Garmin panel and Bluetooth ADS-B to iPad question

[John O'Shaughnessy [FCM]]

Terry and Scott (and anyone else with experience with Garmin G3X (or similar) and GTN 650/750 devices:

Our fleet started with Garmin GTN 650's - all configured with Bluetooth to send ADS-B traffic and weather to iPads and similar devices. All worked fine, but the fiddly fact that the Garmin GTN units can only store a limited number of devices, and with 60+ members, we frequently have to delete devices from the list before our iPads can pair successfully.

When we added the G3X to our C182 and C210 aircraft, the shop also activated Bluetooth in those devices, so we could now pair to a second panel device - primarily to send and receive flight plans (which got sent over to the GTN devices). All is fine, except the extra work of pairing to a second panel device.

With the last plane to get the G3X, the shop said Garmin's direction was to disable Bluetooth in the GTN 650 and have the G3X handle all communication with the iPad. They said people were reporting problems with connectivity with the way the rest of our fleet had been configured (although we haven't seen any issues that we could pin to this configuration).

That'd be great, if it worked -- but for me, anyway, while I could connect to the G3X and send/receive flight plans, no ADS-B data was being sent to my iPad. The G3X was clearly receiving and displaying that data, so the G3X was receiving it from the GTN650. I'm pretty technical, but poking around in the menus I didn't see anything obviously wrong.

Thing is - a couple of others in the club said they had it working. Not sure I trust that 2nd hand info. Anyway, I asked our maintenance director to have the shop configure this plane like the rest of our fleet, and they did, but again cautioned us that this was not to Garmin's current recommendations.

I'm playing "telephone" a bit with this situation, as information is running from me, to our maintenance director, to the shop...

Curious how others are configured.

Thanks!

[Scott Dyer HPN/NY]

I can't help you John, as I have no FP connectivity via a Garmin device, BT or Wifi. I use my GTX345 for all FIS-B In connectivity. And, with the G500, it doesn't do what the G3X does in this regard.

[Terry Carraway]

The GTN has no native capability to Blue Tooth. You need a FS-210 or FS-510. I use an FS-510, which also allows wireless database updates.

The GTX=345 has BT capability, but if a Flight Stream is installed, the BT in the -345 is supposed to be disabled.

As far as I know, Garmin only allows one BT device to be active in the system. I have to call my avionics shop in a few minutes, and I will ask them.

[John O'Shaughnessy [FCM]]

The GTN has no native capability to Blue Tooth. You need a FS-210 or FS-510. I use an FS-510, which also allows wireless database updates.

The GTX=345 has BT capability, but if a Flight Stream is installed, the BT in the -345 is supposed to be disabled.

As far as I know, Garmin only allows one BT device to be active in the system. I have to call my avionics shop in a few minutes, and I will ask them.

I misspoke -- Yes, the GTX345 serves the BT for ADS-B to our iPads. But if Garmin only "allows" one device to be active, we are scofflaws, as both our GTX345 and our G3Xs are live on BT in our aircraft.

[Terry Carraway]

So am I, both my 345 and FS-510 are live. The avionics shop that added the FS-510 when I swapped my 650 to Xi, nor one that did the latest work disabled the 345 BT.

[Terry Carraway]

With yours, do you have actually remove users to connect a new one? I thought on the CAP planes, when the the list got full, connecting a new device knocks off the oldest connected device.

[John O'Shaughnessy [FCM]]

With yours, do you have actually remove users to connect a new one? I thought on the CAP planes, when the the list got full, connecting a new device knocks off the oldest connected device.

We do.

Here's the process I go through:

1) Check my iPad to see if it connected to Panel devices automatically (answer is almost always "no.")
2) Attempt to connect from Bluetooth Settings App on iPad -- if it works, great. If Not, continue:
3) Pull up "Manage Devices" screen on Garmin
4) Delete someone from list
5) Try to connect again -- usually succeeds.

[Terry Carraway]

I wonder if there is a setting to auto drop the oldest connection?

[John O'Shaughnessy [FCM]]

I wonder if there is a setting to auto drop the oldest connection?

So I got to thinking -- and yesterday, when once again I could not automatically pair, the suggestion (as is often the case) was to "forget" the paired device. So I did that, then I went to the Manage Devices screen and attempted to re-pair without manually deleting another entry, and it did work. So you saved me a step!

[Terry Carraway]

Glad I could help some.