GAD 29 to the mix.
 
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Brian,

Ok. I think I was asking about what you are referring to as standalone mode. The installation manual seems to show a configuration where just the G5, servos, and the GMC305 are on an independent CAN bus.
 
You could likely do that but you would lose the integration benefits of having it connected to the full G3X system and you would actually be giving up some redundancy.
 
Same here. I've had mine ordered through Stein for a few months now. Can't seem to get a straight answer on when it will ship.

We (and the other dealers) can only pass along the information we have - but we've been shipping them out as fast as we get them in! We did have a pretty good chunk of them early on because we just ordered a pile more of them right away (even without customers attached to them) than most dealers did, therefore we were able to deliver more of them early on than others were...that said, now we're kind of stuck in the same line as everyone else (though we do likely have more of them on order than most people, so that should help out a little bit). Wish I had better news, and I'm sure Garmin wishes they could ship a few more! :)

Cheers,
Stein
 
G5 Back-up Battery

It seems like the G5 is pretty popular around here.
Can anyone comment on how long the optional back-up battery will truly power the instrument?

I'm trying to find the best value in a back-up instrument system to get me back on the ground in a worst case event (total electrical system failure). I figure I can navigate via iPad, but need something to stay right-side up in IMC. Can't get warm and fuzzy about a synthetic ADAHRS presentation on the iPad.

George
 
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