Iphone to Garmin 240 Audio PNL

G'Day all,
I'm trying to get the Apple Iphone to interface with the GMA-240 Telephone option.
When the phone is connected through the 2.5mm telephone input socket, we can listen to the IPOD function from the phone, and this works a treat!!
However, even when we connected the Iphone using a 4 pole 3.5 to 4 pole 2.5 (home made) we were unable to use the Tel function.
When the Tel button was pushed it sounded like it muted the phone.
When a call is received, you can hear the conversation with the music option selected, however if you select the Tel button, I get nothing.
Is anyone interfacing an Iphone with the 240 and making calls from the phone.
We have also contacted Garmin, however they have not responded as yet.

Any thoughts from fellow RV builders.

Mark

I am interested to know the answer too. Same equipment in my plane but not tested yet

On a different user list, a CFO'er (Cessna Cardinal) met with the Garmin folks at Oshkosh, and then followed up later after no satisifaction. Bottom line on the GMS 347 in his case, Garmin had only tested with the Iridium based AirCell. The "Tel" circut is apparently incompatible with common cell phones, and that while Garmin's literature might be technically correct in that it would work with a phone, the vast majority of users were out of luck. I hope this isn't the case with the 240, but you might begin by asking if it has the same interface specs as the 347.

nomocom said:

On a different user list, a CFO'er (Cessna Cardinal) met with the Garmin folks at Oshkosh, and then followed up later after no satisifaction. Bottom line on the GMS 347 in his case, Garmin had only tested with the Iridium based AirCell. The "Tel" circut is apparently incompatible with common cell phones, and that while Garmin's literature might be technically correct in that it would work with a phone, the vast majority of users were out of luck. I hope this isn't the case with the 240, but you might begin by asking if it has the same interface specs as the 347.

Click to expand...

I bought Garmin 240 because I want to use my cell phone (iphone) while flying

Iphone to Garmin Audio PNL

Thanks boys,
Thought I might be on my own with this one.
Interesting info about the interface with the other units.
I'll get in touch with Garmin and find out if they are stretching the advertising boundary.

Mark

That cable won't work. The garmin side only has 3 connectors:

connector music tel
Tip Left Mic
Ring Right Audio
Sleeve common common

So the cable you would use for playing music out of the Iphone is different then the cable you need to use the telephone.

The iphone looks like this:

Tip right
Ring1 left
Ring2 common
sleeve mic

So you would need the following to listen to music

Iphone 240
tip ring
ring1 tip
ring2 sleeve

This is basically what you get when you use a 3 pin to 3pin cable (included) the left and right is reversed, and on the iphone side mic is shorted to ground which is ok.

If you want to talk on the phone you need:

iphone 240
tip ring
sleeve tip
ring2 sleeve

All this said, I haven't actually tried it, but this is what I'm led to believe looking at the documentation.

Give it a try and let me know how it works.

schu

great info schu, I am in the same problem but I think if I make an adaptor with your info the telephone optio is going to work.

So thanks

Today I connected a Motorola CellPhone to my 240 audio panel and works great

Garmin should make it compatible with iphone

Fernando, that's great news! Can you give us any details? Model of the phone and a discription of how it was done? Wired as per Schu's post?

Had same problem with lightspeed headset. They sent me to a company in Houston that made a special plug, $15. Works great. Can't remember the name of the company but the Zulu folks probably could point you to them.

nomocom said:

Fernando, that's great news! Can you give us any details? Model of the phone and a discription of how it was done? Wired as per Schu's post?

Click to expand...

Hi the cellphone was a motorolla Q but today I found at mac store an adaptor that will make an iphone compatible with 3 connector jack so now I just have to try my iphone again with the audio panel

The adaptor is made by BenQ and cost me 10 dollars.

Merry Christmast

It almost works for me. (iphone)

Well the iphone almost works correctly. I'm using the supplied cable plugged into the 240 face. I can listen to music and answer calls fine. My problem is that the out going volume is really low. Incoming sounds fine. Is this a cable problem?

This is an older thread but I wonder if there are any updates. I would really like to be able to use my iphone with my Garmin 240 but I am need someone to tell me EXACTLY what to buy! I do not care about music.
The Garmin 240 has been a real disappointment for me. Not only does the telephone port not seem to work but the unit is very sensitive to different headsets. I have a new Halo headset that will work in both seats. I have an older Halo headset that will only work in the front seat. As I have no need for music in the cockpit I set the system up for mono ports and apparently this audio deck works better with stereo wiring and stereo headsets. This was not part of the sales literature.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Otherwise I would be interested in hearing from others with flight experience with an audio panels that do work with an iphone. (In which case I will have a Garmin 240 for sale!)

GMA240 Headset Wiring

Tom,

The GMA240 audio panel should work very well with both monaural (mono) and stereo headsets. I have used both types in my plane for 3 years.

I have the stereo XM radio wired in from my G3X GDU375, so I certainly prefer the stereo headset, but a mono headset also sounds great when used.



It sounds like the installation instructions were followed, but below is a quick reference to the installation options for mono and stereo headsets.

Wiring for Stereo or Mono Headsets
If you use the wiring shown above and install the stereo/mono switch, you will retain the option for someone to plug their stereo headset into one of your jacks and use it in stereo mode. With the switch in the mono position, mono headsets may also be used.

Wiring for Stereo Headsets ONLY
If you never need to use anything but stereo headsets, you can exclude the stereo/mono switch and wire the RING terminal directly.

Wiring for Mono Headsets
If you exclude the stereo/mono switch and leave the RING wire disconnected, you can use a mono headset. Additionally you can use a stereo headset, but the stereo/mono switch on the stereo headset will have to be set to mono to hear sound (monaurally) in both ears.

There is really only one setup which will not work well with the GMA240. That is the combination of a mono headset with the stereo/mono switch set in the stereo position. With this combination the mono headset plug will short the RING connection to the SLEEVE and this will result in poor audio quality.

When I first received my new Zulu headset, the default setting for the stereo/mono dip switch inside the battery module was mono and it sounded lousy when plugged into my stereo jack. As soon as I read the Zulu manual and discovered that the dip switch needed to be changed to stereo, it sounded fantastic with the GMA240.

Having said all this, you do seem to have something odd going on with the older Halo mono headset. I encourage you to check your wiring carefully, because there is no reason for a headset to work well in one position and not the other.

The iPhone uses a 4 conductor jack and I was able to use it to make phone calls with an iPhone TTY adapter (which converts it to the 3 conductor phone jack style used by the GMA240 and many other audio accessories).

You can find these adapters on eBay for as little as $1. The iPhone is definitely a different animal, and I want to do some additional testing before recommending the optimum setup for using this phone with a GMA240. The GMA240 has some configuration options that I want to explore a little further.

So far it still seems like the best solution for using the iPhone in the cockpit is to use a Zulu and connect to it with Bluetooth. Unfortunately it does drag the battery down faster on the Zulu. But that has been the most reliable method in my aircraft. iCom A210, PS3000, Zulu.

Longez
Thank you for your excellent, constructive, post. This information is most useful and I will try one of the adaptors and check my wiring.
My new Chev truck has a built in bluetooth and it is a wonderful way to use a cell phone. PS engineering as a new audio panel out that has blue tooth and I am giving it serious consideration. Your suggestions may save me quite a bit of money on that upgrade if I can get this 240 to work properly. Thank you.

GMA240 IPhone Adapter

I can't find my previous post on this subject from several years ago but anyway I bought a Jupiter Jack phone adapter from the As seen on TV store and inside the kit is an IPhone 4-ring adapter plug that solves this whole issue. Plug the adapter into your iPhone and then plug the 2.5 MM (small) audio cable (comes with GMA240) into the GMA240 front panel phone plug and into the Jupiter Jack I-Phone adapter plug on the IPhone. Works great on our RV6, you hear incoming Ring-Tone, answer and talk. IPhone goes mono with this plug but otherwise works normal. Cell phones in general do not work well to talk when at altitude but text and data does pretty good. Don't know what's inside this little plug but for $10 it solved a lot of pain trying to make a I-Phone plug that worked.

Web Site is https://www.jupiterjack.com
http://www.asseenontv.com


Currently being sold for 2 for $10, since this is kind of old technology I expect the product to disappear soon so buy several while you can!!

Cecil

GMA240 iPhone Adapter

Cecil,

Thanks for the tip. If I ever upgrade my phone to something as nice as an iPhone, I will want to look this up.

It is funny though that I used my phone to make a phone call through the audio panel a couple of times when I first installed the GMA240 (mostly because I could), but find that this is something that isn't very practical to use in flight.

I can frequently establish a connection below about 2500' AGL, but since I seldom fly that low (and don't want to be on the phone when I do), using a phone while airborne doesn't have much value.

Steve