HDX Audio Alerts - Only Very Faint

[Snoho3]

I have been trying to understand/troubleshoot an issue with my HDX audio alerts with no success. Perhaps someone here has some suggestions -

I have both the Master Volume Control/Test and the Alert Volume set to 100%, however the alerts are coming through only very faintly in my headset - not noticeable at all if the engine is running, i.e. I can only barely hear them at boot up or after I shut down, and even then they are so faint they are easy to miss. Not effective when actually flying.

I assume that since I can hear something, no matter how faintly, that I have the proper wiring in place. Is this a correct assumption? (My setup is a quick panel from AFS - two HDX screens and an Avidyne 540). I also have the PS Engineering comm panel installed, and they are all connected through the AFS Advanced Control Module. Since I didn't do the wiring I'm actually not too sure how it's hooked up behind the panel.

Are there settings besides the Master Volume Control/Test and Alert Volume that I need to activate or adjust? I've tried an alternate headset, and the passenger side headset jacks - same result. This makes me think that there must be additional settings somewhere that I'm missing.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Lars Durban

 

[Marc_J._Zeitlin]

I would venture a guess that the volume control you're looking for is in your PS Engineering Audio Panel (you don't say which one you have). You'd need to know which input is being used to feed audio from the HDX to the AP, and then adjust the audio in the panel.

Just a guess.

 

[Brent Dana]

Turn up audio on your nav

 

[Snoho3]

Thanks for the replies/suggestions. Unfortunately I still have the same problem. Very low volume alerts. Any other ideas?

 

[vlittle]

Thanks for the replies/suggestions. Unfortunately I still have the same problem. Very low volume alerts. Any other ideas?

The SkyView audio may be connected into a muting stereo input on the PS Engineering panel. There will be a button push to enable/disable this function. A call to Advanced Panels will be in order.

 

[Snoho3]

Thanks - was trying some more troubleshooting today with no success. I will give them a call tomorrow And will update this post.

 

[Rhino]

Or you could provide the audio panel model and possibly allow some more troubleshooting. For instance, pressing the ICS button on a PMA 7000B disables the automatic muting functions on the entertainment inputs. But we don't know what model you have.

 

[Snoho3]

Rhino, right - I am not trying to make this seem like 20 questions… audio panel is PS Engineering PDA360EX. What is weird is that I get the very faint ‘Dynon Skyview’ call (or the Master Volume Control test level tone) upon power up of the first HDX screen. At this point all other avionics are still not powered up, including the audio panel or the second HDX screen. So the problem is that I have no volume control at this point, nor when I do boot up the audio panel and second screen.

 

[GKC Aviation]

The audio from your Skyview goes into the ACM module via the EFIS PFD connector, comes out on the Audio Panel DB25 connector (labelled "audio panel"), and then to your PDA360 unswitched audio #1.
Unswitched audio #2 is from your IFD, are the NAV alert sounds also muted?
The reason you still get audio when the audio panel is not powered, is because it's designed to pass COM1 and unswitched audio straight through in the case of a failure. Because of this, I think the problem is not caused by a setting in the audio panel.
Very low audio like this can be caused by the audio hi and lo shorted together somewhere, or to ground.

 

[Rhino]

If you can access the ACM you can reseat the audio panel and EFIS connectors. You can also confirm the configuration switch settings, page 25 here:

https://www.advancedflightsystems.com/downloads/Advanced-Panel-Installation-Manual-V6.5.pdf

 

[Snoho3]

Many thanks to all who replied. After running through the suggestions above, I spoke to Greg at PSEngineering and Jonathon at Advanced Flight. Confirmed it wasn't a problem with the audio panel, and with Jonathon's help discovered some mis-pinned wires between the AF ACM and the Audio Panel. Re-terminated them and it solved the problem. Whew - it takes a village.

 

[Rhino]

Outstanding. Glad you figured it out.

 

[RB-RV9A]

Hello.I didn't want to hijack this thread but I am having the same issue, very faint and hard to understand. I have dual HDX, Garmin GMA240, Dynon radio and IFD 440. any thoughts where to start? thanks

 

[GKC Aviation]

Hello.I didn't want to hijack this thread but I am having the same issue, very faint and hard to understand. I have dual HDX, Garmin GMA240, Dynon radio and IFD 440. any thoughts where to start? thanks

Has this only just started happening, or has it been like it from the start?

 

[RB-RV9A]

It has been like this since I installed. I just upgraded my panel to the dual HDX’s I got 7 hrs of flight on it and everything is great except the Dynon voice !

 

[GKC Aviation]

Did you upgrade to HDX from the Dynon classic screens or something else?

Go into the setup menus, and check the audio output, make sure it's not just set way too low SETUP MENU > SYSTEM SETUP > AUDIO SETUP.
There's also a test mode in that menu to help you with fault finding.

There are three alert audio inputs to the GMA 240, and one "fail safe" alert audio input. I would reckon this one is where the Dynon audio is wired to.

The Dynon audio comes out of pins 13 and 31 (left and right audio) of the screens DB37 connector, which should be shorted together as you have a non stereo audio panel. Audio Lo comes out of pin 30. So pins 13 and 31 of the DB37 should go to audio panel P2 pin 15, and pin 30 of the DB37 should go to audio panel P1 pin 43. I hope this makes sense.

As was noted before, this is usually caused by either the alert audio wiring pair (Hi/Lo) being shorted together, the alert audio Hi and Lo wires being around the wrong way, or one of the wires coming adrift.

 

[Rhino]

Adrift? We're talking airplanes still, right?

 

[Rhino]

Somewhat related:

Audio panel connections

Initial installation of D1000 screens to my Garmin245 Audio panel. Each screen has 3 audio wires left right and ground….. i am confused as to where these would go in the audio panel . Comm1 , Aux 1 , alert audio? I am running dual Dynon comms any help appreciated.

forum.flydynon.com