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Wiring Question For You Garmin Guys

RFazio

Well Known Member
Guys,

I've got a GNS 430W wired to my Dynon Skyview, and everything works great. The only thing I'm missing is the lettering on the Garmin 430W being lit up. I've been flying at night lately and I'm trying to figure out why. I see in the Garmin 430W install manual the P4001 plug has 39 & 40 labeled lighting bus. I thought it was just to dim the screen, and so did not connect anything to it. But I'm guessing it's for the lighted lettering. I would put power, 12V, to the 39 pin and ground to the 40 pin. Can I use a PWM dimmer to vary the voltage to these pins? And am I correct in thinking these are the lettering pins? Thanks in advance

Richard
 
While you can do that, the easier way is to properly configure both the display backlight and keys to run off the photo cell.

Look at section 5.3.7 of the install manual on how to configure.

If you do input a dimmer voltage on pin 39 and ground on pin 40 you still need to configure the display to work properly.

Carl
 
On mine I know the lights will come on automatically if the ambient light sensor is covered, and I didn't connect the lighting bus pins to anything. I thought this was the default behavior but it might be a menu option too, if you wanted to confirm they're working.

Or.. you know... people who do this for a living can tell you exactly what to do :)
 
I do have it configured for automatic

I have it configured in the lighting options to be automatic for the screen & lettering and I get nothing when I cover the photo cell? The screen does dim slightly when covering the photo cell though not enough for my taste. But the letters are dark always. I thought it was the 39 & 40 pins?
 
You may need to look at Section 5.3.7 of the install manual:

5.3.7 MAIN LIGHTING Page
Select the MAIN LIGHTING Page (see Figure 5-11). This page allows you to set display parameters that affect the display backlight and key lighting brightness. The DISPLAY and KEY lighting characteristics are adjusted separately, each with the following fields:

etc.

Perhaps the values are set incorrecty for slope, offset, etc., for the keys?
 
I have looked there.

First, my screen does not look like what is shown in the manual. Mine, when in auto, has no options. Just auto or not. If in auto there is no adjustment. Weird, and it is software version 5.2, I think the latest is 5.3. I haven?t tried the manual setting, I guess I should.
 
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